Spring/Fall Jacket for BiggestBird

The other jacket referenced in my last post is this one, the 3rd Frederic I've made now. I love how RTW (ready to wear) this one can look. This is definitely my best version to date and I hope my son loves it. Also hope his current obsession with Harry Potter doesn't wane or he might refuse to wear it.

I did make a few modifications to this one. I left the zippers off of the pockets and added some "secret pockets". That was my son's main design request. He could care less how I was using the Harry Potter fabric, all he wanted was secret pockets (or inside pockets).

The instructions as written have a really clever way to add them to the front. I worried that it would be difficult to leave them off. I took a few photos as I worked through the process so hopefully that might help someone else.

Here's what I did:

I cut two sets of pockets, 1 out of a thinner fleece so it would provide warm but not too much bulk, and 1 set out of the cotton Lycra print.

I then sewed along the line that you attach the zipper to in the original instructions

Then I opened the pocket and under stitched the seam allowance (stitched towards the fleece).

I then stitched down the inch or so of seam allowance to the side of the fleece. 

I initially tried to topstich, but I don't have a walking foot so this was really distorting the cotton Lycra. Leaving the larger seam allowance did had a bit of heft to the pocket opening which is nice. 

Before attaching the front pocket I added the interior pocket. This one is pretty quick and dirty and I may add some sort of closure should it be needed following testing it out. Basically I cut two extra fronts out of  some knit fabric I had on hand. 

I folded it down to make the top hem band. Then I folded one side back a couple inches to make sure it wouldn't add bulk to the zipper and top stitched this down. I trimmed the excess away to reduce bulk. For placement I simply checked what would be covered by the front pocket to hide the stitching line on the right side. The other side was secured in the side seam. Here you can see what it looked like when completed. 

I then followed along with the regular instructions starting from step 9. 

Here are the minor modifications I made at each step:

Step 9: I sewed on the pockets using the lines indicated

Step 10. I sewed across at the point indicated then pivoted 90 degrees and sewed towards the bottom to close off the bottom of the pocket similar to the zipper. 

Step 11. Then I sewed the side seams, including my interior pocket fabric. 

Step 12: The bottom of the pocket was secured when I attached the hem band. 

Here's how the final pockets look: 

One other recent additions I've been making to all my handmade projects is to add some identification labels. I recently set up a gmail address with our last name and my cellphone number as the email address with the hopes that if lost at school they'll know who it belongs to, and if lost somewhere else someone will e-mail or call me. I'm still a little heartbroken over a Jalie Nico shirt I made for my son using custom knit star wars fabric that was lost on our travels last summer. As an added bonus will be useful for my kids to always have my cell phone number with them in case they are ever lost in a crowd or want to give it to a friend to set up a play date. 

Edited version of my new labels. I did also include the area code, but forgot that in my edit. oups. 

I will report back on how these labels wash up as they have a film that is supposed to wash away to make them feel more like fabric. Straight off the label sheet they feel a bit like plastic. 

Cost breakdown for this one:

Materials : $20 for the windpro fleece from Discovery Trekking Outfitters ($28/yard, $32 with shipping for my order, and used about 60%)

$10 worth of Harry Potter Fabric. It was a custom knit fabric, but not currently available. If I remember correctly it was about $35-40/yard (eek!!) but I've gotten quite a few projects out of it using it as an accent so feel I've definitely gotten my money's worth and it really is a lovely fabric to sew with. 

$2 for Zipper

So roughly $30-35 for this jacket. Perhaps that's about the amount I would have paid for a coat for him, but to get equivalent fabric quality I'd have to pay about $75 

And final verdict: He loves it and so do I. This is my favourite make to date.