In other Christmas “making” I also made hoodies for my three menfolk; Craig, and for Tim and Sam. For the last few years I’ve made summer shirts for them, but this year I wanted to do something different. And all of them love wearing hoodies! so bam! easy decision really.
Hmmm, yes, I had to get Bessie to model them, who is shaped very differently from each of my guys, of course!! but I took these pictures before I wrapped them up to pop under the tree and haven’t had the opportunity to get the boys to model them for pictures. Not to mention that it’s been 30C+ every day… phew! so no one wants to wear them just yet! Pictures with them actually IN their new Christmas stuff will have to wait for a little while…
I used my pattern taken from an old hoodie of Craig’s, that had a really cool style of hood/collar combined; it sits really nicely and looks a bit more stylish than the regular two-piece no-frills hood. If anyone’s interested I once wrote a tutorial on this collar/hood, with pictures of the pieces if you’d like to have a go at it.
Over the years since I first drew the pattern out I’ve had to slightly alter it and custom fit to each of my boys each time I’ve made it. They keep doing annoying things like working out and growing taller with longer arms and gaining a bit here, losing a bit there as time goes on. So it’s always a bit more of an exercise than just whipping out a pattern and zooming it up with the greatest of ease…. NOT!
Anyway, I’m not complaining. I love making stuff for my family 🙂
I went to Spotlight and bought up big on stripe-y, fluffy jerseys in a winter weight. And the beanies in the previous post? I chose the colours to match so that each man’s hoodie/beanie is a nicely toning ensemble in their colours.
Sam’s hoodie, at top; is light grey and white, with a grey beanie to match, because I think he looks great in grey. I bought some pale grey marled lightweight jersey to do the hood and the kangaroo pockets, because I feared it would look a little too pyjama-y, or sort of juvenile or something. I don’t know what it is about the pale grey stripe that made me worry about this, because… it’s funny, can’t logically explain why I have this thought, but I reckon you get away with a full hoodie in a blue stripe whereas in pale grey not so much, looks bit cheap or something. Can’t explain it. In any case I just intuited having a contrast in this particular colour would be a good decision and I’m glad I did it.
For Craig, I chose a muted air-force blue, with a small white pin-stripe. And with a red beanie for him, because he likes red and blue in winter and tends to wear them together a lot.
The air force blue looked pretty cool and right up his alley and it’s a very nice weight, I loved it upon first sight. However, after washing it and hanging it out to dry, then laying it out for cutting, I discovered to my amazement that the “stripe” actually was more of a gentle, slight “wave” of stripes across the fabric looking like this ” ~ “, NOT a straight horizontal stripe. AAAAUGH!! and being “slight” of course, means it really comes across like a bit of a boo-boo, rather than look like an intentional wave, which I could work into the design somehow. Nope, this just looked OFF.
Grrr. Anyway, I did my absolute best with it, pulled it into shape in some places, cut out a wee bit dodgily in other places where it didn’t matter, like the kangaroo pocket. I know the pocket appears to be not drastically far off straight in the picture but trust me, that’s an optical illusion created by clever cutting and placement!! Also the side seam stripes don’t match, the most obvious area where the fault can be seen. He really likes it though, so I’m putting aside my dumb perfectionist tendencies and just enjoying that he enjoys it 🙂
For Tim, I chose a navy blue with ivory stripe and his beanie is the matching navy blue. This fabric was the thickest of the lot, slightly ribbed, and is toasty warm. For the drawstring in the hood, the fabric was too thick to work and so I used a strip of Craig’s hoodie fabric, folded outwards so the solid coloured blue is on the outside.
Oh, the hoodie strings… in each case I made a self-fabric drawstring for the hoodies, bar Tim’s, as explained. To make a drawstring in the jersey, I cut a 1-2cm strip of fabric across the grain. Most jerseys have a natural tendency to roll or curl up across the grain, and you can use this to full advantage while making your drawstring.
Just allow the fabric to curl up just like it wants to, and stitch it with a zig-zag stitch in a width set to just under the width of your finished strip. Start from the centre, because it looks neater that way with the central start/stop point hidden inside the hood casing, and finish at each end. 
