This week I mostly worked on stocking orders and my newest pattern, the Yuletide Stocking. But as the end of the week neared, I decided to spend some time working on new jackets for my kids. We bought them some fleece jackets years ago that they have used as their cool weather jackets. They have mulch permanently stuck to them, they are getting short, and are pretty snug too. My kids are very attached to them though. Ever since I made the Puperita Sweetie Jacket, and then realized it was better for much colder weather, I've been wanting to try my hand at a lighter weight, but still warm, jacket.

I bought another Puperita pattern. I like her style and her instructions. This is the Tiger Hoodie. I compared my children's measurements closely to the chart, and knowing she drafts with a lot of ease, the only change I made was to lengthen them for my older kids. I want these jackets to be a little big now and still fit next year (and maybe the year after, at the rate my kids grow and with how attached they get to things!).

The hardest part of the process was choosing the correct weight of fabric! Joann Fabrics has some french terry that I've used in other projects for the kids, and I decided that it was a nice, warm weight, without as much stretch as most french terry. My kids gave me their input (pink, turtle or orange, pink/purple), and I checked out the fabric store. I wasn't sure what I would put on the inside, and I had very little time to pick. I ended up going with minky fabric. This is a really soft, slippery minky, which makes it nice for jackets because you can slip your arms in the sleeves easily. I was thrilled to find some turtle fabric for my son, and picked coordinating prints for the girls.

Actually sewing the jackets was not difficult, just tedious because I sewed three of them. I ran into my first problem while sewing the first zipper. This pattern is written for wovens, and using a stretch fabric for the outer, I ended up stretching the fabric more on one side of the zipper.

After unpicking those stitches, shortening that side of the zipper, and resewing, you can barely see the difference. After that it was smooth sailing.

I have been suffering from some pretty bad lower back pain, and I didn't want to have to get up and iron and then sit back down, so I decided to topstitch every seam on both sides. That's not called for in the pattern, but I like how it looks. Here's some close-ups where you can see some of the topstitch details.

Final outsides:

Final insides:

And some action shots. You can see that these are a bit big, and the sleeves are fairly long, but like I said, I want them to last, so that's okay. Most importantly, the kids love them and say that they are very snuggly and warm.

I'm very happy with the result! The only other problem was that even after I sewed the ends of the zipper, my son pulled the tab right off. I was able to get it back on, and I dabbed some glue on the zipper teeth at the top to make a barrier. I may need to hand stitch it there with some thick thread.

This next week, I have several stocking orders. I've also picked fabric and patterns for a bunch of new cold weather tops for myself. I would happily get rid of most of my sweaters and long sleeved clothes, but I will wait until I can replace them. Hopefully I'll get to one of those tops this week in between stockings!

Weekly Sewing: Tiger Hoodies