Fleece coat, enhanced with a lining for extra warmth. Commercial patterns will give you step by step instructions with illustrations to sew this coat. These instructions will cover the additional steps for the underlining and zipper.

The inspiration to make warm fleece coats came to me when my children were in school an refused to wear coats because they did not fit into their lockers nicely. A fleece coat is warm and will fold or more likely be wadded up to fit into their locker.

Step 1: Supplies

Pattern, Outer Fabric, Lining Fabric, Thread, Buttons, the photo has Cord and Cord Stops ( I was running out of time so I did not use them - yet), Thread, Pins, Cord, Interfacing, Zipper, Scissors, Lint Roller ( you will see why I need this later ). Not pictured, sewing machine.

1. Choose a pattern you like based on features you want, pockets, hood or collar, zipper or buttons, long short, fitted or loose.

2. Purchase enough fabric for the view you select and your size. This information is on the back of your pattern, but you will need to add a fabric to use for the underlining. I also decided to add a zipper to the button-up view because I like the look of the button closures more than the look of a zipper, but the warmth of a zipper over buttons.

3. You will also need a few other notions which should be listed on the back of the pattern too and will include thread to match your fabric, buttons, interfacing if needed.

4. If you have selected a fabric that will shrink, prewash and dry before you cut out the pattern. Fleece does not shrink, but the cotton I used for a lining will.

Step 2: Place Pattern on Fabric

5. Lay pattern pieces out on fabric, cut, repeat for lining.

Step 3: Construction

Before you begin to sew your coat, smooth the cotton fabric pieces to the fleece pieces, WRONG sides together. Fleece will hold the cotton without the need of pins, but a slick lining fabric will need to be pinned or basted to the fleece. With the underlining attached follow the pattern instructions for construction, except for the sleeves.

To line the sleeves,

Place the RIGHT side of the lining and the RIGHT side of the fleece together and sew a seam across the seam allowance at the lower edge of the sleeve.
Press the seam open
With the fleece sleeve and the sleeve lining fully extended fold the right side of the fleece together and the right side of the lining together and sew one long continuous seam from the top of the fleece sleeve, all the way down to the top of the lining sleeve. This should result in a long tube.
Reach into the long tube and pull the fleece sleeve over the lining. This will create the sleeve, with the lining and a finished edge. Make sure the seams are aligned together on the inside. Press the wrist edge of the sleeve and top stitch about a quarter inch from the edge.
Continue construction as listed on the pattern instructions.

Step 4: Extra Additions for Warmth

I added a zipper. Because the pattern did not call for a zipper I had to place the zipper and sew it before I sewed on the buttons. To know exactly where to place the zipper I folded the front facings back, matched the center fronts then pinned the zipper to one side. Once placed and sewed one side down, keeping the zipper zipped, I marked and pinned the other side to the correct place, unzipped the zipper and finished sewing the second side. These pictures show how I pinned and marked the zipper placement. I am sorry the photos are blurry, I had to use my smaller camera and I get a lot of camera shake with it.

You should add the zipper before you add your collar or hood and before the buttons, all of those steps can be done after the zipper has been placed.

Step 5: Finishing Steps

I serged the edges for a professional finish and you can see how the underlining is attached here too. Then I marked the hem. the last step is buttons.