I have been inspired by a few bloggers to make this Sewhouse 7 Toaster sweater, but when I saw Hélène’s, with the pockets, I was smitten and had to get sewing straight away.
I made version 2, and scraped it out of a tiny bit of fleece that I bought to make a small person tracksuit when Tom was a baby!
The advantage of using fabric this old is that it is 100% cotton, which is quite scarce now.
Hélène noted that the top is very short, and I would have lengthened it, except I didn’t have enough fabric. As it was I had to cut the sleeves in half and join them. I disguised the join with a bit of reverse coverstitching, and so that it wouldn’t look too obvious, I made a little design feature by using three lines of coverstitching on the right arm, and single on the left.
Hélène added pockets to hers, so in an act of shameless copying I decided that I wanted pockets too. Then I started fossicking for fabric to use (I didn’t have enough blue fleece) and found this navy blue strip left over from one of Mark’s rugby tops. I then got totally creative by folding it over and creating two pockets from the one strip of fabric. One is easy to use, as above, and the other is a little more awkward, but is fabulous for my phone.
I am beginning to think that 2017 might be the year of creative pockets as I’m on a roll, having created two :).
I did get a little boastful on Instagram about my coverstitching as I pretty much mastered going round the corners on the hem, which I’m trying to show here. I’m standing strangely as I just noticed a cobweb high up on the wall and got distracted! But look at those corners!!
The obligatory back view.
The verdict: This is a really nice pattern, which went together really well. It only took a couple of hours to make, with most of my time being taken up with fussing around over the pocket and the coverstitching. I am not wholly convinced about the neckline. It is caught down at the shoulder seams, with the remainder of it floating free, which means that, as I am not a careful dresser, it can look a bit wrinkled instead of being a nice smooth funnel neck, as per the one on the pattern. I made this a couple of weeks ago, thinking that I wouldn’t be able to wear it for a few months, but the weather went completely pear shaped today, and it’s currently sitting on 16°C, which is freezing, in fact I just heard that it’s the coldest February day on record,so I popped the top on and I’ve been as warm as toast. It is really comfortable and quietly smart for a sweatshirt style top, and I’ve decided that I really quite like the short length. Version 1 is on my list, when I’ve found the right fabric in my stash.