Dare to Make It: Holiday

How to Make a Men's Fleece Hoodie

comments (16) December 16th, 2011

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cal patch, contributor

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Cut around the T-shirt in place of a pattern. Dont forget to add a seam allowance!

A close-up of the armhole, with the folded-back sleeve.

Here's the finished shirt.

Photo: Cal Patch

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Why is it so hard to make for guys? Usually I would limit myself to accessories, as the thought of making men's clothing tends to send me scurrying. But since I foolishly used my works-for-anyone recycled sweater hat project for last week's post, I decided to face my fear and go for the gold: a men's hoodie. See, I had a revelation at about 2 am last night: Men are square! No, no, I don't mean that they're boring or unadventurous when it comes to fashion (cough, cough). I am referring, rather, to their body shape. Generally speaking, men are fairly rectangular, at least compared with us curvy females. Furthermore, they like their clothes to fit loose and boxy, or in other words, SQUARE. Therefore, making a pattern is a piece of cake!

I used a basic men's T-shirt as my pattern reference (a long-sleeved T or sweatshirt would work even better), and some Polarfleece I happened to have in my stash. Cotton sweatshirt fleece would work great, too.

First you'll need to cut out the five easy pieces (front, back, sleeves, hood, and pocket).

1. For the front and back, I used my lazy method of making patterns: I didn't. Instead, I just laid the T, folded in half along the center front, on top of a double piece of folded fleece (four layers). Allowing for a 1/4-inch seam allowance and a 1-inch hem allowance at the bottom, I simply cut around the T-shirt as my pattern. As I said before, it's a rectangle, so this isn't hard. The only two areas of any minor concern are the armholes and neck. For the armholes, just lift the sleeve and fold it back along the slightly curved seamline to follow for the shape of your armhole. For the neck, use the back neckline for all layers, following the neck seam and not the edge of the band. Once you have entirely cut out both pieces at once, you can separate them and cut one neck slightly lower, making it the front.

Cut around the T-shirt in place of a pattern. Don't forget to add a seam allowance!

A close-up of the armhole, with the folded-back sleeve.

1 | 2 | 3 next> View all

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posted in: shirt, gift, sportswear, men, gifts for men, hoodie, fleece, sweatshirt

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Comments (16)

alvano writes: Great idea for drafting different mixture of patterns, hopefully i can try this on my jerzees shirts
Posted: 11:13 am on June 15th

alvano writes: surely want to make Jerzees hoodie:)
Posted: 12:16 pm on May 25th

jajoh writes: Hey cal patch - you posted this years ago in 2008 so I don't now if you're still using this site... If you are, could you please tell me if I would need to use a special thread for the jersey/fleece fabric, or if I have to use a double needle (My sewing machine manual is indicating I have to do that for jersey... but it all seems a bit overkill.)
Thanks... I wonder if I'll hear from you since this post was 2008...
All the best!
jajoh
Posted: 8:23 am on November 6th

dianic writes: I think this is awesome! I am definitely gonna make one for my DH as soon as time permits! Thanks for the photos - I reckon I'll have no trouble at all doing this!
Posted: 6:37 am on December 2nd

HeyHan writes: Ho...So Cool..pullover sweatshirt
Posted: 4:57 am on May 30th

channers writes: I am so making this. I have a friend who is 6'6" and has a hard time finding clothes that fit. He will really like this.
Posted: 12:02 pm on March 3rd

sophiecai writes: so amazing..i thought it was very hard to make something like this...gonna try when i have time....
Posted: 11:08 am on February 15th

Killdoomkid writes: Woah, this totally blows my mind! So rad! :) This is awesome, I'm going to have a ridiculous amount of fun making some of these.
Posted: 4:19 pm on December 18th

AlanAshbaugh writes: Thanks Cal Patch! I followed her instructions for a men's fleece hoodie but with a cooler fabric (sorry cal), and even though it was my first sewing project, it turned out OK [see pics in my gallery above] It took me 15 hours straight because I didn't have a sewing machine so I had to do it by hand, and I still need to do some hemming, but I'm so happy about it! Now I need to find a way to do the pants to match. :)
Posted: 5:45 pm on October 23rd

ojos_verdes writes: Your directions for this sweatshirt were so easy to understand. I couldn't even believe that i made it!! Although, i didn't really use a 'good' and stretchy material for it, so i came a bit small, so i did change it here and there, but you can still see the idea for it. :]
Posted: 5:28 pm on January 4th

redandredder writes: When copying a hoodie from a current garment, make sure that the hood itself is what you want. Although the wearer may be using it, it still may feel a little short in height if the wearer has a long neck.
Posted: 12:49 pm on December 18th

ifthebirdsknew writes: What an awesome idea...i love it and the directions are fab! Now if I could only find a model as fine as the one in the picture. thanks for the idear! xo
Posted: 10:29 am on December 17th

KraftyKritter writes: Love the pattern idea. As a mom of 3 grown sons, never know what to make them but will try this one. They always need the hoodies and can use the embroidery machine to personalize with design. Will post completed project.
Posted: 12:30 pm on December 16th