crow hoodie

first, a huge and heartfelt thank you to all of the warm and encouraging sentiments you have shared. each one brings a tear to my eye and a ray of hope to my heart. i am sure that i will reread them many times in days to come when i am feeling low and needing a lift. i appreciate each one of you!

we have a friend, todd crowe, also known as *mr crowe* or *the crowe*, that jazzy is rather fond of. he is also quite fond of the color black....he has claimed it as his favorite color for some time now. last fall, when i suggested he be a bird for halloween, he chose a crow (do peek if you haven't seen it!) right away. this involved a black hooded sweatshirt that had a hideous (to me) graphic on the front, which was fine because it was all covered up with feather boas.

after halloween, when the costume was deconstructed, i had the idea to put a crow on it for him as he continued to call it his crow hoodie. it was a bit too small though so i didn't fully commit to it, but i had a vision that would not get out of my head until i brought it to life. when my mom showed up with this gray hoodie recently, i got to work right away.

here are the pieces i started with. printouts of a crow in two sizes and plastic mesh.

i feel very blessed to be friends with the uber-talented ms jean from the artful parent. this project was inspired by two different techniques that jean has taught me, freezer paper stenciling and doily printing. in this case, i printed with the plastic mesh covering our box of clementines.

after the stenciling and printing were finished, before assembling.

i love the way the mesh printed!! i want to use it to do more prints. my mind is actually far too full of ideas for fabric printing now. ;)
i chose to do a rough, fringed edge on my patch giving it a bit of a punk rock feel. maybe it disguises the fact that i actually don't know much about how to operate my sewing machine properly?
this hoodie will not fit him for too long either, but for the meantime he is loving it has worn it the past two days in a row. it is the perfect jacket layer for this 60 degree weather we have been having. seriously amazing!!
there had to be one of the front so that he could actually see his crow. ;)

it feels good to get this one out of my head. i will soon share the outfit i made for sienna when i can manage some decent photos. until then, may you enjoy the weather wherever you are. don't worry, i'm sure king winter will return to us before too long!