Dear Sis,

I had the most fun making Grant’s winter ensemble. I was looking through my fabric scraps, and saw cream wool laying right next to ruby red and peacock blue. I also remembered, I had gold sutoutche braid that lacked a calling. That is when I decided, Grant was about to become a very Americana toddler. After all, patriotic trimming was very common during the American Civil War.

I already had a coat for Grant, it was Williams a few years back. But, Grant is stockier then William and the buttons were about to pop off. I also wanted a different coat. Sorry, Brandy but Tweed breathes more than Melton, and that is some itchy wool… and probably, the reason why it was both vintage fabric and given to you for free. You can see this multicolored itchy beauty here!

I just enlarged the coat from William, and got down to the decorating pretty fast. The coat closes with hooks and eyes, but the appliqué while sewn on one side, has buttonholes and buttons on the other side of the coat.

Some developmental stages of the coat.

The red wool was trimmed in the gold sutoutche, and I made fabric covered buttons from the blue wool. Which, was actually very difficult, as the wool was a bit thick for my button maker. I then proceeded to trim the edges of the coat in blue and gold sutoutche as i wanted to give it a finished appearance vs. a raw edge of wool melton.

Naturally, the coat needed a truly fantastic hood. This hood is actually a Childs modified sunbonnet made with wool and silk. You can see Brandy’s post on it here  

The stars where just a cherry on top for this whole project. I never actually did appliqué, but it felt necessary! And it was amazingly easy. I just printed some clip art stars, and cut them out. The front of the hood actually folded over with the silk, but I added a layer of red wool, so it is even thicker there. I also didn’t want the look of a raw edge, so the front and sides have black velvet, and the back has a thinner black sutoutche. 

The ties probably shouldn’t have been made with wool, but I wanted the blue wool! Since the edges weren’t finished on the wool, and it may have ripped, I bound both edges of the wool ties with black velvet.

Here it is!!!! Little red mittens and a blue brioche knit boa with red tassels were also added, just because they were so stinkin cute! I will be adding the Boa Pattern up shortly, as it is a period pattern!!!!

Here is Grant in all his glory! We were at Holly Days, at Heritage Village, Ohio.