Updated hoodie

So, I've learned that this may be a balaclava. I call it a hoodie or a cowl because I know how to pronounce "hoodie" and "cowl" :)

I've worn one of these out in the chill for a couple of days now. I need a little more coverage at the bottom since the breeze has gotten between my shirt and the cowl neck. So I've put a rounded hem at the bottom, like on a man's shirt.

I just rounded the bottom of the front and back .

Then I sewed it together, leaving a gap of 3" at the bottom of the side seams. Fleece doesn't ravel, so I didn't even hem the bottom.

Then  I finished by sewing up the hole in the top.

Now this can hang down further on my neck and hopefully cover up any gaps.

So far I've made five of these from one 50" x 60" blanket. I might be able to get one more out of the scraps. 

Today, I looked at the fleece blankets in the local Dollar General. Looks like the cheaper the blanket, the more stretchy, and therefore, the better I like them for this pattern. Fleece yardage from the fabric store is not as stretchy (at least what I found in my stash.) The very first prototype of this hood was made from some hunter orange fleece from Hancock's closeout sale. It was tighter than I liked, so I gave it to an eight year old, and it fit him. Experiment, y'all!

Cold weather hood and cowl

This was originally posted to the Facebook group Upcycle Sewing. Some folks wanted to see my pattern. This is my first sewing tutorial, so be patient with me.

Whipped up this hood/cowl out of a cheap fleece blanket. Need to keep heads warm in the Alabama deep freeze. 

I copied my pattern from a ready to wear hunting hat. 

So, how cold is it here? Here's the current forecast. The normal winter temperature for here is about 50 F, so it is noticeably chilly.

It's now about 11:30 pm, and my thermometer says 21F. It will only get colder.

Anyway, here are links to the three pattern pieces:

Front Crown 

Lower Front

Back

They are in jpg format.  The piece for the back needs to be lengthened as noted on the pattern.  Here's what they should look like when you get them ready to go.  

I would go with a fabric with a minimum stretch of 50% 75% on the cross grain.  Look for my scribbling on the pattern pieces that shows which way the stretchy part should go.

OK, so let's start with the front crown piece.  Turn under a 1" hem on the straight side. Sew it with your favorite stretch stitch. It should look like this, with the hem along the bottom. 

Take the front bottom piece, and turn under a 1" hem on the top.  This piece is square, so make sure the stretch goes in the same direction as the hem.  Here's the two front pieces, already hemmed. 

Lap the top piece over the bottom piece. Looking at it from the right side, it looks like this.

I stitched them together where they overlap.  

Here's the funky looking result.

Now, find the back piece. See below.

Put right sides together, and match the points on the front to the points on the back.  Here's one side pinned together.

It won't lay exactly flat, but that's the way it should be. Don't mess with the V shaped cut yet. Sew the two long sides together.  It just keeps getting weirder looking. Here's what it looks like once you get both sides sewn.

Now, take the two seams you just sewed and match them at the top. You will have the notches of the V's on the left and right side. In the photo below, the hat is pinned at the ends of the V's and where the seams match. 

Sew that hole up. 

Turn up a 1 inch hem at the bottom and sew in place. 

 Turn right side out, and you are done!

Hope you enjoy this! 

Sticky Hot Alabama

It is hot hot hot in my hometown of Windham Springs, Alabama. I walked outside at 8:30 pm and started sweating. It's 80-something degrees and since it's after dark, probably close to 100% humidity. Oh, to have a July day like the average Alabama July--91 degree high temp. . . .

Hello World

Just wanted to see if I could do this and what it would look like.

This is a random picture from Pike's Peak.