A Tale of Two Jackets

Kat and Sarah called yesterday afternoon to say they had just purchased a jacket pattern, and could I please help them with a sewing project?

Hooboy...I was wondering what kind of pattern they had in their eager little hands!

Come to find out, it wasn't bad. Simplicity 2150. They chose option D, the furry looking one in the upper right-hand corner.

They stopped by with their dad this morning to discuss fabric options. They had been thinking wool, with a lining.

Hmmm...

How about fleece? I suggested. Nice and washable, and we could skip the lining that way.

Two hours later they were back with their fabrics.

Kat had fleece giraffe.

Sarah had faux mink.

I had them do rock-paper-scissors to see which jacket we would make first.

Thank goodness, Kat won.

Here's Kat, modeling her partially-sewn jacket. We adapted the pattern to include a zipper front instead of 3 hooks/eyes. MUCH warmer.

I always love the way a flat piece of fabric turns into a shaped garment,  just by cutting the fabric with curved outer lines and sewing the curves to other curves.

Kat sewed the straight seams with just a little help.

Ta da! Kat in her finished jacket. 

We took lots of shortcuts made many clever adaptations to the pattern.

It took about 2 hours total.

I don't have any process photos of sewing Sarah's jacket because the faux mink was an awful mess. Take my advice. Don't buy faux mink. Thank goodness I did the fleece version first.

But I do have to admit that it is a darling jacket on her. 

However, sewing with the constant feeling of fur bits up my nose was not an attractive undertaking. 

I will have fur bits floating around the house for at least 2 weeks, I am sure.

But Sarah loves soft things, and this faux mink is so soft!

Check out these two stylin' tweens. 

(And I'm thinking about borrowing their pattern to make that cute red jacket for myself...)