I frequently marvel at how selfless some of my sewing friends are. In fact I think this pretty much applies to all sewists. Unfortunately I don’t fit the mould.
I am the most selfish sewist I know. I just keep turning things out for me! 🤦♀️ So I must say I surprised myself a bit this year when I decided to make my Christmas presents.
I started with coats for my daughters’ Jack Russells. They have 3 between them including a mother daughter combo. The mother lives in Central West NSW where it gets pretty cold by Aus standards, and the daughter lives on the coast where it’s much warmer. The third one is a boy who also lives in Central West NSW. So two coats for the real cold and one for the ‘chilly’ at best, coast.
I knew my 2 daughters would want the coats to sort of match in a non kitch kind of way – even though they don’t live together. They often use the word ‘collection’ – the 3 of us love a good collection. But I wanted to use my scraps which limited my creativity slightly. The other limiting factor was that ‘coastal’ daughter does all pink for her Jack Russell 🤔.
So I decided on a red/pink collection that would cater for all tastes, climates, personalities – and most importantly, my scraps.
wanted to look like they are part of a ‘collection’ but I wanted to use my scraps.
For the little boy who lives in the cold weather, I wanted something soft and warm. I used the Merchant and Mills dog coat pattern and I can’t speak highly enough of it.
Barka is a beautiful pattern in every sense of the word . It is beautifully drafted and the instructions are sharp and concise. This is the first Merchant and Mills pattern I’ve used but it definitely will not be the last.
The coat is lined and bagged out. I added a layer of wool wadding between the two layers to ensure the coat was warm without being too heavy a little add on collar that takes the style up a notch.
Pillow Parlance 