Babywearing Coat Instructions

http://home.comcast.net/~vanessas23/photos/Babywearing/BabywearingCoat/instructions.html


Portacara babywearing coat, English supplement directions

The directions below are a supplement to the directions (in German) for the Portacara babywearing coat. (Please note that this is not my pattern—hey, I only wish I were this clever!) I used my rusty college German, as well as running the page through Altavista's Babelfish. It’s enough to give an idea of what each picture shows. I’ve written some additional notes below, divided by page. Please let me know if you have questions or suggestions.
nabigus @ gmail. com



Choosing a coat, choosing fleece:
I wasn’t confident enough in my sewing skills to sacrifice my good winter coat, so I haunted eBay for a likely coat: and voila, I got a puffy down “Cherokee” (i.e., Target) brand coat for $15 including shipping. A handy bonus: it’s machine washable. My next project is to make one of these for the spring and fall using a fleece jacket.

I got a yard of Malden Mills Windpro fleece, for $5. This stuff is amazing—it’s pretty substantial, but “flat,” with a beautiful texture. It’s very easy to work with.

Page 1:

How big should the opening be?
The directions say to measure a flap that’s 22 cm by 45 cm. When I looked at her pictures of the final coat, I noticed that the baby’s legs were drawing the coat very tight across the bottom and legs, and I wanted to make sure I had enough room to zip the coat comfortably. I made my opening 23 cm x 57 cm, and measured down only 12 cm from the back seam of the jacket (the green line), since my son is tall and I like to carry him on the high side, and since I wanted to be able to use this as he got bigger. The additional room works beautifully! It’s snug enough that we don’t get any drafts, but there’s still plenty of room to zip the coat.



Attaching the layers of the coat together:
Believe it or not, this was the trickiest part for me. My coat had a slippery lining, and I had to pin the two layers carefully together, then run two (not one) lines of basting before I started zigzagging. If you’re using a down coat, try to create a “valley” in the down so that your stitching and subsequent cuts will only have to go through the fabrics layers of the coat, not through feathers.

Carefully zigzag two lines of stitching, one on either side of the basting line. Make sure not to overlap the two lines of zigzagging, since you’ll be cutting between them.

Carefully cut between the two lines of zigzagging. This will leave you with a coat that has a 3-sided flap cut out, STILL CONNECTED along the bottom edge.

Page 2:

Vertical fleece inserts:
To cut your fleece, fold it so that the stretch goes perpendicular to the fold. Cut TWO of these pieces. (Note that it’s cut on the fold so that the insert is a DOUBLE LAYER of fleece!) If you’re following my measurements, the piece should be a total of 61 cm long (just add the length to the top, and draw the curve as she suggests, with the curve starting 9 cm from the bottom), and 13 cm wide. I drew the curve freehand, which worked fine. (Then, to make sure the curves matched, I used the first piece I cut as a template for the second.)

Zigzag the open edges of the folded fleece piece together. Make sure the right side of the fleece is facing out! (This makes it tons easier to deal with.)

Match right sides of the fleece insert and the coat together, lining up the curved side of the fleece piece with the CENTER of the coat flap you’ve cut. (I.e., the curved side of the fleece will be sewn to the flap, while—eventually—the straight edge will be sewn to the main part of the coat.) NOTE: make sure when you line up the bottom of the fleece piece that there’s not going to be a gap once its sewn—i.e., you need to scootch the fleece piece down maybe 5mm to allow for a seam allowance at the bottom edge.

Sew the flap and the fleece piece together, with about a 6mm seam allowance.

Trim off any of the fleece piece that rises above the flap.

Do the same with the second side.

Fleece across the top of the flap:
The next piece you’ll cut and sew is the fleece piece that goes across the top of the flap. With the stretch of the fabric going in the SAME DIRECTION as the fold, fold your fleece. Cut a piece that’s 8 cm by 43 cm (9 cm by 47 cm if you’re using my bigger measurements). Zigzag the edges of the fleece together for easier handling. Matching right sides together, sew the fleece piece along the top edge of the flap.

BEFORE you do, pin it in place and give the whole thing a quick eyeball to make sure the flap is the right length to go up just a little beyond the top cut in the main body of the coat. NOTE: I wanted to make sure this top fleece piece was a little longer so that it would come up behind my son’s neck. It meant a tiny bit of finagling at the sides (see “Putting it all together” below), but it worked beautifully with the 9 cm.)

Page 3:

Lining the raw edge on the inside of the pocket:
The next piece is the fleece that will line the inside of the opening at the top. With the stretch going long ways (and NOT cut on the fold), cut a piece that’s 4 cm by 23 cm (NOTE! With this thicker fleece, I found 4 cm really hard to work with! I would cut 5 cm. If you’re using my larger measurements, cut 5 cm by 24 cm.)

With right sides together (i.e., right side of the fleece with outside of the jacket), line up the edge of the cut along the top of the coat with the fleece piece. Fold over and pin 6mm at each side. Sew right along this edge. Then fold the piece of fleece around the raw edge of the coat/fleece seam to the inside of the coat. Pin it in place, and sew right on the original line of stitching. (you may need to fiddle a tiny bit to hide the seam allowances on the edges.) This makes a really nice soft edge for your baby’s face.

Page 4:

Putting it all together:
Matching ride sides together, line up and pin the flap to the coat body.

Starting from the bottom, sew, leaving a bare 3 mm seam allowance (mine ended up being more like 5mm). Makes sure to catch the raw edges at the top. I ended up doing a little top stitching at the top corners to reinforce the connection.

Admire the coat both from inside and out!