I bought the Hawthorn pattern a long time ago and have been wanting to try it out for so long, but kept putting it off. Bigger projects like this take a while for me to get psyched up for because the time commitment is more than just a simple t-shirt. I was finally motivated to get to it when I realized Oliver didn’t have any simple zip-down hoodies for this fall.

The Hawthorn comes with two options- a full zip or half zip sweatshirt with a collar. I really wanted to make a hoodie so I figured I would see if the hood from the Rowan tee fit the Hawthorn neckline- spoiler alert: it does!

I thought I’d give a basic recap for any of you who are interested in replicating this hack yourselves:

• Constructed both pieces separately- size 4 for both.
• Made the hood exactly as instructed except for the final step where you sew the front corners together.
• For the jacket, I left out all the steps concerning the collar construction.
• I did attach the front facing pieces to the zipper and just moved them down to start at the top neckline of the jacket since there was no collar for them to attach to.
• Then I just sewed the hood to the jacket matching up the front and back middle points of each. I did end up seam ripping the front facing at the very top so that I could sandwich the hood between the main jacket and facing piece when sewing them together.
• Finally I used the same twill tape from the rim of the hood to cover up the jacket/hood neckline seam- making it look very professional!

And presto- everything lined up perfectly and the jacket turned out so nice! Happy, happy dance!! I am so, so pumped at how awesome this looks. You know I’m a huge fan of Laura’s patterns anyway so I had high hopes that this hack would work out, but it turned out even better than I had anticipated!

It did take me two weeks to finish this jacket because I was having some major brain lapses while sewing and would have to put it down and come back later. I’m just not used to sewing more complicated patterns with all the multiple facings pieces and such. But every time I would come back after a break, whatever I was struggling with would finally make sense and I’d move forward a bit. Next time I go to make this, I think it will come together super quickly since I’ve got the instructions all figured out now.

My fabric is this yummy french terry from Imagine Gnats shop. I used the wrong side for the pockets and inner hood. She’s out of this color but here it is in a lighter gray colorway. I’ve slowly been buying up more and more of her french terry fabrics. It’s just so perfect for cozy fall and winter garment sewing. Oliver and I perused her website to pick out exactly which french terry he wanted for this jacket. He didn’t seem super impressed when the fabric came in the mail, but once I sewed it up and he tried it on, he loved it and is always grabbing his “cozy jacket” now when we head outside.