Baby's Wool Hood

I have gotten far less sewing done than I had hoped lately, but quite as much as expected, as B is teething and thus rather clingy from time to time, my poor dear. Nothing for it but to give him a lot of attention (besides singing and playing, he likes reading – will he grow to be a bookworm like his parents?) and cuddles when he’s awake, and try to get house work and sewing done when he’s sleeping – which because of the aching teeth has been less than usual. Thank Heaven for modern pain medication when things are bad, or he’d hardly eat or sleep at all some days. I know all mothers (hopefully) feel like this about their little ones, but B really is the most adorable, lovable, beautiful and sweet baby boy in the world. I am so blessed to be his mother.

Anyway, this morning I finished B’s wool hood. It’s made of the same fabric and in the same style as my London hood. Now, buttoned hoods seem to have been more of a women’s fashion in the 14^th century, but after carefully weighing the pros and cons, I decided to make it buttoned anyway. A buttoned hood is much easier to put on and take of, especially if B should happen to sleep, and the clothes of very little children don’t seem to have been all that gender specific. 

I wanted to line the hood in wool, as linen gets cold and icky when damp, and our Swedish summers are chilly and wet as often as they are hot and dry. As the weather forecast for our event next weekend looks rather less than promising, warm, comfortable clothes are an absolute must. I wanted very soft, non itchy wool as lining for the hood, and ran into the perfect thing in a charity shop a while back. It was a fine, thin, soft, 100% wool scarf. 

 I sewed the lining to the hood in the same way as in my own hood, and as the scarf was brown, and the lining in my hood is brown, we will have a sort of Mummy and Baby fashion thing going on. That was certainly not the plan, but one uses what one has at hand.  

 

What I had at hand wasn’t all that much, so the hood is pieced here and there.

The hood closes with thirteen small, self fabric buttons and buttonholes. I didn’t feel like measuring where to place them, nor how big the buttonholes should be, I just wanted to get the hood over and done with, so I placed pins at roughly even spaces, cut and sewed. Neither did I care on witch side the buttons and buttonholes ended up - it wasn't a thing one seems to have thought about much at the time. Not my prettiest work ever (I doubt two buttonholes are the same size), but it’ll hardly show on a child in constant motion.

The whole hood is hand sewn, of course, using waxed linen thread. It is pretty large for B at the moment, so he ought to be able to use it for the next couple of years as well.