Turkish Coat Part 1 (not an A to Z post)

I saw a picture of the Turkish Coat in a quilting book about twenty five years ago; I wrote to Folkwear and acquired a copy of their catalogue. At the time it was hard to buy stuff from America without credit card, and I didn't have any money anyhow, so the catalogue stayed at the back of my desk, just waiting. A few years ago, clearing stuff out, I came across it and looked them up on the interweb, and what do you know but their range of patterns has remained utterly unchanged in all those years. Making the coat was still something of a pipe dream, but what's the point of dreams if you don't occasionally get to fulfil them. Last year I used some birthday money and finally sent off for the pattern. The time since has involved much fabric research and indecision. Anyhow, birthday money this year was allocated to fabric and, after further dithering, I bought two 'jelly rolls' (long strips of coordinated fabric for quilters) of batik fabric from Casperhouseks on Etsy. It cost me nearly as much again in customs charge when it arrived as the fabric cost, but it is lovely.

The coat is made in three layers; outer, lining and cotton batting between, the layers are then quilted together. Today's efforts have produced a 3 metre length of fabric that has been enough to cut out the main front and back pieces. This is going to be a long term project, but hopefully, now I have made a start, I will aim to do updates every week or so. Fabric for the outer layer was also ordered today after acquiring a couple of swatches, and Monkey and I are going for batting and thread and new sewing machine needles after work tomorrow.