It's a Hoodie! No, It's Armor! ~ The Knight Hoodie ~

Who doesn't want a sweatshirt with armor??

A comfy knight costume suitable for all occasions?

When I mentioned in my last blog post that I'd have a new historical costume to share this week, an armored hoodie probably isn't what you were picturing. It's not what I was picturing either.

Things happened and something came up that took precedence over attending the outdoor event with the Saint Louis Historical Sewing Society. So my outfit I was desperately trying to finish for that get-together? Yeah. It's still not done. Honestly, once the other thing came up and I discovered I couldn't attend the event I was a little relieved. I was going to miss seeing everybody, but there was just no way I would have gotten my costume finished to my standards before the event. I'd put off too much until the last minute. It would have been a rather cobbled-together affair in the end. Now I have time to finish it properly - and that is actually happening! This week, in fact, I finished the skirt! But, more on that in future posts. Right now, let's get back to THE KNIGHT HOODIE!!

It's not an 1860's ensemble, but it is a costume-like piece, and it is historically inspired!

For the past couple of years I've admired the Sir Gawain Knight Top pattern by Mother Grimm. A kid's sweatshirt with armor? A knight costume that does not involve an ill-fitting, uncomfortable plastic breast plate and too-small plastic helmet? My siblings and I would have loved to have knight costumes like this when we were growing up!!

My brothers and I went through multiple sets of that plastic armor, which got loved, played with, broken, and discarded. Armored hoodies would have been way better!!

Thus, I've long admired the Mother Grimm knight hoodie patterns. When Mother Grimm announced earlier this year that she would be releasing the knight hoodie pattern in adult sizes, I excitedly went and found my youngest brother.

"Hey! Would you wear this?? Should I make a hoodie like this for you??"

He gave me a resounding "Yes!" 

I immediately signed up to test the pattern.

You can choose how much armor you want to add to your hoodie. Crest? Visor? Pauldrons? Spaulders? Gantlets? 

My brother told me he wanted all the armor. And I mean allllll the armor.

The pattern includes options for either one or two sets of Pauldrons on the shoulders.  For maximum impact (and possibly because I misread the pattern instructions) we combined those two options and went with three sets of Pauldrons on my brother's hoodie.

Combine that with the Spaulders sewn into the sleeve caps and there are 4 layers of armor across the shoulders. My brother tells me he loves how solid the shoulders feel. If you're gonna make an armored hoodie, you might as well go all out!

The shoulder armor is made from cotton-spandex jersey, and stiffened with a heavy fusible interfacing to keep it's shape. The Pauldrons are attached with heavy-duty snaps, so they technically could be removed if my brother felt so inclined.  I don't see that happening however.

Moving on from the shoulder armor, the sleeves feature Gauntlets to protect the forearms. 

Like the shoulder armor, the Gauntlets are stiffened with a layer of heavy fusible interfacing, sandwiched between a layer of cotton-spandex jersey and French terry.

Now I think the hood armor might be my favorite part of this hoodie - just look at that silhouette!

A visor, which snaps into place and can be raised or lowered as the knight chooses, and a proud crest on top!

 The hood armor is stiffened with fusible fleece. This is actually the recommended stiffening for all of the armor, but I only had a limited amount in my stash, so the hood is what got it. I appreciate the flexibility of the fleece. It's amazing for the visor, and I think it would have worked well for the shoulder armor too if I'd had enough. However, I wish I'd used the same heavy interfacing I did in the rest of the armor for the crest as well. The crest is a little floppier than I'd prefer, and I think a stiffer interfacing might have helped with that.

My brother's favorite color has always been green, and his Hogwarts house is Slytherin, so I opted to make his knight hoodie silver and green.

I love the green cotton-spandex jersey I used for the armor and hood lining. It's the most perfect shade of deep forest green! I ordered several one yard cuts of solid-colored cotton spandex jerseys from Purple Seamstress fabrics over the summer, with the intention of using them for baby clothes. I wish I'd ordered way more than a yard of this particular color. Between one pair of baby pants and the accents on this hoodie, I used up every last scrap of green jersey, and now I want more!

