Things You Should Know When Sewing an Indie Pattern

Hi all,

I’ve been sewing up a storm this week with a hoodie pattern from Life Sew Savory.

Actually, that should read sewing up for a storm. We’ve had some heavy snow over the last few days, with more on the way. What better excuse to stay indoors sewing up some hoodies.

This is an Indie PDF pattern which means it's from an independent designer rather than a commercial pattern maker like McCalls, Simplicity, Butterick or New Look.

 
First things first, a disclaimer. I’m not affiliated or linked to Life Sew Savory, in any way shape or form. I found the pattern a couple of years ago via a Google Search for hoodie patterns.

I’ve actually made this pattern 4 times over the years, each time with fleece. It’s a nice easy pattern with only about 6 pieces. It’s designed for knit fabric so can be made from anything with a bit of stretch. The instructions recommend going up a size if the fabric is only slightly stretchy, but it depends on how close fitting you like your hoodies.

As it’s a PDF, there is a bit of construction of the actual pattern needed before the garment can be sewn. Like most PDFs, a little bit of jiggling and trimming is required to get the pieces to match up.

The little black triangles printed on the pattern are key. Get them to make as close to a square as you can.

Here's a picture of me lining up the little triangles.

 

And here they are lined up.

I love the pattern because it's simple. The sewing instructions are mostly clear and easy to follow.

Having said that, there are a few things to bear in mind if you would like to make this hoodie.

The first thing is the sleeves. Unlike commercial patterns, there are no notches or dots printed on the paper. Lining up the head of the sleeve to the armhole, or even getting the sleeves the right way round can be tricky. 

You see that little word printed just at the sleeve edge in the picture above? 

I didn’t to start with either. I'd taken the pattern piece off the fabric before even noticing there weren't any notches.

If you miss notches on a shaped sleeve head like this one, where the back of the sleeve head is shorter than the front, just remember that the shorter side goes to the back. The longer side goes to the front.

To match the sleeve in the armhole without dots, line up the edges of the sleeve with the edges of the bodice first. The top of the sleeve head should line up with the shoulder seam. It's just a case of easing the fabric evenly around as best you can.

Whenever you sew two different sized pieces together, like sleeves and armholes, always have the bigger piece next to the feed dogs. In this case, that would be the sleeve. Feed dogs pull the fabric under the foot of the machine as you sew. But, because they only touch the bottom layer, the top layer tends to get left behind a little bit. This is really helpful when it comes to easing a sleeve into an armhole.

The feed dogs will pull the larger sleeve piece through quicker, taking up any excess fabric, known as the ease, as it goes. All you need to concentrate on is gently pulling the top piece slightly and smoothing out any wrinkles. The flatter you can get both layers as you sew around, the better.

A handy little trick that works for the cuffs and waistband too! Only, as the cuffs and waistband are smaller than the end of the arm and waist, they should be on the top.

The second thing, the instructions for sewing the sleeve cuffs show them being stitched on the long side. In order to form a cuff, you will need to make a circle. To do that, you need to sew the short sides together. The long side is the part that needs to go around your wrist. The short side is the one that matches up with the arm seam. 

Sewing the cuffs is a little fiddly. Even if your sewing machine has a free-arm, the opening is too small to go around it. 

It’s a case of pushing one side under the foot and sewing carefully, making sure the other side is out of the way! 

 Oh, and make sure you are stitching the cuff to the right side of the sleeve!

After the cuffs, the waistband is simple. The only thing you need to remember is, the front piece has the pocket attached to it. 

Your machine will be going through 2 waistbands, 1 front piece and a pocket. That’s 4 layers! Not too much to worry about if you’re using a lightweight knit. However, if you use fleece, it’s going to be bulky, so go slow! 

All in all, this pattern from Life Sew Savory is a quick and easy sew for beginners and more experienced stitchers. I’m more than pleased with how the hoodies came out and will be making more. 

Hopefully, the next ones will be lightweight knit ideal for Spring. 

Bye for now

Olly


Thanks for reading. For more sewing tips and adventures, follow me on:

Facebook.com/olwenwhite/

instagram.com/olwenwhitewrites/

Twitter @OlwenWhite

Youtube