Pattern Review: Alpha Raglan Hoodie from LearnMYOG

To kick this review off, I’d like to contextualize it with two things:

I think Tim provides a pretty serious service to those of us who like making stuff on our sewing machines. LearnMYOG has inspired a ton of folks to make for the first time or to return to making, and that is very cool. Thanks a bunch to Tim (I did pay him full price for this pattern) for putting his patterns out into the world so that yayhoos like me can play around with them.
This is not the first pattern I’ve bought, nor is it the first pattern I’ve printed and followed. It is the first piece of actual clothing I’ve made for myself entirely from a pattern. I’ve made clothes by cloning items I already owned and I’ve made accessories from patterns before, but this is the first time I’ve followed a pattern on a piece of clothing from start to finish. Go me. But I’m mostly noting this to say that some of the problems I ran into might well boil down to the fact that this was pattern attempt #1 all-time for me.

So with those points out of the way, I will dive in.

Preamble

I bought this pattern in November of 2023, according to the pdf creation dates on my computer. I got the large-format pdf printed at my neighborhood sewing store in June 2024, and I didn’t start the real work of pattern tracing and piece cutting until sometime during the winter of 2024-25. I stormed through most of the steps of completing the hoodie in a day or so last winter before realizing I didn’t have the proper FOE to finish the cuffs and bottom hem, finding the correct item online, and then waiting until I could think of more things to order from Discovery Fabrics so I wouldn’t be paying shipping for just the one item. Well, many seasons came and went, I couldn’t think of more things to order, and fall is now rolling around again in the midwest. Unfortunately, our president’s economic wizardry means that Disco is no longer shipping to America, so I ordered from Mill Yardage instead (the product is fairly identical as far as I can tell, though the color selection is more limited), and decided to eat the $5 shipping charge because I wanted to be done with this project.

I attached the already finished hood to the “bodice” and sewed up the side and arm seams and hey, presto I had a hoodie! I put it on, started laughing immediately, and waddled upstairs to show Emma that the project that had been sitting in the basement unfinished for the better part of a year was far too small. It was borderline compressive in the chest and the sleeves ended somewhere just under my elbows. Under Armour may be interested in the dimensions for their next next-to-skin performance line. They know where to find me. And I suppose I’ll have to cut Tim in, too, since it’s his pattern to start with.

Back to the pattern to figure out what size I had made to begin with and decide what size to make for my second draft.

Materials

I found some bitchin blaze orange Mossy Oak fleece at the local fabric outlet, and since I like to recreate outdoors during deer season, figured I could find a use for the blaze. I do own some alpha direct (also from the outlet) and hope to use it to make one of these in the future, but I wanted to start with something cheaper. I think the fleece was like $7/yd or something. I haven’t decided if I think it looks cool or stupid yet, but I think I like it straight up. It’s got a solid amount of stretch across the grain, but very little along it. Maybe that’s how all fleece is? Not sure. The pattern instructions made it sound like the fleece would sub in fine with no alterations.

Sizing

This was the big misstep on my original draft. After comparing my original traced patterns to the large-format printout, it seems that I started with a size 43. I think this selection came down to some language in the instructions that confused me. My chest measured 42.5”. The pattern says, “With Alpha Direct, select a finished garment size that’s roughly Chest plus 2 inches for a slim, active fit. If using a mid-warmth fleece like Power Grid or want a more relaxed fit, size for Chest plus 4 inches.” I must have read that, even if I don’t remember it. So if I were thinking, I would have gone with a 45 or 47. However, the chart right below that language shows the various measurements you could use to determine which pattern size to select, and the chest measurement 43 is right under the column for pattern size 43. I think I deferred to the chart. In any case, I “finished” the first draft and finally felt what my parents’ old dog felt every time they put his anxiety thundershirt on him.

Having been calmed down by the snugness of the hoodie, I also noticed that the sleeves were a good bit too short. I eyeballed it at 3 inches. My wingspan (I am a bird) is 4” longer than my height, and lots of things have sleeves too short for me, but these were short by anybody’s standards. The sleeves on the 45-47 pattern are about a half inch longer than the sleeves on the 41-43, so at the specified point, I lengthened them by 2.5”. Job done.

Moral of the story is that you should probably follow the words in the instructions, and don’t use the chart to decide what size you’re using. I think the chart is supposed to be helpful in choosing how to grade between sizes if you’re making adjustments for waist or chest ease.

I decided to size up to the 47 for the second draft. No adjustments except for the sleeves. Fits like a dream.

The other piece of feedback I have on the sizing front is that I am very close to (one size (or two half-sizes) below) the top of the size range for this pattern. I think that’s pretty tough. I’m not a person who needs particularly big clothes. I’m 6’2″ and weigh somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 lbs. I wear a men’s size large in pretty much everything I try on. If there’s only one size available larger than the one I made, there’s a lot of folks who won’t be able to use this pattern. I haven’t read any other feedback on the pattern, so I’m not sure whether more sizing is in the works or if this is all that’s planned, but if you wear anything larger than a men’s XL sometimes, you might have to look elsewhere, which is a bummer because of how much butt this pattern kicks otherwise.

Instructions

These were pretty good and easy to follow the whole way through. It helps that the construction of the garment is super simple. It’s not a lot of seams, and fleece has to be one of the easiest materials to work with. If your seam gets off, stretch it to match. If you’re lining things up, hold them where you want and the fleece on fleece friction will hold it in place.

The only place I had real trouble was with the balaclava hood facing. Either at the top or bottom, I don’t recall, I had the facing upside down compared to where it was supposed to be. I ended up seam ripping it and reattaching. No sweat.

Using normal fleece instead of alpha direct also means you don’t have to finish the seams. I still did, in the name of neatness, but you definitely don’t have to. I got some good practice with my serger, but used my sewing machine for all the main seams, and just serged the seam allowance to collect it and reduce bulk.

Variants/Options

The big choice you get is in hood style. Balaclava-style or overlap-style. One of my most prized possessions is a grid fleece hoody from Thuja, and that uses a balaclava hood. They hold in warmth better, and since the point of a fleece hoodie is to keep you toasty, it wasn’t really a choice. I opted for the facing and punched a small brass grommet into the outside of the hood to run some shock cord through. When I tried on the tiny draft, I noticed that the hood opening was small enough that I thought going to the trouble of making a cinchable hood was unnecessary for round two. FOE binding the hood opening was the choice for the reprise, then. It also simplifies hood construction a good bit and reduces the number of pieces you have to cut.

The balaclava looks a bit silly if you don’t have a brimmed hat or visor underneath to give it shape, but since it’ll be cold while I’m wearing this, I’ll have a hat on pretty much always.

Finished Product

I’m thrilled with how this thing turned out. It’s comfortable. The sleeves are a perfect length, for probably the first time in my life. I plan to put a front pass-through pocket on the next one, for hand-warming purposes. Other than that, this thing rules. It fits great underneath my rain shell. It fits great over a t-shirt. Next one might be in alpha direct or it might be in a less obnoxious color of fleece.