How to add a secret "Tactical" hood to any jacket with bonus surprise

This new job I'm at has the smoking area in the middle of the parking lot which is roughly the size of a football field, and the past few weeks have been extremely cold. I always try to remember my hat but racing out of the house I'm always forgetting it. I thought a couple of times about getting a new winter coat with a hood, but I love my old wool coat. So for awhile now I've considered trying to add a hood to it but I didn't want the hood hanging out the back all the time. It needed to be hidden or "Tactical" (out of the way but easy to access). I tried a couple of different ways and learned a bit on the way to making this work.

How to add a secret "Tactical" hood to any jacket w/ Bonus Surprise!!!

Step 1: Materials

Materials:

Old Sweatshirt that doesn't fit anymore and a good matching color that suites your taste
Thread (Color Matching or Black)
String
Grease Pencil (or a sliver of bar soap will work too)

Tools:
Sewing machine (or plain old sewing needle)
Scissors
Hobby Knife (though if you have it I've been told to get a Hem puller supposed to make tearing stitches easier)

Comments

[piggleliggle]

This is really awesome. However, I'm still a little confused about the construction of the hood XD

[LifeWarrior]

Which part do you need help with, maybe I can add something to make that part clearer. Sometimes I forget to add somethings and I'm always open to adding something I may have forgotten.

[piggleliggle]

What I'm confused about is what shape the actual hood is (is it a quarter circle or a semi circle?) and also which part of the hood attaches to the shirt.
It's probably just me, sometimes it takes me a while to understand written instructions XP

[LifeWarrior]

Yeah, that was the part that got a little confusing for me as well you can actually do it either way fold your fabric in half and make a quarter circle (which is probably best because you can get both sides the same size) alternatively you can lay out the fabric and draw a semi (or half) circle, then start sewing from the center of the jacket and the center of the rounded part of the semi circle out to the edge along the inner seam of the jacket

[piggleliggle]

Oh, I see! I've got it now. The sweatshirt meets the curved side. Thanks! :D

[wilgubeast]

I like it. I imagine you look a little Sith-y out in the parking lot with your hood up and smoke pouring out of your face mask. Which is completely awesome.

How's the durability? I imagine that if it's intended for smoking, which can be a smelly activity, you'll need to wash it on occasion.

[LifeWarrior]

I had a lot of comments tonight on it, and of course I sent them here.

Being a sweat shirt it's pretty tough and durable I figured I'll just be washing it with the coat, So I'll update if I have problems after the wash but it was nice and warm tonight.

[caitlinsdad]

I guess you would want to put a hole in the facemask to suit the intended purpose to keep you warm while you are out there doing your thing?

[LifeWarrior]

Good Point! And for my intended purpose I may go back and do that on mine, I wanted to make the i'ble more universal to everyone just to be fair to the NS's as well. One of the nice things about it though is I can pull it down under my chin for that purpose and keep my neck warm as well, so I'm not sure yet if I will but it's a good observation, thank you.

[mh76dk]

It looks really great, i could imagine it would be a useful "mod" for motorcyclists or people who walk a lot/work outside too.

About the smoking (being a smoker myself) these days thats a pretty hot topic and i could have been left out without any loss to the qualiy of the post.

(and now i managed to add a little more wood to the fire in case theres some strong opinions for either side around here :)

[LifeWarrior]

The smoking issue was really just an after thought, your right though it is one of those hot topics that could spark a lot of discussion, and for anyone reading; While I am a smoker I don't endorse it, nor would recommend starting.

If I drove my motorcycle out in the winter months I might be able to test that, but it's all packed away this season. However that was my thought exactly "Should I or not put the reason for the idea?", Ultimately I decided to take the hit if it comes. Thanks again for the reply