Make a Hoodie – Sew a Hoody with Free Pattern

DIY Hoodie to make for men or women

For those of you not familiar with high school football coaching in Texas, a large portion of the wardrobe of every coach I know is supplied by the school in the form of game day shirts, practice shirts, spirit shirts, etc. Because of this, there is also an unspoken coaches’ code that when you switch schools, you turn in all your school related wardrobe to the school you’re leaving, so that the next guy(s) will have more than the 1 or two new shirts from that school year to wear.

After thirteen years, you accumulate a lot of school clothes. And when you then go to a new school, as the Coach has done this year, your closet is mighty bare. For the record, mine is too when it comes to spirit shirts because I passed them down to the next wives to come at our old school.

Which is a long story to get to why the Coach requested a hoodie – one without any logos, one he could keep. And after I made it and we took the above pictures, you know what he did? He left it sitting on a chair, where I grabbed it on my way to the gym.

I think I look cuter in it 🙂 also, it’s very cozy and finders keepers and I’m not giving it back. After all, I don’t have my old school hoodie anymore either. But I might make him a new one.

Want to make your own hoodie? You’ll need these supplies (affiliate links):

• About 2 1/2 yards sweatshirt fleece.  Make sure this stretches at least 10% widthwise, 30% for the cuffs and hem band
• 1/4 yard rib knit for the cuffs and waistband
• Eyelet kit
• 36″ Shoelace
• Mallet
• Fusible Interfacing scraps
• The pattern – see below

The free pattern is for a size 36-38 inch chest ONLY. If you need a different size, you can grade up or down as shown in this post or you can purchase the multi-sized pattern here. As a note, my bust is 34 inches, so you can see how it fits oversized.

Click your preferred option below to get the free pattern as a newsletter subscriber or buy the multi-sized pattern with printable instructions. The pattern for purchase is the Conroe Sweatshirt, and it will fit chest/bust sizes 31-60″.

Please note that all my free patterns are licensed for personal use only (no selling items made from them unless you purchase the pattern) and by downloading you are agreeing to this license.

To sew this, watch the video tutorial below. If it won’t load below for some reason, you can also watch on YouTube here.

After downloading and printing the pattern (help for that here) follow the pattern instructions to cut out the pieces.

Next you’ll follow the eyelet instructions on the box to insert eyelets on the marked spots. If yours doesn’t have instructions I demonstrate in the video.

Place the two hoods right sides together and sew along the curved edge. Note – you should use stretch stitches through this project.Fold the casing to the wrong side, and stitch right next to the edge. Be careful when stitching near the eyelets – you may have to raise the presser foot and hand crank the machine to get past those parts.

Thread one of the shoelaces through the casing and then set the hood aside.
Fold the curved and side edges of the pocket 3/8″ to the wrong side and pin. Stitch the curved edges.

Place the pocket on the shirt front, aligning centers and bottom edges. Fold the top edge of the pocket 1/2″ to the wrong side of the pocket, then flip the pocket up so that it’s right sides together with the shirt.
Stitch across the top edge of the pocket to secure it, then flip it back down so that the bottom edges are aligned again.

Sew the two side edges of the pocket to the shirt front.
Place the shirt front and back right sides together and stitch across the shoulders.

Open the shirt up flat. Match the center of the sleeve to the shoulder seam, right sides together.
Pin the rest of the sleeve into the armscye and stitch.

Fold the shirt right sides together and match the sleeve seams. Sew the underarm and side seam all in one continuous seam.

Fold the cuffs and waistband to match the short edges, right sides together. Stitch short ends together.
Fold each cuff wrong sides together, matching raw edges. Mark quarter points on the cuff and waistband, as well as on the sleeves and shirt bottom. Match the quarter points of the cuffs to the sleeves and the waistband to the bottom edge. Stitch, stretching cuffs/waistband so they lay flat agains the shirt as you stitch.

Match the hood seam to the center of the back neckline.
Overlap the front edges of the hood at center front approximately an inch. You want the left side of the hood to be agains the neckline and the right edge behind it. Pin the rest of the hood around the neckline, adjusting at center front as necessary so that the hood goes all around the neck. Stitch in place.

And you’re done! Enjoy the warmth of your new cozy hoodie. Now you can use the hacks below to customize your next one even further! Click on the images to go to the tutorials .