Hello, and welcome to the hoodie tutorial for the Make Your Own Hoodie cult. I will be guiding you through the steps of making your own hoodie and what materials and equipment you need.
My Design:
Materials:
Approx. 2-3 yards of sweatshirt material (actual name), depending on tallness of sweater. If it’s going to be multicoloured, just make sure the total amount of material adds up to 2-3 meters. It’ $20-25/yrd for me. (Curse you Fabricland for having the only decent selection at expensive prices!!) Adjust accordingly to your design in mind; it helps to draw it out so you could show it to, say, a staff member of your fabric store so they can assist you in how much you need.
0.5 yards of ribbing at $20/yrd for me (again, curse you Fabricland!)
Zipper (optional, difficult to sew on without a zipper presser foot)
That’ll cost anywhere from $40-$80, depending on the cost at your local fabric store. Try to find the best deal you can. Unless you have someone who is experienced enough to help you (as my mom luckily was), I do not recommend sewing on a zipper unless you know what you’re doing or want to take that risk. There is little room for error, and if you make a mistake it could very well destroy your hoodie-in-progress.
Equipment:
Sewing machine
Serger (optional, but recommended)
There are no ifs, ands, or buts around it; you NEED a sewing machine. Hand sewing it will be a bitch and you’ll quit faster than a toddler assembling a model car. A serger is a very useful tool for creating strong joining seams, such as sewing an arm to the main body or sewing the front to the back. It is not, however, usable for stitch work like sewing on a pocket to the chest unless you’re very fortunate and have a 4-stitch serger (I wish, I only have a 3-stitch). If you’re lucky like I am and already own one, or can dole out the cash for one (price range $400-600 estimated), I would recommend it.
Other Stuff:
A pattern pack (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!)
I 100% recommend buying a pattern pack, as it will give you the exact pattern shapes you need to cut your fabric into. They’re only $5, come with additional instructions + sizing charts and are worth it to make your sweater look cleanly sewn. Please, buy one, as I’ll be using one in my tutorial. Also, take note of the brand (Burda) and the #7734. It’ll save you time looking for a pattern.
Scissors (Necessary for cutting the fabric, ideally sewing scissors. They’re sharper.)
Pins
Measuring tape. Sewing measuring tape. Forgot to take a pic.
Steps
1. Above all things you need to measure yourself first and cut the patterns accordingly as the sizing chart says you should. If you’re using your own pattern this is even more important.
2. Cutting: Lay out your fabric flat on the floor and start pinning your pattern pieces to the fabric. The non-fleecy side should be facing up but it doesn’t matter too much. Also, don’t just put in 4 pins per pattern piece, there should be at least a pin in every 2-4”. If your hood, arms, pockets, back or front are going to be the same colour as its left or right counterpart, save yourself some time cutting and fold your fabric under itself, then pin your pattern pieces to the fabric. It also ensures symmetry. If its multicoloured, lay both colours on top of each other; the fleecy sides should be facing each other. (Make sure the pins go through both sides of the fabric.)
SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT THE FRONT, BACK, HOOD, SLEEVES AND POCKETS: When doing this for the front, back, and pockets (if the pockets are one color for an unzippered hoodie), make sure to line up the part that would be the center right against the fold. Do not cut the fold line unless it is the front and pockets for the same reason about to be stated, which is that you are intending to put in a zipper or each side is a different colour. For the hood line up what would be the front edge right against the fold line and pin. You can cut the fold line. Same goes for the sleeves, just line up the straight part against the fold, pin and cut. What it should look like pinned:
^ This is the line you cut through to make it tall
This is approximate, and might not necessarily work for your design. Excess is good, it gives you room for error.
And now after it’s all cut:
3. Body: Pin and sew your left front and right front together, as well as the back together if it’s separated like mine. (don’t sew the front together just yet if you want to put in a zipper.)
Before:
After:
If you’re doing what I am doing (and I hope you’re not making the exact same hoodie as I am; it’s more fun if you’re original) You’ll want to sew together your front and back. Pin them together with the fleecy side outwards, and sew them together.
Before:
[See above]
After:
[See above]
4. It’s sleeve time! First, your sleeves need to get sewn together before getting attached to the body, so pin like this:
Aaand sew like this:
^ the high point is the part that is the top. The seam is ALWAYS on the underside.
Now to attach these to the body. Turn the body and newly sewn sleeves inside out (Of course fleecy side), and line the sleeve seam facing down. pin like this:
Now since you will be sewing a circular joint, stop every now and then to rotate the fabric and keep the stitch moving straight.
When finished:
5. The hood. It is crucial that if you plan on having drawstring running through your hood, that you make the holes for them in your hood before sewing the facing (the fold for the drawstring to run through) and attachment to the body. They’ll be 2x harder to do without ruining your hood pieces unless someone can help you like my mom could if you do it after sewing the facing.
But first sew together your two hood sides.
Find or buy a sewing razor and carefully cut a hole in each side; it helps to iron the facing flat so you know approximately where to cut. It also helps later when pinning and sewing. After that, reinforce your freshly cut hole with a zigzag stitch.
After:
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Fold and pin the facing.
Sew.
Finally, sew on to the body. It’s similar to a sleeve in that every now and then you need to rotate the fabric to keep the seam straight. Line the seam connecting the two hood pieces as close to the back’s center as possible (It’s easier if you have a seam going straight down the back like mine does.) and pin from there.
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Now sew it.
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6. Ribbing: We’re almost done; For an unknown reason (probably excitement) I had not pinned/cut out my ribbing with everything else. Doesn’t matter. You know the drill; pin and cut according to your size.
Next, a quick sew of the ends is necessary to make the ribbing into loops.
fold in half like the pattern depicted, pin each to sleeve ends and bottom of sweater (line the seam up with the other seams for cleanliness) and sew. Work slowly for the cuffs. Result:
^the bottom is the same as this cuff.
7. Pockets: Only the pockets are left…Hooray! Use a regular sewing machine for sure with this one. Sew the facing in…the diagonal flaps where the openings will be. Fold the non-fleecy side in and pin. I made two lines. To make it easier, you can iron it flat if you so choose…
Now with the non fleecy side facing outwards fold in on each side about ¼-½” and pin. To sew this properly, the hoodie as a whole needs to be folded inside out. Have the pocket facing up….you know what, like this…
When making an immediate direction change, let off the pedal, rotate the big wheel on the side until the needle has fully penetrated the fabric. Leave it like that, lift the presser foot and rotate. Drop the presser foot and continue sewing.
8. OPTIONAL STEP! Zipper: First off, you need a zipper presser foot which will make this much easier; it looks like this:
To make this work, the needle needs to be offset to the left or right. I can’t tell you how to do that since I don’t own your sewing machine. If you truly can’t figure out how to do that, consult your sewing machine’s operational manual. Anyways, before buying a zipper, measure from where the hood meets the body all the way down to the ribbing. When that’s bought, fold it in and sew 2x per side. Offset the needle appropriately, and take your time; there’s little room for error. No photos, sorry. It’s just because I was documenting this hoodie only. Photos may come later.
WE’RE DONE! This is my finished product, minus one moderately sized embroidered logo.
There you go NS, you have stepped away from the crowd and made something for yourself that is truly unique and something you can be proud of.
This was quite a bit of work for me so I hope you guys appreciate it, and if you have any questions post here and I or some other expert will try to help you.
Happy sewing!
P.S. I may have made no sense at times or skimped on detail. If that's the case tell me. I just wanted to get this out to you buys ASAP.
