How to Sew a Warm Sweatshirt Fleece Dress (Honey Pattern Hack for Heavy Knits)

The arctic weather just continues to bombard us here in the Northeast. Over in the Pink Hollybush Sewing Circle, our quarterly challenge for Winter 2026 has been to sew with heavy knit fabrics. When I came up with this challenge, little did I know what kind of weather we were going to have — but of course it turned out to be the perfect challenge for these temperatures. I still have 17 inches of snow outside right here in Connecticut.

For my participation in this challenge, I decided to take the Pink Holly Bush Honey pattern which is my most popular pattern, and see if I could make it out of sweatshirt fleece. I knew that would be a very useful garment for my daughter to have for my granddaughter with the weather the way it is right now. I incorporated some pink peekaboo pockets, added a little ruffle to the shoulder seam, and used contrasting binding. I’m going to walk you through the few adjustments I needed to make so Honey works with a heavier knit to make a beautiful sweatshirt fleece dress. As always you can listen or read below.

Adjusting the Honey Pattern for Sweatshirt Fleece

This fleece is from Raspberry Creek Fabrics.* It’s 240 GSM, which is heavier than what I normally recommend for Pink Holly Bush patterns. Usually we stay between 175- 220 GSM using an interlock or cotton jersey. Because of that extra weight, we want to reduce the skirt width. I’m using the View C dropped yoke Honey. To determine my skirt size, I measured the width of the bodice at the waistline.

That measured about 6½ inches on the fold, so 13 inches total. Then I multiplied by 1½, which gave me a skirt width of 20 inches.mFor the length, I just used the pattern length, but you can adjust depending on the child.

Reducing Bulk at the Neckline and Pockets

Because fleece is bulky, I cut the pockets and neckline binding from cotton jersey instead of fleece. The fleece probably would work, but the neckline binding, which is a turn-and-stitch binding in the Honey pattern, would be bulky. With knits we always want to reduce bulk whenever possible. Using jersey for the pockets and binding helps, and I also like that the pink contrast shows.

Adding the Flutter Ruffle to the Sweatshirt Fleece Dress

I added a small flutter ruffle at the shoulder seam. This is a free pattern piece from Pink Holly Bush (originally designed for the Princess Charlotte dress), that you can get here.

Before cutting, we need to adjust the flutter sleeve piece because it was drafted for cotton lawn or lightweight broadcloth and is fuller than needed for fleece. Follow the directions to mark your notches, measure the distance (mine was about 10 inches), multiply by three (30 inches), divide it in half (because the pattern piece is on the fold) and trim to match that measurement. This reduces the length of the flutter sleeve to accommodate the bulk.

Stabilizing the Shoulders

Normally I recommend reinforcing the back shoulders with fusible interfacing. But with some fleece such as French terry or textured fleece, interfacing may not adhere well.

Instead, you can use thin clear elastic. Place front and back bodices right sides together, lay the elastic along the back shoulder seam, and stitch it into the seam. This stabilizes the shoulder without relying on fusible interfacing.

Preparing the Flutter

I serged the outer edge of the flutter sleeve piece without trimming, turned up the ½-inch hem using glue basting, clipped it, let it dry, and then edge-stitched with a straight stitch (no stretch needed).

Next, I ran two gathering stitches along the curved edge at ⅜" and ⅝". I aligned the notch to the shoulder seam, gathered to fit, and basted it into the armhole using a ⅜" seam allowance, because that’s the Honey seam allowance. If you used ½", you would make the garment smaller. Then the sleeve is sewn right sides together with the ruffle sandwiched inside, finishing the edge and creating a cute ruffle.

And that’s it — a cozy sweatshirt fleece Honey!

I hope you will give a Fleece Honey a try - Happy Sewing!

Quick Reference: Heavy Knit Pattern Conversion Checklist

When using fleece in a lighter knit pattern:

• Reduce skirt fullness

• Use lighter knit bindings

• Stabilize shoulders with clear elastic

• Avoid bulky seams

• Adjust gathers

• Keep decorative elements lightweight

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