Deep in my stash I had a small remnant of metallic silver French terry, which I opted to use for the flat piping on the front and back of the hoodie. A knight needs a little bit of shine in his armor!

The rest of the hoodie is made from French terry out of my stash, picked up from Wal-Mart at some point in the past at an excellent price. Any time I find French terry at Wal-Mart I grab it! It's good quality fabric and my favorite thing to make hoodies from!

All the armor does not make this hoodie a quick sew - but I think the finished result is worth the extra time!

A Knight Hoodie! What could be cooler?

*I received this pattern free of charge in exchange for testing it out and giving my feedback.

All thoughts and opinions here are my own. I was not required to write this blog post.

If you're interested in this pattern for yourself, it can be found here.

I highly recommend it for the casual knights in your life! 

A Slytherin Hoodie For My Brother

 Almost as soon as September hit, it started cooling off. Not that it’s particularly chilly out yet, but I don’t think we’ve had a 90 degree day all month! And that’s honestly rather surprising here!

It’s actually been cool enough mornings and evening that hoodies and such have been pulled out and are getting worn regularly.

A couple weeks ago my brother came home from school for the weekend wearing a hoodie I made him a while back, and of course that made me smile! I love seeing things I made get worn.

I made him this hoodie for Christmas 2018, yep nearly 2 years ago now. Last Christmas (2019) I managed to snap some pictures of him wearing it on a family walk. Now it seems like a good idea to get it blogged before Christmas 2020!

As I’ve mentioned before, this brother of mine has been sorted into Slytherin house, and fully embraces his Slytherin identity. He has a set of Slytherin Hogwarts robes and a couple different Slytherin cloaks I’ve made him, which he regularly wears around the house. Thus, a couple of Christmases ago I decided he also needed some Slytherin themed muggle clothing for day to day wear when cloaks are a little more attention grabbing than he’d like.

Enter, the Slytherin Hoodie. I decided to make it pretty much as a muggle version of school robes - black, with green trim and a Slytherin House badge on the chest. The finishing touch is the silver metal zipper down the front.

I used the Otari Hoodie by Scroop Patterns as my pattern for this. Yes, technically this is a woman's pattern, but it has a pretty straight, loose, fit, I already had it in my stash and trusted the sizing, and it had all the elements I was looking for in a classic hoodie for my brother. I particularly love the 3 piece lined hood on this pattern. Three piece hoods just fit nicer than 2 piece hoods do, but some how the majority of the hoodie patterns I own just have 2 piece hoods. Why?!?!? (3 piece hoods can also be squeezed out of smaller scraps of fabric, as an added benefit!)

Prior to beginning this Christmas gift, I'd had my brother try on my Otari hoodie for a completely unrelated reason (One of my instagram friends actually wanted to know how I thought this pattern might fit a male), so I'd been able to judge how this pattern actually fit my brother. I knew from that try-on that he'd found the sleeves and shoulders a little tight. With this in mind, when I cut out my brother's hoodie I did a wide shoulder adjustment and a full bicep adjustment.

These two adjustment resulted in a finished hoodie that fit my brother just about perfectly - at least I've heard no complaints about the fit and he wears the hoodie regularly, so I'll call that a win!

The black fabric I used is a sweatshirt fleece I found lurking in my stash. I have no recollection of obtaining it so who knows where it originated. The green is a cotton/spandex jersey I bought specifically to make Slytherin themed things for my brother out of. It has served that purpose well here. The Slytherin patch on the front was cut out of Slytherin quilting cotton just like the one on my brother's Slytherin school robes.  

The edges of the badge were sealed with Fray Check then I appliqued it onto the front of the hoodie with a tight zig-zag stitch.

My brother tells me that he has received several compliments while wearing this hoodie and and about, but not too much attention so he feels out of place. 

 This is exactly what I was going for with this project! Subtle house pride.

To the untrained eye this is just a black hoodie with green accents.

It's the details that make it special.