I sewed something! Quite a lot of somethings actually! I had started off the year with big plans to sew things but then changed my mind because I didn't have loads of spare cash sitting about to spend on sewing supplies. We also ended up being quite busy with a major renovation that involved us making furniture, something we'd never done before. Things like sewing, and even my shop, ended up on the back burner for a bit.
I started a job as a freelance transcriptionist so I've been making some cash now. It's not well paid but it sucks that I can just about earn more in a day doing that than I do with my shop on an average month. I did have a great month in July with my shop though, making several sales a week. Then August happened and it was just like tumbleweed. I thought I was going to finish August with zero sales but I've had two in the last couple of days, which is good. My shop is at 80 sales now! Only 20 more to meet my goal of 100.
Since I had some spare cash I decided to sew some things. Well actually, I started out looking at a Jalie pattern to make some waterproof cycling gear. Annoyingly it wasn't in PDF format, and the postage for it (from Canada) was more than the cost of the pattern. So I ended up buying a bunch of patterns just to get the free postage, spending waaaaay more than just buying the one pattern and paying for postage!
I bought some sweatshirt fleece from a company called Neotrims on Ebay. I thought it was reasonably priced, although I think it's 50% cotton 50% acrylic, and I'd rather have had something with a much higher cotton content. I bought some more sweatshirt fleece from Tia Knight that was reduced to £3.99 a meter and used it to make a Jalie hoodie for myself, but I haven't taken a photo of that. The arms are way, way too long and I'm thinking about taking it apart and modifying it. Oh, the sweatshirt fleece from Neotrims attracts cat hair like crazy. I cut my pieces out on the floor, and then later I laid one of the hoodies on the foot stool, came back, and found a cat on it. So just a warning about all the cat hair in the following photos...
This is Jalie 3884 - Frederic for W. His chest and waist measurements put him at a 10 year old size or something like that! I made the size T, which was a Euro size 46 or US size Small. The sizing turned out okay, but I think if I was making it again I would maybe lengthen the pattern slightly. I think I'd also cut the drawstring longer too.
I wasn't keen on the neckline. You sew a strip of the hood lining fabric inside to cover the neckline seam, which is a nice touch, but it looks a mess when you look at it from the outside. I spent ages fiddling around with the zip placement so that I could make sure all the seams on the fronts lined up (or were relatively lined up) and then this happened. This is even after me unpicking it and attempting it again to try and make it match better. Clearly I failed!
I suppose it looks quite nice from the inside though. Maybe there's a better/easier way to do it? Or maybe I just overlock the seam and leave it exposed?
Luckily for me, the hood forms a kind of collar when it's unzipped, so my awful sewing will be hidden.
This is for S. It's the same size as W's because they're pretty much the same height, and almost the same kind of build too. W has a Zelda hoodie that he got for Christmas, and this actually looks pretty similar. I'm considering maybe making a larger Tri-force patch with my embroidery machine and sewing it on the back. This style of hoodie really lends itself to colour blocking.
I had real trouble getting this patch to iron on. It was so much thicker than the others. I'm not confident it's going to stay so I might sew around it. I tried it on the front and then on the arm and I thought it looked better on the arm.
I tried a different technique with the neckline this time and sewed around it from the outside to keep the stitching looking nice and even.
Of course this is what it looks like from the inside, so you can't win!
This one is for R. R specifically requested a red and black hoodie. I found it more fun to make. With the others, I started to think, why did I not just buy a plain black hoodie and iron a patch on and save myself all the trouble? This one was supposed to have red ribbing around the bottom. I'd bought I strip of ribbing from Neotrims rather than a metre to keep the cost down, but by the time I cut the cuffs, there wasn't enough left for the waistband. I do have some left over to make more cuffs though. (The red colour really isn't as violent as my camera is picking it up as.)
I really like the zippered pockets. This is a bad photo but there isn't really an easy way to show a hidden pocket without making it look mangled. I like the red zips, even if they're hidden. The tape of the zip is actually left exposed on the outer edge, which wasn't sure about at first, but I think it looks fine. I think you could probably easily make this hoodie without the zippered pockets though.
This is Jalie 3355 for E. She used to have a batman hoodie but it shrunk in the wash, so I remade her one. Her measurements put her around an age 12-13 size, but obviously that wouldn't have been long enough. I decided to make a size S, which is a Euro 36 or US size 6. I'm not really sure what that is in UK sizing. The hood on 3355 isn't lined, but I really wanted to use a lining for the contrast, otherwise it was just going to look like another boring should-have-just-bought-one black hoodie. I wanted to front of the hood to fold over and form the casing rather than the lining and hood to meet edge to edge and I probably should have done some modifications to the original hood, but I'd already cut it out. To be honest, I had no clue what I was doing and ended up hacking a chunk off the back of the yellow lining so it would fit better into the hood. If I did this again I think I'd just be sensible and cut two identical hoods and have them meet at the edge.
Oh, I also didn't have enough ribbing for this after making the boys hoodies, but I shaved a little bit off the pattern here and there. I'm sure no one will notice.
What's this weird looking thing with the stumpy arms? It's actually a sweatshirt I started ages ago using Peek-a-boo Patterns Adult Classic Sweatshirt pattern, which I got for free for joining their Facebook group (which I was somewhat loathed to do because I hate Facebook). I finally finished sewing it because I had my machine threaded up with black thread. I'd only bought half a metre of the tropical print french terry because it was so expensive and by the time I'd prewashed it, it was way less than half a metre. Neither the back or arm pieces fitted on it. Luckily for me, I don't have long arms so I just cut what I could and then made some slightly deeper cuffs in the same fabric to try and lengthen the arms a bit. They're not too short, but it feels a bit odd wearing something that fits exactly, like EXACTLY to wrist length.
The back of this is black and the front is white so that the iron on print shows up. The iron on print that I painstakingly lined up and measured to get it centred and straight. It looks way squint now. It must have moved as I put it on. I felt like that happened with all the iron on patches too. Overall, I don't think I like the cotton/lycra french terry fabric. I don't know why. I'm just not a fan. I prefer the fluffy backed sweatshirt fleece. It's not just the backings either. I'm not keen on the way the french terry looks from the front.
My plans now are to finish off a New Horizons hoodie I started a while back and to try and do something with the Jalie hoodie I made for myself with the too long arms. It looks really nice and I'd definitely make it again (although it's a huge amount of work because the arms and bodice are all pieced together. It looks like it would be good for colour blocking though). After than I'm not sure if I'll make the New Horizons elevation hoodie for myself, or if I should make another Jalie one and I really need to make some more stock for my shop.
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