I was bursting with excitement when Cunard brought back their Transatlantic Fashion Week crossing on the Queen Mary 2, and immediately I knew what I wanted to create for the voyage! I had once come upon this image of a lady from the 1920’s wearing a novelty ocean liner coat. It had left a lasting impression on me, and I knew recreating it would be a terrific project for me. The project would be half sewing and half painting.
I used a Vintage Vogue sewing pattern, V1977. This pattern is actually a reprint from the 1950’s, but I knew it would be able to give me a 1920’s look.
First I sewed together the major panels of the coat so I could get to work on painting. My husband found a very nice photograph of QM2 and had it printed out large for me as a reference. Then I just eyeballed it and roughed out a sketch. First on a photograph of the fabric, then on the fabric itself.
I used fabric markers and fabric paints to finish the ship painting, and it took over a month.
Finally I sewed together the rest of the pieces of the coat, and decided to order a silvery gray faux fur in order to add collar, cuff, and hem fur trim. I thought this gave it a more 1920’s look, as inspired by these photos below.
Here is a detailed video on the creation of the coat:
