Mark had been wanting me to make him a raincoat for a while and I ordered this gorgeous oxblood Merchant and Mills oilcloth from My Fabricology in Perth and it didn’t disappoint.

He was very specific about the type of coat he wanted – not too long and not too short, no hood, but a high collar and zipped front. We had a long debate about the hood as I believed the hood should be mandatory on a raincoat and he was determined to not have one.

I used Vogue 8842 and made the yellow one without the hood – he won the argument.

Mark wanted the jacket to be longer than the pattern but I didn’t have enough fabric so I added a band along the bottom made from scraps, which actually turned into a nice feature.

I was a bit stumped about the lining, I wanted it to be coordinating, but not too bright. A dig in my stash found this piece of fabric that I had printed at Spoonflower from a photograph of sand bubbler crab patterns I took on our Broome holiday. The fabric is quite stiff with no drape and I didn’t quite know what to do with it, but this proved to be the perfect application.

It’s hard to see from this photo but I added inside pockets for anything which needed to be kept secure. I found a long double ended separating zip in my stash in exactly the right colour, which was so lucky as I hate hunting for just the right thing. It’s just pinned here, by the way.

I lined the sleeves with some silk lining fabric that I bought from Global Fabrics in Dunedin about ten years ago. I bought a few metres of this and it’s all gone now.

Mark first wore the jacket on our trip to Sydney when we went there for Sydney Frocktails. He was so happy!

The fit was as good as I could get it, and it accommodates a fairly thick jumper underneath it, although it was summer in Sydney, so he just needed it to keep the rain off. It is completely waterproof.

He loved the huge pockets and the high collar, but decided he wanted a rainhat, but he didn’t want it to match.

I had a dig in the stash and made a hat using the Angel Lea Escape Hat pattern.

I used a piece of fabric left over from my raincoat, lined it with a piece of wool tweed I had, and used a piece of leather for the hat band.

It’s the same as my Vera hat. I have to say that I am a complete convert to the concept of the rainhat, we didn’t use an umbrella once, and our hats kept our faces dry, which hoods don’t generally do, even with the peak. Mark also waterproofed a pair of trousers for our trip to the UK, but he didn’t need them at all as we only had a couple of days of heavy rain in the whole eight weeks, I’m not sure why this was, I think we were outrunning it!

I didn’t take many photos of Mark in his raincoat, but these capture the wearability of it quite well.

In his usual position in front of a cake shop.

Trying not to disappear into a parallel universe while leaning on a standing stone.

Bowling with a cannon ball at Skittle Alley in Greenwich – he scored 10/10 every time!

The raincoat stood up to the trevails of travel really well and it’s looking nicely worn in now. I have some mustard Merchant and Mills oilcloth in the stash and am rather keen to make one of these for myself. I love the big pockets, the useful inside pockets and the zipped front. Best of all I really like the lack of hood, but I would make my hat to match my jacket.