Tag Archives: Sweatshirt

Colour Blocked Linden Sweatshirt

I made this Linden a month or two ago, so it seemed more weather appropriate then than it does now – today has been the warmest day of the year so far by miles! Autumn/Winter feels like it’s been going on for at least 3 years now so it was nice to finally not need 4 layers of clothing!

This make actually fits into the series Shauni is running on her blog, The Magnificent Thread, called sewing leftovers, which is pretty self-explanatory. I’m sure we all have those projects where we have half a metre or a metre of fabric left – I have a whole box full of such leftovers and I do go through phases of getting enthusiastic about using them up but this might be one of the first times I actually followed through and made the thing!

The fabric of the body is from my first Linden and my first Mabel skirt (neither of which I really wear). I think it was a really long ‘remnant’ from my old London haunt, Rolls and Rems on Seven Sisters Road. The sleeves are some black ponte I had left over from my Moneta party dress. This didn’t have enough stretch for the cuffs and hem band so they are made from some other mystery black jersey I had in my stash, which I used to make a not-very-successful Hemlock tee. So this was definitely a good buster of my left overs! Though I probably could have done without the cuffs as the sleeves are a little long!

Although I didn’t have a huge amount of the patterned fabric left, I did manage to match the pattern on the side seams. #winning.

I find with these kinds of basics I don’t have a huge amount to say about them. I sewed it completely on my overlocker, which was a first for me – usually I sew on my machine first and then neaten the seam allowances on the overlocker afterwards, but I thought I was pretty safe with this as I’d made it before and the construction is pretty straightforward.

This might actually be a good transitional garment for cooler Spring days as the fabrics aren’t that thick, so it’s not really warm enough for Winter, and it’ll be too hot on really hot days but those in-betweeny ones might make this perfect!

Are you struggling to dress as much as I am now it’s finally warmed up?

Snuggly Grey Chestnut Sweater

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After I made the mini Chestnuts for my friend’s daughter, I couldn’t wait to make my own version! And it did not disappoint!

Obviously most of the interest of this pattern is on the back – I love the little cut out of this version. I also like the version that completely undoes at the back, but I think the weather might need to be a bit warmer to wear that version!

I made the size 10, based on my measurements, and I’m pretty pleased with the fit – the arms fit particularly well. I might lengthen it a bit next time, though. Although I like the slightly cropped look – I have a long body compared to my legs so I think that’s why it looks a bit cropped on me – I think it could do with being a couple of inches longer so I don’t flash midriff/my top I’m wearing underneath! It’s too cold for baring skin at the moment.

The main fabric is some lovely thick fleece backed sweatshirting from Sew Me Sunshine. She still has some of this fabric left in stock, and it’s on sale, so I would definitely recommend snapping some up while she has it!

The bow at the back is made from a scrap of cotton I had left from lining my Freemantle coat – I couldn’t find any nice mustard yellow ribbon from my local sewing shop.

I used my regular sewing machine to stitch this up because my overlocker did not like sewing through fabric this thick! Luckily this fabric doesn’t fray, but it means it doesn’t look quite as nice on the inside as most of my makes since I started using my overlocker. I also used my twin needle to topstitch the neckline, cuffs and hem band. It really does sew up quite quickly – the most time consuming part is the facing and attaching the ribbon on the back.

I basically wore this as soon as it was finished, and I’ve worn it a few times since! We have dress down Friday every week at work and I’m trying not to wear it every time as people might start to judge me!

Today’s outtake is particularly excellent I think!

I was taking these photos myself with the timer on my camera so I was having to walk back and forth between the camera and my spot (I definitely should have bought a camera with the facility for a remote!) and I walked backwards a little hard and slammed into the bookcase, making it wobble alarmingly. I thought the piles of stuff on the top were going to fall on me and the guitars stacked next to the shelf, but luckily they didn’t. But this is my face as I tried to catch the bookcase and make sure it didn’t fall over! Lol!

