Cape 2

When I asked my sister-in-law for suggestions for my niece's birthday, she immediately suggested something hooded.  I turned to the Oliver and S: Little Things to Sew book and used the Red Riding Hood pattern to make a red, hooded cape:

That looks a little purple for some reason.  Bah!  I lined it with a dark blue floral:

I gave it to Z to wear for a bit and it was absolutely adorable on her.  My intention was to make two capes, one for Zelda and one for her cousin.  They are the same size, so it is easy to do stuff like that.  However, Z didn't like the little arm holes and wouldn't put this on again.  What a stinker.

The arm holes are my favorite part.  I like the shiny button, too.

And to top it all off, I gave my niece a book to go with the cape:

I bought it at the Red Balloon Bookshop.

As for general construction issues -- there really were none.  The thing came together very easily. 

For a Little Explorer

My nephew likes dinosaurs and digging for dinosaur bones, so my mom and I collaborated on his gift this year.  She got him a bunch of little explorer items, like binoculars and a compass and things, and I made this little vest.

I used the pattern from the Oliver + S: Little Things to Sew.  I swear, I'm going to make everything in this book to get my money's worth. 

I used a light green corduroy from my stash.  I also had this beautiful woven blue cotton that is just a dream to touch for the lining and pockets.  I was going to do matching corduroy pockets, but this turned out much better.  The bias binding along the armholes was a donation from my mother to my crafting stash.  Buttons were also a donation from my mudder...she wanted me to go with little compass buttons, but they seemed pretty delicate and said something like "handwash only!"

Changes...I added those little white potholder things so that my nephew could attach his binoculars, compass, or whatever else.  I also lined all the pockets instead of tidily folding one piece of fabric around the edges.  I also skipped the pocket flap on the back.

And then there were the button holes.  I hate them so much. I dread using that button hole foot every single time I need to do a button.  Blah.  I have to do like 800 tries on scrap fabric before I try on the real thing and even then it goes from decent:

To puke:

Blah.  It was the last one and the final thing to do on the vest, so....

PS...I stuck an old skeleton key in one of the pockets.