I made this adorable bunny coat for my girls a few days ago using the Heidi and Finn Chic Cocktail Swing Coat pattern and the hood from the EmmylouBeeDoo Bimaa pattern. Both are AWESOME patterns all on their own! I have made soooo many Cocktail Swing Coats and soooo many Bimma sweaters its unreal! I just love these patterns so if you don’t have them yet you need to get them! ASAP!
Today I thought I would write up a little tutorial on how I combined both patterns to make this bunny coat. It is super easy and can be done with any coat pattern and hood pattern or even better any coat pattern that comes with a hood!! This tutorial is specifically for the Heidi and Finn Cocktail Swing Coat and the EmmylouBeeDoo Bimaa though. So let’s get started.
STEP 1:
- After you cut out your pattern pieces for the coat and hood you will make just two slight changes to the shape of the pieces. For the front of the coat, you will add just about 1.25″ to the top of the coat. This is for the size 12M/2T. If you are making a larger size you will add a little more. Here is a photo to help describe what I am talking about.
- Next, after cutting out your hood pattern you will want to trim off the front piece like the photo below. I used the size 4T hood with the 12M/2T coat.
STEP 2:
- Now you will want to cut and sew the coat exactly as the pattern instructions tell you. You will want to stop after you have sewn up the outer coat and lining just before you get to the part where you attach a collar. Set your coat aside and now we will work on the hood and ears.
- Using the template for the ears that I drew up HERE cut 2 out of your outer fabric and 2 out of the inner fabric. Place them RST and sew along the ear leaving the bottom open to being able to pull it right side out. Repeat for both ears. You should now have two ears that look like the photo below.
- Now you will want to fold the edges of the bottom part of your ears together towards the middle of our inner ear fabric like the photo below. Pin in place. Repeat for both ears.
- Take your hood pieces and sew exactly as the pattern instructions tell you except place your ears inside the seams about 4.5″ from the front of the hood. (This is for the 12M/2T coat and 4T hood). You can adjust the placement of the ears to your liking though. Pin the ears in place and sew like the photo below. Make sure the inner ear is facing the right side of the side of the hood. Repeat for the other ear.
- You should now have a hood that looks like this:
STEP 3:
- Now you will want to find the middle of the hood and the middle of the coat and pin the hood in place. You will do this with the outer hood and the outer coat and then with the hood lining and coat lining. Below is a photo to help describe this using the main coat and hood. Sew in place.
STEP 4:
- Next, you will follow the pattern instructions for attaching the lining and main coat just as it tells you to.
- You can choose to follow the pattern exactly and do the bow closure or do a button closer like I decided to do. I decided to do 4 buttons in the middle but I think 4 buttons down the side of the coat would be cute too!
- Your coat is now finished! You can make so many different animal coats by just changing the ears. A puppy dog coat would be adorable or a teddy bear coat would be so cute too! Have fun with it