Hooded Sweatshirt Tutorial

 After sewing some brown and red pants for Sora, I realized that all of her sweatshirts had some shade of pink in them! I had to remedy the situation by sewing her a new, non-pink-related sweatshirt, and because I realize it's been a while since I've posted a tutorial, I decided to document the process for you.

 The hood was perfect for today's beautiful but slightly brisk fall weather.

 This is my husband's favorite sewn item, although he does say that about almost every non-girly item I make for Sora.
Step 1: To create the pattern, I laid an existing sweatshirt that was slightly too small on top of my fabric and traced around it with my trusty Crayola washable marker. I added about 1/2" to the face side of the hood, and 1/4" elsewhere for seam allowance.

 When it was all cut out, I had 2 sleeves, a front, a back, and two hood pieces.

Step 2: Sew the shoulder seams together. You will notice that I was lazy and used the serger and also that I was crazy lazy and didn't bother to change the thread color. This could totally be made with a sewing machine (and matching thread).

Step 3: Sew the sleeves in. I am too lazy to pin in place and try to eyeball in the middle. If my sleeves are too large for the sleeve holes, then I try to add a little gather near the middle to make it look like I totally planned it :).

  
Step 4: Sew up the sides and sleeves.

Step 5: Sew the hood pieces together (right sides facing).

 Step 6: Hem the face side of the hood (the straight side). I used 1/2" hem and a double needle for a decorative finish.

 I totally eyeballed this and am amazed at how close to perfect my 1/2" was!

 Step 7: Sew hood onto neck (right sides together). I made sure to mark the center of the neck to ensure that the hood went on evenly.

Step 8: Cut a tiny V. Mine is about 1/2" wide and is the length of the v I cut into the front of the sweatshirt.

Step 9: Place V right side down on top of sweatshirt, and sew in place. I used 1/8" seam.

 Step 10: Make a small notch at the center of the V, and turn over. Top stitch into place. Again, I used the double needle. The left side lined up perfectly with the seam on my hood. The right side wasn't as perfect.

 Step 11:  From ribbing, cut 2 sleeve and one bottom piece. I used 3.5" length for both. Sew sides together for each piece, creating three circles.

 Step 12:  Fold ribbing in half (wrong sides together), and sew onto bottom and sleeves, making sure that seams will be on the wrong side of the sweatshirt.

 You can see that I topstitched the bottom seam in place if you look carefully. My needle broke when I was almost done, but I don't know that I would do the same to the sleeves anyway. I think it turned out perfect! I added a silkscreen embellishment to the front, since my fabric was so plain, but with a print, you could be done right here... or maybe an applique... or a front pocket... or, well, the possibilities are endless!

 Insert one funny toddler, and you're all set!

"Okay mom, no more pictures."