Don’t you just love*/hate* it when things that you have painstakingly fashioned for yourself look much better on someone else? No?  Yes?  Well, when that someone else is the youngest female member of our clan, it’s all good here.

No, not that female family member.  Although, she does think that fur is for her.

Last Jungle January I cobbled together a cream coloured  ‘fluffy rumps‘ coat.

Now, whilst I look back at that post, I do grudgingly admire the ambition of the shelf-drafted shawl collar.  However, that poor creature of a coat has hung forlornly un-worn in the under-stairs cupboard these past 12 months.  I brushed past it ever time I took the vacuum for a run about and occasionally its arm would get trapped between the door and frame where it would hang piteously as if wanly signalling its plight: ‘Why have you forsaken me?’

It seems right then that, for the prestigious occasion that it is Jangle January 2014, I should re-vamp the un-worn (fake) fur coat.

Take Butterick 5843:

A vacuum (trust me, this stuff sheds when cut) and some internet searching and we have:

The button and the pockets from the original coat have been retained in the cape.  The cape itself is a mixture of the pattern pieces of capes A and B.  The muff was created from the two arms of the coat, one arm sewn inside the other.  The dimensions of the muff are something like 18″ (48 cms) long by 14″ (36cms) wide.  The ends of the muff have been folded back onto themselves to make cuffs.  I used about 2 metres of trim for the muff and about 3 metres for the cape.

If you want to make a muff yourself, there are quite a few tutorials on the wide world of webs.  Although I would add this note of caution:  Don’t do as I did and suggest to your youngest that if they needed some decorative inspiration “…try a Google image search for furry muffs”.  We re-worded that search pretty sharpish.

Enjoy what remains of JJ14, it’s all thanks to Anne!

(*delete as your feelings or hormones dictate)