I made it!  The contest ends today, and I just finished the coat.  :D

It has a red wool outer with black cotton velvet collar and buttons, and a grey, red, black and white striped lining. The wool and lining came from Joann Fabrics, but the cotton velvet is from my stash.

I love this back pleat...it's what drew me to the pattern in the first place.

There are three buttons on top and two hidden snaps on the bottom. I'll likely swap these out for large hooks and eyes since the snaps are a bit cumbersome.

The velvet buttons were purchased but matched my velvet fabric perfectly as though I had covered them myself. :]

Since my lining fabric was striped on the diagonal, I cut the pieces individually so that one side mirrored the other, creating a chevron pattern. It worked only because there was no right side to the fabric. The original lower back piece was to be cut on the fold, so I added a 1/4" center back seam instead.

The process of cutting the lining took hours since the stripe pattern wasn't uniform and I had to match the areas piece by piece. This wasn't an issue with the sewing pattern, just my fabric choice. I love the results, but what a pain! :]

This was made from Butterick 5145, using View C with the sleeve tabs and back tab from View E.

pattern cover