I’m currently hemming my 1920s Egyptian Revival dress, but have been working a little on the Poiret cocoon coat in between.
The Folkwear 503 is a very simple pattern, but the assembly is different than what I was expecting. I’m used to coats and most garments having seams in the shoulders and sides, but this pattern has a long seam down the center back, and then a horizontal seam across the front of the chest, with darts in the shoulder/neck region. It works, but took a little staring to get over the “you want me to do what?” feeling.
Here is a diagram from the inside of the pattern instructions:
The sleeves and coat body are cut as one huge piece for each side of the body. The top is folded down to make the sleeve (hence the horizontal seam). The pattern piece is very wide, and takes up most of the width of your fabric.
I’ve cut out the pieces and sewn them together, but I need to press the seams and attach the lining to the outer fabric, and add a closure. The width of the pattern piece makes pattern-matching on the fabric difficult. To match I would have had to line up my pattern piece about a foot in from the edge, and that wouldn’t have been wide enough. However, the busy pattern helps hide this a bit, and using a solid fabric would make the back and front seams very obvious.
At the moment I’m considering not using the collar pattern piece included with the pattern, and putting a fur collar on instead. I tucked this fur scarf I have into the coat to get a general idea of what it would look like, but I think I would rather have a chocolate brown fur that matches the fabric, or go for a fluffy cream collar for more contrast.
So far I would have to say that this pattern is very easy to use – there are definitely not a lot of pieces at least!
Fresh Frippery 
I like the fur but it needs to be a different color and less muppety.
I definitely agree! I put on this scarf as a stand-in. I’m trying to decide between something glossy and dark, like a mink or beaver, or light and fluffy, like fox.
Has a nice shape. Looking good!
Thanks Kim! Let’s just hope it’s flattering on a real person!
It’s looking amazing! Thanks for the info on the pattern. I was considering this pattern for my own cocoon coat, but I don’t think it will fit on the weird offcut of fabric I have. 😦
Thanks! Aw I’m sorry it won’t work for you. 😦 It’s a nice pattern but it does require long and wide pieces of fabric; essentially two pieces nearly 2 yards long each.
darts in the shoulder/neck region.where and how to make ? Can you make a drawing please?
Hi, if you look at the second picture, you’ll see some diagonal lines near the top of the pattern piece. Those are the darts.
I love this period look. Thank you for sharing.
I’m glad you like it!
Fantastic style
Thank you so much!
I have looked at this pattern for years. I’m glad to have discovered someone that actually made it. I sort of tried to sketch the pattern design on a small piece of paper just to try and fold the top down for the front seam that you state is odd, which part of the pattern is actually the neck? Could you not make the back seam and place it on the fold?
I have made wraps similar, cocoon type wraps that come below the knee, however, I have been looking at this for so long I think I want to try it. Maybe a little shorter to go with a particular dress
The neck is where the center back seam is, like a bathrobe. You can’t make the back seam on the fold unless you have a very wide fabric, since the coat itself is very wide.