Mundaring raincoat

A holiday in Italy in April. I’ll need a raincoat, won’t I? Surely it would be rainy? Spoiler alert: it was not.

Anywho. I made a raincoat.

Doesn’t it look great not being used but instead, draped over the chair in ‘our’ Tuscan villa?

This delightful aqua blue waterproof fabric was already in my stash and came from The Fabric Store’s closing down sale in Adelaide. All I needed was a pattern.

After much enjoyable research I settled on the Mundaring raincoat.

I like its simple shape, the roomy hood and that it is designed by a fellow Australian sewist.

A misty morning n Venice that turned into a sunny day. In less than an hour that raincoat was off and folded up!

Sizing is always the question. I went with an L. Even though it seemed a bit too big from flat pattern measurements I figured this would make it more versatile as a raincoat – can be worn over bulkier winter clothes. This meant it is a bit big over spring weight clothes – so probably not the smartest choice for a spring holiday when the weather was great. In fact who needs a raincoat when the weather is great?! Have I perhaps already said that?!

Roomy!

It was difficult to prevent puckering when sewing this nylon fabric, particularly when there were several layers. I resolved not to care too much. After all, it’s a raincoat not an evening dress!

The hood

This pattern is beautifully drafted, has amazing instructions and some clever construction details. Could not recommend more highly!

Grommets on the hood, zip shield, waterproofing on the seams

I waterproofed the seams with a flexible adhesive sealant I purchased at my local hardware store and now I can’t remember what it was. Luckily there is a lot of information about sealing seams in the pattern instructions!

I also can’t confirm if it worked because it didn’t rain enough. A little sprinkle for a short time period is not a proper test! But, can’t be mad about the lack of rain on a holiday.

The pockets are large and very well protected from rain with their flaps over their zips.

Perfectly colour matched zips for the pockets. A shame they are hidden under the flaps!

The zips and laps are great whether it’s raining or not – for storing stuff and not worrying about the stuff falling out when you take off the jacket or of being pickpocketed.

I love the storm flap at the back too.

Roomy hood, storm flap, creased raincoat because it spent most of the holiday folded up in a suitcase. But also, look at those glorious Tuscan views.

Underneath the storm flap is a mesh panel for ventilation. I used a sportwear mesh that was a perfect colour match – a very lucky find at DK fabrics in Adelaide. I was sure I’d need to buy this specialist fabric online.

The ventilation mesh under the storm flap

The coat is lined (you can see the lining through the mesh above). The lining was also in my stash – originally from The Fabric Store but purchased some time before the Adelaide store closed. It’s almost a perfect match for the outer fabric.

Inner breast pocket in the lining, hiding in plain sight. Love the bulldog on the selvedge. She’s somewhere inside the coat now.

In another happy coincidence I had almost the perfect length open ended zip in my stash with a pleasing zip pull and in a colour that worked well with the lining.

I discovered that a waterproof jacket also makes an excellent lightweight windproof jacket. So it wasn’t a complete mistake to take it on holiday!

Last alfresco lunch in Rome on a cool day. Perfect for a lightweight jacket..

Despite not needing to wear this raincoat really at all, I am very pleased with it and it was so much fun to make. So that’s a win!