Create A View Designs: Father Christmas has come to town

It's December! How on earth did this happen?? I swear it was October just 2 minutes ago...

A couple of weeks ago I finally finished up a Father Christmas coat for my dad. He dresses as Santa each year and wanted a bit of a change. He asked for a long coat in a different red than his regular Santa suit.

Here he is in the coat with Honey, Lynchburg TN's prettiest blond girl. Check out her hooves! What a lady :)

Honey is the sweetest horse ever!

It is this pattern, lower right view, with a few decorative changes. McCalls 5550

I tissue fitted him this summer so I could get a general idea of how it was going to fit him- was it going to be long enough to cover the tops of his boots? How long were the sleeves on him?
I took measurements of him to use but tissue fitting worked better for me. This is my dad, covered in pattern paper :)

I have never made a father Christmas coat before. I also do not generally make things for men so I covered all the fitting bases by tissue fitting, measuring and making a muslin.

We tissue fitted this summer .
I made a muslin of the coat out of drapery lining and sent it to him in TN.
He then took it to a friend down the road a ways and she marked up the muslin to fit, added markings where he wanted pockets, and then he sent it back.
Last, I made the coat and sent it back!

I added a lining as the velveteen is HEAVY and it would be very hard to pull that heavy coat on without lining. The lining , I think, makes the coat comfortable . As Dad does parades and outdoor festivals, he might be wearing a coat or at least long sleeves under the coat. The lining enables that he will be able to move .
The faux fur on the sleeve ends is on the inside of the coat as well. Dad does parades and there is waving going on. I needed to be sure that the coat sleeves were waving friendly: meaning you couldn't see any construction on the inside. It was pretty tricky to figure out how I was going to do that and not have all of the stitching show. I had to sit down and use all of my brain cells. I ended up sewing both fur pieces in the seam and then stitching the inside faux fur and then the outside- that hid all of the construction.
I added a hood. When looking up father Christmas images, about half had a hood. I think it looks more traditional with the hood. I am still making two hats for dad to go with the suit, one with the holly ribbon and one without so he can wear it with the suit. The hood is a bit big and it doesn't stay up too well. Those hats should happen this week.
I added a wide ribbon around the edges of the fur. I thought the coat needed an extra somethin' somethin'. It adds in an extra bit of color. I searched everywhere for the right ribbon. I thought I wanted something with a gold in it, but when I found this ribbon , I knew this one was perfect. It has a very painterly holly image on it that fits with the father Christmas theme better than gold would.
Dad requested pockets and those are built into the coat on the side seams. I also made a belt.
We will be adding red velvet buttons down the center fur when he brings it to VA at Christmas. They will be decorative, not functioning. The coat closes with big Velcro pieces inside as button holes in that faux fur would be impossible.

Cutting the faux fur was an adventure. I had learned from making Eden's Scooby Doo costume a couple of years ago that the faux fur gets everywhere.
I cut the fabric up in the living room instead of my sewing room because I could easier cut and vacuum after. I would cut the faux fur piece with the rotary cutter, shake it out on the carpet, vacuum the carpet and pieces and table - then immediately sew it on. Even doing that , our living room had a film of shiny white dust for a week or so.
I covered our bookcases with big sheets to I didn't have to dust them after. Faux fur when cut gets EVERYWHERE. It flies through the air and gets in your nose and is generally a pain. Once it gets sewn onto the clothing , and the ends are tucked in, it won't do it anymore. I used a great faux fur that looks like poodle fur up close.

Before I sent it to Dad my family took "Fun with the Father Christmas coat" pictures in the dining room. (It was empty because we were redoing the floors. :) Which are done now and look so good! )

First up was my sweet hubby.

Father Christmas boxing.
I think this look suits him. :) :)

Eden is her Disney wicky wicky fresh word move.

(If you have to ask what the wicky wicky fresh word move is then you have not been subjected to untold numbers of Hannah Montana episodes and should consider yourself lucky. If you did not have to ask and knew right away what I was talking about, I am so sorry. )