How to Sew a Hoodie | Hangout Hoodie Pattern Sew Along

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Welcome to Peek-a-Boo Pages to learn how to sew a hoodie. We’ll be using the Hangout Hoodie from Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop for our sew-along today! The Hangout Hoodie is packed with options, including:

View A: Hood with Placket
View B: Standard Hood
View C: Neckband
Pullover with standard hem or band
A-line Tunic and Dress
Optional Pocket
Short or Long Sleeves

Alright, let’s get started with how to sew a hoodie!

How to Sew a Hoodie | Hangout Hoodie Sew-Along

For starters, if you haven’t grabbed your pattern yet you can get a copy here.

Part 1 | Picking Your Hoodie Fabric, Choosing a Size, Printing and Cutting

Hoodie Fabric:

The Hangout Hoodie is a knits-only pattern. Since it is an outfit rather than a coat you’ll want something light-midweight such as jersey fabric, interlock fabric or waffle knit fabric. On Page 2 you’ll find the yardage needed for your size along with the full materials list.

You might take a look at the amazing selection of knit fabrics over at KnitFabric.com. There’s a great selection of Cotton Lycra, Interlock, or Waffle Knit.

For today’s project we’ll be using some striped fabric:

Navy Blue and Deep Mint Stripe Cotton Jersey Blend Knit Fabric

Choosing Your Size:

First, let’s decide what size hoodie to make. Moving on to Page 3 you’ll find a helpful section for choosing the right size. Remember this is a fitted outfit, not a coat. I made this when Will was 16 mos. and I went with the 2t so he’d have some growing/layering room. He also has a bit of a belly 🙂 When in doubt I always recommend going up a size.

Printing Your Pattern:

Make sure you print out your hoodie pattern at 100% with no scaling and then check the 1″ scale box to make sure you printed the pattern correctly. You need pages 8-16 for a dress and 12-18 for the top.

When I tape my pieces together I like to cut one edge on the dashed line and then leave some paper hanging off the corresponding piece (see the sleeve…). Then I can overlap and tape a bit easier.

How to Sew a Hoodie | Hangout Hoodie Pattern Sew Along

Cutting Your Pieces

To save you some paper/ink the front and back pieces are the same. You need to cut the back piece of the hoodie pattern first. If you’ll be matching stripes later it helps to have the bottom edge flush with the bottom edge of a stripe. Remember we’re cutting on the fold.

Now trim your pattern piece on the dotted line to create the front pattern piece. The front is also cut on the fold.

To match the stripes on the hood I like to cut the left and right at the same time by folding my fabric in half. You aren’t cutting it on the fold though…see the little edge I left?

Don’t forget the hood binding and sleeve cuffs. Measurements are in your cutting chart 🙂 The stretch should go across the width of the piece.

All cut and ready to go assemble the hoodie!

Go to part 2 for the hood and hood binding 🙂

Part 2 Hoodie Sew-Along | Sewing the Hood and Hood Binding

Today we start sewing the DIY hoodie !! Make sure you read over the “Sewing Guidelines” section on Page 3 of the sewing pattern before you dive in. Sew through Step 3 and now I’m going to jump in with a little extra help.

In step 4 you attach the hood binding stopping just short of the bottom edge of the placket opening. Since I used rib knit I chose to stretch the binding a bit as I attached it to help it keep it’s shape so you’ll notice my tails are a little long.

Just trim off any excess so the binding extends 1/4″ beyond the bottom edge.

Moving on to step 5 of the Hangout Hoodie sewing pattern! I normally just sew this all at once with my serger but if you’re having trouble getting smooth corners it’s a good idea to use your machine instead and really take your time. You can even do one side at a time!

The key to getting this just perfect is to stop at each corner. Leave your needle down and then lift the presser foot up and make sure the hoodie fabric is laying smooth. If you have any tucks right now they are going to show up.

Now you can flip it over and make sure you don’t have any tucks or folds in the hoodie fabric. If you do unpick that one section and smooth out the fabric. If it still isn’t cooperating you can make a little 1/8″ into the hoodie at each corner to help you make a smooth turn.

Here’s the inside view after I’ve done both sides. I missed tacking down a tiny bit of one placket edge so I went back and got that after. No biggie 🙂

Now you can now go back over this edge if serger if you’d like or you can just leave it as-is since knits don’t fray.

