I made my first coat and it is a softshell coat! Already quite some time ago I saw the Arja Jacket at makerist and I put it on my sewing list. Only just a couple of months ago I finally bought it with the Muksu add on, which is an add on so that a baby in a baby carrier is also covered by the coat.
What I like so much about the Arja Coat are the different options it has. The Arja originally is a vest pattern, but there are also instructions if you want to make it in softshell (for free). So that is what I did and these tips are great. I made a softshell coat with a collar (there is also the option of a hood) and zippers in the pockets (you can also opt for a pocket without a zipper and with or without paspel). I of course love the fact that you can easily make a colour blocked coat with the different pattern pieces. By playing with different fabrics you can give it a different feel. There are also two different lengths in the pattern, I chose the long version, but you can easily adapt to your preferred length.
There are also different options for the baby add on pattern. You can make a collar and/or hood. I made the version with a collar and decided to make the hood detachable. I added kamsnaps to the bottom of the hood so you can take it off (as shown in the first picture). The hood of the baby add on also has a colour block option, isn’t it great?!
Changes I made to the coat:
- I made the long version of the coat (there is also a short version) but I omitted the binding at the bottom of the coat.
- I made enclosed cuffs (these are given as a suggestion in the pattern, but the instructions are given in a different (free) pattern). I love the enclosed cuffs, especially for coat no more cold arms!
- I did not line the hood for the baby (I only lined the middle piece of the hood with the cord inside)
- I used the collar and the hood option
- I added snaps to the hood so that the baby hood can be taken off
- I made the baby part smaller, we have a tiny little baby
- Originally the baby part consists of three parts in order make it more curved. I omitted the middle part and made the part that consists of binding as long as needed.
- The cord in the neck of the baby add on is supposed to only have two holes, however I added two more holes so that I can easily adapt the width of the baby add on so that it fits nicely around the neck of the baby.
Fabric: Softshell. All softshell comes from Textielstad.
Pattern: Arja Jacket and Muksu (baby add-on) by Näähglück by Sophie Kääriäinen
Digital pattern challenge: I participate in the pdf pattern challenge (set up by Mamarieke) to sew 8 pdf patterns in September until December of the pile of patterns that I have bought but did not sew yet (I exclude pattern tests and pattern that I have received, so I only include the pdfs that I have bought myself). In September I sewed 3 pdf patterns. This is the first pattern that I sewed in October that I sewed from my bought patterns. I thus sewed 4 out of 8 patterns so far.
Digital Pattern Challenge patterns so far:
1) Access and accessibility t-shirt: a t-shirt with nursing access
2) Wendybird dresses: two lovely dresses for both our girls
3) Nivalis dress: I hacked a nivalis dress to have nursing access
4) Arja Softshell Coat
Fabric in 2018: this week 0 in – 4 out (2018: bought 59 – used 88 fabric – used 4 gifted fabric – used 23 scrap pieces of fabric) – in total 59 in 115 out
Sew Cucio 