A baby-wearing coat!

I could stare at this view alllllll day. Sigh

  As most of my readers/friends know, Eli had to wear a Doc band due to a flat spot on the right side of his head. I honestly have no idea how he became flat on the one side other than a short 3 week span where he sucked his right thumb at night and would bend his head to the side to get it. (I witnessed this on the baby monitor when I was surprised one night when he started crying and then stopped almost immediately. Lo and behold, he'd found his thumb!) But just as quickly as he had started the thumb sucking, he stopped cold turkey. I have no idea why. Weird. Anyways this is the only theory I can come up with as to why he was flat on the one side and not the back since I always placed him on his back to sleep. Well of course I dealt with mommy guilt over that one so I am bound and determined to spare Andrew the same fate by baby-wearing whenever I can and doing plenty of belly time. I also figured it would be a must-have to get anything done around here with a 3 year old to tend to as well.

  One day on Instagram, I stumbled upon a girl using a Sollybaby wrap and I instantly fell in love with how light weight it seemed and how much easier it looked to use compared to the Moby wrap. It even had a little pocket at the end  to tuck itself into and would take up little to no space in the diaper bag! Sold! (Well after I heavily debated for weeks if I wanted to spend the money on one versus trying to make it myself.) Once I had made up my mind to buy it and that little boxed arrived, it sat on my kitchen table and made me so giddy for Andrew to finally get here. I couldn't wait to try it out and I still had weeks left to go in my pregnancy! Aaaah!

  The minute we walked through the door after being discharged from the hospital though I made a beeline for that little box and excitedly put it on and got him snuggled in there. It was heaven and just as awesome as I'd hoped it would be.

   Well now that we are in full blown winter weather and there will be snowmen to build and sledding to do with Eli, I wanted to be able to have an option to go out with Andrew as well. I began googling DIY options for a baby wearing coat and saw some pretty cool options out there, but ultimately I found one listed on Etsy that was what really caught my eye. (It even doubled as a maternity coat!) With a hefty price tag of $158, I couldn't justify buying it for the few times I might actually be outside in this polar vortex. I felt if I had this coat I'd be more likely to go outside with Eli and daddy but it wasn't a given that I would, so I'd hate to spend that kind of money and only start to use it in the spring time, if at all (especially since I wouldn't be using it as a pregnancy coat now that I'd already had my baby.) So I stared and stared at that picture and decided to give it a go at making my own. I must say, this is one of my proudest sewing moments, you know why? Because first off, I drafted my own pattern pieces (there was no tutorial available, obviously) and not only did the pattern pieces work out the first draft, I didn't have to make a single alteration to them once I started! This is unheard of for me! I've made clothes before, but usually its following an established pattern. So for me to draft my own pattern and not have any measurement errors is baffling to me. Before I do a project, I will sit down with my notebook and write it out as I see it in my head, step by step. If I can see it through to the end in my head and then ultimately on paper, then I'll proceed with the construction part. Guys, it went without a hitch! Whaaaaat? 

Here's the inspiration picture. Gorgeous huh?

  Here's what I came up with. 

Collar down, neck exposed.

Collar up, neck warm

   Although a loud floral isn't typically my style in coat design, I had this fleece already in my stash so I wanted to see if it would even work, before I went through the trouble of getting to the fabric store and buying new stuff (because if I had done that, you KNOW it would have never worked out. That's how my luck goes) However, I'm kind of really liking it. Maybe because I associate it with success so it's likeble to me now, ha ha!

    I didn't care for the tie option like in the pic (I originally made it with the tie but it just didn't look good to me) so I just went with short straps and velcro. Also I couldn't figure out the top part as it looks like it zips up through the collar and down the chest piece...? How far does it go down? How would a carrier fit under that? (Obviously it could per the seller's claim but I still couldn't figure it out) so I just did a wrap around collar with buttons that could also be left undone and worn down if the weather is warmer but still requiring a coat.  The front wraps from both sides for 2 layers across baby's back. The under wrap piece has a strap that sticks through a hole on the side and velcros in place. The outer wrap also has a similar strap that also secures with velcro along the side.

The inner front flap secures through a hole on the side

And the outside strap is secured along the side with velcro as well

   So what do you think? Would you wear it? I'm bummed I didn't have the opportunity to try this out while pregnant. But then again, I purposely planned a non-winter baby so I wouldn't have to buy a pregnancy winter coat that I'd only get to wear for a few months. True story.

  Alrighty, time for bed for this momma. Na night.

-Linds

**Update, I made another coat for a friend and this time added buttons to the straps instead of velcro. I definitely LOVE the solid colored fabric for this coat.