When a trim dictates the pattern

Dear fellows,

Do you ever have one of those moments when one minor and relatively irrelevant thing makes you completely change your mind and decision you previously made? I have those moments quite frequently, and today was the day I changed my mind on pattern. The reason was the trim band I found for the Chanel coat I'm about to sew. Seeing that band was a love at first sight, and all of the sudden I had a crystal clear vision of my future coat in my head.

I wanted to make a coat where the band would be the major feature. This meant the pattern would have to be quite simple. Hence, I decided to alter the coat pattern, and make it work for my idea. Consequently, it would make the coat construction much easier.

Here's the idea:


I will alter the pattern so that it incorporates shoulder princess seams, and I'll make a mandarin collar. The idea is to avoid overlapping the front panels of the coat, so I bought metal frogs (I hope they are called that way), that would replace the buttons.

And here are my fabrics and notions:





Now that I have all of the requirements gathered on one place, I can start with sewing. Yey!