The theme of this first week is Inspired by 80's Cartoon. I don't know why, but I love this theme. There was a bit of a grumble across social media when the themes were first announced, but I think finally everyone has come around. There's so much crazy fun to choose from in cartoons, but I narrowed mine down quickly once the weather here turned chilly to something that would inspire a jacket. Of course, my first thought was Inspector Gadget and this cropped trench was born.
I was originally going to use the Little Red Riding Hood Trench from Dear My Kids since I already own the pattern (I made this cloak using the hood), but I had so many little changes I wanted to make (crop, extend the front to double breast, add a collar and stand, bag a lining, buckled sleeves, etc.) to it that I just drafted a trench myself. I used the LRH Trench idea of it being a raglan style sleeve and then went crazy from there.
The double breasted front has a self drafted collar that nearly did me in. It needed to be just right (and I wanted a collar stand) so I went through three quick versions before using this one.
The jacket can be worn with or without the tie belt and without the belt the shape is super swingy and adorable. The outer fabric is a waterproof poplin I found in the red tag area of JoAnn and the lining is a creme color with gold polka dots. I used the same fabrics for the matching Fedora.
I hope to draft myself a jacket this winter, so I insisted on bagging the lining of this jacket. Which I've never done before. I went through practically every tutorial online showing how it's done and the methods vary. I wanted it to be done entirely by machine (cause why not) and to have the lovely pleat at the bottom of the lining/main fabric hemline. In the picture above you can see how nicely the lining, facing, and outer fabric meet in the corner. The navy fabric you see along the bottom inside edge is the outer fabric wrapped around which is the result of bagging the lining. It also helps to give this jacket hem almost a bubble look to it when Bean's wearing it. I am kind of shocked that it all turned out so nicely. I made up my own way of doing it using a bit from everyone else. Isn't that kind of what we all do?
I made the sleeves meet the lining in the same way so that the outer fabric wrapped around. It's such a nice finish. And speaking of finishes, man did I have trouble finding the right buckles. Since I was planning a tied belt, I was determined to use buckles on the sleeves. A trench should have buckles somewhere, right? I thought it'd be cute, but it took a billion store to find the right ones. I couldn't be happier with the result. Once again, I had no idea if the whole buckle thing would work, but I lucked out!
To go with the jacket I finally made the Elegance & Elephants Fedora Hat pattern that I've been dying to try for so long. It came together pretty easily and looks so cute on Bean.
Bean has never watched Inspector Gadget, but she is obsessed with Little Charley Bear. Our friends told us about it one day last year and my husband and she now watch it on youtube on weekend mornings and she has every episode memorized. Her favorite is where he tries to find a missing sock. As I mentioned, this is a show she watches with her father and I'm usually off doing something else in the house (most likely sewing) so I haven't really seen it. But I hear ALL about it all day long, hehe. I gave her a little magnifying glass awhile ago and she freaked out that it was just like Charley Bear's so we told her he sent it to us for her. She cannot get over the idea that Charley Bear wanted HER to have a magnifying glass and she wanders around the house with it all the time. I snuck it with me when we were taking photos and she just couldn't contain her excitement when I showed it to her.
So now it's time for you to head over to Project Run & Play and vote for your favorite of the designers looks. The voting is open through this evening and those last votes mean so much to the designers, so show them a little love!
And finally, I remember my younger sister and I LOVING Inspector Gadget. He was ridiculous, but it definitely made us laugh. What makes Bean laugh these days?
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I called her feet stinky. And she laughed and laughed and laughed....
