There is nothing like a huge thunderstorm to make you want to run to the sewing room and hunker down. You don’t even have the excuse the yard work needs to get done, so sew guilt-free.
Oona’s jacket and jumper are done, and ready for some prime-time wearing. She is chasing some of her old friends around McCarren Park in Williamsburg for a few days, so the fit-check will have to wait for her return. I am pretty darn happy the way this outfit turned out, and hopefully she will agree to wearing it. She is going thru a “dresses only please” phase, so I plan to take advantage of that!
         
I decided to line the sleeves with a poly fabric I had in my stash, since my favorite DGD is very likely to squaw loudly if her t-shirt hangs up on the jacket sleeve when trying to get it on. And I remembered at the last minute that she hangs her coat up at daycare, so I added a loop for hanging ease. She’ll never lift the collar to see the bar tacks on the back, will she? 😉
I LOVE the pleat in the back of this little swing jacket! I think it gives it a bit of a vintage vibe, don’t you?
          
The binding on this jacket went on super easily. I made it from the leftover lining fabric, and used my Clover binding-maker tool to create 1″ wide binding. After stitching it on and pressing on the front side just 1/2″ shows. It is always looks a little wonky when you apply binding around a rounded corner after finishing up just the stitching and pressing steps. But you can see that when you roll the binding to the backside everything smoothes out and lays perfectly. The magic of bias, right?
OMG, doesn’t this jumper just scream “wear ME on the first day of school!”? I should probably go buy Oona some knee socks and saddle shoes to wear with it, right? The pattern I used is McCalls 5836, OOP, but still seems to be available on the Web site. There are so few patterns for little girls with PLEATS. I sense a business opportunity here.
See that little bit of bodice lining peaking out? Adorbs. And color me totally shocked when I actually found cute buttons that exactly match the dress & jacket, came in 2 sizes, AND cost only a few bucks! Normally I end up buying uber-expensive-but-ohh-so-perfect-ones that cost a small fortune EACH. I am actually feeling like this whole outfit is practically free because I bought the corduroy in France so long ago I have no idea what it cost. If it ages in my stash for ANY length of time it auto-magically becomes free fabric.
What fun things are you stitching up in your sewing room? Is the weather conducive to your sewing bug, or is it calling you outdoors? I am taking off later this week for the Sewing Summit in Salt Lake City, so a few more days of warm weather are still in my future.
Happy sewing!
Maris Olsen