Even though the bulb flowers are peeking their heads out as a precursor to spring, Old Man Winter is not giving up without a fight.  Every morning for the past week, the sun starts to shine bright only to glint off the icy covering on the grass.  I’m picturing Old Man Winter rubbing his frigid hands and cackling with glee “Not today.  Nope, not today!”

Since I have to get up early to walk my dogs before work, I was needing a warm top/jacket with deep pockets (for those poop bags!) and possibly a hood.  I have found most hoodies too uncomfortable to wear since, when wearing the hood, a cold gust of air settles in around my neck.  When I saw my brother-in-law wearing the Summit Peak Hoodie for Men at Christmas time (made by my sister) I knew I had to make this.  What I loved most about it is the funnel neck feature of the hoodie.  No more cold drafts around my neck.

This is a print at home pattern which I’m not a huge fan of.  The first couple pages were fine, but as I got to the last pages, there were inconsistencies with matching everything up.  I may try the Tessuti method of tiling next time where they recommend taping the pattern pieces together as strips then taping the strips together.

The fabric I chose was a polyester cotton blend sweatshirt fleece.  This is a fabric choice listed on the pattern, however, my fabric didn’t have any stretch.  Given how close fitting the garment looked on the models, I made the XL (2 sizes bigger than my suggested size).

Detailed instructions and drawings are included with the download.  The construction of this garment was fairly intuitive.  But I don’t know where my brain went when putting the front together.  I ended up sewing and unpicking it 3 times while trying to follow the instructions.  After the third time, I did it my way and finally got it together.

Because this fabric has no stretch, I had to find another fabric for the cuffs and waistband.  Although it is lighter weight than the fleece, I found a bamboo cotton ribbing that was a 99% match in colour.

You can probably tell the sleeves are too long, however, I like that feature.  Keeps my hands warm on those early morning walks.  And yes, it is a cozy as it looks!