I made this several times so far for both my husband and son. The latest version, which is shown in the photos, were matching Easter sweatshirts. I embroidered both of them on the ancient Janome 300e my mom gave me last fall (another new obsession of mine). The machine is ancient and was sitting in a closet completely untouched for about 20 years. I oiled the bobbin and needle bar and have been using it ever since. I had to hunt on Amazon for memory cards that would actually work and designs often require me to do some rotation and size adjustment in Ink/Stitch, but I’m making it work.
Another one I made for my husband, freshly embroidered! You can see how much nicer the neck looks.
Pattern Background
This pattern is for crewneck and hoodie sweatshirts as well as a tshirt. The size range goes from size 2T to 2X. Th suggested fabric is sweatshirt fleece with a minimum of 10% stretch and ribbing for the neck, cuffs, and waistband. You can also use self fabric if your fabric has at least 30% stretch.
Materials
I used a cotton/polyester sweatshirt fleece I found on Amazon. It is not great quality but for something like this which is worn only a few weeks it is fine.
The ribbing is a cotton/lycra rib knit from Nature’s Fabrics. I’m not really happy with it. It seems like the recovery isn’t great (which caused some gaping at the neckline) and the hand suggests there’s some polyester content hidden in it.
Fit and Alterations
For my husband I used size Y, which is on the larger side of Medium.
I found the collar ribbing rather wide and removed 3/8” from the width, bringing down the finished width to 3/4”.
He also found the collar was too tight. I added another couple of inches to the length.
My husband is 5’4” so I shortened the sleeves 3”. For the first version I shortened the length 3” but he found it too short, so I reverted back to the originally drafted length.
For my son, I just added a couple of inches around the hips because he still uses cloth diapers when out and about. I may have to take it in next year because he keeps getting taller and slimmer!
Construction
This is a super easy make. You can do it almost entirely on a serger. I did cut out the fronts and embroidered them before sewing it up because it’s just easier to hoop that way.
Conclusion
I use this all the time for sweatshirts for my “boys.” It is a classic style and one of the few knit Jalie patterns that doesn’t require a lot of stretch. Highly recommend!
Clothing Engineer 