First of all, Happy Leap Day everyone! Recently I was chosen to test another pattern by Terra's Treasures. It was a tight deadline to begin with, and I was out of town for the first 2 days of the testing window, so I was feeling the pressure, but this was something I was just dying to be a part of! Several weeks ago I saw a sneak peek that Terra had posted of the hoodie in her Facebook Group (Link to Facebook group) and I started stalking the site to see when the tester call would be made!
One of the hardest parts of this test was deciding on what fabric to use for each of the colorblock sections! I knew I wanted to put something with a pattern on either the middle or top section, but narrowing down which combination I liked best proved harder than expected! I decided on the stripes and then felt like it would make a neat additional accent on the pockets as well. The stripes are a lighter weight Jersey knit I got from a Girl Charlee knitfix bag, the middle black part is microfleece from Joann's, and the bottom gray is a nice french terry I bought online from Denver fabrics. The black cuffs are a cotton spandex from Joann's as well.
I am not going to lie, this was definitely not a quick project. At least not for my first one. I would imagine the next will go quicker as there is always a learning curve with new patterns, but I'd estimate it took me about 4 hours for the first (cutting and sewing). With so many pieces to cut its important to pay attention and make sure you label the pieces somehow to keep them in order, and also note which part is "back" and which part is "front" on the sleeve pieces (my system is to put one of my wonder clips on back pieces, or on the part of the sleeve peice that should go towards the back). I also have never done a welt pocket before, so that took a little extra time to work my way through that. After it was all through, it was more than worth sacrificing a little sleep for this amazing Hoodie! I don't know that I've ever been more proud of a garment I've made as I have of this!
Its a tad big on my 4.5 year old who is on the smaller side of 4T measurements, but that just means we can wear it for the Spring then pull it back out again in the Fall and it should still fit! He really loved the way the pocket goes all the way through. He was stashing some of his favorite matchbox cars in there during our photoshoot! Of course it was the coldest and rainiest day when I needed to take pictures, so I only snapped a few shots of the finished Hoodie on my son.
Isn't he a cutie!?