Carmanah Sew-Along: Day 2 - Hood and Collar

Today we will create our hood or collar for the Carmanah Sweater! Let's begin with the hood:

Add buttonholes or grommets to hood front to ready it for a drawstring. If you are working with a very unstable knit (loosely knit or very stretchy) I highly recommend doing a test buttonhole or grommet on a scrap of material. You may find that one layer of interfacing is not enough to stabilize this area and that the grommet will easily pop off. To further stabilize you could add a thicker or even woven style of interfacing or layer an extra square of woven material (quilting cotton for example on the wrong side of the hood when you apply the grommet.

Next, let's sew the hood panels together. The hood is made of three panels - two sides and a center rectangle. Begin by placing one hood and the cetner panel right sides togehter. Pin so that the long curve of the hood bends to match the long straight edge of the center panel. Stitch using a 5/8" seam allowance. You don't need to finish this seam allowance as the hood is lined but if you are using a serger for your seams it will look finished anyways, as per the photo below.

Add the second side of the hood to the other long straight side of the center panel. Trim the seam allowances if necessary to reduce bulk and press the seam allowances towards the hood sides. Lastly, topstitch along the hood sides 1/8" from the seam to create a tidy finish.

Now we repeat the same process with the lining pieces. Instead of pressing the trimmed seam allowances towards the sides, instead press them towards the center panel. This will reduce bulk when the hood and lining are sewn together.

Next, let's assemble the hood facing. Sew together the narrow straight edges of the facing with right sides together and a 5/8" seam allowance. Press open.

Attach the facing to the hood lining by pining the facing and lining right sides together along the hood front. You will need to attach the longest edge of the facing (the convex curve) to the longest edge of the hood opening (the concave curve). It will feel a bit awkward when you match these opposing curves together but with lots of pins and care to place the facing seam centered between the hood seams, it will work!

Stitch using a 5/8" seam allowance and trim the seam allowances, especially along the sharpest curve. Press the seam allowances towards the lining.

At this point we need to prepare the bottom of the hood lining so it is ready to be added to the sweater later. You can either press under the bottom seam allowance 5/8" or apply twill tape for fancy neckline finish. To apply twill tape you will need to place your tape on top of the right side of the hood lining. Position it so that it is mostly on the hood and only extends 1/8" over the seamline. Stitch along the seamline 1/8" from the bottom of the twill tape edge.

Press the twill tape down over the seam allowance.

The hood is now assembled and ready for our next sewing steps. Let's do the same process to prepare the collar option! First pick one of your collar pieces to be the lining (the contrast fabric piece if you've decided to do contrast for the inner collar).

Turn under the bottom 5/8" seam allowance or apply twill tape as we did for the hood lining above. With the right side of your collar lining facing up, place the twill tape on top of the collar. Position it so that it is mostly on the collar and only extends 1/8" over the seamline. Stitch along the seamline 1/8" from the bottom of the twill tape edge. Press the twill tape down over the seam allowance as pictured below:

It's time to add our hood or collar to our sweater!

If you're sewing the quarter zip you will need to temporarily unfold the pressed center front seam allowances along the yoke. Try to keep those pressed lines visible for use in future steps (if you accidentally smooth them out, you can repress them later at 5/8".

 Place the hood or collar and sweater with right sides together. Align the raw neckline edge. Note that the raw collar or hood center front edges will align with the raw center front edges of the yoke. Pin thoroughly. Stitch around the entire neckline at 5/8" and press the seam allowance towards the hood or collar. You can trim and grade the seam allowance to reduce bulk if needed. Grading is when you trim one seam allowance shorter than the other. It will be sandwiched in between the collar/hood and collar/hood lining soon.

If sewing the quarter zip repress the center front to include the collar seam allowance:

Thanks for following along! See you next post!