Today’s outfit is both inspired and necessity sewing. The inspiration comes from the Week 2 theme at Project Run & Play; Nature Inspired. And the necessity comes from Baby Tina’s need for a winter jacket! A pink wool bunny jacket.
So 1st the jacket. This is the Downton Duffel Jacket by Peekaboo Pattern Shop. We really love this pattern, and have sewn it many times. The fabric for this Downton Duffle Jacket came from a thrifting score! This pink wool fabric was originally a wool blanket in perfect condition I found at the thrift store for $2. I had no plans for it, but a huge wool blanket for that price was hard to pass up.
The fabric lining is from the stash, leftover from our sewing for the Forest Floor blog tour. It’s the Wild Posy Flora Fabric by Bonnie Christine for Art Gallery Fabrics. It’s simply darling for the lining of this jacket. I used up every last available scrap, and only had enough for one of the ears, did you notice? But that’s okay because the other ear looks darling with the pink stretch leather I used for the hood trim, elbow patches and toggles. Oh, and I borrowed the rabbit ears from the Twig + Tale Animal patterns and sewed them into the seams of the hood in the right places. It’s an absolutely adorable addition, don’t you think?
Speaking of that pink stretch leather, it gave me quite a time to get it on perfectly! The problem was the stretch of the fabric, not the thinness. Every trick I tried (teflon foot, tape on the bottom of a regular foot, a walking foot and more) failed and I ripped and ripped out the leather and cut out new toggles and tried again. I even tried gluing the leather in place before sewing, but nope, I still got puckers!
Finally I found a combination that worked, thanks to asking for advice from my sewing friends on Instagram. I ironed on double stick Steam-A-Seam 2 to the back of the toggle pieces and ironed them in place onto the jacket. Then, with a walking foot on, I slowly HAND CRANKED around the edges of the piece.
Finally, success! Oh, and these are the actual toggles are shank buttons from JoAnns and that’s shoelaces for the cording.
The jacket is lined with quilt batting for extra warmth in the cold of winter. Baby Tina absolutely loves this jacket! Once she discovered the pockets, she didn’t want to take it off. She’s enamored with pockets on her clothes.
And I was sure to use one of my new labels from Dutch Label Shop. I hand sewed it on either side, leaving it open in the middle to act as a hook for hanging. (Remember, you can use the code skirtfixation15 for 15% off your purchase until December 3rd.)
This year, the Downtown Duffle Jacket is a little large because I sewed a size 2T. The one I sewed her for her 1st baby capsule wardrobe is just barely too small, and it was 6-12 months size. My hope is that by rolling up the sleeves, this one might even fit her next winter too.
Next in her “Momma made it” wardrobe is a Rosemary Raglan with a couple of fun additions. First of all, there are little ears sewed into the raglan sleeve seams. I used the same stretch leather as on the jacket, and they ended up being a little heavy and hanging down, so they’re actually stitched to the sleeves as well.
The only other change I made was to add a little vinyl llama face to go with the ears! I used my Cricut Maker to cut it out quickly and easily. Then using the EasyPress 2, I attached it on and now have confidence it’s not coming off! You can find the llama face by searching #M8B6E613 in the Cricut Design Space™.
This super soft French Terry from Raspberry Creek Fabrics. (It’s sold out now, but check out all their French Terry fabric!) It’s actually the leftover scraps from a Halifax Hoodie that Allegra sewed for herself. She’s been sewing herself a capsule wardrobe, and it’s neat to see it come together!
The final piece in Baby Tina’s outfit is a pair of black leggings from the Dressage Leggings pattern. This fabric was actually left over from Annie’s leggings last week. Once again, baby sewing is so fun and such a good use of scraps!
Now we’ll leave you with this silly expression that she makes whenever you say, “Show my your smile!”
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Skirt Fixation 