A FibreMood Hoodie with a Surprise inside!


I am absolutely living for the Minerva Exclusive Prints at the moment, some of the prints are just so fabulously bold and really make a statement which is right up my ally. This Zebra Collage Loop Back Knit fabric is a perfect example of just that and I immediately fell in love with it… and unusually for me knew straight away what I wanted to turn it into.

I’ve had the FibreMood Hazel Hoodie pattern in my stash for a little while now, struggling to figure out what I wanted to make it in and getting decidedly distracted by how many beautiful versions of this pattern are all over the internet. But the minute I saw this fabric it was an obvious choice for me, it will not be news for those of you that have been following me for a while to know that I just adore a statement piece… in fact my wardrobe is becoming majority statement pieces these days.

Now, this is my first time using a FibreMood pattern, so I took to the size chart (because seriously all the brands vary so much it is never worth skipping this step). When it comes to a size chart I always consider the garment I’m making to decide which of my body measurements is going to be the most relevant. For example, my bust measurement really doesn’t have any impact on the fit of a pair of dungarees, so I just don’t even check it. This process exists because I don’t find that my 3 measurements (bust, waist and hips) ever fit neatly within one size bracket. So, for this pattern I was really only interested in my bust measurement, which fit perfectly in the middle of their Large bracket… so that’s the size I cut.

The next, and arguably the most challenging step was then to really think about the pattern matching. It’s by far my least favourite thing to have to consider but whenever there are stripes of any sort involved its required, I’m afraid. However, this fabric is not that clear cut as the stripes aren’t straight. They meander across the width of the fabric in a very wiggly way, varying each one’s width as it goes. This doesn’t mean all thoughts of pattern matching go out of the window, it just means it becomes a more fluid concept.

When laying the fabric out, I made sure that the stripes were sitting on themselves (as it was folded to cut 2 simultaneously) correctly so the print would be level. Then when cutting out the front and back, I made sure that the bottom of the pieces were sitting at the same level, so that although I wouldn’t get a perfect match the different stripes would somewhat flow across the side seam. If the front and back side seams were cut with different stripes at the base it would look really jarring on the eye, whereas if you look at the pictures you’ll see although the wiggles don’t continue fluidly (a literally impossible task with this print) it still looks right.

Now, I will add, that for my own amusement I did make a perfect pattern match of the kangaroo pocket that’s on the front. I mean, small pieces like this are by far the most fun to play around with achieving as if it goes wrong you can usually either try again using offcuts or just wiggle the pocket up/down somewhat to try and line it up. Its good fun and definitely worth a play if you’ve never pattern matched anything before.

The cuffs on this can be made in the same fabric, I opted for some black ribbing that I had in my stash… it is quite a soft ribbing I’ve used so I think when I make this pattern again I’ll opt for one that has a bit more rebound in it as it’ll give a better fit on the wrist. I also used eyelets on the hood, the pattern does give the option for creating a buttonhole instead, but I really love little details like this for giving my makes a more polished look.

The finished hoodie is incredible, I love it. I have learnt though it does come up quite big. This could be because this loop back fabric isn’t overly thick, it’s what I’d refer to as a lovely spring weight knit rather than a chunky winter one (hopefully you get what I mean) so it’s possible if it was made in a thicker fabric it wouldn’t feel so large, but you can probably see from the pictures… I’ve got a 6month baby bump hiding in this with still lots of room to go. So, the next version of this I think I’ll try sizing down and see how I get on… the perk of stretch fabric is it’ll still fit even if it’s a little on the snug side.




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