Baby Yoda Grogu Hooded Cowl
In this Instructable I will show you how to complete a pattern hack on a Hood and Cowl Pattern and guide you through making and attaching some incredibly cute Baby Yoda ears, so that you can create your very own Baby Yoda Hooded Cowl.
I have hacked the very popular Hooded Cowl pattern offered for Free by the wonderful Chloe Knight.
You can find the pattern I hacked here: Chloe Knight's Hooded Cowl
I have also created and inserted the pattern for the Baby Yoda ears that I made in the images, which can be downloaded and printed- you can print these to any size you like to scale down the ears, or overexaggerate them. For the size I created the top straight edge of the pattern measured 4 1/2 Inches.
The assembly process for the hooded cowl is quite simple, however this pattern does involve sewing curves, some hand stitching, sewing thick seams and installing snaps or closures.
Supplies
You will need:
- 1/2 Yard green fabric for the Hood Lining and Outer Fabric, Plus the Outside of the Ears
- 1/2 Yard brown fabric (Lining and Outer Fabric)
- Small piece of pink fabric for the inner ear
- Similar size piece of quilting batting/ wadding to give structure and stiffen the ear pieces.
- Snaps, clasps or other type of closures
Supplies:
- Sewing machine/ Overlocker (optional)
- Thread and needles, plus pins
- Scissors/ Rotary cutter and cutting mat
- Spare paper
Hacking the Pattern
The basic idea of the pattern hacking is to use any existing hooded cowl pattern and separate it into two piece, so that you can have some green fabric to represent the head of baby Grogu, and some brown fabric to represent the coat he is wearing. We will also be inserting some very cute ears into the hood as well.
Print you pattern pieces.
Draw a line that splits the hood section from the cowl section and give it a gentle curve, and cut the pieces apart.
If your pattern includes a seam allowance in the pattern piece we will need to add to the two pieces we just separate. Tape a spare piece of paper behind the pattern pieces, and draw a line adding the width of your seam allowance to the pattern. You can see in the cowl section the extra paper that has been added, and on the hood section it has been trimmed to 1/2 an inch.
Print the ear pattern that has been added as an image here, and scaling it using the print settings if required.
Cutting the Pieces
Cut your fabric pieces, you will need:
- A Green left and ride side of the hood from the inner and outer fabric.
- A Brown left and right side of the cowl from the inner and outer fabric.
- Two Green outer ear piece
- Two Pink inner ear piece
- Two quilt batting ear pieces.
Remember to mark any pattern notches of darts onto your fabric.
Making the Ear
To construct the ear, cut out the pieces and lay them on top of each other in the following order:
- Batting/ wadding
- Green Outer ear right side up
- Pink Inner ear right side down
This ensure that when the ling in sewn around the edges and turned rights sides out the wadding will be sandwiched between the inner and outer fabric, and both pieces will have the right sides visible. You can also pin the pieces together and partially test flipping it right sides out before sewing.
Sew around the edge leaving the end open, and then turn the ear right sides out.
Top stitch around the outer edge of the ear. If you sew half a centimetre or 0.2 of an inch from the edge the top stitching will create a nice border that replicates the cartilage rim of Baby Yoda's ear.
Fold the top edge of the ear down two thirds of the way and fold the bottom edge of the ear up to meet it. Pin of clip along the edge and then sew the seam down. This stitch line will not be visible as it will be hidden inside the hood, but the can use longer basting stitches.
Inserting the Ears
Select the outer pieces of the hood- the ears will be stitched into these.
If your pattern is asymmetrical it can be tricky to choose which pieces of the hood require to the ears to be sewn into.
The easiest way is to join the correct hood pieces and cowl pieces together first, and assembling them back into the original pattern pieces.
Pin along the seam line, and then sew or overlock the edge to make the seam.
Cut along the centre of the dart line in the hood. If the pattern you are using doesn't have a dart marked, draw a line from the top of the hood, about 6 inches inches in from the front edge. The long should be about 6 inches long.
Using the hood piece (that when finished will be on the right side of you head choose the ear that when held on that side has the pink inner ear facing the front of your face.
Insert the ear into the cut you have made, just like the photo, and fold the front edge of the hood over it so that right sides are facing. Pine or clip this edge and sew.
this seam can be very bulky. if your presser foot on the sewing machine is having issue climbing over the large bump, insert a piece of scrap fabric that has been roller up under the presser foot to raise the back edge of the foot to be level with the bulky seam, and sew to close the dart.
Assembling the Hood
Once both of the ear have been inserted into the outer hood and cowl pieces you can start assembling everything together.
Place both the outer hood fabric pieces right sides together and pin just like the photo- starting from the bottom edge of the cowl and pinning towards the front edge. Ensure the ears will not be caught by facing them towards to open front section.
(Whilst it is only pinned carefully flip the hood right side out and it on to ensure the ears are sitting to your liking. If they need repositioning, now is the time to do so. pick you seams apart, cutting the dart line a little deeper and reposition the ears.)
Sew along the pinned seam.
Assemble and stitch the inner lining fabric right sides together the same way, however this time we need to leave a three inch gap in the stitch line. This will allow us to turn the entire piece right sides out once the inner and outer pieces are joined.
Joining the Layers
Pin the inner section and the outer section at the seam at the top of the hood and pin along the entire out side of the piece. We will be turning this right sides out through the hole left in the back of the hood, so the seam we are stitching now should be one continuous circle.
Ensure the ears are tucked away inside the piece and away from any pins and seams that will be sewn.
Turn the entire piece right sides out, and hand sew the gap in the lining closed.
Iron the piece flat along the edges, or roll the fabric between your fingers to feel the seam and flatten. Top stich along the entire outer edge. For any bulky seams use the presser foot levelling method shown previously.
You can also use a stitch in the ditch method to sewn down the centre seam joining the inner and outer fabrics together.
Add the Closures
Try the hood on and pin placement marks on where you would like the cowl section to close.
Sew or insert your clips, hooks or snaps.
Congratulations!
Congratulations.
You have finished creating an very cute Baby Yoda Inspired cowl.