It's a Hoodie! No, It's Armor! ~ The Knight Hoodie ~

Who doesn't want a sweatshirt with armor??

A comfy knight costume suitable for all occasions?

When I mentioned in my last blog post that I'd have a new historical costume to share this week, an armored hoodie probably isn't what you were picturing. It's not what I was picturing either.

Things happened and something came up that took precedence over attending the outdoor event with the Saint Louis Historical Sewing Society. So my outfit I was desperately trying to finish for that get-together? Yeah. It's still not done. Honestly, once the other thing came up and I discovered I couldn't attend the event I was a little relieved. I was going to miss seeing everybody, but there was just no way I would have gotten my costume finished to my standards before the event. I'd put off too much until the last minute. It would have been a rather cobbled-together affair in the end. Now I have time to finish it properly - and that is actually happening! This week, in fact, I finished the skirt! But, more on that in future posts. Right now, let's get back to THE KNIGHT HOODIE!!

It's not an 1860's ensemble, but it is a costume-like piece, and it is historically inspired!

For the past couple of years I've admired the Sir Gawain Knight Top pattern by Mother Grimm. A kid's sweatshirt with armor? A knight costume that does not involve an ill-fitting, uncomfortable plastic breast plate and too-small plastic helmet? My siblings and I would have loved to have knight costumes like this when we were growing up!!

My brothers and I went through multiple sets of that plastic armor, which got loved, played with, broken, and discarded. Armored hoodies would have been way better!!

Thus, I've long admired the Mother Grimm knight hoodie patterns. When Mother Grimm announced earlier this year that she would be releasing the knight hoodie pattern in adult sizes, I excitedly went and found my youngest brother.

"Hey! Would you wear this?? Should I make a hoodie like this for you??"

He gave me a resounding "Yes!" 

I immediately signed up to test the pattern.

You can choose how much armor you want to add to your hoodie. Crest? Visor? Pauldrons? Spaulders? Gantlets? 

My brother told me he wanted all the armor. And I mean allllll the armor.

The pattern includes options for either one or two sets of Pauldrons on the shoulders.  For maximum impact (and possibly because I misread the pattern instructions) we combined those two options and went with three sets of Pauldrons on my brother's hoodie.

Combine that with the Spaulders sewn into the sleeve caps and there are 4 layers of armor across the shoulders. My brother tells me he loves how solid the shoulders feel. If you're gonna make an armored hoodie, you might as well go all out!

The shoulder armor is made from cotton-spandex jersey, and stiffened with a heavy fusible interfacing to keep it's shape. The Pauldrons are attached with heavy-duty snaps, so they technically could be removed if my brother felt so inclined.  I don't see that happening however.

Moving on from the shoulder armor, the sleeves feature Gauntlets to protect the forearms. 

Like the shoulder armor, the Gauntlets are stiffened with a layer of heavy fusible interfacing, sandwiched between a layer of cotton-spandex jersey and French terry.

Now I think the hood armor might be my favorite part of this hoodie - just look at that silhouette!

A visor, which snaps into place and can be raised or lowered as the knight chooses, and a proud crest on top!

 The hood armor is stiffened with fusible fleece. This is actually the recommended stiffening for all of the armor, but I only had a limited amount in my stash, so the hood is what got it. I appreciate the flexibility of the fleece. It's amazing for the visor, and I think it would have worked well for the shoulder armor too if I'd had enough. However, I wish I'd used the same heavy interfacing I did in the rest of the armor for the crest as well. The crest is a little floppier than I'd prefer, and I think a stiffer interfacing might have helped with that.

My brother's favorite color has always been green, and his Hogwarts house is Slytherin, so I opted to make his knight hoodie silver and green.

I love the green cotton-spandex jersey I used for the armor and hood lining. It's the most perfect shade of deep forest green! I ordered several one yard cuts of solid-colored cotton spandex jerseys from Purple Seamstress fabrics over the summer, with the intention of using them for baby clothes. I wish I'd ordered way more than a yard of this particular color. Between one pair of baby pants and the accents on this hoodie, I used up every last scrap of green jersey, and now I want more!

