Augusta for Easter

Hope you all had a good long Easter weekend! I was lucky enough to spend it in the wilds of the Wairarapa with a bunch of awesome people, having a three day long nerd-out about Balboa (my dance of choice, if you haven’t heard me wax lyrical about it before). It was pretty excelent, we stayed in a little retreat in a remote corner of a huge block of farmland with no cellphone reception and no neighbours to complain about the wild gypsy jazz blaring from the house at all hours of the day and night. It was even pretty warm and sunny this year, unlike the same weekend last year which started in the middle of a howling storm and involved a powercut. But with this view, who cares about lights?

 

The Augusta Hoodie from Named jumped out at me as soon as I saw their latest collection, and then I saw the awesome version that Lindsay made, and I was sold. For some slightly irrational reason I decided that I absolutely had to have my Augusta Hoodie finished in time to take away with me, or I would be cold the whole time. There was a serious hole in my wardrobe for a mid-weight outer layer, I have cardigans and fine merino tops, and then I have my wool coats or puffer jacket, but nothing in between (which I actually wear), so I suppose it was a practical ‘must have’! I did get Monsieur to take some photos of me wearing it in an appropriately rugged location, but unfortunately I’m squinting horribly into the sun or my hair or the hood is being blown around in a big way, so I’m having to suppliment those photos with some taken in the controlled conditions in my sewing room…

  

I bought some amazing thick black and white plaid merino wool from The Fabric Store, and matched it with a remnant of plain black boiled merino knit which I bought in mid summer because it was so soft and squishy that I didn’t want to put it down! I love the fabric combo so much, its lovely and warm and fuzzy but also looks pretty sharp and stylish. Or I think it does, anyway. Augusta was really fun to make, once I got over the shock of having to trace the pattern and add my own seam allowances. What’s the deal with that? I am too lazy for that shit! I’ve never used a Named pattern before, so I was a bit unprepared. But there are so many cool details in this pattern to make up for the extra prep time. I LOVE the curved two part raglan sleeves, the fit around my shoulders so nice, much better than any other raglan sleeve I’ve tried. And the piping running down the seam is a really cool touch. I used some black satin piping, which has the added bonus of looking a bit like leather (if you squint). Unfortunately I ma a bit of a balls up when I was cutting out the sleeves. I was trying to be so good, and cut the sleeve pieces out in a single layer so that I could get the pattern matching up across the seam, but I cut both sleeves out with the pattern facing up the whole time! I had just enough fabric to recut the second sleeve out the right way around, but not to match the plaid. Bit of a bummer, but at least I didn’t have to buy more fabric…

 

(Sorry for the overexposed photos, black is hard to photograph!)

I also love the curved seam lines which join the sleeves to the front and back, and the rounded off ribbing at the centre front. I don’t know what it is, but it just looks more polished and professional than if they were all straight seams! The metal press studs down the front are the last little detail which really lifts this out of the realm of an ordinary hoodie, they’re so cool. And fun to put in, any excuse to get the hammer out! Unfortunately I didn’t realise I had only bought a pack of five, there seemed to be so many bits in the packet (four pieces per snap adds up), so I don’t have one at the very top yet. I almost did something incredibly stupid whilst setting the press studs, and didn’t poke the holes all the way through the facing as well! Thankfully I noticed that they’d be a bit hard to do up if the bits that are supposed to snap together were separated from each other by two layers of wool before I started hammering…that would have been a bit of a disaster.

 

The last ‘best part’ of this top (are you sick of the gushing yet??) is the hood. Its enormous! I lined it with some black jersey knit I had in my stash, as I didn’t want a layer of wool rubbing against my hair and making it all static-y and fluffy.

 

See? Massive! But it kept the rain off my glasses today as I ran to the bus, so I’m not complaining. The only thing I would change about this hoodie would be to make the pockets a bit bigger. I like how they’re construted, its lovely and neat on the inside (which I never thought I would say about welt pockets in an unlined garment), and the topstitching keeps them from flapping around. But I have pretty small hands, and they only just fit into the pockets when I have them fisted. Definitely no room for my phone! I made the pocket out of the slightly stretchier plaid knit I used for the sleeves and hood, so that helps me to cram my hands in, and looks cool from the inside. I think that this is the first knit garment I have ever sewn using my machine as much as my overlocker, it was a bit of a weird feeling topstitching and understitching a knit, even when it is as stable as this.

 

(Wearing my Megan Nielsen Maker tee, I love it! And its supporting a very worthwhile cause, go and check them out)

So over all I would give this pattern two thumbs up. It was fun to sew, it fits beautifully, its full of really nifty, professional little details and I’ve barely taken it off since I finished it last Thursday. I’m so happy with it! Now I just need to figure out the best way to clean all of the incredibly fine black wool dust out of my overlocker…