After the success of my green Patrones hoodie I thought that I’d make something similar for my nephew Logan’s birthday using the same fabric. I liked the look of #7 from Patrones Ninos 271 (Patrones magazine is normally all womenswear patterns, but they have two special childrens issues each year).
Even though it’s modelled on a girl here, it’s definitely a unisex style, and I thought the dark green sweatshirting was definitely more of a boy colour anyway, and this was much nicer than the other styles for boys his age in this issue. So I sewed this up on my overlocker in a few hours, and now it’s off to the post office in time for the big day! Unfortunately my would-be model neighbour girl has gone away for the past few days so I’m limited to a flat photo until Logan wears it himself…
I think my favourite part of this design is the clever front pocket, which is actually cut as one piece and folded at the hem to create the pouch. In the pattern piece diagram it’s #5 (#6 is the back band, and #7 is the sleeve cuff).
It means you see a bit of the “wrong” side of the sweatshirt fleece, but I think this actually just creates some visual interest in the slightly darker fabric. I used a bit of ribbing on the pocket edge since I had it in the matching colour anyway, but you could just as easily use FOE or lycra tape if that’s what you have on hand.
I also used the same hood drawstring technique here that I designed for my hoodie – I reinforced a small area on the wrong side of the hood edge with iron-on interfacing (so it doesn’t stretch and pop the eyelet out!), punched an eyelet through, then folded the hood edge over and sewed it with a twin needle. Then, after the hood is attached to the neckline, I threaded some round elastic around the hood edge and added on the elastic clamps. I think this really gives a nice professional look to it and the eyelets are so much stronger than any buttonholes could be!
My only concern is that this might be pretty big on him when he first gets it – he’s turning 7 but without measurements I decided to sew up the “10 year old” size just in case Spanish kids are drastically smaller than their American counterparts. So the best case is that it’s a little too big and he gets a few years of wear out of it. Worst case is that it’s really big and he drowns in it for a few years first!
Oh, and in winter sewing news – I really need to get my skates on and sew up my Burda sweater and scoodie and mittens because it snowed here in London last night! UGH! We were colder than both Reykjavik and Moscow, and if this is what we’ve got in store for us until April, it’s going to be a long, long winter indeed…
UPDATE: Logan got it an it fits him great (though a tad short in the body, his mom sasys)…
