painted hoodie

 hand painted knit hoodie

Clover has attempted a sweater and jacket coup recently. First she decided that in order to be "the girl" she must be in a skirt or dress at all times. Then as an addendum, she revolted against anything worn over her beautiful outfits that would ruin the "girl" quality of them. 

She has one hoodie that I found on clearance in Target last year, and I think it's pretty cool. She, however, does not, and pitches a fit every time I try to get it on her. 

One option for fixing the issue was to go find something in a store, spend some money, and risk the inevitable clash we would have over something that screams "girl" to Clover, but makes me want to puke every time I inhale its princess fumes.

The other was to frankenstein together some various leftover white knits I had into a hoodie (I could then justify getting a pattern I had long been looking at.....) 

But white was NOT going to cut it. Particularly when lined in gray because I haven't got enough of the white, or anything else girly enough to use. 

I asked Clover if pink dots would be "girl" enough for her to wear, and she enthusiastically threw her support behind this idea. Of course, the mention of pink dots meant that I got asked several times each day following if they were ready. 

Finally they are. Clover has some snazzy new girl dots to wear out of the house. I used the Heidi and Finn unisex urban hoodie pattern

(sssshhhh, don't tell Clover it's unisex!)

 And some leftovers from Violet's wolf suit, Clover's princess leia dress, 

and Violet's lego shirt (among other things), and most of the fabric from some nice french terry sweatpants that I was never going to fit into again (thanks Violet!). 

And I busted out my fuschia fabric paint yet again, painting a design onto the pattern pieces before sewing them up. I used a dumpy old paint brush for it, so the brush strokes are rather.....rustic....but I like how it turned out for the most part. 

 

 

 The body of the hoodie didn't turn out as planned, unfortunately. I like the original design of the hoodie, but as I was sewing it together I realized that with the thick outer fabric, and the semi thick lining, it was getting pretty bulky and not super stretchy. If I made it into a pullover like the pattern has you do, I was worried that it would be really hard to get onto her, and lack of dressing ease is pretty much a death sentence to kid clothes. 

So I left it open and changed the way the bottom cuff attaches. It doesn't look fantastic to me at the bottom, and I don't like it all that much, but what are you going to do? It will get worn more this way.

Clover snatched it up and insisted on wearing it to the playground yesterday, even though there were no cuffs or buttons sewn on yet. As she played I decided I liked the casual blazer vibe of it hanging open, so I attached the buttons to give the option of it looking like that, or buttoning up more for better coverage. 

She says she loves it. So count that a win for mom. 

 

 Of course, things can't ALWAYS be girly......