Week Five - Your Car Coat being sewn.
7th March 2022.
Week Four - Your Car Coat being cut.
24th February 2022.
This week we've cut each of the individual pieces that will be used to construct your Car Coat when sewing begins next week. The video above shows the Men's Navy Car Coats as the fabric is laid flat and vacuumed then cut by the Gerber machine. Next, each piece is notched and pressed then labelled in preparation for sewing.
Week Three - Buttons being shaped & dyed.
We started making the Corozo nut buttons for your jacket over 15 years ago. Well, that’s when the Tagua Palm tree was planted, and only after 15 years do they start to produce Corozo nuts.
The female trees produce mocochas (big spikey husks) which drop naturally from the tree like a coconut. The husks contain enough valuable Corozo nuts, to make thousands of buttons.
Once collected the nuts are laid out to dry in the sun, before processing into button blanks. Blanks are quite literally blank disks of white nut, from which many styles and sizes of button can be cut. Every nut is cut into slices. The smaller slices destined to become tiny buttons used on shirts, and the biggest and most valuable blanks will become large coat buttons.
Next, the blanks are sent to Andrea & David, Lise & Steve at Courtney & Co in the UK, ready to be made into your buttons. The first stage is taking the blank and ‘turning’ it, which means carving the top & bottom sides of the button into the right style & size.
With the buttons carved and ready, there’s just four final stages of the process: polishing, engraving, dying and drying.
Week Two - Labels being woven.
11th February 2022.
Today's update gives you a glimpse into Pedro's weaving studio, just a few km's away from the factory where your coat is being made. In his studio in Northern Portugal, your labels were woven and made.
That includes:
- The Limited Edition Label illustrated by Hannah Cousins
- The neck label which will be hand-numbered
- The care label inside the pocket
- The teeny size label too
Here they are in progress:
And here's how the label was designed, from sketch to lino cut, by Hannah Cousins:
Week One - The Beginning.
4th February 2022.
It's almost been a week since you ordered Batch No.10, our first Car Coat, and a little longer for those of you who reserved yours early with a fabric deposit.
Since then, work has begun so we wanted to update you on what's happened so far. This week's update takes the form of a written update, and over the weeks to come, you'll see photos and videos as your coat takes shape.
You see, the first week of making is never our most visual! Think paperwork rather than pattern cutting at this stage! It's very much about getting everyone within the manufacturing process, getting their ducks in a row and gearing up for what comes next.
On Monday, we called Mario to finalise our order, once we knew the sizes and colours each of you had decided on.
Amazingly, we're making coats for customers from 32 countries. Mind. Blown.
Other than Mario, there will be a lot of people involved in making your coat. From the makers in our mountainside factory in Guimarães, to the skilled fabric weavers over at Olmetex in Italy, who make the outer fabric of your coat. Then there's the team of four button makers in the UK, label weavers in Portugal, lining makers nearby too, thread makers in Germany, packaging makers in the UK, our illustrator in LA and others we'll mention as time goes on.
There's going to be a lot to show you, and we'll be sharing each step of the way until your coat is made and ready to send in March.
Until next week,
Becky & Huw
P.S. The photos in today's update show part of the outer fabric of your coat being woven in Italy. 