Deep in my stash I had a small remnant of metallic silver French terry, which I opted to use for the flat piping on the front and back of the hoodie. A knight needs a little bit of shine in his armor!

The rest of the hoodie is made from French terry out of my stash, picked up from Wal-Mart at some point in the past at an excellent price. Any time I find French terry at Wal-Mart I grab it! It's good quality fabric and my favorite thing to make hoodies from!

All the armor does not make this hoodie a quick sew - but I think the finished result is worth the extra time!

A Knight Hoodie! What could be cooler?

*I received this pattern free of charge in exchange for testing it out and giving my feedback.

All thoughts and opinions here are my own. I was not required to write this blog post.

If you're interested in this pattern for yourself, it can be found here.

I highly recommend it for the casual knights in your life! 

Orange Ruffles and Plans

 Orange is a fall color, right?

So sharing an orange ruffley crop top the first week of November isn't *too* unseasonable, correct?

It was actually 70 degrees outside yesterday, and it's supposed to stay that warm through the weekend, so theoretically, I could actually wear this top right now and be reasonably comfortable. (Yes, it did indeed snow last week. Our weather has a mind of it's own.)

Now will I wear it this week? Probably not. I'm spending the next couple days holed up in my basement sewing room, only emerging to eat and go to work. The basement room is a little chilly, even on warm, beautiful, days, so I'll probably be wearing shirts with sleeves instead, as I'm not a fan of feeling cold. 

Now why am I hiding in the basement rather than enjoying the gloriously warm weather? Because, for the first time this year, happening this weekend, is a costume event with the Saint Louis Historical Sewing Society!!

Outdoors, socially distanced, masks required - and we actually get to see each other in person!!! And dress up! And have fun! 

I fully intend to have a new ensemble for this occasion, though I certainly waited a little longer than I should have to begin making it. Thus, the plans to hide in the basement for the next couple of days. 

Hopefully I'll be sharing about this new historical outfit in the next couple of weeks, but for now, back to the subject of this blog post.

Orange Ruffles!!!!

If the design of this top looks familiar, that's because it's actually the bodice/ view A of the Flor Dress, by Bella Loves Patterns, which I tested this summer.

In the first week of that pattern test, Isabela, the pattern designer and maker, requested that we all make a quick mock-up of the bodice to make sure things fit ok and no big changes needed to be made to the pattern itself. A solid plan.

I could have, easily, just grabbed an old sheet and done the quick, unfinished, never to see the light of day, mock-up thing. However, I was very excited about this pattern, and wanted to be able to wear it as soon as possible! So I went a different slightly more complicated, but very worth it, route.

I decided to make a fully finished, wearable, top for my mock-up. If it didn't fit right? Well, I'd jerry-rig it until it did fit ok.

Thankfully, no jerry-rigging was required, as this top fit beautifully right off of the sewing machine!

The fabric was a 2 yard cut of quilters batik my grandma gave me a while back. It was in my "maybe I'll make a top out of this eventually" fabric stack.

2 yards of 44" wide fabric is a little less than is recommended for this top pattern in my size, and I just barely managed to make it work. I was proud of myself once all the pattern pieces were cut out! There certainly wasn't room to make any mistakes here.

 

If I ever make this pattern as a top again, I'll try to have at least 2.5 yards of fabric to work with!

All the pieces squeezed out of my fabric, I sewed up the top in one morning. I cut a few corners by not bothering to finish my seams. Batik is tightly woven, so I wasn't concerned about it raveling too much in the wash, and this was technically a mock-up anyway. . .

I tried on my new top and was absolutely thrilled! The ruffles were as awesome as I'd thought they'd be, and thanks to the cup size options, the fit was amazing! No gaping necklines with this wrap top!

I could now proceed to cutting my Flor Dress out of the colorful batik I bought in Japan with full confidence that the finished garment would be amazing!

