Winter coat

Today I finally finished my coat. Woo Hoo!
My mother in law and I started this project so long ago!
Marilyn my MIL has been a complete sewing rock for me this last year.
I can't actually remember when we began, but it was at least 6 months ago.
The pattern is simplicity.
After cutting the pattern we stopped working on it for one reason or another.
At the start of the six weeks summer holidays we pieced together the body and it sat like this until last week:

We have spent two and a half days on it since and it is now finished.

I wore it to school today to pick the girls up and I got some lovely feedback.

The fabric is from Ikea, the lining is from my local dressmakers store, Watson & Thornton
and the buttons are vintage 60's from Marilyn's stash.

It is the biggest project I have taken on since I began sewing, which was amazingly only a year ago.
I couldn't have achieved it on my own, so as a thank you I bought Marilyn a new Beswick Beatrix Potter figurine, Samuel Whiskers.

She has been collecting them for at least 40 years and this character has always been missing!
I hope she likes it as much as I like my coat :)
Don't forget, my first giveaway finishes in 2 days! Be sure to take part by leaving a comment here.