The design & planning part of sewing is one of our favourite parts, especially where Hovea is concerned. When deciding on the design of a quilted jacket, we find people tend to approach it in one of two ways…complete free-style improv; or careful and strategic planning. If you fall into the later group, or if maybe your style includes a little bit of both – well, today’s post is for you. We’re talking about using our Hovea Planning Template to plan out your next Hovea quilt/patchwork coat! Available to all newsletter subscribers (you can subscribe here if you’re not already), all you need to do is print it out and get creative! Let’s go through a few ideas on how to use the template!
Jot everything down on the page
If you’ve someone with a wholeeee lot of wonderful ideas swirling around your noggin like us, but are struggling to narrow them down – best thing to do is jot them all down! With them all jotted down, you can prioritise the ones you’re most excited about, start to group ideas together – spotting trends in the flow of your ideas to find the themes you keep going back to and to find different things that might be able to be combined into an even better idea!
Take Inspiration From Everywhere
If you’re looking for inspiration, we have a wealth of amazing images saved on our Hovea Pinterest board to get you started or if you’re wanting to see some awesome, already made Hoveas your fellow sewers have been working on, check out the #MNhovea tag on Instagram!
But inspiration doesn’t have to just be from already made things, but can be found anywhere! Dig through old sketch books to find interesting squiggles you might turn into a stitch pattern or look through your scrap pile to find colour combinations your might want to try. Look in unexpected places and you will find unexpected ideas. And that’s where the planning template comes in – to help you collect these little scraps and tid-bits that will eventually evolve into a fully fledged idea!
Get the coloured pencils out
Scissors, glue, pencils, photos, paint. Pull out the craft drawer because these planning templates were meant to be sketched on, collaged over and completely covered in your wonderful ideas! Working on a small scale with just tiny swatches of fabric or snippets of photos you’ve cut from magazines gives you the opportunity to experiment with a huge range of ideas before you commit to anything.
Looking to do some quilting?
Once you’ve zero’d in on the general colour palette and style you love, have a think about the different quilting stitch options you might use to compliment a patchwork design, or be the feature on a plainer fabric. Did you want a geometric look? Perhaps you were hoping for a simple straight line pattern or a free motion design? The options really are endless! Before you put needle to fabric, sketching out your design on the template will give you a great idea of how it will look on the jacket.
Using a vintage quilt?
Take an overhead photo of the quilt to see what you’re working with! With a clear view of the whole thing you can isolate different sections of the print or patchwork design to use for different garment sections and by printing out the photo to fit the scale of the size of your Hovea template, you can collage the pieces of the quilt onto the template! It’s fun to play with the positioning of different focal points, experiment with symmetry and asymmetry and is super handy to match up blocks of colour & seam lines to create interesting design flow.
Sometimes the planning and inspiration process isn’t as simple as – look for ideas, find an idea, make the idea. Sometimes you’ll circle back round to things, start making something then decide to cut it up and sew it together differently, then have an idea come out of left field and send you in a whole new direction! That’s ok, just enjoy the process and go with the flow. Wearing things you’ve made is awesome, but at the end of the day, the process of making and the fun we have while doing it is the real reason we sew!
We hope you love the template and that it’s useful for your next Hovea make! If you’d like to use the Hovea planning tool yourself, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter to get more information on how to access the Resource Library. If you have any questions, let us know in the comments!
| LOOKING FOR MORE HOVEA POSTS? |
Here’s the full list of Hovea inspiration and ideas:
- Inspiration & Ideas for Hovea
- Hovea Tester Roundup
- Hovea Curve Tester Roundup
- Traditional Korean Textile Arts with Youngmin Lee
- Beginner Quilting concepts with The Weekend Quilter
- Top 10 tips from a quilters first journey into Me Made Clothing with Shannon Fraser
- Introduction to Indian Kantha Quilting with Manjari Singh
- Simple Log Cabin patchwork tutorial with Scribbly Gum Quilting Co
- Wholecloth quilting with Natalie Ebaugh
- Introduction to Japanese textiles and embroidery with Mari Yamada
- How to make a patchwork quilt design without a pattern with Broadcloth Studio
- Modern Quilting with Porfiria Gomez
- Making a patchwork jacket with leftover fabric
Here’s the full list of Hovea tutorials & Hacks:
- Sewalong | How to Choose Between Hovea & Hovea Curve
- Sewalong | Common Hovea pattern alterations
- Sewalong | Quilting prep
- Sewalong | Quilting Design & Planning
- Sewalong | Machine quilting
- Sewalong | Tips for making a patchwork jacket from scrap fabrics
- Sewalong | Basic Binding Method for quilt coats
- Sewalong | Pockets and Seams Quilted Views BDF
- Sewalong | Inset Sleeves Quilted Views BDF
- Sewalong | Final Finishes Quilted View BDF
- Pattern Hack | Sewing a Hovea Dressing gown
- Pattern Hack | How to make a quilt coat from a vintage bed quilt
- Sewalong | Unlined pockets Views ACE
- Sewalong | Lined pockets Views ACE
- Sewalong | Flat Sleeve Insertion Views ACE
- Sewalong | Ties & Hang Loop Views ACE
- Sewalong | Hemming Unlined Views ACE
- Sewalong | Full Lining Views ACE
- Sewalong | Collar band Views ACE
- Sewalong | Belt & Belt Loops Views ACE
We absolutely love seeing what you make, so don’t forget to tag your creations with #MNhovea and @megannielsenpatterns when sharing on social media, and check out what everyone else is up to!
Don’t have the pattern yet?!
