Rise of The Guardians: Jack Frost Hoodie

I'm a wee bit of a geek, especially when it comes to animated films. My mum is slightly embarrassed by my collection of Disney movies and how much time I spend watching them in my spare time. However, as it is nearing Halloween, I thought I'd share a little costume item that I was working on about a month ago. It's not entirely a costume, so to speak, but it is inspired by the hoodie that Jack Frost wears in Rise of The Guardians - adorable movie, by the way! I'm a sucker for those feel-good fuzzy stories...

This is the hoodie that he wears; I did intend to go for something that isn't so blatantly a costume, so that I would have an excuse to wear it on a regular basis, and this hoodie was perfect. I got my hoodie from UNIQLO for 149 HKD on sale - it sounds a bit pricey, but I did want something of decent quality because I'd be wearing it more than just once.

I chose to go with a zipper hoodie rather than a pull-on; I have a rather embarrassing habit of forgetting to pull my shirt down underneath before lifting off my hoodie - zippers just work better for me. The material of the hoodie itself is 92% cotton and 8%nylon, with a cotton/nylon ribbing on the sleeves and hem.

WHAT I USED:
Heritage Permanent Fabric Paint in 02 White
Sakura Pen-Touch Fine Point Paint Marker in White and Silver

I started with the neckline of the hoodie, because I figured it would take the most time. I wanted the frosty effect to be more exaggerated and purposely patterned rather than more accidental, like Jack's original one. 

I used an old eyeshadow brush to apply the fabric paint- don't glare at me just yet! This particular eyeshadow brush is really stiff, and I have no use for it because it would simply stab me in the eye and not pick up any powder pigment, so I figured I may as well use a terrible makeup brush as an excellent fabric paint brush! The small amount of paint that it picked up due to its size made it easier to fade the paint out into a gradient against the fabric of the hoodie, as well as draw fine lines for the frost.

This is what the upper part looks like; I lined the white paint all the way around the hood and around the neckline. The frost comes down a little past my chest, and down the sides onto my shoulders. After drawing the initial outlines of the frost with the fabric paint, I went over them and highlighted certain parts with the silver and white paint markers, which brings it a subtle glisten. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! Not. I live basically along the equator.

I didn't put too much emphasis on the frost along the hood - I don't generally wear the hood up that often, so it doesn't get seen much, anyway. Plus I kind of like the contrast between the neckline and the hood. 

I didn't manage to get pictures of each individual part, but as you can see, I did the same sort of pattern on the sleeves and pocket. For the hem, I just did a simply gradient without frost because I didn't want to overcrowd the hoodie with frost patterns. 

Oh ho ho! Mirror selfie time! This is what it looks like with an actual person wearing it. My face is not in it because the picture was landscape and that's all I could fit in without missing any of the details. 

I love how it turned out; it makes a nice casual statement piece in comparison to my fairly minimalistic wardrobe (Pretty much everything I wear is black, white, grey, or brown). It's also super cozy, and handy to have when some of my professors like to turn up the air-conditioning to penguin mode.

Funny story - I was wearing this hoodie one day, and I was standing in line at Starbucks. The girl behind me keeps staring at me - or my chest, rather - which I found to be slightly creepy. Then she taps me on the shoulder and asks if I made my hoodie. I told her yes, and she asked if I had an Etsy store! I wish. I would never have the time to hand-make enough hoodies to sell, and to be honest, I don't know the first thing about shipping stuff...anyway, that small incident made me a happy llama for the rest of the day (:

I'm probably going to be pushing through school assignments at the end of this month, so I doubt I'll be able to get my Halloween fun in this year! What will you be doing this Halloween? 

Llamas and rainbows,

Evelyn