Better Than Bought - Thumb Hole Hack

It has been a while, did you miss me?! I hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends and hopefully some time to sew! We have a big Thanksgiving every year with my family and it was so great spending time with everyone. It was made even better by my parents taking my boys for a couple days afterward so we could have some grown up time! 

This month's Better Than Bought was picked with gift giving in mind. As a bundle it will make a great gift for the sewist in your life and sewn up it makes a great gift for just about anyone. With it's gorgeous finishes you will have everyone raving about your sewing skills!

The base pattern for this month's BTB is the Tami Hoodie from New Horizons Designs. It is a wonderful pattern with lots of details including an inset zipper at the shoulder seam as well as a double hood. The pattern comes with a thumb hole option, but we decided to spice things up a bit and came up with a fun thumb hole of our own. Our thumb hole design is based on a ready to wear version we saw and loved. Unfortunately we forgot where we saw it! The fun part of our thumb hole is that it looks great folded down or unfolded.

In addition to the thumb hole variation I will also show you how to do a french seam on the exposed seam on the hood. I am all about finishes that take a garment from homemade to handmade and a french seam is one of those tricks that will make your sweatshirt look more professional.

Better Than Bought Bundle Details

This month's bundle will include 4 yards of our high quality 12 oz cotton spandex as well as a gorgeous accent zipper in a coordinating color. Click here to purchase the bundles. When selecting a bundle note there are two different yardage options.

1. The first is 3 yards of the main fabric and 1 yard of the accent fabric. This works great if you want to make a version like the one I made where the majority of the garment is one color. 
2. The second option features 2 yards of each color. This option works best if you are making a hoodie with different color sleeves and body pieces.

Sew-A-Long Video Link

I have edited the SAL video down to show the portion related to the cuffs as it is much easier to understand visually! Hope you find this helpful.

Preparing the Pattern

Use the thumb hole cuff piece from the pattern. Then fold in half like you are making the cuff and cut a 1.5" strip off the end. Save this piece to use for the binding on the thumb holes

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There are two additional pattern pieces you will need to make. The measurements are shown in the photo below. When cutting cut piece A on the fold as shown, cut 2 mirror images. Cut out 4 mirror images of piece B.

Assembly:

Follow the instructions included in the pattern. Other than the hood and cuffs.

If you do not want to do the french seam on the hood skip down to the next image. For the french seam begin by clipping the hood pieces wrong sides together, sew a 1/8" seam then turn the hood so that the wrong sides are facing and press. Then sew a 1/4" seam allowance all the way around, press to one side. 

For the cuffs press piece A on the fold, the fold edge will be the edge of your sleeve. For pieces B, lay them out so that you have 2 stacks of 2 with the right sides out. Make sure that the diagonal cuts go the opposite way on each stack.

Then cut the 1.5" strip we made earlier into smaller pieces the same length as your diagonal edge. Align right sides together and attach with a 3/8" seam allowance. Press the binding edge up and then fold the raw edge under 1/4" and then over your previous row of stitches. Stitch in place and then press. Repeat for the remaining three pieces.

Next take your completed thumb hole pieces and lay them out as shown, with one front side and one backside showing in each set. Then overlap them slightly so that the binding edges completely overlap and the overall measurement edge to edge is 5". Baste the pieces together.

Now we will attach the thumb hole to the rest of the cuff. Lay your main cuff piece out with the right side up, align the raw edge of the thumb hole piece with the bottom edge. Then fold the top of the cuff down and over until the top edge aligns with the bottom. Sew or surge with a 3/8" seam allowance and then repeat for the other side.

Stop and admire your gorgeous cuffs! Mark the center point of the thumb hole piece, this will line up with the sleeve seam when you attach. Make sure that you attach the correct cuff to the correct sleeve. The image below shows the left and right cuff, in that order. You can see the higher point of the diagonal marks the left and right. 

Don't forget to share in the Surge Facebook Group with the hashtag #surgebtb for a chance to win next month's Better Than Bought Bundle for free! You can also share on Instagram with that hashtag as well. Please follow/tag us on Instagram @sew_youthinkyoucansew and @surgefabricshop Also check out my personal blog Sew You Think You Can Sew for more awesome pattern hacks and info!