Tester Project #3 - It's All About That Hood

Hello my fellow crafty readers - here we are almost at the end of the year, and I'm super thrilled to reveal the third (at least on this blog!) tester finished project for the book.

This tester, Kim, has been testing for me for a few years now. She not only is an excellent test stitcher (she catches all kinds of little inconsistencies, which is fantastic), but she also has great fashion instincts, which really helps when picking project fiber and photographs once the project is completed. You can see at least one other test project she's done for me here, although she's completed others.

Kim has, once again, outdone herself. I very much wanted her to make the Bomber-inspired Hoodie Vest not only because of its inspiration, but also because I thought she'd look good in it and the hood might challenge her skills, since the rest of the project is fairly easy and straight forward. As you can see, I was not disappointed.

Initially, I love her color choices here - dusty blue and deep plum work well together. My first big surprise was her choice for fur trim - she used Bernat Boa. Kim had a hard time sourcing the Berroco Marmot I used in my sample, despite my best efforts to utilize fibers that I thought would be readily available in the U.S. and Canada. Quite frankly, I am pleasantly surprised at how wonderfully lush her fur trim and hood turned out (and the pop snow flurries on photography day didn't hurt either). 

The second surprise was her closure placements - her leather toggle closures, evenly spaced down the first 2/3 of the front, look good. It was an unexpected twist, but one that crafters who want to work up this design can look to for additional inspiration.

Kim also didn't tack the fur portion of her hood as far back on the top as I did on my sample, thus making her hood look bigger than on the original. They are the same number of stitches, but as you can see, simple tweaks and different fiber can have a huge impact on how designs eventually look. 

I am completely thrilled with Kim's test efforts (as usual, her input was spot on), and her finished article of clothing is simply fantastic. I hope she gets loads of great wear out of it, as well as many compliments, because the vest looks good on her.

Until next time ...