Saturday, 30 April 2016

Swoon Scarf Neck Cardigan

At a recent sewing day, one of the ladies made the Swoon Scarf Neck cardigan and was kind enough to let me try it on.
As we are a similar size, it fit beautifully!



Coincidentally, I have had this pattern downloaded and printed for a while, but had never got to sticking it together.
This pattern is a bit different to a lot of others I have used in that to save paper (I'm guessing?) smaller edge pieces are put on different pages together. While this was initially a little odd, the edges where pieces joined were all clearly labelled, so it was fairly painless.

Having tried on my friend's cardigan I had my size sorted, so went ahead with a navy blue merino wool.
This sewed together easily and quickly, with all seams matching as they should.
The most time consuming part was hemming it!



I am really happy with the fit and the style, and can see getting a lot of wear from this.
I plan to make this again.

A great result from a free pattern. Yay!!

Saturday, 23 April 2016

Itch to Stitch Hepburn Turtleneck

When Kennis, the designer behind Itch to Stitch released her latest patterns, I was quite keen on the idea of the Hepburn Turtleneck.



I selected my size as recommended in the instructions, and went merrily on my way with a remnant of merino.
The pattern pieces went together as intended, and the instructions were clear and concise.


The neckline is close fitting without being restrictive, and I feel the body is a reasonable fit without being too clingy.
The only alteration I would make is to slim the sleeves down a little from elbow to wrist. I'm not sure if this is a drafting issue in the larger sizes, or a 'me' issue.

Verdict: Will definitely make again.

Sunday, 17 April 2016

Maven Patterns - French Dart Shift Dress

I had been contemplating options from my stash for a new dress for my Mum's birthday party, and then came across the Maven Patterns French Dart Shift. All stashed patterns went out the window.



I was hopeful the french darts would lend some subtle shaping to the waist while still keeping all the wonderfully comfortable aspects of a shift dress.

I did a stash dive for fabric to try it out in, and came up with a polished cotton I seem to recall purchasing not long after I began sewing.


After making my usual alterations of a Full Bust Adjustment and a Full Butt Adjustment, it sewed up really nicely with all notches and seams matching as they should.
The instructions were excellent, with the option of both quick instructions or full instructions with pictures.



While I think this fabric was not the right choice for this dress, being a little too lightweight, I would definitely make this again something more weighty.