Every year in June, there is conference called Quilt Canada that has a juried quilt show. I submitted two items to the show and unfortunately my quilted coat, called Rockstar Jacket, was rejected. I used my Rockstar pattern cover quilt to make this coat from the Hovea Pattern by Megan Nielsen Designs.  This is an Australian pattern so be aware of the sizing # differences.

I certainly was nervous about cutting up my quilt top! The slowest part of making this garment was cutting out the pieces and then quilting them together.  It would have been faster to quilt the three layers and then cut; many less pieces to keep track of.  I couldn't do that this time as some of the pieces didn't come from the quilt top, like the all white sleeve, plus I wanted to mirror the quilting on those pieces.

Another issue with cutting and then quilting, was that pieces shifted during quilting. 

I panicked; they were cut to the size I needed, and was now maybe wonky and short in places. What if the pieces didn't line up properly now? I tried to fix the situation however DO NOT do what I did; let me explain. I ended up laying the template on top of my quilted pieces and trimming to the next size down. Then because I was worried it would no longer fit, I did a 3/8" seam allowance rather than the 1/2" it calls for.

So A, I would quilt before cutting next time. That just solves this problem. B, the 1/2" seam allowance is very generous and would have got all those places where the fabric was short. Rather than me trimming those off. C, the top of the sleeves, where it joins to the body, are very large bulky. Is it the pattern style? Did I pick a size too big for my body? The smaller seam allowance did not help with this as it made the larger.

Have you made the Hovea coat before?