Toggles Inspiration for Your Handmade Duffle Coat

Busy planning your new Eden coat or jacket and considering choosing toggles as your fastenings of choice? It's Nikki here with another dose of seriously lovely inspo to help you plan and make your coat of dreams.

The Eden coat or jacket has the option of either snaps or toggles fastenings to keep it closed and shelter you from the elements. Toggles look gorgeous on both a nautical style raincoat and a winter wool duffle coat and are great for adding a bit of interest to outerwear garments.

I hadn't really thought much about toggles before. I mean, toggles are toggles, right? Well, that's not strictly true. There are so many fun and interesting ways you can jazz up your toggle fastenings to make your Eden coat or jacket totally unique to you. Here at Tilly Towers, we spend a lot of time planning and scheming about those little details that make our me-mades extra personal, special and fun. If you're wondering how to raise your toggle game on your Eden, then read on.

Ten Tips for Sewing Rainwear Fabrics

Want to get stuck into sewing a raincoat? There are more and more amazing water repellent fabrics coming onto the market for home sewists to get the hands on. And our Eden coat sewing pattern is the perfect accompaniment, taking you through the steps to making a gorgeous raincoat or jacket.

If you’ve never sewn with waterproof or water repellent fabrics before, here are some tips on what to look out for, how to handle the materials, and stitching tips to get a great result.



1) Choosing your fabric

There are lots of different types of rainwear fabrics on the market, and more and more of them are becoming available to home sewists to buy. Which is great! However, be aware that they can vary wildly in weight, content, feel and how they behave when you cut and sew them.

How they perform in the rain will be one of the main factors to consider when choosing what to buy. If you want to sew something that will keep you dry in a full-on downpour, take a look at waterproof fabrics such as PUL and Goretex. They are proper performance fabrics that won’t let rain through the fibres… but on the downside they can feel very synthetic and aren’t breathable – so you may get a little sticky!

If you’re not planning on wearing your handmade raincoat on a mountaineering expedition and just want something cute that will wear well on a short rainy walk, try a fabric that is “water resistant” or “water repellent” rather than “waterproof”. The waxed cotton in our Eden sewing kits is one such fabric – it may not withstand a tropical storm but will keep the rain off you on your commute to work or a gentle country walk.

Knowing what all the different rainwear fabric names mean can certainly feel a little confusing. If you’re buying online and aren’t sure what to get, see if you can order a couple of sample swatches to get a feel for what you like before buying.

Fitting the Eden Coat or Jacket

Making the Eden coat or jacket and need a helping hand on fitting and choosing a size? It's Nikki here with some hints and tips on what you will need to know.

The good news is Eden's casual, boxy and easy-fitting style means it doesn't require much, well, fitting. Hooray! Having said that, you're probably going to be investing in some lovely fabric, not to mention the time it takes to make it, so it's worth planning a few fitting adjustments if you need them.

When you're choosing your size and fitting the Eden coat or jacket, bear in mind that it's an outerwear garment and is designed to be roomy. Don't over-fit it as you'll most likely be wearing layers underneath, which makes fitting Eden a lot easier (yay!).

We're going to cover:

• Choosing your size
• Combining pattern sizes
• Lengthening the bodice, sleeve or hood
• Shortening the bodice, sleeve or hood
• Making a toile

Fabric shopping for Eden

Want to make our brand new sewing pattern, the Eden coat or jacket, and need a helping hand deciding on fabrics? It's Nikki here, and I'm bringing you a dose of drool-worthy coat and jacket fabric inspiration from some of our favourite online shops.

What we love most about the Eden coat or jacket is that it's so versatile. Make it in a wool coating for a snuggly winter duffle coat, or in a cotton drill or raincoat fabric for a lighter jacket. When deciding on what fabric you want to buy, have a think about what activities you want to do whilst wearing your Eden, or the climate you live in - or are visiting on holiday, you lucky thing - as this will guide your fabric choices.

Please bear in mind that we haven't handled these gorgeous fabrics ourselves (booooo), so we recommend ordering a swatch to check how they feel and handle in real life.