Halloween Costumes 2013: Fireman Coat

This is the other half of A's Halloween costume (you can fin the pants HERE).  This was originally posted over on Pattern Revolution earlier this month.

I love making costumes.  Costumes are probably my favorite thing to sew, I love the fantasy of costumes and the chance to go a little over the top. I think this fireman costume is pretty awesome!

I started with the Puddle Jumper Rain Coat pattern from Peek-a-boo Pattern shop because it was the right shape for a fireman coat and I liked the big square pockets.  With just a few simple modifications the rain coat was transformed into a fireman's coat.

My son is really into firemen these days and I wanted him to be able to use this costume for pretend play for years after this Halloween was over so I made the coat in a size up and rolled up the sleeves.  I also made him some bunker pants (you can get the details on those HERE).  I made the pants with some extra length in the hem I can let out as he grows and adjustable suspenders so they should grow with him for a while.

I used the Puddle Jumper pattern and cut out all the pieces according to the pattern except I skipped the hood and hood binding.

Next I added my reflective tape (AKA duct tape).  You can buy an iron on reflective tape but my local craft store doesn't carry it, duct tape was both cheaper and more accessible so I went with that.  I ended up finding this perfect yellow tape at K-Mart.

I started with the cuffs.  I folded the cuffs in half and put my yellow tape about 1/2" from the fold.  Then I cut a piece of silver so it was 3/4" wide and put that in the middle.  I found it was easiest to stick the tape on my self healing mat and use my rotary cutter to cut it, it doesn't stick to the mat well so it was easy to get up.

Next I flipped the cuff over and put tape on the other side too.  I knew I would be rolling the sleeves since I was making a size big and wanted the tape to show with the sleeves rolled, but also show when he grows and they aren't rolled.  So I ended up with two rows of tape about 1" apart on both cuff pieces.

Then I repeated the process with the bottom band piece.  I folded it in half and placed my tape about 1/2" from the fold.

To add the tape to the jacket, I started with the sleeves and put the tape about 1" above the corner where the armpit will be.  Then I added it to both front pieces and the back piece, making sure it  was even with the tape on the sleeves.

I sewed all the edges of the duct tape down.  Sewing the tape was not as tricky as I thought it might be.  It did gum up my needle a bit, I wiped it down with rubbing alcohol occasionally while I was sewing and then changed my needle when I was done.

I added the pockets to the front pieces of the coat according to the pattern instructions.  I made the flaps over the pockets by cutting two rectangles that were as wide as my pocket pieces and 4" long (for the 4/5 size coat they were 6" x 4").  I folded the rectangles and sewed around the edges, leaving a small opening on the top for turning.  I turned, pressed and top-stitched the flaps over the pockets with the folded edge at the bottom and the hole at the top so it would get closed up when I top stitched.

I sewed the jacket pieces and lining pieces according to the pattern. Be careful when you are sewing that you do not iron your duct tape!  If you need to iron anywhere there is duct tape use a pressing cloth, duct tape will melt without it!

Once I had the outer coat and lining done but not sewn together, I made my collar.  I measured the length of the neck opening of the jacket.

I cut two rectangles for my collar 1" smaller then the opening and 3" wide (22" x 3" for size 4/5).  Iron interfacing to one of the rectangle then sew along three sides, leaving one long side open.  Clip the corners, turn the collar right side out and press.  Top stitch along the 3 finished edges.

Find the middle of the collar and the center back of the coat.  Pin the collar to the right side of the coat, starting in the middle and working out.  Baste the collar to the coat.

Attach the lining, finish the sleeves and add the snaps according to the pattern.

Make sure to check out how I made these adorable bunker pants HERE!