Flower Faerie Hoodie Improvements & Updates

Just finished up this gorgeous Flower Faerie hoodie to ship off to the East Coast this morning.  This one was custom ordered with longer sleeves and no laces on the sides.  It's always fun to make modifications.  This is the second request I've gotten for no side laces and it makes it a rather different hoodie, I think.  Certainly it fits differently.  I like the clean lines of it quite a lot.

I'm also getting a little faster.  This one is my best seller and I've made quite a few of them at this point.  I think I maybe have shaved at least an hour or maybe two hours off the total creation time (so, down to 5-6 hours from 7-8 hours).  Details take time! 

(Also, the side laces take a lot of time.  Maybe that's why I finished this one so quickly)

I keep making teensy improvements too.  My serger does a lot of different types of seams and I keep changing my mind as to which seam type I like best for which seam.  I think my choices are getting better and better. 

For any sewing geeks who might be reading this, I use a Babylock Imagine serger.  It's got a feed differential, which means it can sew two pieces of fabric together at different "speeds" - i.e. it makes gathers or ruffles automatically.  The other cool thing it does is make "lettuce edges" if I sew just one layer of fabric on a stretch differential.  Like this.. see how the sleeve edge is wiggly?

Anyway, that's one thing I've started doing with the later versions of this hoodie, and I think it adds a lot.  Another thing is the way I assemble the wrist cuff.. the way I was doing it before, I ended up with a little uneven jag at the end of the wrist cuff, often as not, and I reworked it so the edges come out even and hidden this time.  It's those little things that make me so happy.

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Tahoe Trip, Labels and Spiral Embroidery

Up at the crack of dawn this morning.. making labels.  Yes, even the labels are handmade.  :)

I just got back from a couple days in Tahoe, at my family's cabin.  We went up there to get the cabin ready for winter - put up the snow panels on the snow tunnel, put the dirt bikes and the canoe away, and anti-freeze the pipes.  Just in time too - the temperature was down in the 20s both of the nights we were there.  

I woke up well before dawn on Tuesday morning, and finding myself unable to sleep, went downstairs and did some sewing.   (Yes, I take my work with me on vacation.  It must truly be love)  I'd brought 3 pre-cut projects, as there's no good cutting table at the cabin, and so I was able to concentrate just on the fun part.  

It's amazing how much time one has, when deprived of internet access.   Over the course of two days I completed three hoodies.  Well, mostly...  I'd forgotten to pack the zippers, and I was out of labels, but I got them pretty darn close.

Two of these were already sold.. a M/L version of the Green Flower Faerie hoodie but with leaf embroidery rather than swirls, and a S/M Purple Flower Faerie hoodie.  I made another Purple one (since that design just flies off the shelf) and took some creative liberties with the embroidery patterns here too.. I did stylized flowers and spirals, and used Wild Orchid fleece.  Pretty!!!

In between sewing there was time to do all the cabin chores, watch a dramatic hail storm, and play on my new Unicycle.  It being only my first time, I got up and down the street clinging to my hubby and managed about 4 feet solo at the end.  Woo hoo UNICYCLE!

Next up: my halloween costume.  I'm going to be a Fairy Ninja!!!!  Probably not on a unicycle, just yet.  What are you going to be?

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Hoodie Production.. Design, Create, Polish, Repeat

So.. they like me!  They really like me.  :)  

I’ve sold my first few hoodies.. one is shipped and paid for, and two more are spoken for and ready to go.  I can’t believe how much fun this is.  I’m neglecting my other businesses (you know, the ones where I actually see a profit margin) because all I want to do is make hoodies.  I suppose I should just go with it.  This energy won’t last forever.

I made a second purple flower fairy hoodie since I got such great responses from the first one.  I had kind of mixed feelings.. I hadn’t re-made any hoodies before.. was it going to be boring?  Turn into assembly line work?  Was I just creating a sweatshop for myself?

Turns out, my fears were unfounded, at least so far.  I had a delightful time making the second one.  I was able to circumvent a few problems I’d run into the first time.  I came up with a slightly better way of doing the triple layer sleeves.  And this new one hangs a little better in the front when it’s open.  

I also have two more ideas I want to incorporate into future versions of this hoodie.. I want to change the embroidery on the hood, and I want to incorporate a pocket somewhere.. maybe on the sleeve, ipod-style.  I want to be able to carry my ID or my phone, but big pockets just won’t work without ruining the lines of this hoodie.

I’m already daydreaming about cutting a third one.  Also, since the first two sold so quickly, I might have to make a fourth, just in case I sell another one - I think I want one of these to keep!

But, I keep having new ideas too.  Maybe there needs to be two of me.

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