All Is Gold – Sol Hoodie

It’s been super inspiring seeing so many great makes from The Monthly Stitch Indie Pattern Month participants. What a wonderful, worldwide sewing community!

This is my entry to the New to Me challenge.

Construction of this garment came down to the wire. Blog schedules don’t stop when there are pauses in motivation, busy weekends or bad weather! I managed to sew everything up on Friday night and then get up early on Saturday to do the final touches so I could wear it that night to a casual birthday bash.

The pattern is the Sol Hoodie from Jamie Christina. I really love the two sample hoodies on the cover of this pattern, especially the textured fabric they’ve used, so I took that as my inspiration. I need to add some more relaxed clothes to my wardrobe, so when I saw this pattern I was sold.

I snapped up some luxurious, thick merino/lycra/nylon material from The Fabric Store for $22/m, ordered 2” wide black and gold damask ribbon from Etsy and invested in a totally over-the-top fancy gold zip from Ebay UK. Obviously I paid no attention to the scale on the picture because the zip was a lot chunkier that I was expecting, but somehow I think I pulled it off! The wool fabric was great to sew with and hardly frayed, although I did have to be careful to reduce the tension on my machine, overlocker and sewing foot so that I didn’t stretch the fabric and make the seams wavy.

I made a size small and lengthened the bodice by 7 cm, which was more than I usually would but I was trying to accommodate the length of the zip (the slightly shorter zip was out of stock). I added 5cm to the arm length as well but failed to take into account the length of the cuff which made the sleeves too long in the end. Next time I think I’ll reduce the length of the cuff and only extend the arm length by 2-3cm. If the gold ribbon wasn’t flashy enough, I lined the hood with super shiny and stretchy printed gold lycra. I finished the edges with my overlocker and staystitched the cool little thumbholes that are part of the design. The pattern instructions are nicely detailed and easy to follow with great sketches.

The ribbon design is ever so slightly out of whack but it was a nightmare to unpick stitching along the ribbon and because I was in a bit of a hurry I just left as is. I don’t think it’s really that noticeable.

I’ll definitely be making a couple more of these hoodies, perhaps in a slightly more understated fabric though! It would be brilliant to have a light merino one to go under my snowboard jacket for those particularly snowy days this coming ski season. Now that I’ve made this hoodie I wonder if it’s perhaps just a bit too blingy for my taste, although it would be perfect as a sweater to wear to and from the gym during these cooler months.

I am totally in love with the merino fabric, and I plan to go back and buy more for some long sleeved tops. If I get lucky I may even be able to find some in different colours – winning!

Good luck to all the other participants, looking forward to finally getting around to reading everyone’s posts!