Blue Fur Hoody

 

This is Burda Style 11/2016 and I made a wool version last year which I love.

I am really getting into this top since the weather started to turn into spring rather than freezing cold winter. The top also, I feel, fits my Faery Theme well beings furry and blue.

I added 1 inch wide elastic to the wrists - 2.5cm wide elastic that is. In the UK its weird cos we kind of work using some cm and some inches which is totally unscientific but that seems to be how we live. It makes for a difficult way when writing for an international audience. I try to remember to include both measurements but its hard. I buy my fabric in metres length but quite often they state the width in inches and similarly buy my elastic width in inches though my elastic length is sold by the metre. How stupid is that really!

Like the Rebecca Page Sweater Cape I made - though mine is hacked with a different collar/hood admitedly - this has a scuba lining which is sewn as one with the outer fur rather than a seperate lining. The scuba makes it more stable since this fur was extremely cheap and is not very stable at all. I still have quite a lot left of the red fur used in the sweater cape and some silver fur yet to use so have to do something else with this fabric. Especially now its the weather to wear this. Its not really as warm as standard fur coating fabric but is a lighter weight - probably meant for cushions or scarfs really, but I bought several metres in 3 colours and its very bulky in my small stash area so has to be used to make room for summer fabrics which really I should not buy, but probably will.

My scuba lining:

The only downside of this pattern is the hand sewn fastenings which of course I bought - from China - and they came very quickly. Also last time I bought 4 for around £5 from the UK and this time I bought 20 for £5 and they are much better quality than the ones I got from the UK. So I have spares. The Chinese ones do have beads in them which I never noticed on Ebay but I don't care. They work fine. And look good. If you are interested the fastenings from China took about 2 weeks to arrive so I sewed this a while before I actually finished it. 

I am thinking maybe I could have a zip neck next time?

Also another thing to note: This fur/ scuba combination wrecks the cutters on my overlockers. I have two overlockers and had to swap between them to finish this and I spent ages cleaning and oiling them and giving them time to rest while the oil soaked in but even then really I now need two sets of new overlocker cutters. 

Experience tells me I can get two sets from China just as good and cheaper that one set of cutters from the UK so thats something I need to order but its also a pain because my cutters will do light weight fabric right now but that does limit what I can make and I know they won't last much longer before they start to eat my fabric. The cutters can take about 6 weeks to arrive from China ( unlike the speedy fastenings for my jacket!) so I need to order them next payday. 

In fact the reason I have two overlockers is to fix one in the UK - as in get someone to fix it costs £85 + VAT at 20% and thats before they even touch it and you must pay for parts on top - which means its really not viable so a few years ago when mine broke I just bought another one because that was cheaper to do. And of course I got a brand new shiny machine. 

Then I took a chance on buying new cutters from China and at the time did not know for sure that was what was wrong with my broken overlocker. But the cutters which cost around £20  for two sets ( might be more now tho!) eventually came and its not hard to change them really - there are Youtube videos - and suddenly I have two working overlockers. 

So if you have the problem that your overlocker starts chewing stuff up and getting the teeth all mangled in the fabric try buying some cutters off Ebay and fixing it yourself. There are British sellers of the parts for overlockers but they cost more and the parts are exactly the same - though they do arrive faster but if you buy the cutters before you need them and keep in stock its all really smooth and you do not end up waiting.

 

Back to this jacket then:  I suspect this is going to be a favourite top this spring. It just feels right. 

So all in all I feel like this is a fun make and I will enjoy this. I am already planning taking it on holiday later in the year because I think it will work accross the seasons into summer evenings and of course it keeps me on target with my Faery Theme as well.

So now I have to think, what else to make from the rest of this lovely lightweight fur?

Happy weekend

Bracken