I previously made a Stokx Patterns Ninja dress, and decided I wanted to make a top too. Well, the one top has turned into three so I thought I’d look up the collective noun for Ninjas and found a few: a Murder of Ninjas (nope), a Silence of Ninjas (not staying quiet about these) and then saw a Hood of Ninjas and decided that was just right!

My latest Ninja was made whilst I watched the Australian Sewing Guild’s Autumn Celebration – a whole day of amazing presentations. I made it, and a pair of Hudson pants, pretty much whilst I was glued to my laptop screen. This isn’t ideal, but I think I got away with it, sort of.

As you can see I went with all white. Two reasons: I adore white for the winter and the second is that I was attempting to replicate this gorgeous inspiration photo. I can’t work out where I found the image so can’t give it credit. I just know that I love it. If anyone can identify its provenance I’d be very grateful.

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As mentioned above, I decided that the Ninja top and a pair of True Bias Hudson pants would be a reasonable way to copy this outfit. I shopped the stash and found sufficient white cotton knit from Knitwit that I probably bought to dye, but have had far too long. It’s not as thick as the inspiration fabric but really good for our autumn.

I cut everything out and began sewing. I had designed a lovely pocket for my Ninja but was rather puzzled when it came time to sew it on. It had strange notches and a slightly odd shape. Where was my head when I was drafting that? Anyway, I made it work and sewed it on, slightly too high as it turned out, but acceptable. You’ll see that my inspiration photo has a waistband so I added one to my top too. It makes it a lot longer than the original photo but it will be excellent to keep me covered up.

Onto the Hudsons!

I have only ever made one pair of Hudson pants and they are way too big for me at the back and the fabric is getting very thin as I wear them a fair bit in the cooler weather. Time to give the pattern another go. I went from a size 6 to a 2 and may have overdone it! The legs are a little short and the waistband a smidge low. I think the legs are now too skinny as well. Next time I’ll grade between the 2 and the 4.

The whole garment came together in about half an hour, except I lost the pocket linings – that’s what I had used on my Ninja top – no wonder they seemed odd! Luckily I had plenty of fabric scraps so cut out another pair and finished sewing. Happily I checked my inspiration photo only to discover that I had forgotten that there were a pair of silver hearts sewn on a pocket. Oh my giddy aunt, now I had to retrofit them! I played around with silver embroidery thread but couldn’t make it look right, then found my lovely Sparkly Braid Box (yes, that’s what it’s called!). I found two sorts of silver braid and set about stitching them on to a scrap of fabric. I then cut away the bulk of the spare fabric and stitched the appliqué on to the pocket. I finally trimmed close to the hearts.

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This was quite successful, but I will admit to some trepidation at the thought of laundering these pants!

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I’m not going to lie, I love this set and can’t wait to wear it – and doubtless spill tea on it!

My other Ninjas are quite different. My first one was with some beautiful organic cotton knit that I got from Woven Stories Textiles. I love the design on this fabric and it seems to suit the Ninja perfectly.

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I’m wearing it with my original Hudsons and I think it’s obvious that they are very baggy at the back. Here is a comparison photo with the new ones. Most unattractive on the left!

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This Ninja didn’t get any pockets for some reason, so my next one was designed with pockets in mind. I am not a fan of in seam pockets as they always seem to flap around so I consulted my Liz Haywood’s The Dressmaker’s Companion and chose some cutaway pockets.

Can you see the problem? Yes, these pockets are for fingertips only! This is no reflection on Liz’s book – I simply didn’t make them big enough.

For this one I used some sort of vintage snuggly brushed cotton knit that I had dyed with passionfruit and added a bit of length to make the top even cosier.

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I’ve graded the hips on my other Ninjas but decided not to on this one and you can see that it is very wide at the bottom. This one is the perfect weight for my early morning swims and when it gets colder I’ll be able to add a layer underneath as it’s quite roomy.

So there it is; a Hood of Ninjas plus a pair of Hudsons. I think I’m set for casual wear for the winter. Thank you to Lindy from Stokx Patterns for providing me with this pattern. I think it has quite a few hacking possibilities so might think on that for next winter.