Gabriella's Day 2 - Cut Material, Create Hood Pattern, Interface, and Prepare Bodice

Welcome to Day 2 of the Gabriella's Winter Coat Sew-A-Long! Find Day 1 here.

Today we will be cutting our material, creating our hood pattern, interfacing the pieces, and preparing the bodice for construction. These are steps 1-5 in the pattern.

Cutting the Material

Cut your main, lining, and interfacing pieces for Gabriella's using the instructions on the pattern pieces. Compare the pieces you have to the cutting guide on page 11 of the pattern to be sure you have everything. There are a lot of pieces to this pattern! Take your time cutting out all of the pieces. Accuracy when cutting leaves less room for error when sewing.

TIP: If your material is dark and you are having difficulty tracing it, rub chalk off the edges of your pattern piece to create an outline. You can also use baby powder on a sock to rub the edges. Another use for chalk is to write on your mirror image pieces in order to more easily see which is which. It should all come off when shaken vigorously.

If your fabric isn't quite wide enough to fit your skirt piece on the fold, you can create a seam down the center back by cutting to the border line of the page instead of to the dashed line for your size. Cut 2 mirrored. Sew them with right sides together using the distance between the dashed line and the border as your seam allowance. Press the seam open.

(Optional) Creating a Hood Pattern

If you are adding the optional hood hack to the pattern, bring out your hooded garment, blank paper, pens, rubber bands or tape, and your paper collar pattern piece.

Before creating your hood pattern, compare the width of the neck of your hooded garment to the collar pattern piece. Take into consideration the seam allowance of the collar piece when comparing this to the finished hood of the garment. You want these to match fairly closely in width. One without an attached chin piece like the one I am using will be much easier to work with.

Step 1: Lay your hood out on its side on the paper and weigh it down so it doesn't slip around.

Note: You may need to tape a couple of pieces of paper together in order to fit the hood.

Tip: The hood will often lay flatter if it is inside out.

Step 2: Take a pair of rubber bands or some tape and fasten 2 pens together near the tip and near the end. Measure how far apart the writing tips are. This will be your hood seam allowance. My pen tips are 3/8" apart.

TIP: Make sure your pens both work before you fasten them together.

Step 3: Trace around your hood using your double pen. In the middle of the tracing, write your seam allowance from step 2.



Step 4: Extend the outside edges of your hood tracing down 1/2" to create the seam allowance for the bottom. Trace the bottom of the collar piece to join the two sides. Transfer collar markings to the hood pattern.



Step 5: Cut out your new hood pattern.

Optional Step 6: If you are planning to make your hood detachable, align your collar piece over the bottom of your hood pattern piece. Mark snap placement on your collar piece. There will be three snap placement marks all placed halfway between the top and bottom of the collar piece: one each above the notch markings and one 1" from the rounded end of the collar. Transfer these placement marks to your hood pattern piece too.



Step 7: Using your new hood pattern piece, cut 2 mirror image pieces from your main fabric and 2 mirror image pieces from your lining fabric. Transfer your snap placement marks to your hood pieces and one of your collar pieces.

TIP: Cut two mirror image pieces from inexpensive or lining material and sew around with right sides together from the back of the neckline to the top of the face opening. Press the seam allowance for the face hole back. Try on your child's head to test the fit and adjust as necessary. This is called a muslin.

Interface the Pieces & Prepare the Bodice for Construction

With a pressing cloth at the ready so your material stays safe when you press it, follow steps 1 & 2 of the pattern to interface your pieces then follow steps 3-5 to prepare your bodice for construction. Don't forget to follow steps 3-5 for your lining pieces too!



That's it for today! Please post a picture like the one above on the Day 2 thread in the Facebook group in order to participate. Check back in tomorrow for Day 3!