I often find that I want to challenge myself. I think it helps me sharpen my skills and ignite my creativity. Because of that desire I came up with a challenge for myself that halfway through, definitely had me wondering what I was thinking. I made a faux leather hoodie in 24 hours!

I thought it was such a cool idea when I came up with it! It was, but I also had a lot of interruptions and adulting that needed to be done while making it so… yeah.. It ended up being exactly what I intended it to be, a challenge.

A few days before I attempted to time myself on this project, I decided I needed to make a muslin because I was a little worried about it not fitting right and wasting my precious faux leather. (That stuff is expensive!) So I made a wearable muslin. Tada! Isn’t it pretty?!

Ok really, I also just wanted a pink version of this hoodie and thought it would be a great way to get the fit right. I probably would have made this pink one either way.

Fast forward those few days and it was time to attempt my challenge! I started ironing out the fabric at 11:14 in the morning. Yes, I ironed my faux leather. It had wrinkles! Also it was a knit faux leather so the back side was safe to iron without melting it.

Now, I’ve worked with enough faux leather to know that it’s very noisy when worn and doesn’t feel very pleasant on the skin. So I chose to line the hoodie. I picked a double brushed polyester for my lining fabric because it has enough recovery that it wouldn’t get too stretched out and peak out from under the faux leather. That and the fabric against your skin feels like slipping into a butter bath! Ahh yes, we all love the sensation of butter on our skin. Just kidding, that’s gross! but everyone says its buttery soft so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Anyways… After ironing both fabrics I cut them out using a pattern and basted the lining to the faux leather. I did this so that I could treat them as one piece. After that it seemed like the appropriate time to answer to my child’s plea for food. (Really it was lunch time and we were all hungry.)

After making some mouth watering turkey sandwiches, I returned to my sewing table to finish my creation. I started constructing the hoodie per pattern instructions. After attaching the eyelets to the hood, I realized I forgot to put fusible interfacing on it. Umm. Yeah. That’s stuff’s kind of important. Knit fabric stretches and that means that the eyelets can pop off if it stretches too much. (Ask me how I know! Wait don’t. That’s embarrassing….) I couldn’t really fix that problem so I moved on hoping that the faux leather would provide enough stability to keep the eyelets in place. (So far so good!

I had only sewn a few seams when my phone alarm started singing that it was time to pick up my other kid from school. After returning from that, it was time to make dinner, have family time, get my kids ready for bed and you know, that life stuff.

Once they were in bed I started in on my project again. I was about half way through construction when my husband asked if I was coming to bed. It was already 10:30 PM! I realise that 10:30 PM is not late for most people and I absolutely could have stayed up all night to make my 24 hours. But I don’t play those games. I need my beauty rest if I want to function like an actual person! So off to bed I went.

The next morning I woke up rested and beautiful from my beauty sleep (and a bit of makeup) and started my morning. I got my boy ready for school, took him to the bus stop, came home, and made breakfast for the rest of us. After breakfast was all cleaned up, I started sewing the hoodie again.

The rest of the construction when smoothly. Right up to the very last step! Wait… I’m just kidding again. The last step made me want to rip my hair out! It was the sleeve cuffs. I sewed them wrong. Yay for spending time with my seam ripper! I unpicked the seam and sewed them again. For some reason, this was just the too hard for me because I sewed them wrong again! I spent a little more quality time with my seam ripper and once I had EVERYTHING going the right direction and in the right spot, I sewed the cuffs to the hoodie.

The final piece that I needed was the drawstring. I hadn’t purchased any drawstring so I had to make it. Using the lining fabric so it would match the inside of the hood, I cut some long strips to sew together. After it was made, I threaded the drawstring through the hood and I was done.

BOOM!

It was 10:34 AM. I made my goal of 24 hours with forty minutes to spare!

It was quite the adventure. I’m sure if I hadn’t made so many mistakes and you know, didn’t have to adult, I probably could have finished it in less time, but what do you do?  

Thanks for reading!  You guys should try this challenge too.  It’s pretty fun.

That pattern used in this post is the Lisse Hoodie from New Horizons Designs.