mountain hoodie

Burda 8291 is is labelled easy and consists of a knit jumper with a variety of different neck finishes. I made the hooded version. Apart from the hood and neckline, I used modified pattern pieces from the PR "Build a Better Tee Shirt" class that I took earlier this year, rather than the Burda pattern pieces. My version is not quite as long in the body and somewhat closer fitting than the original.

I was actually attracted by the quite tight looking fit on the pattern photo, although it seems that, on closer inspection, and reading of the other reviews, that the fit is not so close. The thing I most liked about the pattern was that, without too much difficulty, it was possible to meld the hood with the Tshirt pattern I made in the PR class.

The fabric is 100-weight single velour fleece (ie a smooth hard wearing finish on right side and fleece on the wrong side), from Malden Mills prints section. I have had very good wear from RTW jumpers made of this stuff in 200 weight.

I didn't use the pattern instructions except to check how the hood was constructed, which was straightforward. I used the T-shirt class instructions to aid the construction. I used lightweight knit-suitable interfacing on the neckline and I think that was very useful. Interfacing in the sleeve and body hems seems less pleasant to me, although I did do it this time after much testing on scraps of fabric. I also interfaced the hem at the front of the hood which seems OK. I used a narrow zigzag to topstitch down the hood seam allowance and to stitch down the hems since I haven't mastered twin needle stitching (or stitching 2 parallel rows). Haven't looked to see what the Burda pattern suggests for this.

I made quite a few changes to the T-shirt pattern, adding about an inch of ease to the side and arm seams, taking out the CB seam, lengthening the body, slightly modifying the armscye, and taking out the darts. I cut large seam allowances and basted it all together, and then adjusted the fit. The important bit I learned in the class is to bother to transfer the changes on the pattern pieces so that as part of the work, a re-usable pattern is constructed. In addition more small changes can be added in the future so that the pattern can evolve bit by bit.

For the neckline, I made a rough estimate based on the Burda front and back pieces. Then I measured the neckline ofthe resulting pattern pieces and chose a hood size such that the neckline size was correct. I added a cord round the hood front - I am not sure if this is in the Burda pattern or not. For the holes where the cord came out I sewed a bit of interfacing in a rectangle over where the hole was to go right sides together. Then I cut the hole and turned the interfacing to the other side and ironed it down. Wonder if it will fall apart during laundering.

I intend to sew this again, but will wear this one for a bit first to see how much ease to go for. In fact I already have some fabric which is more fashion fabric than sports fabric so will be interesting to see if it works out. I think that using the tshirt pattern as the base enabled the final result to be much closer to what I had envisaged than had I started with the Burda pattern pieces. As well as being a fun hooded top, it is also an excellet perfomer - took it up the mountains this weekend. It is very good at wicking away moisture, and I appreciated the extra warmth of the hood.

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