Somehow I stumbled on this blog, Small Dreamfactory, a few months ago and saw that the site offered several free printable sewing patterns and tutorials for baby and toddler clothes. In particular, this quilted toddler jacket caught my eye... freaking adorable. I decided I had to make one for Zoe. It's a size 2-2T, so I am hoping she can wear it this spring and again it the fall.
When I was back in the States I picked up some double-faced quilted fabric at Joann Fabrics, knowing I couldn't find that type of fabric here in Indonesia. I ended up with a cute print covered in graphic apples and pears on one side, with thick red stripes and more fruit on the other side. Black double fold bias tape and some buttons was all I needed after that...
The directions on the blog were not crystal clear, but I was able to muddle through pretty easily. I could ignore many of the instructions for quilting your fabric and lining it since I had the double-faced quilt fabric already. The only extra preparation I had to do was to add the seam allowance to certain sections of the pattern and then carefully trim the batting out from those seam allowances as the Real Martha recommended so that the seams were not super bulky (which was really important since I decided to do french seams. I had a bit of trouble easing the sleeves into the armholes (I did those with french seams, too, following the tried and true tutorial for french seam sleeve insertion at Grainline) and I am not the best at applying the bias tape to small curves, but in the end it looks pretty good! I love how nice it looks with the coordinated lining. If I was a little more experienced I might have been able to make it so it was reversible. Next time...
