Hibernis shirt pattern release

Sofilantjes (affiliate link) was the first designer that let me test one of her designs, and I have been testing her patterns ever since. During every test I am again positively surprised by the special features of her patterns. Today, I am showing her newest baby, the Hibernis cowl shirt (affiliate link) . If you follow my blog you will know that I love pockets and I add them to (almost) every skirt or dress I sew, but not to shirts, never to shirts. Why not, good question, I have been wondering about that for a while. This shirt is the queen of pockets though, you can make four pockets in one shirt!

Due to the princess seams you can make two big and two small pockets in one shirt. In case you are frantically scrolling through my pictures searching for the smaller pockets, you can stop. I only made the version with two pockets, but check out the pattern listing and Anne's own post for examples with four pockets.

The other intriguing feature of this pattern is the cowl and the tabs that hold it. The cowl is removable so you can actually play with different color cowls. I was planning to sew at least two different cowls, but then I realised, if you sew the cowl in two colors and carefully fold it, you can just show one side. So the pictures of the red and yellow cowl are pictures of the same cowl showing different sides. As a third look you can show two colors at the same time.

The tabs are fixated with a snap, so this gives another opportunity to play with color. I was planning to use a white flower snap, because the fabric has some white flowers. My eldest daughter was assisting me, while I was finishing this shirt (making me slow instead of faster, but I love that she is interested in my sewing) and she insisted on red hearts. In the final pattern the tabs became slightly shorter, so they hug the cowl a bit more.

The forest fabric is from Lillestoff, I bought it a while ago and treasured it, I love it so much. I only bought half a meter (it was the last half) and because my kids are needing more and more fabric per garment, I really had to use it for something. I combined it with the orange ribbing that I got from Lillestoff.

I am a big fan of 3/4 sleeves in my own wardrobe and my middle daughter keeps complaining that all her shirts have too long sleeves, so it was a no brainer which version of the three supplied sleeve lengths I would choose. The other options are long sleeves and short sleeves. My daughter has to get used to this length, but I think she will grow to love it as much as me.

During testing, I always see other people's garments and regret not choosing a certain option. This time wasn't an exception, I wanted a contrasting fabric for the side pieces, and I wanted it now. I realised this need yesterday, which also explains why this second version doesn't have four pockets. Yesterday two hours before school ended, I quickly reused the first set of pattern pieces and sewed up a second version.

You might have noticed that the sleeve length between the two versions differ. This was not an active decision from my part, but the result of the fact that this pattern is great for using those treasured rest pieces everybody has lying around. I had a piece left from this dress, but by far It wasn't enough to make a shirt from. I could have used the fabric for just the front part of any shirt, but I wasn't convinced that would be the optimal use. While I was searching my stash for the perfect fabric for my second Hibernis, my eyes fell on this fabric. I could cut the front, the pockets and two shorter sleeves (I had to sew two pieces together for one of the sleeves though) from the piece I had, and the leftovers were all smaller than the 15 x 15 cm rule I have for saving scraps.

My girl wasn't in the mood for a photo shoot, but because I was blogging on release date, I kind a pushed her. The pictures speak for themselves, she was not in the mood. Fortunately, I could make them inside, if I would have tried to go outside in the shirt alone she would have been crying on all pictures for sure, she hates the cold.. it isn't always a blessing if your mom has a sewing blog.

This has become a very long post, so to summarize, the Hibernis is great for color blocking, using scraps of treasured fabric, playing with pockets (what about curved ones, let those create juices flow) and changing up the look with different cowls (you could probably fold the tabs inwards under the shoulder line when not in use, I haven't tried it but I saw another tester do it). The pattern is for sale this weekend for $5 (excl. tax) both in Dutch and English pdf.

You might have noticed that this is my first post using affiliate links. I didn't do it on purpose until now, I feared people would think I would be too biased. I am giving it a try though now. I feel I have found my own sound and style over the last year and I think affiliate links will not change that, they might change how much fabric I can buy though!

I love to hear what you think of my creations. Feel free to leave a comment in the language you prefer (although Google translate might have to assist me if you choose something different than English, German, Dutch or Hungarian).