Craft: along - Hoodie Help

Dear Donk,

Forgive the cheesy title, there, but that's what this is post is aimed to be - help for ~alongers doing the hoodie project.

See, I had it in my head all along that I was going to make the hoodie, and if it totally bombed, I would make the Lemon Drop Cookies and all would be right in the world of Bubba, since he's the recipient of my crafting this month and he'll take lemon cookies of pretty much any variety and under any circumstances.

I need a Plan B at all times, this is something else annoying about me, in case you're keeping track.

And while I'm optimistic about the final outcome (yet to come) of the hoodie, I feel like the issues I encountered could have been avoided with one piece of information: yardage.

And then some of the other pieces would have come together a little easier if there were a few extra tips, so I am going to add mine, here, to Cal Patch's pattern, there, and hope she doesn't mind.

I'll just add notes to the numbered steps from her pattern to make it easy to know which tips go with which number from the pattern, K?

Tips for the Men's Fleece Hoodie

Yardage: 2 yards minimum. I only bought 1.5 yards of fleece, which was a mistake. If you're making a Men's XL (or probably any men's size, really), I'd go for no less than 2 yards.

Also, stupid asshole Hancock Fabrics is having a huge sale over MLK weekend, and I got it for 50% off, so go get a full 2 yards and it'll be for the price of one and hopefully you won't have to endure the fabric shrew telling you how she so much more prefers to embroider Mickey Mouse on sweatshirts she buys at Target than sewing a sweatshirt herself on her $4,000 sewing machine.

WHATEVER LADY - JUST CUT MY FABRIC AND SHUDDUP ALREADY.

2. (#2 from the pattern) When folding the fleece (twice, remember), please also line the fold edge of the twice folded fleece along with the top of the sleeve from which you're measuring so that when you go to sew your sleeve seams, they end up on the right side of the sleeve. Like, so you don't, say, have a seam running up the top side of your sleeve, for instance. Ahem.


5. When cutting out the pocket, make sure that the openings inside which your recipient will slide their hands are of adequate size. So, that you don't, for example, have to go patchwork quilting together a bunch of scraps because there's not enough fabric left from your measly 1.5 yards to cut a proper sized pocket.



8. When sewing the hood on, center the hood on the back neckline and pin from here out, criss-crossing the front edges at the center front of the neckline.



OK, I think that's all the help I can be right now, given that I still haven't solved the Mystery of the Too Short Sleeves yet, but I need Bubba to come home and try on the sweatshirt so that I can figure out just how much magic I'm going to have to perform to get the sleeves the right length.

Thankfully, I've been taking a freestyle Just Put That Anywhere approach with this sweatshirt, thanks to improvisation made necessary by too little yardage, so I feel like the end product might be kinda, I don't know, Different, But in a Cool Way.

Or something.

Or maybe we'll just push those sleeves up and eat cookies.

Cheers all,
Finny