Reddit reviews No Bad Days Baja Hoodie Mexican Poncho -Shades of Gray Diamond Pattern (X-Large)

I have never done any sewing before in my life. There is an assortment of needles in my house, a few threads, and some other tools like fabric scissors, but no sewing machine. I can most likely find someone to borrow one from if I really need it or it will save massive amounts of time. I'm thinking about making some modifications to this jacket, and I would like to know if my goals are reasonable for my skill level. I'm well accustomed to digging up tutorials on all manner of things, so if so, I'd really appreciate learning A. if it's possible, and B. if so, what do I need to learn to do to actually do it.

There are three things I want to do to that jacket.

• Most importantly, I want to split it down the middle and add a zipper.
  
• If there's extra space in the neck hole, I would like to narrow the body of it some. It's going to be a bit baggy in the chest/waist, and with it split, it'd be a good opportunity to do that if possible.
  
• Sew some additional pockets in the inside. I'd like to hide as much of the stitching for this in the pattern of the jacket. Black, for example, shows up a lot, so a black thread would blend in well in a lot of areas, but I might have to cross other colors briefly.