Elegant Gothic Aristocrat Men's Coat

Here is my most epic sewing project that has kind of taken over my life for the past month.

I think this is one of the most ambitious projects I've ever done, if only because I had zero experience with menswear and also zero experience with something tailored up until this point. I was inspired by this coat by Atelier Boz: [link] and it came out looking more like it than I actually planned on. I used this Simplicity pattern: [link] as a base, lengthened it by 11 inches (to make it just-above floor length and also because the intended wearer is 6' 3"), and made the circumference fuller at the hem to make it more dramatic/gothic. I dropped the cape length and made it fuller in the back to mimic the mantle on the Boz coat, as well as adding a separate collar to the cape to make it removable instead of attached as in the pattern. I used black wool suiting material and polyester anti-static lining (which is not as anti-static as it claims to be).

I'm kind of in shock about how well it actually turned out. I kept thinking something was going to go wrong with it, but the only major issue I had was when I followed the pattern directions and top stitched the edge of the mantle only to realize that it made the fabric bunch and hang oddly and just overall looked like crap. That took about an hour to rip out, but other than that the construction process was surprisingly smooth. It just seemed to take forever. It still hasn't quite hit me that it's finished. I'm almost a little sad to give it away, because that means I won't have it lurking in the corner of my room on my dress form any more. It looks pretty awesome on the person I made it for though. If I can sneak a picture of him in it, I'll upload it. <3

EDIT: Added a worn picture here! [link]

Soundtrack for this project: Nightwish Once