And I had a brand-new, ruffley wrap top to wear with all my favorite high-waisted skirts and pants!

Wrap around the back, Wrap around the front - The Wearing History 1939 Sundress

It actually snowed here on Monday, yet here I am, blogging about a summer dress. It's safe to say summer is well and truly over, but I like this dress too much to not get around to sharing it this year. And hey, if I throw on a jean jacket with this particular dress, it becomes rather fall appropriate. So perhaps I'm not too far out of season here?

 Anyway, it's no secret my very favorite sundress pattern is Simplicity 8085, a wrap dress which wraps across the back rather than the front. I fell in love with this design when I first made the pattern over 4 years ago, and since then I've kept my eyes open for other patterns which wrap across the back.

A couple years ago, Wearing History released just such a pattern - a 1939 sundress which wraps across the back to tie in the front, and has a fun cross-over front bodice as well!

The pattern was first released about 2 years ago as a single size, 34" bust, digitized re-print of an original 1939 pattern. This bust measurement was a bit too small for me, but I loved the design, so I went ahead and bought the pattern anyway at some point in the next few months when Wearing History had a sale.

I printed out the pattern, meaning to make it right away, and that's as far as a got. For over a year, the pattern sat on my book shelf, printed out, ready to assemble and use

This summer, Wearing History re-released this fabulous sundress as a multi-sized, graded, pattern, making it a whole lot more user-friendly for the average sewist. Suddenly my Instagram feed was full of different versions of the dress as people excitedly tried out the new pattern. It was fun to see this pattern being made! That was just the kick I needed to pull out my already printed pattern and make this dress I'd been planning to make for over a year.

As I mentioned, I'd bought the single size, 34" bust version of this pattern when it first came out. According to the size chart, this pattern was the right size for me in the waist and hips, but a bit small in the bust. Since I already had this pattern printed out, I decided I would just alter this pattern to be the correct size by doing a full bust adjustment, rather than getting the new multi-sized pattern. 

I picked out my fabric, a 3 yard cut of cotton batik, gifted to me by a friend of a friend who was de-stashing, and that is exactly what I did!

I adjusted the pattern, cut it out, and sewed it up.

I wore it the weekend after I finished it to visit a historic mining site with my boyfriend.

I was a little short on fabric, and didn't have enough to fully line the waist ties, oops.

I figured out a way to still face the waistband on the inside of the dress, as I felt that was important to the structure of the garment, but the ties themselves just got a narrow hem along the edges.

This worked, but it would be nice if the ties had a little bit more structure to them - so next time I made this dress hopefully I would have enough fabric to fully line the ties like I was supposed to do here.

Speaking of next time. . . As I mentioned above, I did a full bust adjustment to account for the pattern supposedly being too small in the bust for me. The finished bodice is actually a little large on me, so next time I'm gonna un-do that full bust adjustment and just make this dress a straight size 34. It appears there's plenty of extra ease worked into this pattern so that should work out just fine.

The cross-over bodice kept trying to fall open in the front. So on my first wearing of the dress, I added a quick tacking stitch to keep the two sides of the bodice properly overlapping in the front.

The bodice also felt a little too blousy at the sides. I fixed this sometime after the first wearing of the dress by removing the arm hole binding and doubling the depth of the side bust darts.

After sewing the binding back on and wearing the dress again, I was pleased to discover the fit had improved.

However, the bodice still just feels too big in the bust, so hopeful eliminating the FBA next time will fix the issue.

I know I could test out pattern adjust and double check fit by making a mock-up, but honestly? I just can't be bothered for an every day dress.

The other thing I'll be messing with next time I make this pattern is the back overlap. 

It's definitely on the low side, so I'll be figuring out how to raise that.

Hopefully my next version of this pattern happens a little quicker than this first version did!

It's a pretty quick sew - there was no reason to put off making this dress for two years!

Despite the minor fit issues, I love this dress, and have worn it plenty since finishing it!

It's a fun, interesting, design, and easy to wear.

Just what a summer dress should be!