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Add a Hood to your Bonfire Jacket
Last year when I was working on the Bonfire Jacket pattern for Issue 5 I brought the cutest knit fabrics to make jackets for my niece and nephews … but it’s 6 months later and they’re still not sewn! Since its just a couple of weeks till we go to visit them (& even better its actually jacket weather now!) I decided to hop to it and sew these jackets up!
My niece is very “into” hoods at the moment so for my niece’s jacket I decided to add a hood. The lack of a hood was Kt’s main complaint about the Bonfire Jacket while I was testing it … every sample I got her to try on she asked where the hood was!
In case you have a little one who loves hoods too, here’s a “how to” for adding a hood to your Bonfire Jacket. You could of course follow these tips for a different jacket pattern.
Step 1 – Choose/Make a Hood Pattern
To add a hood to your Bonfire Jacket you’ll either need a pattern for a hood or a hood on an existing garment that you can trace to make a hood piece.
I used the hood from the Serger Pepper One Cardigan (from Issue 6), but you could definitely use a different pattern or follow this excellent blog post by Once Upon a Sewing Machine for using a hood on an existing garment to make your hood piece -> HERE
Step 2 – Measure the Jacket Neckline
Either way, because the neckline the hood was drafted to fit and the neckline of the Bonfire Jacket may be different, the first thing you need to do is measure the neckline of the Bonfire Jacket so that you can choose the right size hood.
I have this very handy bendy ruler that I used but you could always use a tape-measure instead. Remember to take off the shoulder seam allowances. I want this hood to finish at the centre front so that it will meet in the middle when the top button is done up, so I finished measuring 20mm (3/4″) from the centre front (ie. 6mm (1/4″) seam allowance + 15mm (5/8″). If you’d like your hood placement to be different then measure where you’d like it to go.
Using your measurement of the Bonfire Neckline choose the hood pattern piece with the closest neckline. Go slightly bigger if it doesn’t match exactly you can always trim it down a little or put a small “tuck”in the hood at the shoulders.
Step 3 – Sew your hood and ready your jacket
Sew your hood till it is complete. Sew your Bonfire Jacket up till the point where you would usually add the collar.
Step 4 – Pin your hood to the jacket
Pin the hood to the jacket (right side of the hood facing right side of the jacket). I started pinning at the centre back.
Step 5 – Baste the hood to the jacket.
Step 6 – Lay the facing over the top and pin then sew together.
Step 7 – Complete your jacket as per the pattern.
When I finished this jacket I had the cutest idea! I wish I’d thought to add Bunny Ears to the hood like Michelle from The Toffee Tree did with her “Furry Friends” hoods! …. I might just have to make a bunny eared Barbie coat to take with me for my nieces doll instead!
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Sewing is so much more than needles, fabric and thread. It’s about passionately expressing your creativity and your love of handmade.
