McCalls 2123 View D Coat, plus a baby quilt

The View D coat has been on my Habitica do-to list all summer, but quilting took precedence for a while, first to finish my Craftsy Block of the Month quilt and then to make a baby quilt for a neighbor's new grandson.

So here are Tammy and Misty, who wear the coat very well, straight from the pattern with no alterations.

Originally I bought this pattern because I wanted to make the coat out of plaid wool. That would be difficult, needing a lot of fussing with the pattern, adding turnings and facings.

In felt it is very easy to make: all cut in one piece, except for the collar, which lays flat to cover its own seam; and the belt, which is just top-stitched in place. For style there is a pretty kick pleat in the back.

View D is shown with a felt hat and boots, also to be made of felt. 1960s felt must have stretched more than today's does, because this hat does not fit. I thought of re-designing it with four gores instead of two, but there are so many Barbie hat patterns in the world, it doesn't need doing immediately.

The boot pattern is very unusual: it is cut all in one piece, including the sole, and all the seam allowances are on the outside ("public" side) of the boot. Someone was really thinking outside the box when she designed this! Unfortunately I couldn't make it look good at all. Looked like the doll had cardboard boxes on her legs.

If I were going to design a boot pattern, I'd make it out of swim-suit material--that would look shiny like a nice 60s vinyl boot, and would fit closely to her leg. But not today--maybe after the wedding dress is done. Still have that to go!

And here's a wee look at the baby quilt I made. My neighbor had bought the print fabric to make table runners for the baby shower. Afterward I offered to make a quilt out of them.

This design is from the book Sew, Slice, Spin, and Sash by Theresa Ward. Hers is a simple concept--just cut fabric strips, sew them together in one long strip-set the whole desired length, then cut them "block width," Then you just turn every other column upside down before adding sashing and sewing together. So you never have to work with blocks as such. But I couldn't do it that way: my print fabric was "one-way" and had already been cut to smaller widths. So I ended up making blocks anyway.