The “Pretty Ways” Cropped Hoodie

I really really wanted to participate again in June, but my first skirt idea using some stashed wild floral fabric fell flat when I didn’t have enough yardage to do what I wanted.  Drats.  So, then I went rummaging through my patterns, and was reminded of this downloadable freebie from YSR (your style rocks.com) that I had come across a while ago when searching for a hoodie pattern. This pattern happens to be a cropped hoodie.  Yes!  Cropped is in!  Once that decision was made, it all came together.  I’d had this pale yellow t-shirt from my grad school days that I tried to tailor, but at that point, I still wasn’t confident with knits…

So, I hit the books and researched knits and elastic fabric, and lo-and-behold my “stretch” needle came back out!  The stash grey stuff is an interlocked knit (a thin drapey double-knit) and the t-shirt is knit jersey.

The Factoidals

⁃ Fabric: grey interlock knit (Ribas y Casals), and an ol’ yellow RISD t-shirt
⁃ Pattern: Our Own Pretty Ways – Style A (free w/registration on YSR)
⁃ Year: contemporary
⁃ Notions: snaps, fusible interfacing, some elastic
⁃ Time to complete: 4 hours
⁃ First worn: this week
⁃ Wear again? Yes!
⁃ Total price: about 8 EUR (for the grey knit)

Modifications to the pattern…

I didn’t have a ribbed band for the bottom edge, so I just used t-shirt.  I used 2 colors for the hood grey/yellow.  I omitted the drawstring – my eyelet/grommet maker was malfunctioning and wrecking the fabric I tested so I passed for now.  Instead of hook and eye closures I used snaps.  The sleeves were a bit droopy for me, but I’ll live with it.  I tried applying an elastic band w/contrasting yellow, but it just wasn’t working.  The shape just isn’t meant to be gathered…at least not yet by me. :D

I do feel that knit fabric is way more forgiving than I expected it to be.  I’m really pleased with the results!