I have been wanting to make myself a jacket for a long long long looooong time. I wear a jacket all year long whether it’s 100 degrees or 10 and my go to jacket is from AE 10 years ago. I’d say it’s time for a little update. I’ve just been so intimidated by the hood/separating zipper, that I haven’t wanted to even start. It isn’t the actual hood or zipper that I have a problem with, but the corner where they both meet. I didn’t know which order to attach them to make it all look good. You know, the spot in the picture below. 
So when it turned September, I decided to make the little man a jacket as a trial before making my own. It was pretty simple to whip together if you don’t count the hood. I’m terrible at gauging hood sizes and I ended up having to add height to his before sewing it on. I like a good deep hood that really protects you from the rain or wind. His turned out great after tweaking it a bit.
I had also decided on a snake for the front design. I searched pictures and drew pictures and manipulated shapes on the computer for days before giving up and settling on the alligator. I’m pretty happy with it. It was also a pain though. I stenciled it on and then decided the color didn’t really match the hood AFTER I took the stencil off. So I spent at least a hour with a tiny paint brush, painting yellow between all the zig-zags to make it closer to the color of the hood. Thank goodness my new fabric paint had just come in the mail! I’m used to using good old Tulip paints from Walmart, but the Jacquard Textile Colors are soooooooo much better. Instead of paint about 6 coats to get my green to show up on such dark fabric, I only had to paint ONE. Aaaaaaaaaand… I got it for pretty much the same price as the cheap stuff. Same cost, less coats, BOOM. Can you tell I was really really happy about it?
Anyway, to make my hoodie pattern, I traced a long sleeve tee. Instead of cutting the front panel on a fold, I cut 2 separate pieces and added 3/4″ on both sides for the zipper. I then sewed everything together just as I would a tee and then attached the hood. When attaching the hood, I made sure to leave the zipper seam allowance out so that it could fold over the edge of the hood. I attached the zipper and then the bias tape to cover the hood seam. I wish I would have taken just a few pictures to show the order and how it fit together. Trying is the best way to learn though!
Here it is in all it’s glory! The cute model doesn’t hurt either.
I couldn’t just choose one picture. He has more authentic smiles, but these will do fine. 🙂
The only thing I would change would be the sleeves. They are a bit too tight, but not enough to make it unwearable. I’m so happy with how it turned out.
My own jacket to come soon!