Warm and Stylish!

This is the 3rd year that Kessa Bear has been wearing the same $20 Walmart coat...and it still fits.  However, it was once white and now it's...not.  No matter how much I wash it.  So we decided it would be a play coat and we'd get her a new coat for when she needed to NOT look homeless.

So...we went shopping.  She didn't like anything.  So she looked through my coat patterns and picked the P51 Flyer Jacket by Terra's Treasures.

So then we picked out fabrics and I got to work!  I'm honestly not sure what the outer fabric is.  I picked it up at Joanns.  It's a heavy weight and I'm pretty sure it's water resistant but I have no idea what the fabric content is or anything.  I didn't think to look when I bought it.  Oops.  

It's lined with soft flannel (also from Joanns) and it has a hidden layer of flannel as well because I wanted it to be nice and warm.  

Now, a couple things about this pattern.  This is the 2nd time I've made it (you can see the first one here...and Zane is wearing it this year!  yay for hand me downs!) and it was MUCH easier than the first time I made it but it's definitely NOT a beginner pattern.  I made some silly mistakes and the fact that I didn't get my zipper/edges lined up drives me crazy but those are  my mistakes and have nothing to do with the pattern.  

One thing that I've done on BOTH of the jackets I've made from this though is sew the 2nd pocket in backwards (so it faces the side seam instead of the zipper.)  This isn't something you can tell by looking at it and by the time I'd realized it it was too late to fix.  I have figured out WHY I did it twice though and I'll give you a heads up in case you decide to give this jacket a try (because let's face it, it's darn cute!!!)  

The pattern gives easy step by step instructions for the first pocket and then says "repeat steps for other pocket" (or something like that.)  IF you do exactly the same thing your pocket faces the same way.  You have to mirror all the directions.  Maybe I'm just slow but I thought I'd mention it in case it could save anyone else from making the same mistake!  lol  

The contrasting top-stitching really takes this a step up in my opinion.  Don't skip the top stitching!!  (Also, please note that this is a size 8 because I wanted Kessa to be able to wear it next year too...I probably should have stuck with a 7 and it still would have been plenty big enough next year!  lol)  

So there ya have it!  We both love it!  Another win for Terra's Treasures!