GIRLZ N THE HOOD

I have a lot of love for hoods. First and foremost, they're warm. They combine the warming powers of a hat and a scarf without messing up your hair as much. Hoods can also act as a safety net, protecting you from the outside world when you're feeling anti-social or just not uber bubbly for a day. I definitely think hoods send a message, sometimes a pretty badass one (ahhh how I love Pharrell.)

I got the idea for this project at a Cool Kids show in Chicago. The crowd there was really interesting, and there was this one dude in particular whose style was a perfect blend of hipster and hip-hop. He had THE coolest clear framed glasses that made me wish I had some sort of ocular impairment, and he was wearing a hood without the hoodie. Genius! All the benefits of a hood without the bulky and sometimes uncomfortably warm effects of a hoodie. My fashion muse was wearing a red hood cut off right below the neck with a graphic tee and a keffiyeh.

My version of the hood adds some volume to combine the hood and scarf elements, and makes the piece a bit more unique.

Here's what you'll need:

- hoodie (if you don't have one you're ready to cut up, thrift stores are always full of hoodies that are generally around $5.)

- 3 yards of cord or ribbon (mine was $1.29/yard)

- scissors

- seam ripper (not vital, but helpful if you have one)

TOTAL COST: About $10 (cheaper if you already own the hoodie!)

Here's my hoodie. It's pretty big but the fit doesn't matter as we'll be cutting it up.

 Begin by using a seam ripper (or scissors) to remove the seam on the underside of each sleeve.

 Next, cut off the body of the sweatshirt so it falls to about the top of your ribs. You can make the body longer or shorter depending on how much volume you want in the top part. Cut the bit of fabric still connecting the front of the sweatshirt to the back (the part on top of my hand in the picture) so that the hoodie becomes like a short cape that falls over your shoulders.

Now we're getting to the fun stuff. To add volume, I created folds in the sweatshirt and pulled it up with a drawstring-like effect so that the part of the garment surrounding the hood has a neat texture and look. Make folds in the sweatshirt (I averaged about 4 folds per rope section) and make small cuts on either side of the folds so that you can stick your rope or ribbon through.

When your rope is all the way through the top of the sweatshirt, tie the ends tightly on the inside of the sweatshirt so that the folded sections stay the way you want them to and don't get droopy looking.

I did eight different drawstring sections, and made sure that the folds from section to section were not aligned horizontally in order to get a messier fold look, rather than a straight accordion fold. 

 Here is the final product:

I'm pretty amped to wear my hood around town when it's not too warm, but just cool enough to merit a head-warming accessory (or on days when I don't feel like doing my hair.)

 Song to get you going: Cool Kids - What It Is