In other news, I was going to go outside and take them but it pissed down with rain the whole weekend I had earmarked for taking photos. Boo.

All I want to sew at the moment is snuggly warm clothes. I’m definitely ready for Spring! How about you?

Silver Toaster Sweater

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It seems like whenever a pattern goes a bit viral amongst bloggers and on instagram, I’m at least a month (if not longer) behind! So here is my Toaster Sweater. I’m sure you’ve heard of the pattern, but it’s from SewHouse7 and there are 2 versions of the Toaster Sweater – I made version 2. And I really like it.

It’s maybe a tiny bit short to wear with these jeans, so if I make it again I might lengthen it by an inch or two so the top I’ve got underneath doesn’t show so much when I move around!

I do like the funnel neck detail, though I’m not sure it’s supposed to sit exactly like this, but it doesn’t feel strangle-y so I don’t mind it.

The fabric is a lovely silver ponte roma from my local sewing shop, Sew ‘N’ Sew. It has a slightly ribbed texture, which is really nice. I also really like how the sleeves fit – they’re a bit wrinkled here because I’d been wearing it for a whole day.

I like the swingy shape of the back…..

But it does seem to give me a hunchback! Not sure why. I don’t have great posture, but I do stand up straight in my blog photos.

One of my favourite details of this pattern is the topstitching around the slits on the side seams. And I love how the back is slightly longer than the front.

And the corners of the hem look so lovely on the inside because the instructions tell you how to make them perfectly mitred.

This is also the first main thing I’ve made where I’ve used my overlocker to neaten the edges – I’m not quite at a skill level to feel comfortable sewing the seams on it too, especially with a new pattern. And I did have to unpick a couple of bits, so I’m glad I was unpicking sewing machine stitching and not overlocker stitching!

Am I the last person to make this pattern?

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Aztec Print Linden

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I made my first Grainline Studio Linden Sweatshirt! I say ‘my first’ because I’m definitely going to be making more! I feel like this could be a smart enough pattern to wear for work, depending on the fabric you use. And obviously it’s a great casual, slobbing around the house, kind of pattern.

I made the straight size 2, view A, which has the cuffs and hem band – and long sleeves, obvs. This was a really easy pattern to put together and only took a couple of hours, really, once I’d figured out how to attach the neck band, cuffs and hem band. And especially when I realised I was meant to cut 2 hem bands, on the fold and not just one – I did have a few minutes of ‘well how is this going to fit around my hips’ before I realised my mistake!

I didn’t make any fitting changes and, as you can see above. there is quite a bit of excess fabric on the back, especially in my lower back. I pretty much always find this and since it’s a loose pattern, I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. I do really need to learn how to fix this, though, for future, more fitted patterns.

There also seems to be something weird going on around the armpit area – does anyone know why this is? I’ve found on previous patterns that I need extra room there sometimes, but I’m not sure if that’s the case here, as it’s such a slouchy pattern.

The fabric was another ‘remnant’ from my beloved Rolls and Rems at Holloway Road. Their remnant bin has long lengths of one-offs and not just the end of rolls of stuff they sell by the metre, so you can often pick up some interesting stuff for not much money. This must have been about 3 metres and it was only £9.99. I love the aztec-y print, and check out my pattern matching at the side seam:

You can barely see the seam, I’m super proud. You can’t really see where the cuffs are either, though it messes up the pattern slightly, but you can’t tell. I also like how the neck band is one row of the zig zags.

The only downside of this sweatshirt is that the fabric isn’t quite as warm as I thought it would be. I definitely want to try this in a proper, thick, sweatshirt fabric and also to experiment with colour blocking – I’m always a bit afraid that colour-blocking will go horribly wrong and I’ll choose 2 things that definitely do not go together! I think I’ll try stealing from a ready to wear top like I did for my Refashioners Dear Creatures rip off!