we’ve got a fair number of little boys inhabiting this neighborhood, which provides many opportunities to exercise my boy clothing brain when birthdays roll around. while clearly my repertoire isn’t incredibly diverse, this hoodie pattern has served me quite well in this regard, and is obviously highly adaptable. i’ve already made a couple for reese, and pulled it out again twice in the past month for the recent birthday boys on our block.
this one might look familiar–i made a red version for reese a few months ago from ticking. given my deep affinity for stripes and that ticking comes in red and blue, i of course purchased both colors and wasted little time in finding appropriate uses for them. i actually like the blue one better, i think! i wish i had a picture of little reed, who looks so handsome in this shirt with his white blonde hair. if you click on the link to the red version, you will find instructions on how to make the hoodie with bias bound seams as pictured here (just remember, double fold bias tape!).
this past weekend, we celebrated our neighbor ashton’s third birthday. like many three year old boys, ashton enjoys reptiles and amphibians. while i wouldn’t call myself squeamish, only very special circumstances ( e.g., in a group of children and parents at a birthday party) would compel me to spend an hour with lizards in my hair, frogs on my lap, and millipedes on my arms. ew. anyway, the kids liked it.
for ashton, yet another hoodie, but you’d never know they were the same pattern, eh? this one is fully lined in some of the super soft striped jersey i had left over from this shirt, and the outer is made of some teal linen i inherited from my aunt (but i’ve seen a very similar fabric at joann’s, if you’re interested). i do love subdued colors on kids, but i imagine kids prefer the brighter variety, and i really like the contrast of the teal and yellow. the softness of the jersey alone should do the brunt of winning him over.
i planned to use these fabrics together for the hoodie for weeks, and still feeling really enamored with triangles, i had also planned to stencil some on the finished hoodie. some major gardening endeavors pushed this project back until the night before the party, yet somehow at 11pm, i decided the best way to incorporate triangles would be to make some flying geese quilt blocks and cut the pocket from that, vs. a 5 minute stencil. obviously the logical choice. while it did not turn out exactly as i’d envisioned (asymmetrical, too small), it certainly makes the garment less boring. i’m telling myself that someone very artistic would have made it look this way on purpose.
lastly, a closeup of some little details…my crazy quilted pocket (why? why did i do this?), contrasting topstitching, and while i realize it’s unlikely anyone is ever going to examine the lining of this hoodie, should they choose to, they would find all the right sides of the fabric facing out, and stripes aligned to their matching shade of yellow counterpart. check me out, not repeating my mistakes!
this is lloni. it may be hard to detect in this photo, but she’s actually quite pregnant. i know. she’s adorable. she even looks this cute when she mows the lawn, which she is still doing, by the way. i know this, because the only thing dividing our two yards is a mere fence, so the whole top floor of our home allows us to keep close tabs on exactly what her family is doing at all times. peering out her window into their kitchen might be bean’s favorite pastime. 
