A nicely fitted sleeve has been my makey moby dick for ages now as far as tiny chumley's wardrobe is concerned. Each year, I find myself pulling out the pattern I yearn to perfect, and refine it more, redrawing the shoulder line and adjusting the armscye and sleeve cap, sewing fit model after fit model to test my tweaks and futz some more.
Late last year, the sewing gods finally saw fit to allow me achieve to my goal of sleeve nirvana. But the irony, of course, is that I now realize that sleeves, even nicely fitted sleeves that highlight a magnificent shoulder ham, are hardly something a little wolf wants or needs when he goes on his walkies. A little wolf needs freedom of movement when he goes out in the world, an unhindered ability to move his shorty legs upwards and downwards and every which way in between, so he can be ready at a moment's notice to chase bunnies, or run away from big noisy dogs. Sleeves are great for jammies and dress up, but not so much for a wandering weenie wolf's walkie wear.
With old man winter finally making an appearance, this week's makey project for tiny chumley was two fold - make a simple sleek winter thermal hoodie that would allow him to walk unencumbered by bulk, and, rusty though I have been in this department, make him a new super cool winter harness that he could wear over his new cashmere duds.
Today, a peek at part 1, Baxter's cashmere hoodie, which I made from a sleeve of a thrift store sweater for the main body, and part of the sweater's body for the hood itself, plus double fold bias binding cut from fabric I had scored long ago in the NYC garment district. The basic concept is fairly simple and, since there are no set in sleeves, no pattern is required. In fact, the basic concept is simply to find a cashmere sweater whose sleeve is slightly smaller in circumference than the tubular size of your pup's body. I wanna say maybe 10-20% smaller for a nice snug fit. Cut the sleeve off at the shoulder seam. Then cut two slits where the arm holes should be (just cut slits, not circles else the arm holes will stretch too big). Consider making one release cut into the cuff ribbing if the neck is tight - this will also allow for a cute turn down collar as well. Then cut for body length as needed, and bind all the cut edges, or leave them unfinished as I did in his first sleeve based
blue sweater .
Add a hood if you'd like using a stretch stitch on your sewing machine and voila, instant winter jedi viking cashmere hoodie! :)
ps - It was cloudy all day yesterday so in the next post, a hopefully much less wordier peek at tiny chumley's awesome part 2.
hee hee, mom, speaking of jedis and vikings, next time u make me a hoodie can u please add loops so a wolf can carry a light saber and an axe? otherwise this patttern is pretty much perfect and thank u so much for making it for me:)
