Last month, I purchased an Upcraft Club Membership. I got tired of not using my Seamwork credits and am cautiously hopeful that knowing I can get 1 free pattern from Upcraft per month will help me stay focused and not try to buy everything. Maybe.

Last month, I purchased the Hey June Key Largo. You can read about that on my blog post from last week. And I really loved it (as you can see from my blog post). As I narrowed down my pattern for this month I was down to the Hey June Halifax Hoodie and another pattern. It was a close call. Both patterns were styles I did not currently own. Both were things I wanted to make. But, when I was eyeing the weather forecast I saw that our weather is going to get colder, fast. So even though it may have been nearly 90 one of the days last week, highs in the 50's were well on their way.

<BRR> that meant I needed fuzzy warmness. So the Hallifax Hoodie won. But that dress is still on my mind. I may have to go back to it for next month.

The Hey June Hallifax Hoodie is an oversized layering piece. Oversized definitely means I'm going to lose some of my fabulous body under here. But sometimes, warm wins over style. The Hallifax includes 4 necklines (hoodie, cowl, scoop neck and crew neck-technically not included, but easy to do with the neckline for the hoodie and cowl). 2 bodies (regular, or high low) and the option to create a zip up hoodie. There is a drop shoulder with oversized sleeve, which means you can realistically wear a long sleeve top under. This is really important for a layering piece.

Oversized garments are quite a bit more forgiving when it comes to sizing. Even so, I sized up to a Large in the shoulders (38" bust) and down to a medium in the hip (38" hip). My plan is to eventually make this in a stretch french terry, so I wanted to get a feel for the fit without a deep or full bust adjustment. Because of the loose fit, this pattern does NOT include a waist measurement. Unless your waist is larger than your bust or hips, you won't have to worry about it.

I did NOT remove length from this garment. I have found that with Hey June Patterns I don't need an over bust length adjustment or perhaps only a very small one. My other Hey June Patterns have needed a length adjustment in the bottom half of the garment, not so much the top. I also wanted to make a garment that would be "leggings appropriate." Without a length adjustment, my top is JUST long enough to cover in front and back. If I wanted to make the pattern fit the intended look, I'd need to remove 2" from the length. BUT, I like my hoodies to be a little long. So I'm sticking with it.

No surprise, if I pull the sleeve all the way down, it'll cover my fingers. I don't know how other people survive with sleeves that stop at their wrists. How do you hide your hands when your fingers get cold? I don't know. I could take some length out of the sleeve for "proper'' fit, but I prefer "stay warm" to "proper".

You may or may not recognize this fabric. This is the purple floral double brushed poly from my shop, Simply By Ti. It is awesome for 3 reasons. Firstly, it is purple, which is one of the Pantone colors for this fall. Second, it is 200 gsm double brushed poly. Thick enough to be used as leggings with full opacity (that means people won't see your undies 😉 ). Thirdly, because right now it is 64 degrees and it is keeping me warm. It also just so happens to be my favorite.

Let's talk style here for just a second. As I already said, this is intended to be an oversized fit. That means you lose ALL the waist shaping. It may be hard to believe, but I also have a good bra on under here. But I'm pretty sure, that even if I didn't, you wouldn't be able to tell. You just can't really see it. If I wanted to redo this with style, more than warmth, in mind, I should have either done the hoodie, cowl or scoop neck. Any of those would have added some focus away from this high neckline. But sometimes, you need to just stay warm. And I'm still going to wear this sweater. Maybe even a lot, because warm.