Hangout Hoodie

This post contains affilliate links, but all over-excited opinions are my own!

A few weeks ago, Peek-A-Boo Pattern Shop had the Hangout Hoodie on sale, and I couldn't wait to get my hands on it!

What's better than a hoodie? Maybe a little toddler-sized, A-line dress hoodie? 

Please ignore the crazy eyes.

She never stops moving and 

photos are always blurry.

The fabric is rib knit from Jo-Ann's, leftover from my sweatpants. I had exactly the right amount, and considering the scraps have been sitting around for close to a year, it was a great use of fabric for me. The purple is cotton velour, from Very Baby. If you're going to wear a hoodie, it might as well be ultra-luxe and be trimmed in velour, right?

I've been having such a struggle fitting AB lately, but the 18 month size worked perfectly. I can see this over leggings or Babylegs whenever it stops being 80 million degrees outside. The instructions are great, and I used my serger for every little bit of the construction (can you say QUICK?!). I went so fast that I accidentally sewed the hood with the seam outside.

Whoops. I decided to make it a feature and purposefully sewed the sleeves on the same way. Then I serged the hem to complete the "sporty" look. I'm still not great at serging in the round (instead of flat) but practice is helping. I love this little hoodie dress, although sometimes AB gets frustrated with the hood.

In the past, I've hated sewing with very stretchy knits because the seams always end up wavy. Just look at the photos of my sweatpants if you don't believe me. With my serger, it only took a bit of testing/fiddling with the differential feed, and I was golden. FYI, I had to turn up the differential feed to the highest setting (2.0 on my Brother 1034D) for the rib knit. It was CRAZY stretchy.

I liked the pattern so much that I also sewed the shirt version!

The bodice is a spandex knit from Jo-Ann's (though I bought it at a garage sale) and the trim is a rayon/spandex jersey from Girl Charlee, leftover from this shirt. These were both random pieces that might otherwise have sat around forever. Yay for scrap-busting!

If you want to buy your own copy of the Hangout Hoodie pattern, click here. The only thing I did differently from the directions was to sew the sleeve cuffs on flat with my serger (before the side seams) so that I didn't have to attach them in the round (with my sewing machine), with those tiny little openings.

Make sure to check out the Flickr group for more inspiration, including this crazy adorable fox version. Can't. Stop. Looking. At. It. And for more Peek-A-Boo fun, today's Thrifty Thursday deal is the Hang Time Basketball Shorts pattern, on sale for $4! These fun basketball shorts even have pockets!