A Classic Chickadee

Here's my post from the "Flip This Pattern" over at Frances Suzanne - the voting is open now!!!

 We live in Southern California, and the weather turned COLD a few weeks ago - I think it dipped down to 50....ok, so that's not cold by most people's standard, but for the thin-blooded Californians, it was freezing....it made me realize that my daughter actually didn't have a jacket!  So there was my inspiration for my flip.

I've always loved the classic look of the little girls woolen coat with a velvet collar.  So, since the beautiful Chickadee pattern has an amazing collar feature, I figured I would make it into a jacket.

I made this with red wool from Moda from my shop.  I have never attempted sewing with wool, and after this experience, I have no idea why!  It sewed up beautifully.  I fully lined the jacket with satin - my first experience with sewing satin as well.  Suffice to say, I will NOT be starting a business making bridesmaids gowns after this - although the result was really nice, it was not that easy to sew.

I added wrist bands to make it more jacket-like, added pleats on both sides of the lower front to make it even more swing-y.  I hand-sewed a snap to close the neckline, and made a trip to the garment district in Los Angeles to get a frog closure.  I knew that would be the look I wanted to complete the "classic" look I was going for.

For the skirt, I had a perfect plaid in my stash.  I knew that my kid likes skirts that "twirl", so I decided that I would make a wrap/pleated skirt.  I lopped off the pattern pieces, and added a pleated lower skirt. 

To complete the look, I made a white t-shirt with the Made By Rae Flashback Skinny Tee pattern, and as a nod to the Clever Charlotte pattern designers, came up with the perfect creation:

I appliqued the Clever Charlotte logo onto the shirt - I was very pleased the way it came out!

Thanks SO much to the Clever Charlotte pattern designers for making such a great pattern - if you haven't sewn with them before, you should definitely try them out - the patterns are so cool, and the instructions are GREAT!  And, thank you, thank you, thank you, to Ashley and Emily from Frances Suzanne for asking me to participate!