Animal Print Raincoat for Tamara

Tamara has been having a very busy and stressful few weeks at work and I thought she needed a little surprise.I had an animal print, water proof fabric in my stash that I knew would be a winner with my DD, I agonized as to whether I should make her a long coat or a more sporty jacket. Well, knowing Tamara ,who is a girly kind of gal, I decided on a long coat so she would be well covered in a downpour on her way to work.

I wanted this to be an easy sew and chose a pattern that didn't have too many seams. Few seams or not, this little number took me the better part of four days to produce!!

I used a pattern copied from Burda Style ( issue 01/09 ) which I used for this jacket.

Well, actually, I only used the front minus the band, the back and the sleeves and somehow they morphed into this coat.

.Now you may be able to guess what took all the time. Yes, the pockets and flaps and the collar made out of faux leather. Pretty cool huh?

In the 70's, I had a jumpsuit that had this style of pocket flaps and I've long wanted to use this design on something. As for the pockets, they are actually double pockets with one sewn over the other. Why , you might ask? Well, I don't know why. I just did!

I find it hard to judge where to place the belt carriers on a garment when the person is 1000 miles away so I sewed three to the back. When I next go to Ottawa, I'll redistribute them if necessary.

As for the orange polka dot lining, it was in my stash so I used it but man was it hard to work with these two slippery fabrics together. Another time, I'd line with a light cotton or silk/cotton. Whoops!. No pic!




No pic of Tam wearing her coat yet but she was delighted with her surprise. It was waiting for her after a week of exhausting work travel . It was definitely worth all the angst I experienced sewing it to hear how much she loves it !

Next, I'm making a long white  lace  dress for my oldest grand-daughter's graduation (it's not her prom dress). Only yesterday, my darling Jessie looked like this while helping me take pictures for my blog when I first started blogging in 2008. How quickly she has grown up!!!! And she has been accepted into the performing arts program at the University of British Columbia ! All the way across the country! I can't bear to even think about it!

                                             


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