[Rpankow]

Has anyone thougth about altering the pattern to a zipper instead of the toggles or buttons. I was going to do a rain coat in the chocolate and pink dumb dot and thought a pink zipper would look nice. My 3 year old daughter has an easier time with zippers than buttons. In my mind it could be done, but by all means I’m not a professional. Any thoughts? Has anyone done this? Thanks!!

[Anonymous]

Check out this jacket on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11928237@N03/4090621486/in/pool-oliverands/#/photos/11928237@N03/4090621486/in/pool-694451@N21/

[Rpankow]

Thanks for the reply, I really appreciate it. The only thing is that I’m having a hard time opening up the link or trying to find the photos you worked so hard to post. Any suggestions? Do you have to sign up a Yahoo account to view? I view the Oliver & S pool all the time. I was so excited when I had a response to my post. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I’ve since sewn my daughter’s coat with a zipper and posted it in the pool. Look for a pink coat and title Clara’s New Coat. I also posted detailed instructions explaining how to add the zipper the way I did it. Let me know if you need more help. 🙂

[Rpankow]

Sandi:

I finally found it after much hunting. It’s not in the typical pool, but I found it and you are a gem! The lining choice is so cute, along with the model. I love what you did with it and am noting your expanation. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

[ccnigro]

excytin – did you do ok with the zipper? that was my coat I made for my daughter that I added the thinsulate, zipper and other fun goodies. It was a good base pattern, but had to “new england” -ize it. Let me know, I’d be happy to give you zipper insertion info.

[Rpankow]

ccnigro:

I have yet to make the coat, I’ve been getting some fall and christmas sewing done before I tackle the coat, which will be her new spring rain coat. I would love to get your ideas on inserting a zipper. I love learning new techniques and getting advice from seasoned individuals. There’s so much to learn when it comes to sewing and everyone has their own style on how they handle things. If you’re willing to share, I’m willing to listen. Thanks everyone for your imput. I love this forum. Everyone is so great! 🙂

[ccnigro]

excytin, when you get ready to do the coat – holler if you need help! I don’t always check this board so feel free to connect with me on my blog- http://thepurplepineapple.blogspot.com/

[marjorie]

Does anyone have links to directions for doing a zipper? I haven’t been able to find the ones mentioned above, and am wondering about putting a zipper in for my daughter’s coat.

[Jess M.]

Marjorie—if you look for sahmcolorado’s coat, as she mentioned above, within the O+S flickr group, she posted how she did it in the comments on one of the pictures.

[Rpankow]

Ladies:

I have to admit I never did end up doing the zipper on my daughter’s coats. I chickened out and wanted to take the easy way out and not have to think. Sandi did a wonderful job on her coat, I wish I had one like it! I did end up using toggles for the coats, but then used sew-in magnetic snaps that I found at our local quilt shop in lieu of the velcro/regular snaps. I have used those for her last two coats and love them! They are good sized black squares that have a plastic ridge that you sew into. They are not the cheapest, but man they help her get her coat on in a jiffy even when the toggles aren’t fastened. I know this doesn’t help the zipper question, but this was my work around for helping little fingers and for getting out of the door fast. Good luck and enjoy the coat!

Rebecca

[marjorie]

I’ve looked for that coat, both by clicking on that link and also by searching the pool for “Clara” with no success. Not sure what I’m doing wrong but I’d like very much to see it.

[marjorie]

Ok, I wasn’t signed in — now I’ve found it. Thanks for the great instructions. These help a lot.

I was thinking about actually skipping the toggles and just doing a zipper. If I shrank each placket by a bit widthwise so they overlapped less, followed these directions, and put a snap at the top corner (to hold the overlap in place), I think it would be more like the kids’ current raincoats. (My daughter requested a zipper and is comfortable with how her coat works now.) Am I setting myself up for disaster?

[Sarvi]

I tried including a zipper and I made a huge mess of it (functional, but incredibly botched). This was entirely due to my limitations, and had nothing to do with the tips posted here, but depending on your own skill and comfort level, you might want to test out the technique on scraps.

[marjorie]

I just wanted to post, for others who may read this later on, that I ended up doing the zipper and am pretty happy with the results. I’ll try to get pictures up to flickr later on.

When I had just the shell and lining done, but not attached at all, I inserted one half of the zipper into the lining facing by taking a tiny tuck around it, about 2/3 of the way from the edge to where it attaches to the rest of the coat lining. This of course meant that the placket piece was now about 3/4 inch narrower than all the other placket pieces. (If I were making this again, I would just cut that piece wider than the others, and would interrupt the curve with a flat top where I intended to insert the zipper.) I trimmed the other pieces by that amount, but when I stitched those seams I decreased the seam allowance slightly to try to keep the coat as close to its original dimensions as possible.

I also wanted to make sure that the zipper on the other side, which went into the seam between the lining and the coat, was placed perfectly, so I stitched that seam first, carefully matching the top and bottom, and folding the lining side a little further out than the coat side. Of course, since I didn’t think it through perfectly, the corners of this got messed up when I stitched the top and bottom seams, but all that is hidden by the overlapping side of the coat and the zipper works fine.

I did velcro and skipped buttons or toggles, but the coat has enough style to pull it off, and my daughter can maneuver it all more easily. Love the pattern! (I also added velcro and tabs to hold up the sleeves; I made this in a size 6 for my 42″ tall girl, so we can get years of wear out of it, but the sleeves are currently way too long for her.)