Sorry I know I have not posted nearly like I should and I greatly apologize to anyone that may have been watching for a post!
Today I am going to talk about the pattern i used to make Mia's new hoodie. that . she . LOVES!
This is one of those things that I KNOW I will use over and over again. I do afterall have one hoodie loving girlie (she takes after her mama <3)
Mia picked out some pale pink flannel with a yellow/green/orange nature/spring/bike riding theme on it. Pink is her absolutely favorite color right now and since technically it is Spring (even if Mother Nature didn't get the memo) she wanted the "springy " design on it. And I had a bright marigold yellow woven cotton with orange/red stars on it for the lining. It has still been seriously cold here in Kansas, with actual snow flurries last week so a warm hoodie is still getting plenty of use.
Now anyone that has met Mia knows that, like her mama, she is vertically challenged and not too pleased about it. She does not like the word petite but lets face it. She is petite lol. But she is still growing. So I went with the size 8 in the length but 10 in the width and sleeves. It is a perfect fit for my petite girlie. And since I made it a little bit baggy she can still wear it in the fall when school starts back up, although I am sure she will want many more for 4th grade too!
For anyone that has ever done outerwear, (or if you are like me, hadn't done outerwear) you know there are many different kinds of zippers. It didn't even occur to me. We picked out a fun bright yellow zipper to match the yellows in the flannel and we super happy with our selection. Until I went to put the zipper in ... um my zipper pull came all the way off and it was not about to go back on. I stared at it for a minute and then went "good grief!" Mia was NOT a happy camper when I told her I had to get an outerwear zipper next time I was at Walmart which meant she had to wait longer for her own special one of a kind hoodie!
The following Friday I was at Walmart getting the weekly shopping done and grabbed an outerwear zipper. Unfortunately they don't have a wide range of colors so it was black or ... black. We chose the black :) However I wasn't sure of the length so I just guessed. So when I got home and put the zipper against the raw edge for the jacket I found that it was too long ... seriously this zipper wanted to kill me ... so me being the smartie I am ... yep cut it right off ... but wait! It turned out AWESOME
I was SO proud of myself when I thought to wrap 2 small pieces of scrap around the edges to prevent the zipper pull from coming off!
This is another one of those learning experiences I keep talking about. I had no idea how the lining part was going to work out and I had no idea about the differences in zippers.
But I am SO glad I stuck it out. Now that I have finished I grin at my silly mistakes, that could probably have been avoided if I had sat down and read the whole pattern before I went shopping. lol
I am seriously proud of the end result. Everyone that has seen it mentions how awesome it looks and how cool it is that she had a say so in the choice of fabric and that no other kid in the world has one like it. I love that it is baggy enough to wear over a sweatshirt (if need be) but still light enough to be worn over a t-shirt while it is in between temperatures.
Mia chose not to have elastic in the bottom band and not to have the drawstring in the hood itself. I think those were wise choices. The bottom band doesn't need elastic and let's be honest we all end up getting irritated at those draw strings anyway!
Mia wears her hoodie every . single . day. without fail. And when she comes home from school she tells me whether or not she left it on all day or took it off and so on. She is seriously proud of this hoodie, which does a mama's heart good. <3
Unfortunately she has not been cooperating with her picture being taken while she is wearing the hoodie. So these next few images will have to do.
See perfect fit!
And I personally love that the hood itself is a little big. I always hate when the hood doesn't actually cover the whole head lol.
In the car on the way to school/work this morning.
Seriously who wouldn't want this jacket?!?
Now onto the pattern review itself. Obviously I LOVE it! I know I will be making many many many more and can only hope that I can find a size up when she outgrows this size, and that she will still think it is cool to have mommy mades :) The directions were straight forward and direct and couldn't have made any more sense. I mean I did this good and I honestly have no idea what I am doing!
Anyway I will leave you with this. If you want a custom easy casual jacket pattern this is the one for you! You don't have to be an awesome sewer, I mean I can barely function, anyone can do this pattern with just the bare minimum knowledge of sewing lingo. So go get the pattern and get to sewing!
Happy Sewing!!!!