The Wandering Stash Hood

This new product stemmed from a desire to give a good friend a going away present, as he is moving across the country. It was debuted at Tipper & Friends, A Full Moon Gathering at Spirit of Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, FL on April 22nd by said friend, who also shamelessly promotes his friends and their talents.

I started with a pattern that I already had for a hood (Simplicity 1795) and used it as a guide while drawing out what I actually envisioned onto muslin. I cut this pattern, gave it a quick basting stitch to hold it together while I fit it on my fiance's head. I found that it bunched up a bit around the crown, so I marked it and cut off the excess fabric. I also found that the "tails" were a little shorter than I would have liked.

Once my alterations were finalized, I went back and retraced the final pattern onto muslin and cut it out. It is important to note, when drawing out this pattern I made sure the top of the hood and the back of the hood were cut at exact 90 degree angles so when sewn together I didn't get a peak or valley where the two pieces met. With this process out of the way, I was ready to quickly turn out the final product...or so I thought. I traced the pattern onto the fabric I wanted to use for the inner lining and then hooped it for the embroidery machine, as I wanted to embroider my tag onto the inner tail and it's too narrow to hoop once it's cut.

Now that "The Wandering Junkie" was emblazoned onto the tail, I was ready to cut the material. By making my pattern simple I was able to cut all four pieces for this hood in one cut, by layering the material. Next is where this quick hood turned into an all day affair. I hooped the piece I just embroidered so I could add a design to the inner lining, since this was to be a reversible hood. The design was almost completely done embroidering, and I was on my last color change when the machine bound up and literally ate the material. I had to scrap it and start that one piece all over again.

Fast forward to me finished the inner lining and hooping up the outside for the main design. Once again, I was down to the last color change on the first piece and this time the machine quit picking up the bobbin thread. At this point I was ready to tear my hair out. So my fiance and I went out to the brewery for a much needed mental break. I called the local Brother service center to find out if my 20+ year-old machine was even worth the price to fix it. The technician was really nice and told me that it sounded like the timing was off. He assured me that the machine I have is always worth trying to fix, because it is a "heavy duty work horse."

As a DIYer, I refuse to pay someone to fix something if I can do it myself, so I returned to my machine when we got home, armed with a tutorial I Goggled for fixing the timing as well as a service manual I downloaded and I got to work. It took me about an hour to get it al

l figured out and fixed, but thankfully I got it working and was able to finish the embroidery.

I sewed both the lining and the outer shell of the hood right sides together along the outer curve of the hood. For a nice finished look, and to keep the material lying flat, I also top stitched along the seam. I then put the two hoods again right sides together and stitched all the way around, leaving a nice sized hole at the back for turning the hood right side out. This hole will be left unfinished until the very end. Again I went around the outer edges of the hood with a top stitch, except around the tails.

I finished the hole in the back with Velcro to close, so the entire hood is essentially a stash pocket. This is why I didn't top stitch the tails, as it would cause the tails to look awkward when there is actually something stashed in them. I put weights in the tails so they hang nicely when it's worn, and just about anything can be used, from marbles to fishing weights. One of the kind of cool things about this hood is that, in a pinch, it can be used as a tote bag by tying the tails together to fashion a handle.

My friend was in love when he saw it, as I embroidered a wolf (his spirit animal) on either side. He was so excited to wear it, it gave me a touch of the feels. This design, along with many others will be available soon for custom order in the Shop.