Two hoodies: The hangman's hoody and a striped top

Its time for some new clothes for spring so I thought I would make my other half a couple of hoodies. Hoodies are his top of choice when he is not at work but he does not always want heavy sweatshirts. One of his old favourites is a very light weight hoody with no pocket. Its just a long sleeved but thin knit fabric top with hood. This was my inspiration for these two tops.

Both tops are made from Newlook 6142, the same pattern I used for the camo top I made him at Christmas:  http://brackencrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/79-cuddle-camo-top-for-my-man.html

The first hoody is an almost silky stretch black fabric. I have no idea of the fibre content. I bought it as T shirt weight cotton/lycra but I am pretty certain it is not cotton but more likely rayon tho I think it may have lycra in it.

I had to piece the hood for this top since I only had 2m and I did not quite have enough fabric for a hoody. So its what my partner calls a "hangmans" hood. Its basically squarer than the usual pattern on top. Its basically got a narrow strip added on to the front part of the hood to lengthen the fabric and I used the fabric pieces I had left over to do this so I have no idea how this will wear since the front pieces are cut in a different direction to the main part of the hood. I think this will be a very wearable summer top since my partner has a positive preference for wearing black whatever the weather. This should be much better than a normal T shirt for summer being soft silky and thinner than T shirt fabric usually is. I wish you could feel this fabric so I can explain what its like.

You can see the hood best in this photo.

The front has a seperate band to make the fabric big enough for a hood and its got a pointy bit on top - my hangman's bit!

The other hoody is made from a heavier ribbed fabric which I bought in my recent fabric buying spree:
http://brackencrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/two-tops-and-my-latest-stash-builing.html

 I had no idea what I would make when I bought the fabric. It sounded OK from the Ebay description. Luckily I bought a bit more of this tho so did not need to piece things together. I am almost proud of this top because I nearly  managed to pattern match the stripes. I got them right on both sides and on the hood and one sleeve but sadly I somehow cut the second sleeve slightly "off".


Still its the best I have managed so far so I am still reasonably pleased.



See pattern matched stripes!

 

But not on this sleeve

I know some religions think only things made by God can be perfect. Well my sewing is blessed then:)

This fabric is so perfectly my man!

He has several old stripey tops all very similar to this. I could not see what I could use it for when it arrived but then I was putting the washing away one day when I realised its a very similar fabric to several tops he already owns and all of which need replacing.

I have enough of this fabric left for a conventional short sleeved T as well but thats for later.

So yet again having a stash is very useful to me and its just the way I sew. I would never have gone out and bought this fabric in a shop. Thats the honest truth. I bought it because it was the right price and its cotton rib and usually I can use that kind of fabric. I wouldn't have considered to make this into a top for my man but its just perfect. Random buying of cheap fabric to grow my stash is justa  good way to live for me.

Its a much heavier weight fabric than the black but will make a great addition to his wardrobe. I expect this will be around for quite a few years because its a good quality fabric.

So yes. I need my stash. I know lots of people see it as immoral but really I could not create useful items for us without it and this top was £3.19 for one piece of this fabric and 99p for my second piece which will make a normal T shirt. I picked up from the seeler as well so no shipping costs!
I doubt if we could buy this cheaper RTW. Thats despite it being unique of course. So that is why I sew in the first place and thats why I need to maintain a decent sized stash.

Other people say they buy the pattern, the fabric and make then dispose of extra offcuts and move on but that would just be very expensive so for me that does not work at all. Regardless of the percieved moral issues others seem to have about fabric stashing, I am definitely not for slashing my stash any time soon. It simply will not work for me.

Thanks for visiting my blog,  

Bracken