Indigo Car Coat Sewalong: How to Sew a Car Coat with an A-line Silhouette

The Indigo Car Coat Sewalong is a step-by-step video series designed to guide you through sewing the Indigo Car Coat, from choosing your size to finishing the final details.

In this sewalong, Erica walks you through each stage of the process in short, focused lessons. You can move through the videos at your own pace, pause as needed, or skip ahead if you’re already comfortable with certain steps.

Indigo is a classic car coat designed for effortless layering and everyday wear. Its A-line silhouette offers a relaxed fit, and the unlined construction keeps it light and versatile for transitional seasons. The drop shoulders give it a laid-back vibe, and the inverted box pleat at the back adds subtle volume and movement.

To follow along, you’ll need the Indigo Pattern. Seamwork members can download it as part of their membership, and non-members can purchase it individually in the shop.

Getting Started

Fabric recommendations: Look for medium-weight or heavyweight fabrics such as canvas, duck cloth, twill, denim, corduroy, and coatings.

Fabric qualities to look for: This coat sews up best in fabrics that have body and structure. Look for denim rather than linen or canvas rather than a lightweight cotton.

Seamwork members, take advantage of your member deals this month! You can save up to 20% off your order here.

Prepare to Sew

This lesson covers all the basic things you need to know to get started with this sewalong. If you’re a beginner, this will be really helpful to watch!

If you feel like you already know how to get your pattern and fabric ready for sewing, go ahead and skip to the next lesson and you'll learn to do some helpful fitting adjustments for the Indigo coat.

You're going to learn how to:

Select a pattern and reference its skill level

Select a size

Prepare patterns and fabric

Cut and mark fabric

Fitting Adjustments

The Indigo coat features an A-line silhouette and drop shoulders making the fit pretty forgiving. A fitting adjustment you might need to make is lengthening or shortening the pattern.

We created a free downloadable PDF called the Four Height Zones to help you gather the information you need to make adjustments to your pattern where you need it. We recommend printing it out and writing your height measurements on it to keep in your sewing journal.

Compare these measurements to the corresponding landmarks on your pattern pieces, and you'll know how much you need to shorten or lengthen that part of the pattern.

If you need to remove or add some volume at the bicep, watch this video:

Sewing Instructions

The PDF instructions will be your main guide as you work through this pattern, but we've created this video to walk you through the trickiest steps in detail. If you need help on a step not shown in this video, check out the Community Group Sew, where other Seamworkers and staff are ready to help out!