Tutorial: GT John hood
I’ve received a slew of asks in the past month or so asking how I made the hood for my God Tier John cosplay, so I figured I’d throw together a little tutorial. I hope it helps some of you!
For those of you who just need a quick look at the shape of the hood, this is what it looks like when laid flat:
For those of you who want more detail, read on!
Step 1: fabric
I think that the main reason my hood turned out nicely was my choice in fabric. Most people seem to make their hoods out of a light cotton or broadcloth, but I would recommend a silky polyester fabric, like a peachskin. If you’ve ever worked with JoAnn fabrics “silky solid” fabrics, this is this stuff I’m talking about. It’s silky and doesn’t wrinkle easily like cotton, and is heavy enough so that it drapes nicely while still being lightweight enough to be bouncy and flowy.
If you can’t find it at your local fabric store, order it online - it’s not too expensive! You’ll need about 1.5 yards (hood only) or 3-3.5 yards if you are making your pants from the same fabric (which I recommend, it’s great to have them match!)
Step 2: mock-up
No matter how simple the garment, if I’m not 100% sure how I want to make it, I do a quick mock-up in a cheap cotton fabric (muslin) first. That way I don’t waste expensive fabric if I need to make alterations to my pattern, and then I have a reliable/fit-to-me pattern to use when I cut the actual fabric. You don’t have to take this advice if you’re impatient, but I would recommend using steps 3-5 to make your pattern out of muslin first before doing it again with your nice fabric.
Step 3: the hood Lay out your pattern so that the top of the hood section lies along the fold of the fabric, like so:
The measurements included are what I used for my hood, so tweak them as you see fit. When you unfold it, you’ll end up with a triangular piece of fabric that looks like this:
Hem and sew as marked - and don’t forget to press your seams, it’ll make the finished product look much cleaner! The hemmed area will be the part framing your face (ie: it will show!) so hem carefully. I used a rolling hem, which worked nicely, but be careful to iron before you hem, or else you’ll get bunched fabric in your hem like I did! Leave the curved section open. This is where you will attach the hood to the mantle. Once everything is sewn, turn it right-side out.
Step 4: the mantle
I really don’t know if ‘mantle’ is the appropriate word here, but that’s what I’m going with. The mantle consists of four pieces - two copies of the front piece, two copies of the back piece.
Cut two of each piece, so that you have four in total. I recommend folding the fabric on the dotted line when cutting, so that the pieces come out symmetrical. Sew each back-piece to each front-piece as marked, so that you have two pieces that look like this:
Place one piece on top of the other so that the right sides are hidden (pressed to each other on the inside.) Then sew the pieces together, leaving the neck-hole unsewn. You need it open so that you can turn the mantle right-side out again. And press all those seams!
(If you are more advanced at sewing and you don’t want any seams showing on the inside of the neck after you attach the hood, leave a few inches (5-6” or so) of the mantle open, sew on the hood piece so that the one layer of hood fabric is sandwiched between the two layers of mantle fabric, while everything is still inside-out. THEN turn it right-side out through the hole in the mantle, and hand-sew the mantle shut from the outside.)
But if you want to keep things simple (or if you have a serger to make the inside seam look neat,) keep reading. The inside seams won’t show very much if you cut them close and zigzag stitch or use Fraycheck them.
Step 5: attach the hood to the mantle
Once you’ve turned the mantle right-side out, you’re read to attach the hood!
BEFORE YOU SEW, make sure you can fit your head through the hole in the mantle! Otherwise you won’t be able to get your hood on once it’s finished! If it’s too small, cut it to make it bigger.
The rest isn’t hard - just match up the colors, pin, and sew. If the lengths don’t match up in places, you can adjust them by taking in/taking out the shoulder-seam on the mantle or the seam in the back of the hood. You’ll notice that the colors overlap a bit in the front. That’s on purpose, because I wanted my hood to have a slightly overlapped front, like this:
It’s a matter of taste! This photo is also a good example of why you should hem slowly and carefully - see the bunching on the left side?
Step 6: finishing touches
Make sure all your seems are pressed, trim any loose threads, and iron the whole thing (from the inside, you don’t want to cause any damage to the outside of your hood.)
Congratulations, you’re done!
