Children's Hoodie Dress

Hoodie Dress

Difficulty Level = Beginner 

The raglan sleeve Hoodie Dress is a loose-fitting dress that comes in two hem lengths: mid-thigh and knee length, which are finished with a high-low cuffed hem. An optional kangaroo pocket means you have somewhere to hold your keys and phone, or just warm your hands on a chilly day. The hood with optional cord, and cuffed sleeves, gives the dress a laid-back and sporty vibe, designed for ultimate comfort and style.

Our Facebook group is a great place to get help, share your tips and creations! We are a friendly bunch, and we love to help and see what you have made.

Please read the full instructions before getting started.

Wash, dry, and press your fabric before starting your project. A bit of prep now prevents shrinking and means your garment will stay the same size you made it.

Never leave a child or baby unattended or allow to sleep in a garment made from one of our patterns with ties, snaps, buttons, or anything they could remove, choke on, or get caught on. Always use caution if you are unsure. We love our patterns, but we love your bundles of joy more!

Size Range

12mo - 12yrs

Size Chart

Finished Measurements (Inches)

The Hoodie Dress is loose fitting over the chest, waist, and hips.

• Sizing – Sizing varies in different countries and stores, so please measure your model before picking your size. The ready-to-wear size your model normally fits into may be different from our size chart.
• Picking your size and blending – If your measurements fall into different sizes, use the layers feature to print those sizes. Then, grade between the sizes by drawing a smooth line from the size for your chest measurement to the size for your waist, then to the size for your hip measurement. Continue to the hem using your hip measurement size.
• Grading – Our child’s patterns have been graded to work proportionally with a growing child. However, every child is different, so we have a few suggestions to help achieve a great fitting garment:
  • If your model falls between sizes, you will start with the size bracket with the correct chest measurement. This will give a better upper body fit.
  • If your child falls into a different size for height, use the bodice length for that height size bracket, keeping to the size your child best fits into for chest measurements. Blend the two patterns together so the armhole height, top and bottom of the bodice and skirt pieces use the size bracket from their height measurement.
• Sleeve length – Measure from your neck, down your arm to your wrist and compare it to the finished sleeve length. If you need to add/remove length do this halfway through the Sleeve.
• Muslin – To ensure you get the best fit, sew a muslin. A muslin is a test version of the pattern in an inexpensive fabric. To make a muslin for this Hoodie Dress:
  • Check the fabric recommendations and use a fabric with the same properties as your final one. You do not need to cut out and sew the full garment. 
  • Cut out the following and label each piece with tailor’s chalk / fabric pen: Front, Back and Sleeves. Baste these together using a ⅜ inch seam allowance.
  • Try on. If happy with the fit, continue to the final garment. If you feel the fit needs adjusting for your personal shape, turn the muslin inside out and try on again.
  • Adjust the seams with pins until you are happy and then baste.
  • Trim your new seam allowances to ⅜ inch and pull out your basting stitches.
  • Use these bits of fabric as your pattern pieces instead of the original pattern pieces. Continue to sew your final garment.
  • Make sure to keep your adjusted pattern pieces. It is like having a tailor-made garment, so they are a valuable addition to your pattern library in case you wish to make more!
• If you get stuck with fitting, see our favorite resources on our Pinterest Sewing Fitting Advice board. 

Fabric  – If you’d like your hoodie to be all the same fabric/color, use the fabric requirements in the first column below only. If you’d like a contrasting hood/pocket, then follow the middle two columns only. You do not need to get all three columns worth of fabric!

Your Hoodie Dress fabric needs to be a stretch/knit fabric. It can be any weight; however, best results and fit will be achieved with a medium weight fabric. Great examples are sweater knits, medium weight jersey, stretch fleece and stretch French terry. Do not use a woven fabric.

You can use light weight knits/stretch fabrics for this hoodie. However, if you are not adding the optional cord through the hood opening, it may result in a ‘wavy’ type appearance around the hood opening when the hood is up. As the hood piece is cut on the bias, lighter weight fabric tends to pull out of shape slightly. The cord, and/or a medium weight/heavier fabric will help the hood keep its shape while up.

Ribbing – The ribbing fabric is for the Sleeve and Hem Cuffs only. As per the last column below, you will only need a narrow strip of ribbing if your ribbing fabric is full width.

Fabric Requirements (60 inch / 150cm wide fabric) in YARDS

* If you are using a narrower fabric, a directional print, or a fabric with nap you may need more.
** Make sure to wash, dry, and press all fabrics before cutting out in case they shrink.

You will also need:

• OPTIONAL Cord – You will need approximately 1 yard of cord for the hood opening. This is slightly more than needed and will allow you to cut it to length as you would prefer in step 6. NOTE – If you are using a lightweight knit that will not hold its shape on its own very easily, the cord option will help stabilize the hood edge. The cord is optional; however, it will keep the hood edge from going ‘wavy’ while the hood is up.
• OPTIONAL ¼ inch Eyelets x2 
• OPTIONAL Interfacing to stabilize the Eyelets.
• Thread to match

Tools needed are sewing machine, scissors, pins or clips, and tape measure. Optional serger/overlocker.

Settings

The pattern is a separate download. Choose either the US letter paper, A4 paper, or A0 paper size based on the printer you wish to use. If you are in the US or Canada then your printer will likely use US letter paper. Other regions normally use A4 paper. Some people prefer to print their patterns at a print shop: A0 is best in this case.

