A Coat Pattern Worth Your Time.

If you want to sew a vintage coat that genuinely looks and feels special, this 1952 fitted coat sewing pattern rewards the time and care you put into making it. It is not a quick make, but then a good tailored coat never really is.

The shape is unmistakably early 1950s. It is closely fitted through the bodice and waist, then opens into a long flared skirt with an elegant, almost dress-like line. Long princess seams do much of the shaping and are also one of the easier ways of adjusting the fit to your own figure. Flap pockets at hip level and the neat breast pocket keep the tailoring crisp, while Style 1 has a centre-back box pleat to give a little more movement.

There is not one particularly frightening bit of coat making. The skill is in doing each stage properly. Accurate marking matters, pressing and steaming as you work matter, and hand basting is worth doing when it helps you control a seam or check the fit before you commit yourself. You also need to understand where a coat needs support, whether that is interfacing, interlining or stay tape, rather than simply sewing all the pieces together and hoping for the best.

This is an advanced project for a confident, independent sewist. You should already be comfortable with fitting princess seams, welt and flap pockets, hand basting, pressing as you sew, choosing suitable seam finishes, handling a lining and finishing both the coat and lining hems. The instructions give you the construction stages in the order they are needed, but they do not teach every technique from scratch. If something is new to you, you need to be happy to stop, look it up, watch a good demonstration and then carry on.

Sewn well, this is the sort of coat that looks expensive because the fit and finish are doing the work. It can lift a simple outfit completely, and the long fitted line has enough presence to get noticed without looking like costume. Put the work in once, and you can have a coat that gives you years of wear and lots of compliments. 

The redingote shape goes back much further than the 1950s. Its name comes from the English “riding coat”, later adopted into French. By the early 1950s the style had been reshaped around the post-war silhouette, with a defined waist, fitted upper body and fuller skirt. This pattern sits right in that change, combining proper tailoring with the softer, more feminine proportions of the period.