Valentine’s hoodies with heart pocket hack

Happy Tuesday everyone! I’m super excited to share one of my most recent makes with all of you! Last year I made my daughter a hoodie with a heart pocket for valentine’s day and wanted to include the same hack again for both kiddos! It’s a super simple and fast hack and I’ll share how I did it below.

For both of my kids I used the Tami hoodie from Pattern Niche, the only differences being the hoods. My son’s the standard hood, my daughter’s the double hood with drawstring. (I’ve learned over the years that my son can’t have drawstrings on his garments as they make their way into his mouth) All fabrics came from Raspberry Creek Fabrics; the prints are part of this year’s Valentine’s collection and will be available until Valentine’s Day.

For this hack you can use any top or hoodie pattern that you prefer. First, you’ll cut all your pattern pieces as the tutorial indicates. Once you have all of your pieces cut out you can set everything aside except the front bodice. You’ll want to use a pin/clip or fabric pen to mark the center bottom of your front bodice piece.

Now we get to move onto the heart pocket! At this time, you’ll decide the size you want to have the heart pocket. I jumped on the projector train last year for cutting out my pdf patterns. That being said I’ve found it very useful for more than just cutting. I’m a very visual person, so I placed my front bodice on my cut mat and projected a heart over the top and played with the sizing. One thing to note, if you choose to do this and aren’t using a program like adobe that allows you to set the scale. This is perfectly fine if you’re just planning to trace the projected image though!

I used Cricut Design Space to print out my heart on cardstock so I could have a hard copy. (If you do it this way, make sure to measure the heart that’s projected over your bodice and adjust the size. (The one in design space will be much larger than the image projected) After I got my heart cut out, I folded it in half and placed it on the fold of the fabric I was using.

Grab your front bodice piece and use that mark you made for the center bottom to line the heart up. Also take this time to take into consideration seam allowance or hem allowance. You do not want to line up the bottom of your heart with the bottom of your bodice, when it comes time to hem or add a band that part of the heart will be hidden. I just eye bawled this, it doesn’t need to be exact. Once you’ve determined the center bottom is lined up, grab a ruler and make sure the whole heart is aligned in the center.

Yay, our heart is lined up! Before we stitch, we need to do more things. First, we need to secure our heart in place so there’s no shifting while sewing. You can do this by using pins, or I like to use Wash away wonder tape. I use wash away wonder tape for nearly every single project I make. It works just like double sided tape, then washes away when you wash your garment.

The second step we need to do is use a fabric marker to mark where you want your pocket opening to be. If you’re omitting a pocket and just want it to be an accent, you’re free to sew the heart in place! To mark my pocket opening I used my ruler again to make sure that the openings on both sides lined up with the other. How large you want the opening will depend on the wearers size. My sons pocket openings are slightly larger than my daughters because he’s bigger.

All that’s left is to is stitch down the heart to the bodice. Make sure to stitch as close to the edge as possible, and don’t stitch closed your pocket openings! Assemble the rest of your top or hoodie as indicated in the instructions and you’re done! My kids both love their new hoodies, more specifically my son. Once he realized that the heart was a pocket, he told me I was the best and coolest mom! Mom win! I hope I inspired you today!

Afton

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