Velvet jacket for SSW

My third item for the Sew a Seasonal Wardrobe is a light velvety jacket that I thought would take me through from day to evening.

It is from Vogue 2431, a pattern I have been dying to use, but as it is from 2000, it didn’t fit with the vintage pledge, and somehow I didn’t get round to it. No matter, I’ve made it now and am desperate to make a couple of the other views, especially view B and view C – actually I love them all!

I did view D (top left), a simple open cardigan with a button at the neckline. I wore it on a trip to Richmond, Tasmania, which is a lovely little town/hamlet, full to the brim with antique shops. As you can see, I bought stuff!

This photo is a bit dark but I’m including it so that you can get an idea of the main street, but now I look at it, it’s not very good, so here are a couple of some of the sweet buildings that are dotted about.

Richmond has some lovely colonial and Georgian buildings, but I have to say they are nowhere near as amazing as the ones in Oatland, where every single building is a delight to be remarked upon. I can’t show you any photos as I left my phone home that day. I was so cross, but never fear, I shall be back to Tasmania at the end of the year, so will make a point of visiting with my camera.

Richmond is also well known for its Christmas shop. There are three floors of amazement, and a person could spend hours looking for the perfect Christmas accessory. I didn’t have hours, or a husband who is especially enamoured with Christmas fripperies, so it was a quick trip for me. I took photos of things other than trees and baubles. Look at those reindeer!

   

The other thing that Richmond is famous for is the bridge, built in 1823. It is a beauty. Please note that I have another of my Mother-in-Law’s vintage hats on (they are not all orange!), this one is a straw and is quite striking. Goes perfectly with my cardigan – non?

standing rather dorkily in front of the bridge.

You can see that I have my grey knit top on under the cardigan, showing that they coordinate perfectly for the SSW challenge

This pattern was a breeze to make. It is designed for a woven, but translated well to a stretchy knit. I used a vintage button from my stash for the neck fastening, and a loop which I make by cheating.

To make the loop, I simply run a section of overlocker loops and then zig zag over them with an appropriate size zig zag. If the threads are a bit scruffy, I just zig zag over them again. I suspect that the purists among you will disapprove, but I needed to get this cardigan finished, and this way is so much quicker than crocheting a loop. A quick visual in case you don’t understand what I’m talking about.

I didn’t use any sort of seam finishing. This fabric doesn’t fray at all, and I did experiment with a couple of different seam finishes, but they either didn’t add anything (overlocking) or added unnecessary bulk (French seams), so I left well enough alone.

The fabric has been in my stash for a few years and came from Knitwit. This cardigan ticks three boxes – stash busting challenge, knit month on my Facebook stash busting group, and the Sew a seasonal wardrobe challenge. Sadly, I think the pattern is just a bit young to be vintage.

You will note that so far I have only made tops. I am about to tackle some trousers and skirts to preserve my modesty!