jalie hoodie sew-along post 6: Step 6 assembly

Edit November 2015: the sew-along is finished! Below you can reach the different parts of the sew-along by clicking on an image. The tagset “jalie hoodie sew-along” contains any and all posts relating to the sew-along. Enjoy!

Hey there stitchers! Today, we have our final post. I have so appreciated those of you who’ve commented, emailed, and posted to the Facebook group. I hope you’ve had as good a time as I have!

So: onward and upward! We’re installing our inner collar, and finishing up!

In this hoodie pattern as written, the only bit of lining is that inner collar piece. It obscures the lower hood seam, the neckline seam, and adds a pop of color if, like me, you made it up in a contrasting fabric.

Here are our steps for finishing:

Jalie’s instructions are so great. If you look at them one picture at a time, you can see what you need to do. However, I have a couple modifications at this point, for a more elegant finish.

As you may have noticed in my Step 4, I have already topstitched my zipper, and I don’t intend to topstitch the collar at all. Instead, I am going to turn under all the inner collar seams except the top raw edge, before attaching. I have found doing this offers me complete control of the finished product. Shown below, the short end (running horizontally) and long end of my inner collar piece (held by my thumb), pressed:

After sewing the neckline seam (figure 42), trim and grade as you see fit (you may find that grading the seam, then pressing and zig-zag finishing, reduces bulk the most), and clip your zipper (figure 43) if you need to. Note below how perfectly my zipper fits the coat, due to my measurements: the metal stop is about 1/4″ from the top of the seam:

Here, also, you can see my two folded seam allowances – on the short end of the upper collar, and the long (neckline) end. I pin, and then finish by hand.

About hand-finishing: I use a strong, cotton-wrapped polyester thread, set the thread in beeswax for strength, and double it. You can affix this final bit of work with an invisible (slip) stitch or, as I have done, a simple whip stitch:

And finally: if you want to topstitch the hoodie as per figure 46, go for it. Although the instructions show topstitching on the hood-less view of the hoodie, the topstitching is the same for the hooded version, too – you topstitch along the collar edge, not into the body of the hood. My advice, go slow. A walking foot, and the use of stabilizer, will help make an even topstitch finish.

So… um… I don’t want to make it weird or anything… but you have TOTALLY FINISHED YOUR HOODIE!

BOOM!

Here’s the final product. Note there is no topstitching on my version whatsoever, except at the front zipper. Here you can also see the hood lining (stripe) and inner collar (polka dot):

Voila!

Thank you so much for joining me in this wonderful sew-along. It has been a real pleasure. I will be returning for more sew-alongs during the new year – and I hope to see you there!

<a href="https://kelly.hogaboom.org/category/sew-a-long/?utm_source=jalie-hoodie-sew-along-badge-v1&utm_medium=badge&utm_campaign=jalie-hoodie-sew-along"><img decoding="async" src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/781/20897598851_c1340cda1c.jpg" /></a>[/column] [column]

<a href="https://kelly.hogaboom.org/category/sew-a-long/?utm_source=jalie-hoodie-sew-along-badge-v1&utm_medium=badge&utm_campaign=jalie-hoodie-sew-along"><img decoding="async" alt="" src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/781/20897598851_c1340cda1c_m.jpg" /></a> [/column] [/column-group]

Sew-A-Long ONLY rss feed | “jalie hoodie sew-along” ONLY rss feed