Monkey Business Part II – how to make your own Monk

One man, a Marsupial Monk, and a dog

As I promised yesterday to tell you how to make your own Monk, I thought I would take photographs as I made one. This one is made from a lovely fleece blanket bought from Cómpeta market for 15€. There is plenty of fabric left, so I shall be experimenting with fun things to do with it.

Just a couple of things to watch out for before you start making your own Monk:

If your fleece is very stretchy, you will need to use a stitch that will allow movement. Some sewing machines have stitches specifically for the purpose, or you may need to stitch your seams with a zig-zag stitch. You should test it out on scraps before you start to sew your Monk.

Try to cut your pieces so that if the fabric has a pile or a pattern, the finished garment will not look daft!

Click on the images to get step by step instructions. The formatting seems to show only the captions when you see all the picture thumbnails, so it’s best to click on each picture, read the titles and any comments under the photos, and get a feel for what you are doing before you start.

The pattern is easy to adapt to make the Monk longer, smaller, have different pockets etc., and fleece fabric covers a multitude of inaccuracies, so just be creative and adapt it to be the Monk of your particular dreams…

If you get the urge to start on another Monk as soon as you have finished your first, be careful: this process is habit forming 😛

: The original Monk and a large fleece blanket, ready for the off.

: You only need enough area for the ‘body’ section of the Monk, and a 1cm seam allowance all round

: (yes, I admit it: I am a bit lazy!)

: Place the top edge of the sleeve on the fold, and allow 1cm seam allowance

: This is similar to what you did to cut the armhole shaping on the body bits

: Take care not to move the sleeve!

: Pin the underarm of the sleeve to the underarm of the body, and pin along the seam. If it isn’t long enough, check you have the sleeve the right way up 😛

: Now your Monk looks like this, except yours does not have a pouch sewn onto the front of it. There is a description of this pouch later on – I forgot to take photographs when I added it! The laptop in the picture is the one I’m using now. (Just thought you would like to know)