Thread the flat drawstring through a wool needle and pull it through the hood casing; cut both ends equally to size, then tie off in a simple knot, so they won’t slip back through the eyelet at all. Easy peasy, and colourwise looks like it was tailor-made to go with the hoodie perfectly, which it was, of course, haha. Well, by that I mean that we all know how difficult, if not impossible it can be to get drawstrings to colour-match our fabrics perfectly? mm hmmm.
Problem solved!
The first three hoodies that I made from this pattern can be seen here, here and here; hoodie tutorial here
OOh its all changed round! I love the hoodies and well done for photographing them before you wrapped them, I forgot to with my PJ bottoms. I like the neckline it is slick. I am making a long sleeved hoodie for my girl today as everyone is sick and I am staying in the spare room in quarantine! Jo x
These are great hoodies and the design of the neckline is fab. My favourite is the air-force blue one. Everyone loves a hoodie!
So neat and professional looking. And hi five for finding time to make such fabulous presents.
I always enjoy looking at what awesome Christmas gifts you make for your family. 😉
Really nice, Carolyn. The drawstring tip is nicely presented.
Very nice design, especially the rounded front look of the hoodie’s neckline. Thank you for posting the link to your original tutorial, I’d missed that one.
Very creative solution to the drawstrings!
Gorgeous, all of them! I’m sure they will be well loved when the weather cools down in a few months! Thanks for the tutorial!
Those look great, and that is a neat hood design.
Really great looking hoodies and the hood design is very nice thank you for sharing. Hubby told me last night to make sure I pack a hoodie for our trip, no snow down the back of the neck
I love a hoodie and yours are nice. Really need to make me some.
I wondered what you were making for the family . What a lovely collection, quite different from the shirts made in the past few years. They look fantastic. How aggravating about the stripe – especially so as you were making it for Craig.
Thanks for the reminder about that tutorial! One of the projects currently bouncing around my head involves hacking the Deer & Doe Plantain tee into a hoodie, and that neck looks like it will be perfect. The hoodies all look good to me. Though that stripe issue does sound terribly annoying!
Great pattern! 🙂 I like the hood/collar combination, too. And I think you chose beautiful fabrics. I cannot believe that it is so warm over in Perth. I’m freezing here and I’d love to wear one of those hoodies right now! 🙂
Great Xmas gifts for men. You are very organised.
Oh how sad are dodgy stripes?! Good save!
Lucky guys! All the hoodies look great – cozy and stylish. The collar/hood is a nice touch.
I love these! I’ve never made anything for my husband (although he would like a running/cycling shirt like one we both have that we found yeeeears ago!). If I could find the same fabric I would do it. I’m sure. I actually think I would like one of these hoodies for myself! I’ll have to check out your tutorial. Thanks for sharing!
Your menfolk are lucky, these are smashing. Great to those wavy lines though! I love Tim’s version.
Love these hoodies! They are both comfy and stylish. Lucky guys!
I do like the style of these hoodies. I think your family are very lucky to have such a lot of thought go in to each thing you make for them. I will remember the tip for the hoodie ‘string’ for a perfect match. Thank you for all your tips and inspirational posts this year – I hope you had a lovely Christmas!
Excellent hoodies, and I love the combinations with beanies, such great gifts! Your men are lucky to have you!!!
What great presents your menfolk received this year! Love, love, loved the beanies and so cool they have coordinated hoodies. What strikes me, is how much thought you put into your choices for each of your loved ones….. your love for your family shines through. 🙂 Thank you for the drawstring mini-tut too!
What great hoodies! And thank you for the tutorial on the draw-strings:) I don’t even know where I could actually purchase any, much less any to match, around here.
Love those hoodies, very handsome. 🙂 I have to remember your hood pattern, it looks like it uses quite a bit less fabric than my version…
Your hoodies with their matching beanies are so pretty and are very thoughtful and useful presents. I really like the hood-collar. Surely, they will see a lot of wear 🙂
This is such a great style! I would wear those myself!
Pingback: red striped Inari tee dress - Handmade by Carolyn