Print at 100%.

On the second page, you will find a 1-inch and a 3-inch square test box. Print this page first, on its own, and measure these squares.

Once you are happy that the test box is accurate, print the rest of the pattern pages.

Please follow this video for information and assistance on assembling this pattern.

Also, please note that some Rebecca Page patterns and projects also come with cut files and a printable design page which you can use to plan your project if you wish. These are provided in a separate section below to avoid any confusion!

Cut each of the pieces according to the directions on the pattern piece. Seam allowances are all included so just cut them as is.

Cutting Charts – All pattern pieces are included, however if you prefer to cut using a cutting chart, the dimensions for the rectangular pieces (in INCHES) are below: 

Cutting Checklist: 

• Front – Cut 1 on fold
• Back – Cut 1 on the fold
• Hood – Cut 2 (1x mirror image)
• Sleeve – Cut 2 (1x mirror image)
• Sleeve Cuff – Cut 2
• OPTIONAL Pocket – Cut 1
• Hem Cuff – Cut 1 on fold

NOTE – To cut fabric on the fold, fold your fabric over parallel to the selvage edges. Align the pattern piece so it is on the fold of the fabric. Cut around the edges, leaving the fold. If you have folded your fabric correctly the fold will be parallel to the two edges of the fabric that are finished. The raw edges (e.g. the ones you could pick at and threads would come off) will be at a right angle to your fold.

Tips for Sewing with Knit Fabrics

Using a serger is not a necessity to sew with knit fabrics! Here are a few tips to get the best results on a regular sewing machine:

• Use a ball point needle of a size appropriate to your fabric when working with knits – The ball point needle has a slightly rounded tip and will prevent from damaging the fibre. Use ball point pins or clips and, if you can’t, use regular pins into the seam allowance and you should be just fine.
• Use a stretch stitch – You can use either a short and narrow zigzag or a stretch stitch (lightning bolt stitch) for construction. Test on a scrap of fabric to find which stitch and tension settings work best for you. You don’t want the fabric to pucker under your stitches.
• Your machine might have many fancy stretch stitches and you are welcome to play with them, but often the basic zigzag or stretch stitch are just right.
• Use a walking foot – Using a walking-foot is not a necessity but it is highly recommended when working on a stretchy knit. The walking-foot helps to prevent one layer of fabric from stretching out while sewing. Both layers of fabrics are fed at the same time under your needle.
• Reduce your presser foot tension – Some machines will allow you to change your presser foot tension. Check your manual to see how to reduce your presser foot tension. Reducing tension will prevent your fabric from stretching while it goes through the machine.
• Use a ball point twin-needle (double needle) for top stitching – Using a twin-needle will give you a regular double line of straight stitches on the right side and a short and stretchy zigzag on the wrong side. Alternately, if you don’t own a twin needle, you can use a medium size zigzag stitch for hemming and topstitching. I like to lengthen my stitch a little when top stitching with the twin needle. Test on a scrap of fabric to find what works best for you.
• Finishing the seams – Because knits don’t fray, it isn’t strictly necessary to finish your seams. That being said, you will achieve a more polished and durable look if you do an overcasting or zigzag stitch on your raw edges. 

Here is an example of some of the stitches you could use.

From left to right: Ballpoint twin-needle, narrow zigzag, stretch stitch (lightning bolt), overcasting

⅜ inch seam allowance included – Top stitching ⅛ inch – Basting ⅛ inch

Preparation – 

1. PATTERN MARKINGS – Transfer all pattern markings and labels to fabric.
2. OPTIONAL INTERFACING – Iron on interfacing to eyelet markings on Hood.
   

Sewing –

1. OPTIONAL POCKET – Finish pocket opening, fold Pocket openings to wrong side, pin, topstitch. Fold the other edges to wrong side, pin, press. Open bottom edge of corners, fold in diagonally, pin. Refold each side and bottom edge, pin. Place the Pocket onto the Front, pin in place, topstitch. 
2. SLEEVES – Align Sleeve Front with the Front along the armscye, pin and stitch, press. Repeat for second Sleeve to the other Front armscye. Attach back of Sleeve to the Back armscye, pin and stitch, press. Repeat for second Sleeve to the other Back armscye. 
3. SIDE SEAMS – With right sides together, match the side seams from the Sleeve to hem, pin, stitch. Repeat for the other side seam. Press both seams.
4. SLEEVE CUFFS – Match short edges with right sides together, pin, stitch then press. Mark quarter points of the Cuff and Sleeve. Match the Cuff and Sleeve quarter points, pin, stitch. Repeat with other Cuff.
5. HEM BAND – Match short edges with right sides together, pin, stitch then press. Mark quarter points of the Hem Band and Body. Match the Hem Band and Body quarter points, pin, stitch.
6. HOOD – OPTIONAL Cord: stitch buttonhole or place eyelets. Hem Hood opening, topstitch. Mark quarter points of neckline and Hood. Align Hood and neckline quarter points right sides together, pin, stitch, turn and press. OPTIONAL Cord – Add Cord. 

Congratulations, your Hoodie Dress is done. Enjoy! 

We would love to hear how you got on and see photos of your finished project!

Join us at our Facebook Group, tag us on Instagram, or use the hashtag #rphoodiedress.

Thank you for using a Rebecca Page pattern.

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