So I've been eyeing the All Ears Hoodie for a LONG time. But when I first saw it, it was summer, and that is not Hoodie weather in the North Eastern US. At least not for us. That extra layer of the hood would have us melting! So what do you get with the All Ears Hoodie?

Sizes Newborn through 16/18. Long, short and tank sleeves. Regular hood or pixie hood. AND over a dozen possible animal ears, spikes or fins. That's a LOT of choices.

The Pattern includes multiple sizes in each pattern piece. Normally I would gripe about this, but in this case, I feel ok with the blended sizes. When it comes to hoodies, big, loose and comfy is ok! And that also means I can sew it once and get more wear out of it. That means their favorite now can still be their favorite later. No more sewing and then having to remake it when they hit a growth spurt 2 weeks from now. That's a bonus in my book!

I do have one complaint about this pattern. Included is only finished garment measurements, not measurements for the wearer. This isn't a big deal, but you do have to do a little math to figure out wearing ease, etc. 

I estimated about 4" wearing ease for my 3 girls. They tend to run thin, so I knew no matter what, the body wouldn't be too thin. I made sizes 6/7, 4/5 and 2/3 for my girls. They're 7, nearly 5 (tomorrow!) and 3. My one hack to the pattern (and a super simple one at that) was to add thumbhole cuffs. My girls are absolutely obsessed with these now and ask whether they can add thumbholes to all their clothes! There's tons of tutorials out there for these. I will say, the thumbhole cuffs are easier on cotton lycra and french terry than poly fleece. But it still worked.

Each girl got a different fabric and different set of ears.

My eldest picked leopard print fabric to duplicate a super cute hoodie we saw at Kohls. I bought minky leopard print fabric at Joann's and used a bit of scrap Cotton/lycra for the wrist bands. SO CUTE! I was so happy with how these photos turned out! Let me add though that sewing with minky is a pita. My sewing area is still fuzzy and these were done last week!

My middle child picked elephant ears. I used some soft gray, stretch french terry that I got from Cali Fabrics for this version. Not as warm as the minky, but I think a heavier fabric would have been too much for these giant sized ears! I didn't use felt in my ears and used a single layer of cotton batting instead.

My last version was a simple poly fleece. I like working with poly fleece. Inexpensive and easy to sew. I used the mouse ears from the pattern, but they make me think more cat ears than mouse. Doesn't matter, TOO CUTE! And I just love the up close photo of the thumbholes. This photo has ZERO editing. it was perfect and I'm super proud of it. (don't judge ;) ).

After finishing up the hoodies for my 3 girls, i started working on hoodies for my nieces. The eldest was in a size 16/18 and when I looked at the sizing, I thought, i can fit that. Guess what, I can! I could probably use a little extra give in the bust, but I could probably fit that myself. So if you're smaller framed (like myself), with a more average bust, you could probably wear this WITHOUT any alterations.

Don't forget, all patterns are 25% at Maxandmeena.com From Thursday, November 26 through Saturday, November 28, so use the code: blackfriday25 to get your copy!