Amy Butler Little Splashes : :

After a VERY loooong hot summer its finally getting cooler (well the nights are anyway!). So now I'm moving into winter sewing as the winters in Gippsland can be very long and cold!

About a year ago (or possibly more, whose counting right?) I ordered 3 different types of laminated fabric and the Amy Butler sewing pattern Little Splashes.

I let the girls each choose which fabric they wanted, Little Miss E choose a zoology fabric by Robert Kaufman in whales, and Little Miss I chose a cute strawberry laminate.

After sitting in the too-hard basket for way too long I decided to give it a go. I didn't have the special foot for my Bernina that was recommended for use with sticky fabrics such as laminate, but I read somewhere online that I could just use a walking foot, which I did. It worked great!
The fabric fed nice and evenly. The only trouble I ran into was when I wanted to sew a curve, the walking foot just isn't built for that, so I did a lot of lifting the presser foot and slightly turning my fabric.



When I was cutting my out my pattern pieces, I didn't want to use pins, as pins can create holes in the fabric. The pattern said to use binder clips or paper clips, but both of those seemed too fiddly for my liking so I used my Clover wonder clips! I tell you what, they were MEANT for projects such as these. I used them for the whole construction and they were great.







I also lengthened out my stitch length to 3mm as I didn't want the seams to be weakened, or unwater-proofed (is that a word?) with a small stitch length.

There were two pocket variations for the pattern, I chose to do the pleated pocket. I think they turned out really cute!
I lined this one with a yellow chevron from premier prints (so its fairly medium-heavy weight). I originally planned to use a blue chevron for this coat, and the yellow for the strawberry coat, but yellow is Little Miss E's favourite colour, so it had to go in her coat.

In this photo Little Miss E is wearing her fairy dress that I made for her birthday last year.

The pattern was really quite easy to follow and I really loved the results. In true stash-diet style I didn't have to buy a single thing for this coat as I used some thrifted buttons that my aunt gave to me!
I'm really enjoying using up my stash this year! I have forgotten just how much stuff I have in there! *oops*!



I really love how this coat turned out and I'm quite proud of myself for tackling a laminated fabric project! I chose to make a size 7 for my 4 year old girls, using the knee length version. A rain coat is better bigger rather than smaller, in my humble opinion, as there is less chance of getting wet, you can wear bulky clothes underneath when its really cold, and most importantly, I don't have to sew another one for a few more years! (well after I finished Little Miss I's that is!)

 I'm not really looking forward to winter, but at least Little Miss E will be able to play outside on wet days and wear it to kinder!!

Jessica