recycled babywearing coat - diy tragemantel

This coat, about 20 years old, a present from my grandmother (but not hers, I don't want to overdo it here ;) ) has saved me in the wintermonths of my two pregnancies: Baggy and cosy. Non-pregnant, however, 'baggy' is not exactly what you would want for your coat, hanging shouldercaps (here just above the elbow) make it even more baggy and cumbersome to lift your arms.

 On the other hand I have always wanted a babywearing coat for cold winter days. Something that can be worn with but also without baby on the back. So here I went, courageously cutting my way through the coat. First I adapted the shoulders,cutting away lots of material, which in the end was missing lengthwise at the sleeves. The lining had to be adjusted and mended, which was at least as cumbersome as adapting the outer shell of the coat. I used checkered cooked wool for the inserted piece and also for the cuffs:

There are two horizontal zippers from each side to the middle and one vertical. the other vertical zipper of the same brand and length is sewn between two layers of cooked wool of the insert piece. I just found out that it also fits to my fleece jacket, so if ever I want to wear my little one belly to belly and I need a jacket, I have this option, too!

  The insert piece is somewhat egg-shaped. I applied elastic cords horizontally and around the head-support bit (it's not really meant to be supportive for a sleeping baby, but at least it is a good protection against the wind.

Horizontally I added a flap to have some more protection against cold and wind while wearing and to cover the horizontal zippers when I wear the coat without my baby and without the insert.
Actually I had wanted to pimp the coat a bit more with this berry coloured cooked wool - lovely material! - but then other projects came up... But I guess this is the reason, why I didn't post this earlier ;)

I still need to take some pics of the coat without the insert, hopefully soon... 

baby girl flowery outfit

At the last stoffenspektakel, the fabrics market here, I found this gorgeous retro flower knitted velvet. Along with some (still too big) trousers made from the sleeves of an old sweat shirt of mine, it was one of my first projects with my new W6 overlock machine. - And you can see this, there is a weird bend cut out under the left sleeve. It was a last minute project before we went on holidays and I really wanted to take it along, but didn't have lots of time to work it out properly... The pattern was taken from an existing shirt and slightly adapted.

corduroy memories

I'm currently working on a skirt for my older daughter made from a beautiful colourful corduroy. Whenever I start working on it, it reminds me of the recycle trousers that I once made and enhanced with details from this material.

The red corduroy I took from some old, beloved trousers of my slimmer days, again nice memories are linked with this material. The colour is just stunning, a deep and nobel red, not the cheap, blatant red that you find so often.

The zipper I cut out completely from the original trousers, since I had never sewn trousers with a zipper before and I didn't want to start on this without any pattern. In the meanwhile I have come across this fantastic tutorial for zippers sewn into trousers, so I could now do it in a more elegant way, but actually it worked out very well the way I did it.

Instead of a button I used kam  snaps - they work well, even a year later now.

I added some embroideries, an owl, a freebie from ginihouse

The  house and the pigs are from emblibrary again

I made these trousers almost exactly one year ago and I'm happy that my daughter can still wear them before they will be passed on to our youngest!