Baby it’s cold outside!

 

The making of.

Not the baby itself, my sister took care of that and did a great job ;-)

One day my Mom called and asked me if I would like to help her make smallest grandson a winter jacket. Sure!

Do you have any idea as to what kind of jacket or the color it should be? Turned out she had specific ideas… very specific!
It had to be a classic pea coat, fastened with the wooden and cord things (no clue how those are called in English; in Dutch it’s simply known as a “houtje-touwtje” sluiting). The color was already picked as well: navy blue or maybe hunters green. As I said; classic.  (Edit to say I know how it’s called in English: a toggle coat!! Yay me!)
Would I please take care of looking for fabric and lining, and then maybe we could sew together? As you can see by the end result above and below I acquitted myself nicely of finding just the right color fabric.  LOL!

No sooner said than done… off I went; that same afternoon found me in the fabric shop, testing, feeling and brooding over my choices. I was a bit early in season as the winter fabric weren’t all in store yet, and furthermore I had to take into account that we were talking about a baby, he doesn’t need any hefty fabric to weigh him down. Still I wanted a nice warm quality, for a good price (you never know how the end result will be, it’s been some time since I made baby clothing and I didn’t want to toss a huge amount of money).

The ladies in the store were a great help, they loved the idea and walked the isles with me, very nice! As you can see I settled on a medium grey wool with a nice drape and still warm and soft to the touch. Not navy blue, not hunters green no. There wasn’t any so that is my excuse and I stick with that. What might have helped deciding was the fact that the moment I walked into the store I spotted this light grey cotton fabric with the vintage Volkswagon print in bright red, blue and green!!!
Isn’t that just the cutest baby boy print ever??

The next day a quick stop at the notions shop for the buttons… nowhere to be found! Luckily I had the perfect size wooden buttons in my stash and just bought some vivid green piping band. Loaded the car with sewing machine, sewing caddy, fabric, lining and batting and off to my parents house, entered the house at 1.30 and after a quick cup of coffee the following proceeded:

 

 

   

 

We drew the pattern, cut the fabrics, set up two sewing machines across from each other and started sewing! Soon the lining and batting were attached and sewn into an inner jacket by Mom, meanwhile I made the pockets and sewed up the outer jacket, topstitched, added a label. Then Dad, Mom and I had dinner, and got back to sewing quickly after that. Already added piping to the hood and the pockets but adding piping to the sleeves was a daunting task. I forgot how small these sleeve openings are! Phew!!

We still left the buttons out because the cord part was still missing. Tried all kinds of different options, I had some leather shoelaces to try but we both didn’t like the look of it. Then Mom got out her sewing caddy stuffed with years of home economics ;-) never opened in recent years….. and there it was! A same vivid green leather like cord of just the right size and length!  Added the buttons, sewed the patches and it was ready to be wrapped up as a present for Li’l Sis!

 

Turns out we gauged the size a little on the large side… but the only thing you can be sure of with babies is that they grow fast! We both hope he’ll grow into it soon (and preferrably in the right season haha).
Hmm look at this here! The smallest grandson and a bigger one together!

Technorati Tags: Sewing,naaien,kleding,garments