Jalie Zip-Front Hoodie + Seahorses

I’ve been loving making hoodies for my kids – I love the options for details, showing off cool fabric, and my kids just love to have hoods and pockets on their clothes. What I don’t like however, is that THEY NEVER WEAR THEM.

Waaaaaah!!!!!

I finally worked out that my children will only wear hoodies or sweaters if they have zips or buttons in the font. I don’t blame them – my default is also anything that slips on like a cardigan too! The next custom fabric project I did, I knew it had to be a hoodie with a zipper!

Affordable Fabrics & More was the very first custom fabric group I started following – in April 2016! So naturally, I was very excited when they asked me to become a seamstress for them earlier this month! 

To promote their current collection of fabrics, they sent me a yard of these beautiful seahorses on Cotton Lycra (digitally printed, 95% cotton, 5% Lycra, 220-260gsm). I knew I wanted to do some color blocking with this fabric, so I selected the Jalie Zip-Front Jacket & Hoodie (2795). Initially I was concerned that it wouldn’t work because the pattern is designed for fleece, but after reading some reviews, I realized Cotton Lycra would indeed work just fine.

As is the case with all Jalie patterns, the size range range is incredible! This single pattern includes girls, boys, women and plus sizes, starting at 2T! This means you will likely see a lot more variations of this pattern on my blog in the weeks/months/years to come!

Since it has a lot of color blocking, there are a lot of pieces. I sketched out my idea ahead of time and then naturally changed my mind as I was cutting it out – resulting in a trip to JoAnn on Saturday night to get stretch lace for the trim! I had initially planned to add a faux drawstring to the collar, but nixed that in the end. Next time I would certainly add one, and put it on the hood banding.

This pattern was very straightforward to assemble, and if you’ve made a few hoodies in the past, you’ll be able to complete most of it without the instructions. Of course, my preference to skip instructions got the better of me and I had to unpick the top stitching on the zipper when I realized the hood was supposed to go in first, and unpick the collar after realizing I hadn’t put the hood in.

And I should probably say here that the instructions are excellent and you can easily keep them right next to your machines as you sew – just 1 page of text and 2 pages of diagrams! You can also download the instructions from the Jalie website before even buying the pattern!

One thing I particularly love about this pattern is the finishing of the collar. It’s fully enclosed so you’re not seeing exposed seams. The instructions have you do this by hand stitching, but I used some wonder tape to baste it in place before top stitching it down from the outside with my cover stitch machine.

I made a few modifications to this pattern. Firstly, my daughter measured a size 4 chest and size 7 for height, so I lengthened the size 4 pattern pieces for everything except the hood. I did this by blending the sizes together (which was quite challenging at times), but I think slicing the pieces and adding length that way would probably be better.

I also lined the hood by cutting out a second set of upper & lower hood pieces.

To add the lace, I basted it onto the printed fabric before attaching to the next panel piece with my serger. I would have liked to have put it in more of the seams but I only bought 2 yards, which was just enough for the front, back, and hood.

My last mod was that I added fusible woven interfacing to the bodice, collar and hem edges before installing the zipper.

My color is off here, but this is a closeup of the pockets. It uses a welt pocket, which actually wasn’t hard to do!

My daughter adores this hoodie and there’s enough fabric leftover to make something else too… maybe a skirt, or a matching hoodie for baby sister?

Anyway, if you’re in the market for some cute seahorse fabric, jump on the Affordable Fabrics & More preorder! Round 17 closes on March 9th.

Pattern: Jalie 2795

Fabric: Cotton Lycra Watercolor Seahorses on Purple, Affordable Fabrics & More, Magenta Cotton Lycra, Purple Seamstress

This was my Week 8 rogue entry for the 52 Week Sewing Challenge!

I am a strike-off seamstress for Affordable Fabrics & More and received this fabric complimentary in exchange for promotion. 

I am a Jalie Patterns Creative Ambassador and received this pattern complimentary for review and promotion.