Hack || Rowan Tee with zipper || by Cindy

May 22, 2021

 I love tops with a zipper closure - it gives me all the 80's vibes! And it gives great opportunity to colorblock. Cindy first hacked our Rowan Tee by adding zipper and hood, during our 2020 Rowan Tee hackalong. And it turned out so good! It's still on my personal to-sew-hack list for my son! So I obviously had to ask her to join our hacker team! Luckily for us, in this how-to blogpost Cindy explains how she adjusted the Rowan Tee pattern and added the Bing Shirtigan hood to create this fun hack! 

 

You can read more about Cindy's other inspiring makes on her Instagram account @miss_maakt. She sews beautiful garments for herself and her family!

 

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Hi there!

I'm Cindy and today I’m going to show you how I hacked the Rowan Tee to have a short front zipper and a hood. 
For this project you need: 

• a zipper
• your Rowan Tee Pattern
• hood pattern pieces from another pattern you want to use. Make sure it’s a non-overlapping hood. 
• optional: wondertape / interfacing or anything else you like to use when putting a zipper onto knit fabric. 

For this hack, I used the hood pattern pieces from the Bing Shirtigan. In my experience, these hood pattern pieces fitted quite well on the neckline from the Rowan Tee (I’ve used the highest neckline). If you want to check if your hood fits, you can measure the circumference of the neckline seam of the hood and the neckline seam of the front and back piece of the Rowan tee pattern. If the length is not the same, you have to make a few adjustments.

An easy way to adjust the neckline of your tee to your hood is to copy the neckline of the front & back bodice of the original hood pattern onto your Rowan tee bodices. Place the original neckline on top of the front and back pattern pieces of the Rowan tee and transfer the neckline. Now you’ll be sure the hood will fit as well. 

The picture above shows the long sleeved version I first made during the Rowan Hack-a-long in september 2020. Back then I also used the hood of the Bing pattern and that’s why I already knew it would work and didn’t make any adjustments for it now. Now let’s start with the adjustments I did make!

Adjusting the pattern

Step 1 - You will need your front bodice pattern piece for this. First decide where you would like to split your bodice in two. Draw a line perpendicular to the fold line at this point. 

 

Step 2 - Then cut your pattern piece in two following the line you just drew. Now you’re front piece is divided in two. Let’s call it your bottom front piece and your top front piece. 

 

Step 3 - Your bottom front piece needs to be cut on the fold, just like the original pattern piece was supposed to. The only thing you don’t need to forget is that you have to add 1 cm seam allowance at your new cut line. Cut your bottom front piece out of the fabric. 

 

Step 4 - Measure the zipper you want to use. Mine is 2.25cm in width. If I take 1/4 of this width (0,56) and use that as seam allowance when putting the zipper in, I know I’ll take just as much width of the top front pattern piece as the remaining part of the zipper would add back. 

 

Step 5 - I did not add seam allowance at the original fold line, because of the previous calculations with the zipper. If you want to use a different seam allowance when attaching the zipper other than 1/4 part of your zipper width, you might need to add seam allowance to that line as well to make it add up. Now take the top front pattern piece. Originally it had to be cut on the fold, but now we cut 2 mirrored pieces, not on the fold. Add 1 cm seam allowance to the line were the front bodice was cut in two. 

 

 
Step 6 - When you’re front pieces are cut out, we’ll take the pattern piece and draw a new line onto it. Draw it parallel to the original fold line, 4-5 cm away from it. Cut your pattern piece in two. The new 4-5cm width pattern piece is your zipper facing. 

 

Step 7 - Cut your zipper facing out as a mirrored pair. Only add 1cm seam allowance to the bottom. 

 

Sewing the bodice

Step 1 - Now take one of your top front pattern pieces and your zipper. Open the zipper, and but it right sides together with your centre front. The zipper teeth need to point towards the arm. Make sure you use the correct part of the zipper. The end of the zipper teeth most be 1cm under the neckline. Pin the zipper in place. 

 

Step 2 - Put your zipper facing on top of the zipper, right side together with the right side of the front pattern piece. The zipper is sandwiched in between. 

 

Step 3 - Sew them together. It can be tricky to sew a zipper on to two layers of knit fabric. 
Things that can help: - Baste them together first. - Use wondertape - Interface the seam allowance to take out the stretch. - Use a zipper foot. 

 

Step 4 - When done, flip the zipper facing to the back. From the inside, it looks like this. Don’t topstitch the facing (yet)! 

 

Step 5 - Repeat previous steps for the other side of the front, the facing and the zipper. Make sure the zipper lines out correctly (1cm under the neckline) and that it lines up with your previously sewn half. It can help to baste it first the check if everything lines up correctly before sewing it! When you’re sure all is okay, sew it together. When you now close the zipper, it would look something like above picture!

 

And this is what it looks like from the inside. You can now finish the raw edges from the long sides of your zipper facing. 

 

Step 6 -  Next, we need to turn the bottom and top front pieces into one piece again. 

 

Step 7 -  Lay your top front piece on you bottom front piece, right sides together. Join raw edges at the center where you’ve cut the pattern in two in the first place. Pin and sew with a stretch stitch. Be careful when you sew over the zipper. 

 

Step 8 - Stitch a few extra times back and forward over the zipper for reinforcement. The you can cut off the part that’s sticking out. Now you can finish the seam with a zigzag stitch or serger. After that, iron the seam towards the hem and topstitch in place. 

 

Step 9 - Now take your front and back pattern pieces and sew/serge them together at the shoulders. After that, we’re gonna assemble the hood. 

Sewing the hood

Step 1 - Put your main hood pieces right sides together and pin across the centre seam. Sew/serge. Repeat for the hood lining. 

 

Step 2 - Turn one of the hood pieces right side out and put it inside the other part of the hood. Right sides are together now. Line up the front of the hood and sew/serge in place (see the red line on the drawing below). 

 

Step 3 - Line up the front of the hood and sew/serge in place (see the red line on the drawing below).

 

Step 4 - Turn the hood right sides out and topstitch the seam as preferred.

 

Step 5 - Next, with the right sides together, line up the raw edge of the hood with the neckline of the shirt. The center seam of the hood should line up with the center back of the shirt. Line up the outer edge of the hood with the zipper. Flip the zipper facing back over and pin in place. Sew hood and neckline together from on side of the zipper to the other side, across the whole neckline. 

 

 Step 6 - Flip the zipper facing back to the inside. It now looks like this! If preferred, you can now topstitch the hood to the neckline and the zipper facing. 

 

Step 7 - Last but not least, follow the rest of the Rowan Tee instructions to finish up the sleeves (long or short), the side seams and the hems. And then you’re done! 

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Wowzers, this is one cool hack! Thank you so much Cindy! If you make your own zipped Rowan Tee, make sure to tag @miss_maakt and @misusupatterns - we'd love to see your version!

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