Elegance & Elephants Spring Shower Jacket pattern tour

Yay! Today is my turn of the pattern tour of Spring Shower Jacket from Elegance and Elephants!

Actually, before I knew about this pattern tour, I was planning to make this jacket for A, my older daughter. Because we are going back to Japan in this June and since in Japan, kids usually go to school by walk even in the rainy days, the raincoats are “must have” items for Japanese kids. So, my kids needed raincoats and I made a rain poncho for T, my younger daughter. And A kept saying, “When will you finish my raincoat?” since then.

Of course I’ve been loving Heidi’s pattern, I’ve made her Bubble Pocket Shorts three times (this, this and this), one Fedora Hat and tested Stellar Vest lately. I love her style very much, classic yet stylish. Also, I saw some amazing tester versions of this jacket on Internet, so I was already determined to make this jacket as A’s raincoat before I got email of invitation to pattern tour from Heidi.

Soon after I signed up for blog tour, I ordered this laminated fabric from this Etsy Shop. Recently I had a trouble with anothe Etsy shop so I was bit worried but she shipped a package very fast and I was very satisfied.

I wasn’t so worried about sewing with laminated cotton fabric, because I had sewn a rain poncho with laminated fabric already. BUT oh, I have to say I WAS WRONG. Making a jacket was totally different from making a poncho.

Things weren’t so bad before I came to the step attaching a zipper onto the jacket…

I chose a red zipper becuase A chose it. I was thinking about using a green one but she chose a red one. Since Heidi is going to have a sewing series called “KIDS’ CHOICE” soon, I thought it might be a good idea to adopt her choice.

Hmm… what do you think? I knew adopting kids’ choice mostly ended up being too busy. I thought a green zipper made this jacket more clean but anyhow I liked this look. Isn’t that red zipper accent cute? I added red snaps on the pockets. And I really regretted that I didn’t sew the topstiches with the red threads. (Well, it requires a lot of bravery though)

So, I started sewing a zipper onto laminated fabric. And it was a nightmare. (Wasn’t it, Heidi!?) First I tried to sew with a zipper foot but it didn’t work at all. I had to rip off that seam and next I tried to sew with a walking foot. I love my walking foot since I didn’t have a serger until recently and haven’t threaded it yet (of course haven’t used yet). My walking foot worked great with laminated fabric too and it even worked when sewing a zipper!

So, finally I could get this clean stiches… and as you see, the lining fabric is “Out to sea” by Sarah Jane.

Other than adding snaps on the pockets, I did only one more modification. Yes. Sleeve cuffs. I put an elastic between the lining and the outer fabric.

Why? Because this jacket will be used heavily in those rainy days of Japan and those closed sleeve cuffs will help to avoid water coming inside of the jacket.

Maybe it doesn’t look so fancy. I really liked the jackets with fancy details which other tour stop bloggers made. But mine needed to be durable in real rainy days use. I really wanted to make a usable “raincoat”. So I’m satisfied with the result, usable, durable but yet cute and stylish.

And A was very happy with the result too.

And Heidi of Elegance and Elephants is giving you $1.00 off the pattern price! Just use the discount code: TOUR

Check out the other jackets on the tour and get inspired! They are all amazing.

Happy Sewing!