Super Fun Girls Coat on the Way

My niece is adorable and is just coming into her own in fashion terms.  I spoke to her about her birthday and Christmas presents this year (she has a December birthday) and we decided I would make her a present this year.  I was tasked to make a "super twirly cool coat".

So, off to find a pattern and go fabric shopping - since we all know I hate fabric shopping (NOT!!!).

I have decided to go with Vogue 9043, View B.  I was originally thinking View C (the long one) but when I found the perfect fabric and there was only two yards left, View B became the selection.  I also think it is more practical for an 8 year old.

In choosing the fabric, I had some parameters.  The birthday girl want pink or pink and blue.  The birthday girl's mommy wanted washable and something that won't show dirt in 5 minutes.  So a print was automatically my way to go.

My problem is that I love wool and I have no problem spending money on quality wool, but washable was one of my key requirements.  After a LOT of thinking, I decided to look into a faux fur and ended up selecting a minky fabric.  My plan is to underline with organza (poly for washability) to add body to the minky fabric and line with cotton flannel for warmth.  So here are the fabrics I selected:

Next step is to cut the muslin and do a fitting.  This is going to be fun!

Gotta Catch Em All - Pokemon!

For Halloween this year, I got out on the easy side.  This is my little Ash from Pokemon.  The shirt/jacket and gloves were all I had to make.  The shirt is made from a blue cotton twill and underlined with a heavier cotton twill to add more body so it would flow away from the body just like in the cartoon.  The pattern was created by altering a simple kids button down shirt.  I added the pockets (both fully functional of course) and made the sleeved from a faux linen fabric.  It is fully lined.

Ash has fingerless single finger gloves, but the fleece that I purchased was just too bulky for that with little hands, so I made them a simple thumb and fingerless mitten sort of glove.

All in all, the costume was a success.  EVERYONE knew who he was and he was thrilled with his costume.  I was originally hoping he would be able to wear it to the summer comic-cons, but the way he is growing, it may be going to his little brother for con wear.

Here are a few more poses, just for fun:

And since I don't want his little brother to be left out, this is Minecraft Steve in Diamon plated armor.  I made the armor from rubber floor tiles and hot glue.  Not my best work, but he loved it, so I win!

Emergency Project: Cold Weather Waterproof Mittens (Part 2)

So last weekend I finished up the cold weather mittens just in time for the craziest weather we have seen in years.  The mittens are usable and soft, but not exactly the couture work I prefer to produce.  All in all, the wearers are happy and warm so it all ended well.  But some notes on the journey there.

I printed and cut out all of the patterns from my previous post (Emergency Project: Cold Weather Waterproof Mittens Part 1).  I looked them all over and ended up using the pattern from FleeceFun.com.

I had originally wanted to make these mittens waterproof but the weather came upon me faster than I had planned and a trip to the fabric store was not panning out.  I ended up pulling out the stash fabrics.  I usually sew for adult women so I did not have much fabric that was honestly appropriate for the cause. Thanks to a spree of pajama pant making in the fall, I did have small stash of polar fleece fabric.

I am not too fond of this stuff, but it makes good for items for the little ones and my husband that will need to withstand many trips through the wash and still stay warm.  Honestly for my husbands mitts I wish I would have had some boiled wool.  I could have gotten out the wool fiber and felted the proper fabric by hand, but spending hours laying out wool and then felting it in the middle of a snow storm was just not appealing.

Onto some shop talk.  I started out wanting to make these mittens extra warm, so I cut the outer layer from polar fleece and the lining from cotton flannel. I had a "bright" idea to use some fusible fleece batting on the lining fabric to increase the warmth.  I was also very "smart" and cut and fused both of the child sized gloves before really testing this idea out.

After assembly line rotary cutting the pieces and fusing the fleece I started sewing the mittens up.  There are good instructions on the site, but the seam allowance of 1/2 inch for both the lining and outer fabric did not work out so well.  I did the first glove using and trimmed it as best I could, but the thumb became way too small with the lining.  Additionally, my youngest boy did not like the stiffness of the fused flannel in the glove.  So for speed and sanity, on the kids gloves I skipped the lining.

To get the elastic in, I used some ribbon to create a casing inside the glove and 1/4 inch elastic to hold the glove on.  I just did quick rolled hem on the edge and voila, a mitten.  My older son soon decided he needed his gloves EXACTLY the same as his brother.  (My boys are 17 months apart, so they are more like twins.  They are also 5 and 7).  So in the same manner, mitten set number two was produced.

Now, on to my husband's mittens.  After my mistakes with the mittens for my kids, I decided to try a few changes.  I fused fleece to the large back hand piece but not to thumb lining pieces.  I was hoping this would add some wind resistance.  I also used 1/2" seam allowance on the lining pieces and a 1/4" seam allowance to the outer pieces to account for the bulk created by the two seams touching and the extra thickness in the fabrics.  I also decided to bind the edges rather than turn them.  I was lazy and sometimes I just don't want to turn pieces through a small hole when they are odd shaped.

It turns out I was correct and my hubby tested the mittens out a lot over the past few days.  The temps have been below zero here and he said his mittens kept his hands quite warm.  The kids love their gloves too.  They may not have turned out waterproof or quite the seamstress mastery I like to create, but my customers are happy and hands are warm so I can feel happy with a job well done.

Emergency Project: Cold Weather Waterproof Mittens (Part 1)

Today it is cold and it has snowed a little over an inch in my neck of the woods.  My boys are at home and want to go out and play, so we look in the hat and glove bin and lo and behold we have one of every set of gloves.  Ugh.  I check the forecast and the weather is about to take a turn for the cold, a high of 18 degrees as they get back to school on Monday.  So super mom has to figure out how to keep those little fingertips from freezing off, so here comes another emergency project.

I decided to be smart and google up some tuts out there so I can run by the fabric store tonight and finish them up two sets of gloves by the morning.  I found a few great resources out there.

The first tutorial I found was on Fleece Fun.  The Free Mitten Pattern on Fleece Fun looks very nice and comes with a great video tutorial.  Available for download are the child's size Small, Medium, and Large as well as Women's size Medium and Large and Men's Medium and Large.

Free Mitten Pattern on Fleece Fun (This is not my pattern, it is a link to a cool tutorial). 

I love the fact that these are lined.  In the tutorial, she uses fleece and minky fabric for the lining.  I am thinking that the glove need to be warmer, we are talking temps in the lower teens, and I want them waterproof.  I do love the shape of the gloves and the sizing, so I think I will be using this pattern.

So I did a little more snooping and found another great tutorial at Sew Can Do.  Here you will find this great tutorial for Insulated Snow Mittens.  I love the idea of using the insulation material as an underlining.  She also suggests using laminated polyester for the outside of the glove, making them waterproof.

Insulated Snow Mittens Pattern and Tutorial by Sew Can Do

I am sure I will be combining both of these great tutorials to make my own version of an insulated mitten.  I am also going to adding a key hook to the gloves and a d-ring to each side of my boys' coats since they magically cannot seem to keep from losing their gloves at school.  I would not want all this hard work for nothing.

Keep on the lookout tomorrow for the results and pictures of what I made.