So I was on the market two weeks ago, and saw a sign saying 2€/m on a bolt of fabric. The fabric had a white fluffy back and the front was red with white-ish dots. The market lady explained that some of the dots had red dye running in, so that’s why it was so cheap. I decided that I didn’t care too much and got myself two yards. Two laundry cycles and several bright red colour catchers later and I got to work. I’d decided that I wanted to make a sweater, so I layed out my Frankensteined pattern and found I had a lot left. Then I decided that I would try to see if I could also get some pants out of the fabric and create the ultimate stay-at-home-outfit.
Head to Toad 
Three hours later I had figured out a way to get all my pattern pieces bar one neatly onto the fabric. The patterns included pattern 44 from Simplicity Naaimode 24, aka Simplicity 1165, which I cannot figure out if I ever made before but I had it drawn out in my pattern stash. I excluded the waistband for that one. For the sweater, the shortened version of Lekala 4742 (flamingo-style here) and the hood from the Nelly sweater by Pattydoo. Only the hood-front needed to be pieced. I approached it in a similar manner as when I pieced the hood for the dinosaur coat. After finishing the pants, I learned that there was excess at the bottom and I might have been able to fit all the pieces on normally if I’d shortened the legs by 4 cm, ah well, live and learn.
Anyway, the first time I made Lekala 4742, here, the hood could fit at least two of my head in it. I didn’t feel like repatterning the entire thing so I stole the hood from a sweater I had been working on before; Nelly. I put the Nelly neckline on the Lekala pattern and adjusted it that way. This worked out wonderfully. Originally, the Nelly hood is supposed to have a lining, but I liked the fluffy white of mine so I just made a facing. I took the sweater in along the sides. And to combat hemming, I added a cuff to the arms and the bottom.
Just pants 
Then onto the pants, just sewed them up as I would normally. Then put them on and could fit a second human in the back. So I resewed the crotch seam, see the red line in my wonderful paint image for some potential clarification (?). In total, I took out 8 cm on either side of the center back. Then I added a waistband of the same cuff material as the sweater, threaded some elastic through it, hemmed the legs and called it a day.
I titled this post Head to Toad, that’s because I had planned to have this thing done for halloween and just be a mushroom for the day. That clearly failed as I finished it exactly a week later. However, when I was telling my colleagues about the plan, and showed them the mostly finished sweater, one told me I looked like Toad – now, this is not completely correct. The other one said I would be Head to Toe(d) in this mushroom suit. I thought the pun was too brilliant to pass up, so Head to Toad it is! I’ve been wearing the finished thing for the past 2 hours now, and I love it. I shall be a mushroom for many weekend days to come!
No such thing as too much red and white, right?!
