Hoods, Buttons and Puffy Sleeves

Here is Una's hoody, the final piece of her clothing I needed to make. It was more complicated than her long sleeved top, as there was a hood and the fastening of the jacket to contend with. I tried to work out how to make it from looking at how my own hoodys were sewn together.

I made the torso part of the hoody as I did the top, by sewing two pieces of material together that had been measured to the puppet's body, however I made the front panel a bit bigger than the back, so there would be extra material to fold over for the hem, and so that the sides of the jacket could overlap so that it could be fastened with buttons. Once I had the tube shape I cut the neckline to the right shape before cutting the front panel straight down the middle, forming two flaps. I then hemmed these so they looked neat, as well as the neckline and bottom of the hoody.

To make the hood, I cut out a piece of material that was the same width as the neckline of the jacket, when the jacket was spread out flat. I stitched the material to the neckline and then cut the new flap in a semicircle shape, giving it the shape of a hood. I rolled the edges over and glued them down, as on a hood the edges curl over, so it looked similar.

I made the sleeves and attached them in the same way as I did with the top, except I shaped them so that they widened at wrists, to give that celtic, medieval feel.

The buttons are embroidery thread tied in multiple knots, threaded through the jacket flap and secured underneath the jacket by a tight knot. They were sprayed with craft glue to make them go hard and keep their shape. The button holes I just made with a knife tip.

So there you go, that was a very brief description of how I made the hoody!