I really must work on my blog titles! Anyway, I made this jumper with the piece of fabric I bought from Pitt Trading in Sydney to be a shawl collar on my Oslo cardigan and which wasn’t long enough. I am pleased to have it out of my stash, but it’s been a beast of a thing to make.
As you can see, I didn’t have enough fabric for the jumper so managed to use scraps from the Oslo cardigan to supplement it. I really like the patch on the left shoulder though – in fact, it’s my favourite part. The pattern is one of the self-drafted ones I did during my pattern making class at Workspace-FADS.
Less of a favourite part is the bottom band and it caused the jumper to sit in the naughty corner for a month. No matter what I did I could not get the bottom straight. Keep in mind that this fabric doesn’t fray – it shreds, so unpicking is not to be desired.
I can see that I didn’t stitch the seam of the bottom band down, but I think I was trying to avoid stretching the fabric. I went back and did this and it does help hold the band flat, but I’m not sure I like the line of stitching… Too late now, there’s no unpicking this lot!
The neckline was also quite baggy and I did unpick and resew it a couple of times – using a new band each time because the old one was unrecoverable, however, in the end, I threaded some elastic through and it’s now good enough to wear.
The jumper goes brilliantly with the cardigan though and is so warm on a cool morning.
The brown trousers are bengaline from Knitwit, made quite a while ago now. They have a back zip and are made from my trouser block. The trouser block is for a woven, so I had a go at making them smaller – not very successfully. I’ve since learned in my pattern-making class that I should have taken room out of the middle of the pattern, rather than taking the trousers in at the sides. These are totally wearable, but I might make another pair with my learned technique and see if I can get rid of that bit of extra fabric on the upper thigh.
Both of these items are going into my Sew a Seasonal Wardrobe challenge, which is a bonus!
It’s Mother’s Day here, so I’m off to visit my Mother and show her my new outfit.
I love this whole outfit and it looks fantastic on you!
Oh, thank you so much Diane. I think it’s a tad boring, but so warm and comfortable!
Looks very cosy and I agree, that patch on the shoulder looks great.
Thanks Jean, I’m not sure it’s my most favourite make ever, but it’s functional!
Looks a good cosy make for the winter.
I pressed the button by mistake – I wanted to add that I was interested that you take the room out of trousers from the centre. I haven’t done any pattern making classes, so this is really useful information and I’ll be trying it at the next opportunity.
I was surprised too, but it makes sense if you think about it.
Love the set, and especially the shoulder detail. Sometimes it is shortage which forces our creativity.
Yes, it’s interesting – fabric shortage creates an opportunity to design something quite different.
Your top makes a lovely cosy twin set with the cardigan. I’m sure it was most welcome today..
It really was welcome – so nippy!
it looks beautifully cosy; and I love the colours on you. A really interesting, modern and creative “twin-set” 🙂
Your perseverance on this project really paid off. What a superb twin-set with a laid-back twist! As for the pants, they appear grey rather than brown on my screen. Have a great Mother’s Day with your mom!
Thanks Hélène, I had a lovely morning with her and sewed all afternoon – bliss!
Another creative winner. Your naughty corner amuses me and I am going to adopt this technique!!!
Thanks Christine. My naughty corner was quite big at one point but I now have it down to a small box. 😜
Necessity being the mother of invention worked well here. I love the contrast details.
I have a knitted fabric bought some time ago that I am eyeing up on a regular basis but it is still growling at me. I will wait for it to settle.