Ellie & Mac Around the Block Hoodie

It's Wacky Wednesday at Ellie & Mac. This week I'm featuring the Around the Block Hoodie. I've been wanting to make this pattern ever since I saw Sharon's (Sweet Mama Life) that she made during testing.

The color blocking on the Around the Block Hoodie is so fun! It's perfect for using scraps. My printed portions are french terry scraps that I got from Sharon. We love passing scraps back & forth.

The pattern includes pockets which are nice and roomy.

I love the offset drawstring on the hood. The pattern calls for faux drawstrings, but I wanted a real one.

My Around the Block Hoodie is all french terry. All my french terry came from the Dallas Fabric District. The only piece that was not a scrap was the navy blue. I previously made pants with the burgundy at the top.

I'm not a big fan of hoodies. I did wear this hoodie almost all day earlier this week while I was volunteering to take photos at a historic house in McKinney, Texas for their website. I was surprised at how comfortable it was. But I am tempted to take the hood off and replace it with a cowl.

Be sure to check out the other patterns marked down to only $1 during this weeks Wacky Wednesday Sale! See them all HERE!

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Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. These links provide me with a small compensation if you make a purchase using my link. There is not cost to you when you do this. My thoughts and opinions given in this blog post are mine.

Ellie & Mac Women's Zip It Jacket

It's Wacky Wednesday at Ellie & Mac! This week I'm showing off the Women's Zip it Jacket pattern. I'm not a fan of hoodies, but I made a hooded zip up style jacket 3 years ago and wore it non-stop when it was cool out. After 3 years, it's still great - but I've gotten kind of tired of it. I'm so excited about my Zip It Jacket! Not only is it my favorite color, it's reversible!

I used a green hybrid athletic fabric from Zenith & Quasar. It's a great weight and is a gorgeous green color.

I got my reversible zipper from Jo-ann's. They only had black with gold metal teeth. I really would have loved to have more options, but I didn't feel like ordering online and waiting for another one,

The Zip It Jacket has pockets and I put pockets on the reverse side too.

The inside is a plush brushed poly from Zenith & Quasar. The print is called Secret Garden and is so beautiful!

This is one of my favorite prints and it is regularly offered on different base fabrics every year.

The Zip It Jacket instructions are so easy to follow to make the jacket reversible. It also include directions on making one that is not reversible too. I did order a navy blue separating zipper to make another one, but it will not be reversible.

I hope all my friends and family love my new Zip It Jacket as much as I do. I'll probably be wearing this one for the next 3 years.

One thing to note is that I am 5' tall and did not remove any length from the pattern for my height. I like my jackets this length. I purchased a 24" zipper and took about 1" of teeth out of it for this jacket.

The Women's Zip It Jacket pattern was easy to follow and it fits great. The pattern is on sale through midnight on Wednesday, December 26th for only one dollar!

There are 5 other patterns that are also on sale. See all the Wacky Wednesday sale patterns HERE!
Another one that I love is the I love the 90's dress. Here's one I made.

In addition, all patterns are on sale for $3 through December 31st!

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Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. These links provide me with a small compensation if you make a purchase using my link. There is not cost to you when you do this. My thoughts and opinions given in this blog post are mine.

Duck Butt Designs Back to Fall Hoodie

It's Fall according to calendar, so I've been doing some fall sewing. What best than a pattern with fall in the name? I grabbed the Back to Fall (BTF) Hoodie from Duck Butt Designs. But here's the thing, I really don't like hoodies. It's a good thing I can sew, because that means I can make it without the hood! I know - you are probably thinking that's sacrilegious. But look how amazing my BTF looks sans hood!

I did make a few other modifications to the BTF pattern as well. I'll talk about those in a minute. But first, I want to mention one change that I'm going to make on my next one. The pocket. I love the pocket, but when I made it, it ended up on my left. I need it on my right side - my dominant hand side. So consider that if you decide to make one.

I'm short. 5' tall short. I typically remove 2" from most tops. This one has a lot of pieces on the front and it does not have any lengthen/shorten lines. So I made my own lines to shorten at.

I took 1" out of the length of the middle piece, and 1" from the length of the bottom piece. I then took 2" from the length of the back piece. I just fudged my sleeves to get them to fit on my fabric. I decided to do a simple neckband since I was forgoing the hood. I had thought about a cowl, but will probably do one on my next BTF. I also graded my BTF from a 10 bust to a 14 hip. I graded from below the shoulder color blocked piece. It took a bit of playing around with pieces to get both sides of my BTF to match with the grading - but it was so worth all that effort!

Fabric - The light colored pieces you see are a sweater knit. I found it in the Dallas Fabric District and it came as a tube. It's heavy and silky soft. I have no idea what it is, but it feels amazing and I've been hoarding it for the perfect project. I think I picked the right one.

The print is one of my own designs on Spoonflower. It is named Septarian Nodule. I had it printed on their cotton spandex jersey. I got 1 yard and I used up almost every inch of that yard.

I had a hard time deciding what fabric to use for the inside of my pocket. I really wanted to save some of this fabulous sweater knit for another project, but I was also trying to save a bit o my Septarian Nodule fabric. In the end, I decided I could always buy more of my print from Spoonflower.

Back to adjustments I made to the BTF - It calls for a bottom band. I tried my BTF on before I added any bands to figure out how long to make my sleeve cuffs and to see how long the top was. Well, it was the perfect length as is, so I decided to just hem by BTF. I decided to make my arm cuffs go to my wrists. In the photo below I folded the cuffs up. This way I'm able to wear it long sleeved or 3/4 length sleeves. I love versatility.

I absolutely love my BTF with all my modifications. I currently have 10 yards of cotton lycra with my photos printed as 1 yard panels on their way to me. I got 2 yard sized panels of 5 different photographs. I'm definitely going to be making at least 1 BTF from my new fabrics.

I'm getting ready to head out on vacation very soon and will not be back until the end of September. Fall should be in Texas by then and I'll be all set with my BTF waiting for me. I hope you will visit Duck Butt Designs and see all their great patterns. They have a few for free that are worth checking out.  The free patterns can be seen HERE. Let me just say - the plain pants (both kids and adult) are amazing! Head over to the Duck Butt Designs Sew & Chat Facebook Group and get the codes from the pinned post to get the free patterns. Be sure to sign up on the website for the newsletter - you get a code for $3 off your next purchase and a code to get the Essential Raglan for FREE!















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Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. These links provide me with a small compensation if you make a purchase using my link. There is not cost to you when you do this. My thoughts and opinions given in this blog post are mine.