Twin Spiral Hoody

I've finally started the Twin Spiral Hoodie for Lou. I'm loving the process so far. Something about the challenge of finding solutions to problems brings me so much satisfaction. The challenge of this piece has been the fabrics. Lou loved one of my other hoodies, but it was too small for her and she isn't a fan of fleece fabrics. So I needed to come up with fabrics that would fit her criteria. Add to this that she lives miles away from me so I couldn't use anything that needed to be tailored. It needed to have some stretch to it.
After searching the net for a week or so I found a beautiful textured knit, multi coloured on a rust base.

It arrived two days ago and was everything I hoped it would be until I pulled it out of the bag.

See through as all hell. Argh!

Not to mention far too loosely woven for the project!
I didn't want to give up on the fabric. It's beautiful and I hadn't come across anything else in my searching that had come even close to filling my brief for this project. I hunted through my stash and found a burgundy retro knit. Nice to touch on one side but the other felt strange and slippery. It had a nice stiffness though and only a small amount of stretch. Not a fabric I was likely to use for anything. So here is my idea. I lay them out, cut my garment and lightly quilted them together. Turn two imperfect fabrics into one perfect one.
I feel pretty pleased with myself. for working my way through this one.

Next bit is the twin spirals. Cutting a spiral is usually soooo easy for me. I've learnt through my hours of drawing and painting how to get my forms flowing just right. What makes doing a twin spiral more tricky is that I'm trying to get two spirals cut out in one piece so that they create the negative and positive of each other. I cant afford to slip in the cutting of one because it breaks the form of the other and I need to make sure that both forms are balanced as individual pieces. I am pretty happy with how these two worked.

Loving the retro cotton. So cool. I really love the juxtaposition of the geometric shapes printed on the fabric and the sweeping curves.



















PART TWO a few days later.

Next bit of the mission was deciding on the fabrics for the hood and arms. It wasn't hard in the end. Lou had already told me that she was a fan of purple and I have the most beautiful deep purple, large wale corduroy. It was the obvious choice. Once again a no stretch fabric where I would usually use a fleece though. The simplest solution was to rework my pattern to have looser sleeves and my hood pattern is fairly large anyway. It just needed a little taken out to accommodate a stiffer fabric.

This created one problem with the hood though. With a fleece hood the inside is soft and snuggly. Not so with corduroy! I had to line it. I have some of this sooo soft stuff, I don't even know what it is but it is the best snuggly lining ever made. I chose a dark chocolaty brown that blends beautifully with the other colours to line the hood.
















I added a little peak cuff to the sleeves just to tie the whole piece together and stitched it up.
I am sooo pleased with the result. The challenge of unusual fabrics has paid off in one of the best hoodies I have made. I hope that Lou will love it as much as I do.