Soft Armor with a Puppy Sigil

So excited about this project- it was such fun!

When Justice of Thread + Sprout started sharing sneak peeks of her latest pattern, Soft Armor, I immediately knew I would be making one for my niece. 

The vibes were just so on point for my niece, who loves some light cosplay, comfy clothes, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. 

The Soft Armor pattern is a pullover vest/tabard situation that buttons on the sides at the underarm and has an option for a hood. It's inspired by chainmail hoods, helmets, and heraldry-adorned tabards worn by knights, but made of soft, comfy fabric. 

Soft Armor has a slightly cropped, swinging fit with hood or round neck options. It overlaps and snaps under the arms. 

For my niece I cut a size L Soft Armor. I included the hood for maximum hooded knight vibes. 

The pattern is designed for quilted fabrics, but I used a non-stretch sweatshirt fleece from my stash. I think the fabric was originally from Joann. The dark grey color read chainmail to me. 

The blue and purple binding and the blue background for the coat of arms is cotton leftover from last year's birthday project for my niece, this harlequin dress. 

Speaking of the coat of arms, I asked my niece what her sigil would be and she said "A puppy!" So I did some poking around ye olde interwebs for inspiration. 

Luckily, although the internet is often a terrible place, it's also a lovely place sometimes, and someone on Reddit had already made a dog coat of arms and the dog's shape was quite similar to my niece's dogs, so I used it as inspiration for this project. 

I blew up the coat of arms, traced the puppy shape and cut it out of scraps of the caramel cotton twill fabric I used for my Eileen Barrel Pants. The color was a good match for my niece's IRL puppies, who are golden doodles. 

I interfaced the crest, stuck the puppy shape onto it, and stitched the outline of the puppy shape and details onto the crest using a mix of zig-zag stitches and free motion stitching. When I was happy with how it looked, I zigzag appliqued the whole crest onto the front of the tabard. 

I really love how it turned out! I think she liked it, too. She was wearing it out and about the weekend after her birthday, layered over a knit dress as you see here. But I think she may have liked what I wrote my accompanying card even more: 

What is Your name?

Sir Anna of Ludlow

What is your quest?

To pet all the dogs and have the best birthday.

What is your favorite color?

Blue. No, yellooooooooooooow!