New Oliver + S pattern: Double Dutch

The other pattern test I did late last year was the new Oliver + S pattern: The Double Dutch Jacket and Skirt.

The jacket is a cute kids take on the ever popular dropped sleeve kimono style jackets that lots of grown ups are sewing for themselves. But with kid concessions like sleeves that aren't so wide you can't keep them out of your dinner.

And it's completely reversible! So you get two little jackets in one. Cool, huh. 

Totally unnecessarily, I actually used a double sided fabric anyway. I bought this fabric back in 2016 from Phillips Shirts when they were still in the city. It's a hefty cotton, almost like a light denim and worked perfectly for the jacket. Of course using a double sided fabric just made things confusing for myself. The instructions are perfectly clear assuming you're using fabrics A and B, rather than one fabric with A and B sides. 

The kimono style sleeve makes it a nice, easy sew, and being fully lined means no seam finishing either, so it's a delight to make.

The buttonhole as a little slit in the front seam is really neat too and caters to those with a pathological fear of sewing buttonholes.

The second part of the pattern is the skirt. It's a simple knit skirt with elastic waist, but with a super cute tulip flare shape.

I made it in a navy ponte and it's already been in heavy rotation as part of her school uniform. 

Back in December it was made to her measurements in size 7. The only alteration I wished I'd made was to add some sleeve length. The jacket was only just long enough in the sleeves when these pictures were taken and is already a little short now. But to be honest, in another year or two, worn open with "bracelet" length sleeves I think it will look really cool.

The jacket will end up being a great pattern for using up oddly shaped bits of nice fabrics and with the potential for four different fabrics in the mix it could be a really unusual garment!

The pattern goes from 6-12months up to size 12. How cute would that jacket be on a little baby!

I had a bit of luck with the button as I had two, lonely single buttons of the same shape and style. One was navy and the other kind of red. Perfect!

All the new Liesl + Co patterns and this new Oliver + S pattern will be available on the Oliver + S website next week. 

I was talking to Liesl via email about Australian stockists for the paper patterns and the whole weird-ass Australian retail distributor system. If you prefer paper (like me) but don't want to pay US shipping on just one pattern, then ask, and ask again, for your local favourite bricks and mortar store to stock the Oliver + S / Liesl + Co pattern range. 

Or just buy lots of them at once and save on shipping that way! :)