Shirt Hoodie

Shirt Hoodie

09/12/2020

When the stores were closed it was clear that there was nothing we could do and if we needed new clothing we needed to sew them. But even when the stores did open it didn’t really help us… Because with the crazy lines everywhere who has the energy to wait for hours only to find out that in the end, the store might not even have when we’re looking for?

The obvious conclusion? That it’s always better to sew your own clothes. (Well, you didn’t really expect me to say anything else, did you?)

Anyway, now that the winter is really here a hoodie made out of a brushed jersey knit fabric is an excellent choice! And when you know how to do it right it’s also fast and easy, and comes out simply marvelous!!

I like combining different fabrics. It makes the whole garment more interesting. And I also like clothing which you can sew entirely on your own! Beginning with the base pattern and down to the smallest details of the design. Here I sewed a double sided hood, pockets and even a pull string for the hood.

Of course, I draft my pattern using a base pattern. I drafted the pattern for this hoodie using a base pattern ruler that I developed for babies, but any base pattern you have can work. I made alterations and developed my base pattern to include the hood, the pocket and all the other features.

I used a fabric called French Terry which is a type of thin brushed jersey knit that is often sold in stores. You can of course use any kind of appropriate fabric- thick brushed jersey knit, symphony, scuba- the method for sewing is the same.

What I do suggest is that if you choose to use a thick fabric for the shirt, then you shouldn’t sew the inner lining of the hood from a very thick fabric.

With a shirt like this it is easiest and nicest to sew a ribbed finish, which allows us to sew a clean finish without a special machine or an overlock and it is really most appropriate here. So there are ribbed hems and cuffs both at the edge of the shirt and the edge of the sleeves. It’s worthwhile to use this method if working with stretch fabric.

You can change the pattern and add interesting cuts and combinations.

You can also just sew a hoodie all from the same fabric.

In short, one of the easiest and most fun patterns to sew, and you will always get excellent results!

And as I wrote before, you can make the pull string on your own. (You can of course also buy one ready made, but there is nothing quite like doing it ourselves!!) In general it isn’t something especially hard. You just need to take a strip of fabric, fold it, sew it, and turn it in. The problem is that the narrower the strip of fabric is, the harder it is to turn it in and that is precisely why we have this excellent technique which I show in the video below. This video is one part of the full video series where I explain how to make a hoodie like this, step by step: what we need to pay attention to when we aren’t sewing a hoodie with a zipper, how to accurately sew the hood double sided, the right way to sew finishing hems on the pockets, and in short, everything.