Merry Christmas, Archie!

Last month when I was looking for coat patterns for Archie, I pulled out two options that I thought would work nicely for him.  The first, Simplicity 2696, turned out great with a couple of minor alterations.  I also wanted to try out Butterick 4885 to see which would be a better base pattern for future warm weather options for The Pup.  

I had plenty of leftover fabric from my Christmas jumper, and I also had some wool batting leftover from a quilt project that was taking up space in the sewing room.  I have also been wanting a walking foot for my Bernina machine for some time, and now seemed as good a time as any to splurge on the sewing machine accessory to make another quilted coat for Archie.

And my goodness does that walking foot make a difference!  Machine quilted items have never turned out so well for me, so that was an absolute win.

The Butterick pattern, on the other hand, was not such a great fit.  This design is much more roomy for its size.  The Simplicity was a little long, but the fit through the chest seemed to be much more in line with the sizing.  I was suspicious of the wide front opening of the Butterick pattern, but I decided to trust the process and move forward.

But the neck opening is just way too wide and scooped out for Archie's build.

The pocket details are adorable, and I could always transfer that to another pattern.  You can see his entire harness front while wearing this draft.  I don't mind the visibility, but this just isn't a great fit.

I did alter the pattern construction since I had quilted my fabric and there was no need to line it.

That just meant removing the seam allowance.

With this change, the collar piece doesn't look exactly like the original, but I still think it works and adds a bit of charm.

For his first outing, the fit did not seem to cause any issues, but that evening, Archie was walking a bit funny and seemed to be tripping.  At one point, one of his little legs even managed to come right out of the neck opening.

That definitely needed to be fixed, and I put it aside for a couple of days.  It was silly to spend so much time quilting and making all of the little details before really testing the fit, but I was just too excited to make him a matching outfit.

After picking it back up, I realized that I could fill in the neck with a leftover piece of the quilted fabric to minimize the fitting issues and hopefully make this a wearable garment.

The collar no longer sits at the "neckline," but overall, it's still pretty cute.

Thanks, in large part, to the furry fella inside it.

So I guess all of that quilting was worth it!

And it's the thing that finally made me purchase the darn walking foot . . . so overall, a great success!

Coat:  Made by me, Butterick 4885