For as much as I’ve complained about boy sewing, I will say that I’ve always wanted to make the Baby in the Hood jacket from Anna Maria Horner’s Handmade Beginnings book.
And I specifically wanted to make it for a boy baby. It was this jacket from Catherine of White Apples that originally caught my eye – just perfect in my opinion. I even saved some of my gray elephants to copy her jacket, and I’d still love to make that version. But I had never made anything from the book before, which made me a little nervous – even after all this sewing, I still don’t trust myself to follow new patterns that don’t happen to be Oliver + S! So I used some green baby cord (and I just noticed that my last four projects have been corduroy…I guess it’s fall) and lined it with a fabric I got on the sale table at Fabric Depot for $4 a yard.
The instructions turned out to be pretty great – easy to follow, and detailed enough for a beginner, though it definitely helped that I’ve made a few lined jackets and set in some sleeves before.
And I did have an issue with one pattern piece, which I checked three times against the pattern, and as far as I can see I traced the correct piece in the right size. Anyway, I made the 6-9 month size, and the hood stripe was too short for the hood by about 5/8ths of an inch on each end. Those were the first two pieces to sew together, and it was enough to make me set the jacket aside for the last month. Apparently I’m easily discouraged. So I’m curious to hear if anyone’s made the 6-9 month size and had that same problem, or if I really did just mess it up. The latter is still a distinct possibility. Eventually I got over it (I probably have KCWC to thank for that) and just cut out new hood stripes. And I’m glad I did, because the pattern yielded a pretty sweet little jacket!
Okay, happy sewing, everyone! 🙂