In which there are many frustrations but I like the end product (Ottobre 05-2014-03 zipper hoodie)

Ever since the latest issue of Ottobre Woman came out in August, I have been talking and thinking about making pattern #3, the asymmetrical hoodie with a zip.

Image from Ottobre 05-2014

Technical drawing of Ottobre 05-2014-03

It's actually a very straightforward knit garment, when you look at the technical drawing, with only two complications: 1. that asymmetrical zip; and 2. the welt pockets. There's no actual reason that I've left it so long to make except that I had to change out the thread in my overlocker (why I make such a DRAMA out of this when I can change the thread over in less than ten minutes, I don't know, but EVERY TIME I am like, urgh, I have to change my overlocker thread, woe, grumble, moan, etc.) My only other reason for delaying was that I needed to buy all sorts of little notions (twill tape, grommets, the zip -- and I wanted a NICE zip with metal teeth) in order to make it and I kept being lazy about ordering them.

At any rate, everything came together for me to make it this week, at last, and so I did. Unfortunately, that's where the frustrations started.

Ottobre 05-2014-03 my version, on Flossie

The fabric was, to say the least, problematic. It's GREAT to look at, and when I bought it (back in January from Croft Mill) I thought it would make a great ponte jacket to wear to work. However, whatever chemical had been put on the fabric to make it stay nice on the roll triggered my allergies like CRAZY and I therefore flung it into the washing machine having only just handled it enough to think yes, this WILL make a good jacket. Not so much when it came OUT the washing machine. It went from feeling quite firm and jacket-like to being a VERY soft and unstructured feeling.

Plan B was some kind of loose cardigan, but due to the way it had been cut I had a very scant 2m of fabric and couldn't find a pattern I liked that worked with that amount of fabric. (These plans predate my discovery and love of my first Swoon Scarf Neck Cardigan which would have worked with the fabric, but oh well!) Plan C (prompted by the similarity of my fabric to the picture in the magazine because I am really that unimaginative) was this hoodie.

It was not a perfect matchup of fabric and pattern. I didn't have enough fabric to pattern match on ANY seam (though, having abandoned the idea and cut however fit, by coincidence the side seams actually come so close to matching anyway!). The fabric is so squashy and plush that it just swallows thread, so unpicking anything was a COMPLETE nightmare. I unpicked about 1cm of one seam and was like, yeah, no, I can't make any more mistakes. Also, the squashiness and... looseness? I don't know how to describe it! At any rate, the qualities of the fabric that make it plush and warm also meant that it was SHIFTY AS FUCK when it came to sew. Like, no matter how many million pins I pinned it with, and even hand basting, the seams rippled like crazy and shifted out of alignment on my overlocker, to a MUCH greater extent than with other knit garments I have used. However, other than that it's actually quite nice as it stands today, with half a day of wear, but I can tell it's going to be a horror for pilling and pulled threads. I mean, I can tell because it's ALREADY a horror for pulled threads, at least. Ugh. On the plus side, I used fusible bias tape for the zipper and that worked brilliantly to stabilize the edges when I was sewing.

Ottobre 05-2014-03 Open to show wrong side

The next problem was the welt pockets. OK, so I have not made welt pockets on garments before, but I've made loads on bag patterns. I know for some reason the sewing blog world wants people to be TERRIFIED of welt pockets, but I wasn't at all worried about it, except insofar as I was sewing it on this squashy, shifty, badly behaved fabric.

So, I made the first welt pocket, and it was PERFECT. I mean, not really perfect, but pretty damn close given the nature of the fabric and so on. I did an actual little dance around my sewing room, because I am a dork, and THEN, THREE SECONDS LATER, I REALIZED I HAD SEWED IT ALL ON BACKWARDS. BACKWARDS. ARGH. I may have flung everything on the floor and run away from the sewing room in a tantrum, but you can't prove that I did.

Recall that unpicking 1cm of seam had previously made me throw my hands up and declare I could not possibly make another mistake. There was absolutely no way in hell that I was going to unpick an entire welt pocket. So in the end I sewed it shut and cut off the actual interior pocket pieces using my overlocker. All that is left is a ~~~~design feature backwards pocket that you can't see (it's "visible" in the first of the two photographs above, but I really don't think unless you know it's there that you can see it at all) and a sort of vestigial interior piece of pocket which really nobody would know about unless I told them. I didn't bother to put the second pocket in because I decided it would annoy me much more to have one working pocket and one sad non-pocket than no pockets at all.

As modelled by yours truly, open

Sadly, the other frustration is that I made some HUGE assumptions about how well this would fit me. I made an Ottobre size 44, which is a pretty usual size for me. However, it's toooooo big through the shoulders and too long through the sleeves. Rolling up the cuffs resolves the sleeve issue but I think I just need to admit that a size 44 is TOO big at the shoulder for me in Ottobre and I need smaller size + FBA :| And oh my god, why so many weird wrinkles when I wear it? (The sleeves are because I pushed up for the shot.)

My version, zipped up

I also REALLY DISLIKE the fact that the edge of the lower layer of the asymmetrical closure, which DOESN'T hang down on Flossie, hangs down when I wear it. SO ANNOYING. I might have to put a little popper on to stop it doing that, ugh.

However, all my MANY MANY complaints notwithstanding, and acknowledging that the fit is really not that great, I really like this! It's REALLY comfortable, and it does look just as I expected with black trousers. Plus, I wore it round to dinner with my parents tonight and they really loved it and thought it was great. So, that cheered me up about the finished product.

In conclusion, I mean, I really love Ottobre patterns and none of my problems were with the pattern AT ALL, except for picking probably the wrong size. And I'll probably wear it LOADS just because it's warm  and cuddly.