KCW Day One - Urban Hoodie Modification

I recently saw some super cute plush backed fleece in Spotlight and snapped it up before it was all gone.  I bought three colours - an orange geometric design for me, a grey and hot pink stripe for Issy and some cream with super cute orange bicycles for Marcus.

The plush back of the fleece was so snuggly and soft that I wanted to modify the Urban Unisex Hoodie from Heidi and Finn pattern to make it mostly unlined, so the plushness wasn't wasted.  For my first "hour" (it was somewhat more!) of KCW I worked out how to change the lining into a hood lining and facing, then got sewing.  As you can see from the picture above, I got a lovely orange rib to make the lining/facing from which goes very well with the bicycles on the fleece.

To do this pattern modification I had to draft a couple of new pattern pieces, which were really just thinner edge versions of the main pattern pieces.

Here is the (rather insignificant looking) back facing:

And this was the front facing:

I then changed the construction order as follows:

• Overlock the facing edges
• Make hood as normal
• Attach outer shell at shoulders, attached facings together at shoulders
• Attach hood and facings
• Sew down facings
• Set in sleeves
• Side seams
• Carry on from step 20 as normal

On the whole, this seems to have worked fairly well.  The facings shore up the front edges and hide the neck seam well.

However, the rib I used here for the lining/facing was quite unstable and stretched across the neckline.  In comfort terms this is neither here nor there, but it looks a bit unsightly from inside.  I will likely modify further when I make Issy's, to separate the neckline facing from the edges facing, which should allow me to tuck the facing edges under and top stitch down for a neater finish.

For Marcus I used the size six this time, which so far looks like a good fit.

Actually, it's a bit hard to tell much about the fit from this picture, but notably the thing will be definitely long enough with the band attached, and the sleeves are long enough (my kids have monkey arms they got from their father...)

Looking forward to my hour of power today!  I will likely sew longer again to capitalise on having a husband out of the country and a reason to sew sew sew :)  Hopefully I can finish this one off and get the facings etc cut out for Issy's version.  More tomorrow - how awesome is Kid's Clothes Week!