WIP Wednesday: Pea Wee Coat

I've been working steadily on my niece's Christmas present lately. The pattern is Vicki Howell's Pea Wee Coat, available for free here. I didn't end up liking the recommended yarn, Sheep(ish) and picked a nice shade of Stitch Nation Washable Ewe instead. I ran the swatch through the washer and drier 4 times and it came through looking great! A little fuzzy and there was minute shrinkage, but I am gifting the coat with the instructions "dry flat," and so I doubt the final garment will go through washer and drier 4 times anyways. But just in case it goes through once or twice, it will be OK and that is good knowledge for me to have.

So I've made most of the pieces. And yes,they look amorphous blobs in real life, too.

There you have the two fronts, the back and the collar. As you can see, the two fronts are different widths, because the pea coat fronts are meant to overlap.

Here they are sort of assembled. Single crochet sure is curly! I hope I don't have to block this as much as it seems like I have to block this.

Left to crochet: The sleeves, and the pockets. The pattern actually calls for faux pockets, but I personally find faux pockets offensive. And when you're a little kid and your jacket feels like it has pockets, it is a very sad feeling when you go to put your newly found cricket, rock, or slug into your pocket only to find that -alas- the pocket is a lie. So, real pockets for my niece.

Then it's just a matter of sewing it all together. Now is probably as good a time as any to admit that I have never sewn any crocheted fabric before in my life. This is my first crocheted garment, and actually it's the first time I've really done any shaping.

Well that's  kind of a lie: I had to do some sctogs and dctogs when I made my little amigurumi guys, and I also did a bit of shaping on the slippers I made, but this is the first time where messing up would actually matter. Luckily I did not mess up, and it is looking pretty good so far. This is also my first time making crocheted buttonholes: much quicker than knitted buttonholes.

Did you notice that the yarn seems to be a different shade in every one of these pictures? Yeah. I need a real camera. The color is "Strawberry," and it is much more red in real life.

Anyways the plan is, eventually, to go back onto my Craftsy account and re-watch the Beyond Rectangles class to figure out how I'm supposed to sew all this together. I still remember that first sweater I ever knitted. When it got to the last instruction, "sew side and sleeves seams," I just sat down and sort of whipstitched it sloppily together. I had no idea that sewing knitting was any different than sewing cloth. Properly learning mattress stitch changed my life, and now it's time for me to learn the crochet equivalent!

Check out more WIPs with Tamis Amis.