The Olivia and Oliver Peacoat

by Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop

Ohhh my goodness this little coat was so much FUN!!
I bought the pattern in preparation for Kid's Clothes Week and thought I'd test it out before I made it with the intended fabrics. So I used a heavy cotton long-sleeved Tshirt for the outer and a thin Norman Rockwell baby throw-blanket for the lining and I just fell in LOVE with it, the fit is amazing!!!

I kind of impressed myself. I must admit; it was my first time actually doing basting stitches (which I should have done on a few other garments before....) and button-holes. oh lordy button-holes!! How stressful they were! After practicing over and over on scrap fabric, I gave in and just sewed them by hand. I had hoped to use embroidery floss but I had none to match. All I had in navy blue was overlocking-machine thread, so it took me much longer than I had hoped. BUT once I ironed them they looked OK to me, but I'm sure not zooming in on them for you :-P

I did learn a good lesson in buttons though;

I only cut two buttonholes (out of four buttons) and left the other two buttons sewn on top of the outer layer and..........

THE BUTTONS SAGGED!

I was pretty upset I hadn't foreseen this happening. I did choose some pretty heavy, rounded buttons after-all. I knew I couldn't just leave them be, and accept defeat. So I rolled up a tinyyy bit of leftover tshirt and superglued it to the bottom-back of the buttons to kind of prop it up. It helped alot (you can see the difference in the top pictures of it hanging!) I'm wishing I had snapped a picture now, maybe I'll reenact it for you haha!

The topstitching was so satisfying. I really took my time with it, as I usually have a hard time with edge-stitching.

So if you're wanting to make a darling little coat for your wee-one, I'd say the Olivia and Oliver Peacoat is the way to go. It came together so nicely, even with my novice skills. And I can't wait to make one again for Kids Clothes Week!

Thank you for reading! <3 <3 <3

Tutorial: Heat Transfer Vinyl Graphic Tee

I am so excited to share my love of Heat-Transfer vinyl with you! There's so much good about it; it doesnt fade and bleed like other iron-on transfers, it comes in so many colors; even metallics (I can't get enough silver and gold!) which is a big deal to me! It looks sharp and professional, and is such an easy hack to do right at home. I love the simple, clean crispy look of it and its SO inexpensive! I paid about $30 for 4 yards (a yard each of four different colors) on Amazon last winter and I still have about 3/4 of it left; It lasts a long time!! So I'm going to show you how it's done with the professional-grade vinyl, with NO professional equipment or tools!

You'll Need:

• Heat Transfer Vinyl (duh):  I use the brand name "Siser Easy-Weed" because like the name implies it's very easy to work with and comes out so soft with a nice little stretch to it!
• Teflon Sheet (This should come with your HTV order but double-check to be sure!)
• Exacto Knife
• an Iron
• (optional) A printer

 

For this tutorial I'm going to make the same NBYBOY graphic Teddie's wearing on his tank here, so I'll be using black and silver HTV.

Start by printing (or drawing) your desired graphic on plain ol' paper. If it's orientation-sensitive, make sure you print it "mirrored". We're going to use this is a stencil.

Take a look at your HTV. There is a shiny side and a dull side. The shiny side is the sticky plastic layer that will be peeled off in the end, and the dull side is your vinyl.

Tape your paper-graphic to the dull side of your HTV. Cut your paper pieces a bit smaller than your HTV pieces so you have a surface to tape your paper to. Be generous with your tape (you don't want it moving around!) and make sure it's on a flat surface!

Now it's time for the exacto-knife! Trace along the outlines of your graphic cutting right through the paper and the vinyl, but not through the shiny-side plastic layer (though its not the end of the world if you accidentally do so!) This might sound difficult, but you quickly get a feel for it!

If you have something like the letter B where there are "holes" in it, be sure to cut those out first; if you cut the outside part first, you won't have the paper to trace the inside lines!

Once you've completely traced/cut your graphic you can take the remaining paper off (tape too!) and start what we call "weeding"; peeling away the excess vinyl to leave only your beautiful graphic.  The key to this is to go slow and have patience if you're doing a complicated graphic.

I like to make a few extra slices from cut-lines to the edge, so I can peel away smaller amounts at a time. ( It's a little hard to see, I know!)

I like to use a pin to help lift and peel the excess vinyl and start at the inside of corners.

So keep on weeding away until you have nothing left but your nice clean graphic!

The backside that you just worked with will be nice and sticky for you to place on your desired garment. When this material is used commercially, they use a cutting-machine and a massive industrial heat-press, but we're going to use our household iron. The HTV comes with Pressure and Time instructions for "pressing" and you're just going to try to emulate it with your iron and own weight!

So arrange your graphic(s) how and where you'd like them to be, and lay your teflon sheet over it. I ironed this on with a little bit of lean, holding in place for about 20sec until I've covered the whole graphic.

Now you can peel away your plastic while its still warm for a matte finish, or let it cool a bit for a shinier graphic. I choose shiny!

Voila!!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and give heat-transfer vinyl a chance, you'll love it!