Monster Hoodies complete

Material purchased, and sketch complete, it's time to get down to work. I have become rather ambitious with this project, but I thought I could get all of it in. With the sketch above I was able to get all the details I listed earlier in one view.  Most can see that it's meant to be a dragon, and D&D nerds should be able to tell that its a chromatic RED dragon.

The belly scales are split into two colors; Yellow for the belly scales proper, and orange for a transition to the rest of the body. The yellow scales I cut out individually, overlapped them, and sewed them on. Fortunately there weren't too many.This way the scales shift just a bit when the wearer moves, but not so much that they're in danger of tearing or anything. I ran a single seam along the scalloped outside edge, securing them to the orange scales.

The orange transition scales are a single piece on either side, with the "scales" drawn in with an embroidery stitch. This process I thought would be faster than cutting out scales like with the yellow scales, but it was actually a lot slower, as my sewing machine stitches in this pattern at a snail's pace.

Next were the horns. there were 16 horns in all; 3 claws on each hand, 1 elbow spike on each arm, 3 small horns on each side of the hood at the neck, and 2 large back-swept horns on the top of the head. These were actually the easiest part. I just sketched out one sample of each size, played with the stitching and curves until I liked it, then cut out the other copies I needed. Sewing them was fast and easy.  Their position on the hoodie was difficult to get the sewing machine situated, so I opted to hand sew them on.

After the horns were attached, all that was left was the spine and tail. The tail itself was easy, using leftover felt from the belly scales. The back spines I thought would be rather complex, and after multiple designs to try to keep the spines plushy and full and the webbing between them thin without too much sewing, Jenn offered he perfect solution. Instead of cutting out each spine and each webbing section, I just drew out the entire spine piece on the fabric. I cut out a single big piece for each side, and ran a stitch along the top; from the first big spine all the way to the tip of the tail, and flipped it and ironed it flat. After that it was a matter of sewing a stitch along the outline of each webbing section; up along one side of a spine, along the top of the webbing edge, and back down along the other spine it connected to. Rinse. Repeat. This left the webbing and spines separated by the seams, which were then stuffed with batting. The end result was Simple and exactly what I was looking for. To finish it off, I bought some fabric markers and added some shading and texture to the webbing, adding contrast between them and the spines and making them more dynamic.

Here's the finished piece. I'm very happy with how it turned out. now to ship it out to Jezebel and see how she likes it.