The goal: 50 new baby coats by October

To achieve this year’s goal to sew 50 coats for babies by October, Phyllis LaRocque started stitching in her Spokane Valley apartment on New Year’s Day.

LaRocque, 77, makes the colorful fleece outerwear for infants and toddlers to donate to the annual KXLY Coats 4 Kids drive. She began her quest five years ago, starting with 21 coats in 2011 and slowly increasing each year’s total.

But LaRocque said she needs help going forward from other seamstresses.

“I’ll up it every year,” LaRocque said. “I can’t do more than 50, but I want it to go up, so I need to find people who have a heart for kids. I need the help.”

On Friday, she had 47 coats done with time to finish the remaining three before the drive’s Oct. 30 deadline.

Sewing enthusiasts who want to help toward next year’s total can contact her through the Hillyard Senior Center, LaRocque said. She’s also offering a free coat pattern, so people just have to buy their material. “They don’t have to put the detail in that I do.”

LaRocque makes her coats using soft fleece fabrics with patterns like trains, rubber ducks and Disney characters.

She adds tailored details: flannel lining, cuffs, pockets, heavy-duty zippers, buttons, snaps and ribbons. A few materials are donated, but mostly she buys them. This year’s total: $980.

Her goal is to see all babies in warm gear, and she knows fewer quantities of smaller-size coats get collected in the drive.

“I’ll see a family all bundled up, and they have a baby with little bare feet, no hat, no blanket; it makes me furious,” she said.

“My long-term goal, if I can do it, is that every baby and every toddler in Spokane will have a coat,” she said. “I’ve always had a heart for young children.”

LaRocque goes beyond one-coat creations. She makes toddler outerwear sets with matching pants and hats. For infants, she sews full-body, zip-up bunting suits and hats.

“Some suits have feet; some are sacks for little babies,” she said. “For the 12 months and 18 months, I include a little onesie I buy in a matching color.”

She makes an equal amount of girls’ and boys’ coats, and completing one coat takes her about three days. She usually works for three to four hours a day, with an occasional six-hour shift.

Her detailed work starts at a serger machine for polished edging and seaming that connects the flannel lining, and then she stitches up final sections for each coat on her 41-year-old Pfaff sewing machine. “It just purrs along. I have it serviced every year.”

LaRocque started sewing at age 12, taking lessons in her hometown of Aberdeen, Washington. She learned more in classes at school, including an advanced sewing class her senior year.

When employed later as a restaurant cook, a job-related injury placed her in a state program for worker retraining. “I told the state I wanted to set up a sewing business.”

In 1974, she opened Calico Sew after receiving program funds to learn commercial sewing and buy the Pfaff machine. She operated the business for about three years while her three daughters were in school. After Calico closed, LaRocque kept sewing for family and friends.

Six years ago, LaRocque moved to Spokane where a daughter and son-in-law also live. She spent time at the East Central Community Center, where she met Kathy Armstrong, formerly the center’s director.

Although Armstrong later took a different job, the two have remained friends, and she helps LaRocque deliver the coats each October.

“She’s got a huge heart and she enjoys it so much,” Armstrong said, adding that LaRocque’s health has improved significantly since the first year she made coats. Then, swelling in her head caused balance issues and other health concerns, until a surgery to put in a shunt.

“Through that time, Phyllis continued to sew,” Armstrong said. “Nothing could stop her from making the coats. She later started going to the Hillyard Senior Center, and the director there is so supportive of her.”

LaRocque fills a scrapbook with photos of the coats and has thank-you letters from Spokane’s mayor and former chief of police. A few years ago, she met KXLY chief meteorologist Kris Crocker, who spearheads the drive.

LaRocque sews a label into her coats, “Created by Phyllis, Kris Crocker’s Coats Drive.”

“Kris couldn’t believe how beautiful the coats were, but I’ve improved through the years and added details,” LaRocque said. “I told her as long as I can sew, I’m going to make coats for her.”

For the first time, LaRocque plans to visit one of the coat distribution sites.

“I’m going to try to get pictures with the babies and their coats. I’m looking forward to being there.”