Rorschach Inkblot Hoodie

Inspired by the beauty of the Rorschach inkblot test, I decided to embellish a plain gray hoodie I had. To create the Rorschach embellishment on the back I used the reverse appliqué process which I found here on the blog Sweet Verbena. My hoodie needed a little TLC but now its super cute! Read more for the full tutorial!

Before I started working on the hoodie, it had a few tears and was super plain. I picked this up at the dumptique on Martha's Vineyard and apparently the previous owner forgot to empty their pockets! I found a cute "MV Shell Recovery" sticker in one of the pockets.

The first thing I did was make my own rorschach-esque inkblot. 

I found a piece of paper big enough and cut it to fit the back of the hoodie.

 Then, I used a bottle of paint we had laying around and made my own inkblot! 

Focus the paint along the center axis of the paper and then just fold it in half and gently press to create a symmetrical pattern. 

Find a piece of fabric big enough for your pattern. I used an old t-shirt laying around the house. Once you have your piece of fabric, use fusible interfacing to reinforce the fabric as it will eventually become the back of your hoodie!

Line up the pattern, and the interfaced fabric, along the center of the back of the hoodie. I busted the seam of the hood and the tag as a guide to find the center. Then pin the fabric in place, make sure that the interfacing is facing up.

Cut out the pattern and trace it onto the fabric.

Sew along the lines of your pattern. I found it difficult to follow some of the intricacies of the design, so I generalized some of the shapes and had to leave out some of the little circles.

Next, I used pinking shears to cut off the excess fabric.

Use fabric scissors to cut out the original fabric on the inside of the design, leaving the new fabric to make up the Rorschach inkblot.

Since it was difficult to cut out the little circles of the inkblot, I added a few iron-on studs I had laying around to the edges of the inkblot.

I used the leftover pieces of the t-shirt to create matching drawstrings for the hoodie! Since I used the back of a t-shirt for my fabric I was able to use the hem of the t-shirt for drawstrings. I used my loop turner to turn the hem inside out, after I cut it off the t-shirt. 

I then threaded the original drawstring through the two new pink fabric and sewed then to the old drawstring at the end.

Then finally, I just used a safety pin to pull the "new" drawstring through the hood. 

Since the hoodie I used isn't brand new, it had some wear and tear. 

The pilling (or little annoying balls of fiber which end up covering the fabric once its been loved for a little while) definitely made it look a little tired. 

But an easy fix for pilling is to simply just "shave" the fabric with a cheap razor, this removes the pills, and then just use a lint roller to pick them up! Good as new! 

The matching drawstring really ties it all together (no pun intended). I just covered the visible parts of the drawstring and then tied simple knots on the end of the new fabric.

I love how it turned out!