Lexi, a Hoodie for Quilters

Good morning Smites, 

I'm bright and early with the post this week - thats because I want to get you started on the appliqué Lexi Hoodie if you're waiting for it!​ 

This week we are going to cut out and prepare all the "background" ie, the actual pieces of the sweatshirt, ready for us to applique onto next week. Everyone else still has to cut out squares so we are well ahead of the game. It's actually a lot more work than you think to get all the pieces prepared, so if you get it done this week then next we can work on the front, then the back and then the sleeves and hood. The "pattern" for the applique is very up to you, I will be showing you what I'm going to do as I do it, and you can choose to put as little or as much of the appliqué on, and only in certain places if you choose to do that also. 

I have chosen to make my appliqué hoodie from one piece of fabric. You could of course very easily still piece the background in some way, and then appliqué over the top - entirely up to how much work you want to put in! I wanted to have a striped hoodie with the bright appliqué on the top, so that's where I've landed. 

Before you cut any fabric out, I STRONGLY recommend that you measure yourself and use both the body measurement chart and the actual size chart to choose your hoodie size. Once you've done that, you can work out how large you need to cut your hoodie fabric out to. We are going to do things in a slightly different order than those piecing their hoodies.

First cut out your pieces from the pattern sheet. For dressmaking you are better to trace the pieces off onto tracing paper, and then cut those out to make your pattern. Thats so that you have the master pattern in tact for other sizes, and also because the tracing paper is easier to pin to fabric if you want to do that when you're cutting out.

I will be 100% honest and say that I don't do that. Naughty I know. I rarely make patchwork clothing for other people because I have two sons and they have no interest in patchwork clothes, and my two daughters in law would take the same size as me so it's all moot! So I just cut mine out from the master, and I use pattern weights to secure the paper on the fabric as I cut. I prefer that anyway as there are no pins puckering the fabric through the paper - personal preference. 

I do however make a muslin, which is essentially a pretend version of the piece of clothing made from a cheaper fabric like calico, made only so that you can try it on and make sure it fits before you cut your nice fabric up. I made my "muslin" this time by making the actual lining for the hoodie - I was cutting it from a big piece of leftover backing fabric I had, so I kind of thought "oh well, if it doesn't fit I'll just pop that in my scrap bin and use it later". I was also pretty confident that I had measured myself carefully and read the pattern through, and the muslin fit beautifully. I will say that its on the tighter side (not tight, but fitted) over my boobs which are on the larger side of things, so do take that into consideration if your girls are going to take up extra space!

Once you're happy with the size and you're sure you have the right one, trace the pattern pieces onto the front of your fabric with a pencil or a silver gel pen, or something else you can see well. This is your cutting line so don't worry about it showing, any left when you cut out will be inside the seams. Add the relevant markings from the pattern for joining etc. You need a front panel, a back panel, two sleeves (cut one right side up, and one with the pattern turned over to the back), two hoods (again, now RSU and one REV) and the piece for the panel up the middle of the hood. Make sure to leave at least 2" around the outside of each piece, so 4" between them - thats because if you're going to appliqué, the piece will get a fair bit of manhandling before its sewn together, even if its machine appliquéd, so you don't want it to fray.

Cut pieces of your chosen interfacing or "batting" to the same size as your pattern panels. If you are using fusible fleece you can iron it on now, and appliqué through it - this actually gives your appliqué a nice little bounce, and the fleece is so fine that it's easy to sew through. As this is a piece of clothing I didn't cut any of the back out of my appliqué as I usually would, this will take much more of a beating than most quilts would as your body is inside it putting strain on the seams every time you wear it!

If you are using Quiltlite or flannel for your batting, this part is kind of up to you. You don't want to put a batting under the appliqué fabric that will bag away from the front while you sew if it's not well thread basted, so you can either spray baste the batting to the front piece, or appliqué the front first and add the batting later when the appliqué is all done. I am using a linen fabric for my hoodie that is quite shifty, so I chose to baste the batting on first before I started the appliqué so that everything didn't move around on me while I sewed. 

Once you have all your pieces cut out and basted or not basted as you see fit, you can start choosing fabrics so that you're ready for next week. If you're planning to make your hoodie appliqué pretty much the same as mine, you will ned around 3 or 4 metres (3.5-4.5 yards approx) of 1/4" bias tape for stems, and also for parts of the lettering. You would only need one roll of the fusible bias tape I sell, but if you want different colours you would obviously need a roll of each. I am using three colours - two different greens for stems and yellow for my lettering. 

If you aren't using fusible bias, you can get ahead and make your bias tape so you're ready to go. If you haven't ever made bias tape before, you can watch this very ancient video I did for Craftsy about a million years ago, that will show you how I like to make my bias. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3hxMU2wZM0

You won/t need a whole long piece, lots of short bits will work just fine because nothing is longer than about 6". ​

Next week I will give you the templates and the layout for the front of the hoodie, the week after that for the back and the final week of Smites Lexi will be the plans for the sleeves and hood. Are you sewing along? Are you making an appliqué hoodie or a pieced one? Don't forget if you have questions I'm  always happy to help you, just drop them in the comments. 

This weekend I'm off to the Liberty Showcase in Melbourne, I'm so so excited - so I'll be able to tell you all about that too! See you then peeps

Sarah x