Christmasgifts for my kids - part 3: The Hooded Scarf

I can not tell you HOW proud I am of this.

Check this out:

I made this! :-)

I had seen some hooded scarfs on the internet and the idea really appealed to me.
It does look cute!

And little bear ALWAYS forgot to put on her scarf in kindergarten. 

ALWAYS!
No matter how often we talked to her about it.
I was really worried cause I thought sooner or later she would catch a bad cold ...
For some reason she never forgot to put on her hat, though.
So I kinda figured making her a hooded scarf instead of a hat and a scarf could be a good solution.
With a hooded scarf when she put on her hat - she had on her scarf as well.
Nothing to forget anymore! 
Sounded perfect!

But I did not find a pattern that I liked and that I thought would fit my daughter. 

So in the end I decided I am going to make my own pattern! 

YES. I made my own pattern!

*insert-amazed-AHHHH-from-readers-here*

Okay okay, so it is ONLY a hooded scarf.

Still.

I MADE MY OWN PATTERN! :-)

And, boy, now I do know why buying patterns can be the better option.
Even though it is "just" a hooded scarf it took me quite some time to get it right.
And some luck, too! :-)

Also, I cheated a little.

I used a hooded cardigan from my daughter - with a really cute hood - and drew around it for the hood pattern.
Then I made the hood out of really cheap - and ugly - fleece I still had lying around to see whether it would fit. After trying it on my daughter
- with her eyes closed as it was going to be present!!! -
I made alterations to the fleece hood. 

Then I stopped working on it for a few days as I did not have time.

And completey forgot about my alterations.

Next time I had a bit of free time on my hands I cut out the fabric -

without ever making those alterations to the actual pattern! 

I only realized that AFTER I had cut out all the pieces I needed. *argh*

Including one rather expensive cotton fur stuff.
(The whitish lining you can see sticking out.)
For the outside I used some fleece I still had left over from that swirly shirt I had made her a while ago.

 

When I realized my mistake I was devastated!

But then I pinned it all together and figured maybe it was not as bad after all. As the fabric I ended up using was much thicker than the one I had used for the "try-out"-version and as I also planned to make a thick lining out of furry fabric it seemed that maybe the un-altered pattern could work after all. 

So I left it. And while sewing it together I really really hoped it all would work out!

I sewed the hood and the lining together and tried it on - and the fit was PERFECT! Seriously!
I know I can not really take credit for it as it was more luck than anything else.

Also I totally adored the pointy bit of the hood. In the original hood there was a knot there - but my version somehow was not long enough to knot it. So I just left it.
But I think it looks really cute sticking up.

Then I wanted to sew on the scarf - which basically was just a folded straight piece of fleece.
Now there was the next problem.
When thinking about how to make this I just figured that I could sew the scarf bit into the hood while closing the lower seam - the one that would sit right above your neck. 

However, it turned out that

five layers of fleece plus one layer of thick furry stuff 

is not something my sewing machine is able to handle!!!
I did not even try as I had no idea how to fit it all under the needle! 

I am not sure - there probably is some way how one could have done it with the machine.
But I really did not want to take any chance!
Now that the hood had turned out so perfect
I did not want to mess the whole thing up with the "should-be-easy" scarf bit.
So I simply sewed it on by hand.
I know. I chickened out.
But who cares - it turned out awesome!

I could not be happier with it!!!

And the best thing!

When it is cold my daughter IS actually wearing it!

She DOES love it! AND it works!!!!

Since she has the hooded scarf she does not forget to put it on and finally I do not have to worry about her being cold outside anymore!
SCORE!!! :-)