Waffle Patterns – Mens Tosti Toile

One of my plans this year is to make a winter coat for my husband. I’ve never made him a coat before so after I found a pattern, I decided to make him a wearable toile first.

We chose the Waffle Patterns Mens Tosti jacket for its high collar (though we reduced it by 2 inches), plethora of pocket options, detachable hood, and interesting design lines. As an aside, it sure was hard to find this pattern! There are so few options out there for men and almost all are peacoat or blazer style.

My husband falls in the 48 range so we started with that size. As previously mentioned, we hacked 2 inches from the top of the collar pattern piece before even starting. Once in progress, we reduced the width of the shoulders by a half inch on each side and I’ll reduce another inch overall for his next make. We also took in the sleeves by an inch to give it a slimmer fit.

We left off the back vents for this first version to make fitting easier. I ended up leaving the back “princess” seams (what are they called on mens wear???) alone but I did take in the side seams by a half inch at the waist tapering to nothing at the arm hole and hem. This resulted in a two inch reduction in the circumference of the coat at the waist. I probably won’t make this change to the pattern and will just do it on the fly again for his next version. I’m still considering adding a quilted lining to his next version and I want to make sure there is enough room before I start taking it in.

We used the upper zip pocket and the inside breast pocket for this version. I drafted my own two-layer lower front pockets per his wishes. It was a bit of a mind bender figuring out the sewing order to have these pockets open at the top and side into separate pockets while still only using two layers of fabric. I’m pretty pleased with how they turned out but don’t feel confident enough in my method to post a tutorial on it yet.

We’re both really happy with how this coat turned out. The fabric is the same 6 oz. Japanese cotton twill that I used for my second Kelly Anorak and the lining is a striped rayon cotton. Both fabrics were purchased from Blackbird Fabrics.

I’m stoked with my stripe matching on the top and bottom of the inside lining… too bad I wasn’t thinking ahead and didn’t also match up the breast pocket welts!

I ran out of steam on his hood but I got to it eventually. We took an inch off the front of the hood and facing and an extra inch off the two inner seams, reducing the width by almost four inches. It’s plenty big enough, even with removing all of that volume! It still needs a tie to cinch it in when it’s windy but with everything shut down due to the global pandemic, he’ll just have to wait. It’s not like he’s got a lot of places to wear it right now anyway.

This pattern was great to work with overall. It was the first Waffle Patterns pattern I’d used and there were some different construction methods to learn. Some things were really nice, like the instructions for adding the snaps for the detachable hood that I wish I’d read before doing my Kelly Anorak version. I find it a bit odd that the zip isn’t centred but I guess the off-centre construction allows the placket to be centred on the body. For the next version, I’ll keep the shortened collar but I’ll also reduce the width of the top of the collar so it doesn’t flare out as much and is warmer for winter weather.

Making a jacket for another person is a lot of work but I enjoyed this one… not enough to start on his winter one yet. He’ll have to wait for October for that one.

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Lindsay