So Precious Girls

If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. ~Nadine Stair

This spring jacket (if you live in Birmingham, Alabama) or fall jacket (if you live in Auckland, New Zealand)  was fun and easy to do.  I did the first one for little Mae, and will put it in the mail when I finish Issa's.  I used Fabric Cafe's  So Precious Sweatshirts, and started out with the Flowers and Bees jacket, but then found myself going in a different direction.

The first step was to remove the the waistband and sleeve bands from the sweatshirt.  I cut as closely as I could to the seam so that I kept plenty of length.  The rest of it was so easy I am mad that I didn't think of this myself!

Next I did the hem, fusing a piece of fusible woven interfacing around the length of the inside bottom .  I chose brown and pink polka dots thinking of Mae Mae's flushed cheeks and pretty brown eyes. I cut a strip of fabric about an inch wide, folded down the top edge a 1/4 of an inch, matched the raw edges of the strip right side to the wrong side of the jacket, stitched and flipped it to the inside and pressed it well.  Then I top stitched along the edge with my #10 foot.  I didn't like the seam around the bottom so I used some large rick rack to cover the seam.  This would have been the time to do it,  but I wasn't thinking that far ahead .

Once again, I love my ruffler!  Using a 1 1/2 inch strip this time,  I folded my pink and white polka dot length wrong sides together and pressed it well.  I did enough to go around the cuff and neckline.  It was easy to lay the ruffle around the seam of the neck edge, and then just turn down the ribbing to cover the raw edges of the ruffle.  Then, the ribbing is top stitched down.

I changed up the sleeve a little bit.  At first my trim was added to the outside of the sleeve, but I just didn't like the look.  So I changed the trim to the brown polka dot and added it to the inside of the sleeve.  After 3 tries, I had a look that made me happy.
     The strip down the center front was done like the bottom strip, turning the edges under on the top and bottom.  The buttonholes were a little bit of a pain...the bottom 4 went in like a charm with my automatic buttonhole foot, but it took several tries to get the top one.  I finally went to the manual 6 step buttonhole on my machine and it worked fine.

I finished up with the Twirly monogram, the m in the pink polka dot and the brackets in the brown.

Issa and Katelyn have requested pink and green, so I will see how my mood strikes as I complete their little spring (or fall) jackets!