Little red riding hood

Or so Mr. C immediately dubbed it. As far as I'm concerned the hood is merely an elaborate collar since I can't imagine that I would ever want to wear it up. But other than that, Marcy Tilton's modern hoodie has my heart. So flattering, shaped in front with princess seams while the two-piece back has a sort of peplum that flows forgivingly over the posterior. So easy to put together as well, although some precision top-stitching is required, especially on a solid color fabric, to make it look its best. And isn't this rose red color lovely...yet more of my ancient stock of cotton interlock. All these many years after I bought it, I'm certainly getting my money's worth out of it. 


   



 























 

On Pattern Review I detailed the specific construction changes I made, which mostly concerned how I finished the various seams, but couldn't post all the relevant photos there. So here they are.

 

The pocket. Top-stitching for the front princess seams was done with the pocket not yet basted to the side seam, so it could be moved out of the way in order not to have that extra bulk under the top-stitching. Actually, I just thought it looked better that way.

Top-stitching on seams with narrow twin needle.  

By trimming the seam allowance as accurately as possible to a consistent width, the zig-zag of the twin needle top stitching should come just to the edge or just barely cover the trimmed seam allowance.

On the front and hood self facings, the edges are simply turned under and top-stitched twice to replicate the look of the twin-needle stitching elsewhere. Because the inside of the self-facings can show, I didn't want the zig-zag stitching on the “wrong” side, so I stitched twice with a single needle, trying the match the narrow width of the twin needle.

The hood.

Center back seam, sewn, pressed open, edges turned under and top-stitched as close as possible to the edge. And the neckline seam with self-fabric binding.

 

The — ta da! — buttonholes. After much experimentation, I managed to sew these by putting an small extra rectangle of interfacing where each buttonhole was to be made, and using water-soluble stabilizer on the bottom. If they hadn't come out right, I'm afraid this garment would have been a loss, despite all the work I had already put into it. So I certainly breathed a sigh of relief when the last one emerged from the buttonhole foot.

The one thing I'm not crazy about is...the hood. I mean, what is it except an elaborate collar? And a collar that messes with my hair to boot. I can't imagine ever actually wearing it up as a hood. If I were to make this again, I would replace the hood with some other sort of collar. So I have to say that I love this hoodie despite the fact that it is a hoodie.