I made my tweens winter fleece jackets. They’re both around 5’8″ and 140-50 pounds, so we’re into adult patterns for both of them. They both are also athletic, are hard on clothing, and still growing, so I don’t sew for them too often, but made an exception for Christmas-ish jackets.
I used a local Oregon company called The Green Pepper. I don’t think they’re too big, or even very hands-on at this point, but I’ve been wanting to try them out.
The pattern is “Adult” – as in gender-neutral, and I’d say it’s even more neutral than the drawings portray. There’s a lot of ease in that waistline! It’s not at all a fit-line garment, but for our needs, that’s just fine.
I made the boy’s first as he was more immediately in need having lost his new winter coat. already. again. sigh.
The instructions are pretty straight-forward. There’s…what, 14 pieces and 3 zippers for the long-sleeved hoodie? Oh, and the bindings…so 16 pieces, plus 3 zippers and hoodie cord.
The pocket zips are a nice touch, and the pockets are HUGE. They go from the bottom hem, all the way up to the chest yoke. Seriously massive. Both times I inserted the zips the same way, so one zips up to close, and one zips down. Derp. Oh well. That’s what I get for skimming instructions. I don’t even know if the instructions say to flip it, but I keep missing that part.
They have you make a cord channel with the facing around the hood out of a lycra. It works really well.
I made a ‘tag’ on the boy’s version. The inside has a matching tag with his name in Sharpie. He likes to lose things. A lot.
The hood is a 3-piece construction which is nice, but a bit too shallow.
I deepened the hood on the girl’s version, and reinforced the shoulder seams. I almost brought the sides of the hood forward too, but I’m glad I didn’t – for better visibility. Her face is covered, but she can easily see traffic.
As you can see on both versions, there’s no problem fitting their wide shoulders in a Medium size, and lots of room below – which is great for self-conscious tweens.
I used a 3-step zig-zag stitch a lot more on the second version, which I prefer for stability.
Tween-girl had some glow-in-the-dark laces from her grandmother that work perfect for her hoodie strings.
Both fleece purchases and the pattern were bought at Joann’s Fabric – so nothing too exciting to report there.
What do you think about the visible zig-zag? I see it a lot in RTW lately, especially high end swimwear, and I like it, but some people still think it’s a little too….Becky From Home-Ecky?
Overall, I really liked the Green Pepper pattern and I’m happy to support a local, “little guy” company.
The second version took me two afternoons of a few half-hour chunks here and there to cut out and assemble…it gets a little tight there around the hood cord, and I used a cotton knit I had on hand instead of a lycra, so I tacked a few hand-stitches in there to keep it in place.
Overall, that’s pretty good in my book. They only take <2 yards of fabric for the XS-L sizes, so when fleece is on sale, that makes for some inexpensive work. Zippers can add up, but when at Joann’s, that’s when you use the coupons on those, right?
Did you lengthen the torso ..I am making this same jacket as a gift for a tween girl and dont have her measurements ..thanks
I did not alter the pattern at all. In this photo they’re both about 5’7”
Ok..thank you..did you add the bottom part to the sleeve
Like – the elastic hem option? No, I just hemmed the sleeves & bottom. #lazymom