Guest Tutorial: Make a designer-styled boys jacket with lili ash!

This month is so much fun for me! Day after day I get blown away by the preview pictures our guest contributors send over for the projects they'll be posting. And I pretty much died of cute when I saw these.

The lovely and sweet Lindsay of lili ash has put together a tutorial for you that will show you how to make a basic boys jacket and have you digging frantically through your fabric pile for navy twill. Each of the jackets pictured here was made from a garment that already fit (like another jacket, a sweatshirt) and were based off of the same basic idea, just with slightly different alterations. Lindsay walks us through the basics of making a basic jacket pattern and constructing the jacket, and in addition she'll show us how to embellish it to make a miniature peacoat! So. cute.

with a shorter collar and aviator details

with a hood and single row of buttons

you can even use this tutorial to create a men's jacket!

Here's Lindsay:

"I really love stylish little boys, and I think that coats are nice staples that can really elevate a little boys wardrobe. Most stores carry sizes too bulky for my little guy, so I like to tailor these jackets to fit my son by sizing it from a jacket that I know fits him and going from there. I find that little details like sharp collars, faux cuffs, and fun buttons can completely transform a jacket, and once I understood the basic construction of jackets, it was pretty easy to throw together."

Click here to go to the boys jacket tutorial at lili ash

While you're over there, be sure to kick around lili ash for a little while, check out Lindsay's handmade goods shop for quilts and bags: edababe, and add her to your blogroll. Lindsay's blog is an absolute delight. Here's a few pictures to give you an idea:

And I know this veers out of boy-territory, but I just love the stuff she makes for herself. This girl has mad style (and some of you may remember that she was also a Spring Top Week champion last year):

And finally (we've completely left Boy Land for now, sorry 'bout that), here's a refashion project from Lindsay that's been on My List for what seems like forever; I need to make this for Clementine this summer: