Halloween has come and gone and I have stuff to brag about. I mean, show you! And now that it is Thanksgiving means that I actually have time to show you!
The title comes form Animaniacs and Dot's cute song. You tube it. That song and this coat work.
SO how this adventure began...for starters, Thing 3 turned four years-old in June. So like all growing children decided that four months later she would skip a size and jump into size five! I needed a wardrobe update, stat! And... a new coat.
A picture of her new wardrobe along the old from storage.
Two-thirds of this is new stuff thanks to Once Upon a Child in Minnetonka! Of the stores in the area, it maybe stuffed to the gills, but I have the best luck finding what I want or need!
PLUS, these past few years the month of October is choose to reuse month. When I find a collection of these free coupon books, I grab 3-4 of them. I tend to use them, a lot! So, add the Reuse coupon from Hennepin! Win-win all around.
Website for Hennepin:
Download free coupons here: (NOTE! You only have til the end of the month! A few days left. But I am sure they will be back neck year!!!)
http://www.hennepin.us/files/HennepinUS/Environmental%20Services/WR&R/WR&R%20Residents/Reuse/ChoosetoReuse2013_web.pdf
Back to our story...
I saw this browsing on eBay and it stuck in my head. The original is made from Bonnie Jean and it cute.
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Bonnie Jean coat from eBay. Notice the embroidered faces, orange piping and polka dotted bow. Sweet, but I don't have an embroidery machine.
I have to make it now!
I had a pattern from years ago that had a lot of similar features, so of course, I tweaked it.
Using Simplicity pattern 2745 and my trusty Pad-O-Paper I started sketching and planning. (Maniacal laughter echoes in the background).
Simplicity Pattern 2745 and the three polar fleeces I used. Orange, yellow and black.
The front and back have 2 godet each (a little extra triangle of fabric, on the pattern above you can see them under the flowers on the coat). I made them orange and added another set at the side seams. Then I scalloped the orange and black ends of the coat from seam to seam. I took the end of the polar fleece that curls up and used it as piping on the hat. I didn't have time to hand embroider faces, so I cut faces out of yellow polar fleece and started to machine stitch them to the black scalloped ends of the coat. And that is when my machine started skipping stitches. :( It needed to go to the Doctor!
I posted this to my personal Facebook and I had so many offering their machines. It was a truly humbling/happy moment. My step mom offered hers and my dad dropped it off.
Unbeknownst to her, her machine's presser foot was broken and refused to go down!
NEXT!
My great potter friend extraordinaire found hers and I was dancing in the streets.
IT"S ALIVE! ALIVE!!! It works! And after a day searching the Internet, I found the model number and free instruction Manuel so that I could understand it and get back to work!
The finished hat. I used extra yellow polar fleece to accent the button instead of ribbon for continuity.
And here is the start of ultimate cuteness...
Here is the coat in action. This thing twirls like no ones business; a wonderful side effect of all those godets! It's also a surprise, the orange pieces hide well until she spins. At first she was shy but then she started to spin for everyone. And as they sing, "Isn't she cute, cute cute!"
Little Things like to spin!
I want to post more pictures, but I'll need to take more detailed pictures.
~Me
~Me
