Burda 120 12/2018 men’s hoodie

Burda 120 12/2018 hoodie

This is the first piece of menswear I’ve made for a long time. It’s Burda 120 12/2018 made up in dark green fleece from Empress Mills, for my husband. This is a nice easy to sew design and doesn’t require a lot of extra supplies beyond the fabric. The only notions used are a couple of eyelets and a cord for the hood drawstring. I didn’t even try to match the cord colour to the fleece but went with a black one. I had no idea what to search for online for the cord, so ended up getting one from Maculloch and Wallis when I was in London last. I think it’s this one which they describe as ‘acrylic wool cord’.

The hood seam is flat felled so no hood lining is required. The picture below shows it a bit more clearly.

Burda 120 12/2018 hoodie

This pattern is the one with the detailed instuctions in the issue of the magazine it comes in, and they’re pretty good with one exception. They have you set in the eyelets, sew the drawstring casing shut, and then feed the cord through one eyelet, along the casing, and out the other. They suggest wrapping the end of the cord in sellotape, presumably so you have something to grab and can easily feed it through the eyelets. I don’t know about you but that sounds like a recipe for intense frustration to me. I threaded the cord through the eyelets before sewing the casing shut and that worked fine.

Speaking of eyelets, here they are along with the setting tool. I used 6mm ones. I’d never used eyelets in sewing before, and found they needed a surprising amount of whacking to seal them firmly in place. I was thumping away during my son’s nap praying it wouldn’t disturb him; luckily he slept through it. And it turns out that backing the eyelet area with a scrap of extra fabric is really important to getting a good result. As well as the scrap fabric I also added a small piece of interfacing but I’m not sure how much that helped; it’s the extra thickness that makes the difference.


The pattern is well drafted – everything fits together nicely – but there isn’t a whole lot of ease. Next time I might go up a size, especially if using a very stable knit. Anyway I’d recommend this one as an easy sew with good results, and my husband’s been wearing the finished object a lot so that’s a definite success. And as a bonus there was enough fabric left over to make a little top for my son, of which more anon.

8 thoughts on “Burda 120 12/2018 men’s hoodie”

  2. i love your version.. and i love that pattern too, made it twice for my husband, once as per pattern instructions, other time i skipped pocket and hoodie, and made regular ribbed neck instead.. he has already requested more, so i guess he loves them too

    1. Thanks! Fleece seems to come in a much better range of colours than most other fabrics,at least around here. I don’t usually have to compromise when looking for a particular colour.

  4. Nice hoodie! I have an eyelet pliers – much easier than setting with a pin and mallet.

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