A Hooded Blouse? A Jacket? A Fancy Hoodie?

A hooded blouse. It was not the reason I'd bought the pattern, and I had no plans to sew it originally. Yet, it's a funny thing, as a general rule, kids, including my little sister, like hoods. Thus, as I was cutting out Simplicity 8447, to make my sister a pair of overalls, I decided "why not?" Why not make a hooded blouse to go with the overalls? Surely I had some fabric in my stash that was up for the task.

I didn't have to look very far to find the perfect fabric for making this hooded blouse. Sitting in my fabric cabinet was the denim for the overalls, and at least half a dozen other fabrics bought at the same time. One of which was this pink cotton textured knit. For a knit, it didn't have much stretch to it, but that was just fine, as the pattern was technically written to be sewn from woven fabric not knit. So, in keeping with my original decision to make the hooded blouse, I decided, "why not?" Why not make a "woven blouse" of of a knit fabric? It ought to be soft and cuddly!

So, I cut out the blouse the same morning I cut out the overalls. Then it sat on my sewing table, waiting to be made, for a couple weeks. This "why not" project was not top of my to-do list, until week 6 of the 52-week sewing challenge. The theme for that week was "Sew something pink." So why not make that pink hooded blouse that I had all cut out and ready to go?

Just from looking at the pattern envelope I didn't really notice anything exciting about this blouse, other than the hood. Well, clearly I didn't pay much attention to the blouse pictures (I was too focused on the overalls), because once I started sewing the blouse I fell in love with the details of it! The blouse is fitted with inverted pleats at the waistline, the hemline is curved beautifully, and the narrow cuffs with the gathered sleeves are just so sweet!

And the hood, of course the hood. It's fun, and big, and pointed, and my sister's favorite part of the blouse, just as I expected it to be!

She loves that the hood is big enough to pull down over her face in case of cold wind!

So, I thought I was making this as a blouse, to go with the overalls from the same pattern, but once I finished sewing on the last flowery button and presented it to my sister, I discovered that was not the case.

As you can see here, my sister is wearing this "blouse" over her overall dress. Yep, she decided it made a much better jacket than shirt, and I'm not complaining about that.

The blouse will get way more wear this way, than it would as a shirt, and it looks fabulous worn over other clothing items. So why not? Why not call it a jacket?