The Trailblazer for kids - A fitted vest for an outdoors kid

by - 11:53

Well, what can I say? Only that Twig and Tale has done it again. They have made the grown-up Trailblazer pattern and shrunk it down to child size. And not only that, they have done it superbly!



Here are my lovely family sporting their Trailblazers in the woods, on a sunny autumn day. Each of them unique and using a slightly different pattern option each time. The men's one features a collar, and exposed zip. My boy has an exposed zip and no collar, whilst my girl has a collar, and full wind flap. Each member of my family chose their own options, and I'm pleasantly surprised that they could showcase the pattern so well.



When I signed up to receive fabric from Michael Miller Fabrics, I cheekily put in a request for all three of these vests. I never thought it would be agreed, and was so stoked to receive my box of loveliness. I imagined that having their dad in the photos would help them look natural, so that I could get some wonderful family photos, to showcase the options of the pattern, and the fabulous fabric prints.



What I got, was my husband leading the kids astray to do catalogue poses in the woods!



I especially like this one. The faces are very comical. But I guess they are #makingitfun



My daughter was especially pleased to wear this body warmer. She loves the soft sherpa lining. I quilted the outer Pink Starship fabric from the Sassy Cats Collection, to quilt batting. In hindsight, I should have quilted it to two layers to get a more puffy effect. But the end result is a layer of cotton, cotton/wool quilt batting, then thick cotton sherpa. Actually it's more than warm enough for Cornwall, UK.



It's hard to tell with this white fabric, but I went freehand with the quilting. I wanted to create random geometric patterns with the quilt lines. I tried to avoid the bigger stars, and ended up with large, slightly random zig-zags.



I made the windflap in the same way as the main body warmer. The outer cotton was quilted to batting, then lined in sherpa. I never considered that this would create a huge thick seam to sew, essentially doubling up all the fabrics together. It physically won't fit under my machine foot to sew it down with top-stitching. I might have to get out an embroidery needle and thread, and make a feature of some hand top-stitching in the future. You can also see that the windflap doesn't quite line up properly at the bottom. This is entirely down to user error. It doesn't look straight at all in the picture, which is accentuated by slightly misaligning the bottom snap :(



You can see the gorgeous snuggly and soft sherpa lining here. It is seriously the softest stuff I've ever sewn. I want a permanent supply of it to sew up all the trailblazer's for everyone!





It wouldn't be an autumn photoshoot without the obligatory leaf throwing shot. I need a bit more work on this, or models that jump at the same time!



The collarless version is perfect to wear with a hooded jumper underneath. My boy's version is also made with blue Starship fabric from the Sassy Cats Collection by Michael Miller Fabrics. The slight dropped curve back adds extra bottom coverage, and also can add an extra year of wear out of the body warmer.



With this boy's version, I used a bit of the Atomic Web fabric in blue for the contrast back yoke and shoulder detail. This works so well for showing off two fabrics from a collection. It adds another dimension to the pattern itself, to separate off sections with different fabrics or patterns.



Like with many Twig and Tale patterns, this is truly unisex, and you can put as much boy/girl spin on it as you want. Despite my best efforts, my two are almost total gender stereotypes. They are pink and blue all the way, but it is totally their choice, and not something pushed on them.



My kids, husband and I would like to thank Lisa at Twig and Tale for the opportunity to sew up this gorgeous new pattern. And of course, a big thank you to Michael Miller Fabrics for supplying the fabrics to make them all up. I would never have experienced the cotton sherpa without this opportunity, and now I have a great big desire to import some more in from the United States.... eek!



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*Disclaimer: Some of the links in the post are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission (the price stays the same for you) which will help me in the future to buy more patterns to share them with you!*

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6 comments

  1. Oh my! These are adorable! I love how much your husband got into the photoshoot too! How fun!

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    1. Thank you! I think he wishes he'd been a model ;)

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  2. I love everything about this! I love the pictures, especially! How fun! :)

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  3. I really like the effect you got using the contrast back on your son's vest. It looks great. I also love how much fun they all had taking the photos :)

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  4. I love your vests, they look so warm and cosy- and this photo shoot looks like the most fun day ever!!!

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