Bring on the rain!

One of the ‘perks’ of living on the West Coast is the ‘mild’ weather. So, in other words, it rains. A lot. And since M has officially outgrown last season’s rain jacket I had an excuse to buy another pattern!

I was surprised at how limited the options were for a good, old fashioned rain jacket. There are copious amounts of absolutely adorable cold weather jackets out there, some of my favourites reminiscent of little red riding hood, or sporting bunny ears. But when it comes to the wet, I wanted something simple, classic, and tasteful. Oh, and with the truly ‘handmade’ not ‘homemade’ feel.

So, after canvassing all my FB pattern groups, I found the Spring Showers Jacket by Heidi from Elegance & Elephants. I was purusing some of her instagram goodness when I happened upon a photo that looked oddly familiar and it turned out that she’s right here on the West Coast too! How wild is that?

I picked this pattern because it had a great big size range (2/3 all the way up to 12!) and two different options for the overall finished look. I chose the drawstring option instead of the plainer choice as I knew I was going to want to size up when I made the jacket because I want it to last into spring for M, and she’s due for a growth spurt.

While I had a couple laminate fabrics sitting in my stash, hubby decided that he didn’t like them and that I had to go buy something new (uh, sure, no prob with that here!). He even came, and he picked out this fabulous steel blue/grey gortex like fabric from Japan. My local fabric shop is independently owned, so no fancy label really telling me what it was. We dumped some water on it and as it beaded and rolled off I knew it was perfect! For the lining, I pulled a fabulous print that I had inherited from Stacey in Stitches (I highly recommending having quilters for friends – they have the most fabulous stashes!).

Cutting and prepping wasn’t as horrible as I expected, and I threw on my teflon foot to help the slippery material slide right on through. I even stole some Wonder Clips from a friend to try out so that I wasn’t filling my jacket with holes.

All in all, wonderful pattern to put together. The steps were clear and well written, and really walk you through beautifully. There is a lot of room for personalization, as the pattern is simple and classy, so I played around a bit by top stitching in contrasting colours, and added a contrasting draw string to the waist.

 

Oh, and the little details are wonderful. As much as the visor on the hood is entirely practical and so useful, it’s the hanging strap in the neckline that totally makes me smile.

 

Since I sized up, I raised the drawstring about an inch at the waist, but other than that made up the jacket true to the pattern.

Loved the low back on the pattern as well, as it made bending and crouching a little more comfortable with no peek-a-boo back.

I’m so thrilled this one goes up to a 12, as I know that it will definitely be something that will make recurring appearances in our rainy West Coast wardrobe!