Doll's Jacket

With the sudden cold snap last week, Sophie informed me one morning that Doll needed a jacket. Kids have that real holistic approach to toys. Anyway, I told her, sure we could sew a jacket, and we picked out material from the scrap box.

There was just enough of this spotty fabric. The blue with white is from some table runners from a wedding. I've made loads of it into bunting in the past (in fact, it was the beginnings of my very first lot of excessive general bunting!) The multicoloured spots were from a party dress Sophie wore last August.

I've never sewn a jacket before, so I did a quick google for a pattern and Sophie helped lay out the pieces. She was a little confused as to why we weren't just sewing, but went along with things. As always I feared making it too small, so I cut excessively large and promised myself I'd use at least a centimetre seam allowance to make it all come together nicely.

Then proceeded to use the smallest possible seam allowance I could so Doll ended up with an enormous jacket. I did cool cuffs with the contrast spots, which was good. The sleeves are about twice as long as they need to be, but I can't take them up because of the cool contrast spots cuffs, which is  bad. Also, I put facings in. What do I know about facings? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Never sewn them before in my life.

I ended up sewing the sides in a heap and even putting a tuck in the back, but it's still pretty bad. When I tell Steve about this, he says: "Don't worry, Doll will grow into it."

Despite the bad fitting, Sophie loves Doll's new jacket. Here she is buttoning up the invisible buttons that I haven't put on yet. It's a win.