Now flip the binding into place and admire your perfect corners! Any little imperfections at this point can normally be fixed with a good press and your topstitching in step 6.

Go ahead and sew through step 7!

Part 3 of How to Sew a Hoodie | Finish Sewing Sleeves, Cuffs, and Pocket

Now it’s time to finish up the hoodie!

I’m kind of in love with it on my little guy 🙂

Now we’ll finish up the hoodie sleeves and cuffs and the optional pocket. I used a super stretchy rib knit for my pocket so I added interfacing to one layer to keep it from stretching out of shape as I sewed. The overall pocket is a bit stiffer but has no wonky edges 🙂

If you’re sewing with a serger and need to finish off those thread tails on the cuffs I like to use a big yarn needle to feed them back through. Easy peasy 🙂

There you have it – you’ve sewed a hoodie! I hope you had fun and enjoy your finished hoodies! If you need help with your sewing project or would like to share your finished product then come join us in the Facebook Group.

Bonus Section | Mashup Between Hangout Hoodie and Little Long Johns!

I had a few different options floating around in my head. This is the one I was trying to recreate:

But there was also this one:

How easy would that be with the Varsity Cowl and Lil’ Long Johns??

Ok, so on to the tutorial. Prepare your pattern pieces. I was making a newborn size in the lil’ Long Johns, so to mash that up with the hangout hoodie (which starts at 6 months) I printed my hoodie pattern at 80% scale. I didn’t need to go so low, 90% would have probably been ok.

This is how I work with the same pattern piece for front and back (with the different neck cut lines):

I cut into the neck to the dotted line (see the green lines? That’s how I cut the paper), and then I can fold back the paper when I cut my front pieces.

Now I laid my lil Long Johns pattern piece on top of the front bodice of the Hangout Hoodie. I know the sizing is all crazy on these (that’s because I purposely printed the hoodie at 80% scale….you won’t have to do that if the pattern sizes are the same), but I matched up to the 3T hoodie size. This tells me which hood size to use that will fit perfectly on my mashed pattern.

Then I marked (on my Lil’ Long Johns) where the cut line is for the hoodie placket. For this newborn size, I decided I wanted it a bit longer to make dressing easier. That skewed my hood binding measurements slightly. If you don’t want to complicate things, just stick with the actual placket length 🙂 Remember…mashing patterns is not an exact science! I now had a lil Long Johns body piece with a Hangout Hoodie placket cut-out (remember, that placket cut-out is for the front only – not the back!).

Once that was done, I could cut out my pattern pieces. You obviously don’t need to cut out the neck binding or placket piece for the lil Long Johns. You’ll be cutting out a hood and hood binding instead using the Hangout Hoodie pattern pieces.

I also decided to add the pocket from the hoodie pattern. I modified the shape just slightly (purple line is the original, green line is my modified line):

Since this is the only part that isn’t covered in either of the original pattern instructions, I’ll give you a quick rundown of how I did the kangaroo pocket. Alternatively, you could just do it as stated in the Hangout Hoodie pattern, but I wanted it to look more like my inspiration photo! So I cut one of the pocket and two strips of contrast fabric about 5″ x 1 1/2″ each:

Fold the strips in half lengthwise (hotdog bun style) and sew/serge those to the curved sides of the pocket.

Then center the pocket where you’d like it to be on the front piece of the lil Long Johns and mark the bottom and up the sides a little.

Now flip the pocket over, still keeping it centered, and move it up over the marked line 1/4″. Turn in the sides 1/4″ and pin in place. Sew across the bottom of the pocket on the 1/4″ line:

Flip back up, and press. Then fold in the top of the pocket 1/4″ and pin. Topstitch along the bottom, two straight sides and the top leaving the contrast curved sides open:

Once that’s done, you can put the body of your Lil Long Johns together following the pattern instructions. Then add the hood and the placket from the Hangout Hoodie and you’re done!

Have you mashed up any patterns lately? Show them off over in the PAB Facebook group!

Again, thank you for coming and joining us to learn how to sew a hoodie with the Hangout Hoodie Pattern. Come back soon! Before you leave, you should check out some of these tutorials too: