Pattern Background
Half zip style sweatshirt with collar and front kangaroo pocket. It comes in both cropped and longer hip lengths.
This sweatshirt has a roomy fit – about 8” through the bust – so you will want to pair it with something closer fitting on the bottom, especially if you make the longer length version. I wear mine with the Jalie 3022 yoga pants.
Fit and Alterations
I started with a size Y and made the following alterations:
- Added a total of 4.5” to the hip.
- Added a total of 6” to the hem band. As drafted there is almost 2.5” of negative ease through the bottom hem band and my alteration makes it closer to zero ease.
- Lengthened the sleeves 1” which is a normal Jalie women’s pattern adjustment for me.
- Added 3/4” length to the body. I actually added it at the hem instead instead of at the short/lengthen line because I wasn’t sure how I would feel about the length, so this would make it easier to chop off if I needed to. I ended up liking the length because it falls just below my widest part, so I’m going to keep the extra length. It does make the bottom of the kangaroo pocket taller this way.
At around 8” positive ease through the bust the Sophie is slightly larger than the Jalie Laurent, which has about 7” positive ease through the bust.
Materials
I used a rayon/nylon/lycra purchased from Fabric Mart five years ago. It has 30% stretch in both the width and length. Since it met the minimum stretch requirements I was able to use self fabric for the cuffs and hem band.
The zipper is a #5 nylon zipper from WAWAK which was also in my stash.
Since my knit has 4-way stretch I used two pieces of fusible knit interfacing, on layered on top of the other with the stretch perpendicular to each other, for the section where the zipper starts.
One thing I found a bit odd about this pattern is despite calling itself a sweatshirt, sweatshirt fleece is not one of the recommended fabrics! Instead they recommend ponte, sweater knit, or French terry. I think since it is a roomy fit they don’t want you getting “lost” in it, though at least the cropped version would be totally fine if made from a sweatshirt fleece.
Construction
Jalie categorizes this as a “quick” project on their website. I don’t really agree because the front zip requires taking your time to get right (I didn’t get it 100% perfect) and the collar requires hand stitching inside. But once you’re done with the front zip and collar the rest of it goes together quickly.
I recommend looking through the instructions once before actually sewing, at least for the collar and front zip. You sew part of the collar to part of the front neckline and then do the zipper, then sew the sleeves and back together before sewing the rest of the collar to the neckline.
Since ponte doesn’t roll or fray I only used the serger to finish the inside hem of the kangaroo pockets and otherwise constructed this on my regular sewing machine.
I made the hem band the same width as the body of the shirt. As drafted it is about 6” smaller. I have some Lands’ End sweatshirts where the hem band is the same measurement as the bottom of the shirt where it attaches and I feel they just look and feel better on me than when the hem band has negative ease. (I find Lands’ End clothing often has a lot of nice details that work well for me.)
Conclusion
The Sophia has some nice details. I like how they included a tiny piece to help cover the end of the zipper, it just gives a more finished look to me. Hoodies are definitely cozy but I find the hood gets in the way when wearing a winter coat that also has a hood, so I like having collared sweatshirts in my rotation as well.
I really like the zipper length. On me it zips down to just below my bust, which is where I often leave my regular full-zip hoodies unzipped to. Sometimes I find half zips can be a pain to get on and off, but since this zipper goes pretty far down I have no issues with that.
As I mentioned before I found their lack of sweatshirt fleece as a recommended fabric a bit odd, but I will say that the weight, drape, and structure of the RPL ponte I used gives a luxurious feel when worn. It definitely doesn’t feel like a sweatshirt. It also has PLENTY of room for layering. I’ve been wearing it with a slim fit t-shirt and merino wool base layer top under it during these cold fall mornings and it flows right over everything and feels totally comfortable.
