spottedroo

One of the nice things about sewing is the freedom it gives you to try out garments you wouldn’t normally wear.  Even if I only wear something a few times I (a) didn’t spend much money on the fabric and (b) generally had a good time making it.

This is not one of those garments.

I’m sure I had sweater something like this when I was 16, and I’ll probably be wearing something similar at 61.  Its the kind of thing my oldest and dearest friend would put on and say she is “dressing up as Kathy.”  My oldest and dearest friend, BTW, who just moved to Boston (hurray!) apparently bringing the Seattle climate with her (not so yay.)  Which is why I was sewing a wool sweater in the middle of June.

The outside is wool jersey bought on clearance from Fabricmart.  Its got a nice shiny finish and a fairly smooth texture.  The pattern is Simplicity 3634, source of the t-shirt pattern I’ve made 5 or 6 times and the very first pattern I bought.  (I’ve now made everything in it except the pants.)  For the cardigan I trimmed about 1.5 inches off the front , so the opening was more rounded and less V-neck, and added a wide band (5″ each for the front and back plus seam allowance) that ran all the way around as a shawl collar.  I cut this a little long figuring I’d trim off the ends but I liked the way it looked with the shawl a little longer than the sweater so I ended up leaving the ends in.  Then I took a tip from my favorite RTW sweater and lined the whole thing in t-shirt jersey:

I am making an effort not to wear this everyday but its going to be difficult.