My initial reaction on seeing this Pink Parka coat (notice my play on words here if you are old enough to remember The Pink Panther show)! Back to my intial reaction, well, this is how I imagined a fashion brand set up by Miss Piggy and Kermit with Animal as Creative Director would be; the crazy pink faux fur with pink lining to match, one of the pieces from their Winter Fashion Collection!
Beka Smith is a portrait artist having exhibited at The National Portrait Museum London, yes such is her talent, Beka is also my neighbour at Thames Side Studios, previously I had altered the coat lining on her Coatigan however this Parka was a new challenge! The background story is the pink faux fur was not the original – no really I hear you saying. Anyway the original faux fur was thick and plush however it had seen better days and the Parka Coat still wears well (as I always say quality lasts the test of time). Beka took her coat to a tailor and asked if the lining and faux fur could be replaced with perhaps a brighter lining, and in Beka’s words “this was what she gave me”!
Time had moved on, and even with little wear the pink faux fur had flattened in places, it was clear there were two different pinks and faux going on here, plus the lining was wearing thin. What I will say in the Parka coats defence is, it’s a wonderful quality of substantial weight and structure with many design features definitely an investment piece; then my thinking was where do I start?
The problem with alterations:
You don’t know what lies beneath, and by that I mean seam allowances, finishing, and fabric; when altering a garment especially a coat of this scale where it’s already been altered, I don’t know what’s been taken away, or added; the other problem is once I’ve opened up the coat, I now have two choices 1) to go ahead with the alteration to the best of my ability, or 2) to open up the coat, and put it back as I found it, and hand back to the client.
I really liked this Parka, it had these funky colourful toggle buttons, yes it also needed further repair in some areas such as the zipper and main coat being separated, but I felt with the right faux fur and lining this coat could be given a new lease of life. My first job was to find faux fur in a colour that not only compliments the coat and wearer, but also is substantial in terms of faux fur pile, I found a beautiful Silver Fox faux its density such that when you run your fingers through it you can feel the fur caressing your hand and it was so soft. The lining named Whisper Taffeta a shimmering sky blue would replace the pink lining.
Taking a deep breath, I took a peak inside the hood of the coat to look at the original hood, all was in tact as I would be using the hood to make my pattern template for its replacement, there was nothing else for it, taking another deep breath it was time to unpick the pink fur and remove the lining (you get a lot of exercise breathing when doing alterations)! It took awhile, but now its all gone so I have to get to work making pattern pieces for its transformation, testing them against the main of the coat as I go along, so far so good.
Cutting out faux fur, you need to wear overalls or some form of covering that you do not mind being covered in fur hair strands as it gets everywhere, I made a little video on instagram sharing the experience, you are constantly brushing away and blowing out of your face these puffs of faux fur and that’s just cutting it out. The fur then has to be stitched together and put back into the garment, this is where it got tricky as the fur I was using was so thick there was a lot of manipulation going on to pull it through to the right side, and the hood was so heavy in comparison to the old faux fur I wasn’t sure if it was now going to be too heavy, as it felt substantially heavier coupled with the outer layer of waterproof fabric. That now completed placing the coat on my mannequin I stood back, well what a difference a change in fabric makes!
Now its time to move onto the lining, this would be a combination of hand and machine sewing as there are certain areas a sewing machine would not be able to manage or reach, which is often the case with alterations as you have to bare in mind the garment is not in the flat, its design structure already in place. Pattern made, sewing completed and now to add the lining into the coat, the finishing touches repairing the zipper tape and anything else that I see needs some ‘tlc’, a final press and a big shake of the faux fur, the Parka is now ready to be returned to Beka.
Well the morning of the big reveal, Beka had already been calling the coat ‘The Phoenix Rising’, its on the mannequin in my studio, as soon as she see’s it there’s the big smile and now for the try on, the picture tells the remaining part of the story…
It goes to say that alterations can give a former garment a new lease of life depending on the quality of the fabric and its wear, I met a lady recently who was wearing a gorgeous tweed skirt, I was drawn to the textile weave; it transpired that the fabric was originally from her fathers coat she decided to have it made into a skirt, even more interesting was that the fabric was 100 years old – how about that for quality and the test of time!
To see more of the story unfold click on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/coralturnercouture/