Welcome to SPRING everyone!!
I'm so glad that it's finally spring! The days are longer, the trees are finally turning green, and (because Vancouver is awesome), all the cherry blossom and magnolia trees are blooming! All this springy-nees makes a perfect backdrop for an equally perfect spring wardrobe staple, an over sized cardigan!
I love magnolia trees! they are so pretty in the spring!
Jen at Grainline Studio has, once again, released the perfect seasonal staple with the Driftless Cardigan. I snapped up this pattern the day it was released and in keeping with my 'new year's sewing resolution' I looked to my stash for fabric (I'm seriously thanking past Becca for making a swatch binder complete with amounts of fabric and the location where she squirreled away the fabric...THANKS PAST BECCA!). I found some really nice grey, heathered, sweater knit fabric in my stash but I didn't quite have enough to make the entire cardigan :(
BUT the unique design of the Driftless Cardigan lends itself easily to colour blocking without any additional modification! #colourblockingforthewin! I found some purple-ish (maybe a pale lavender?) jersey knit, again in my stash, that I used for the bottom half of the cardigan.
I was initially worried that the heathered nature of the sweater knit combined with the solid jersey wouldn't work well together....but I took a chance on my initial fabric selection instinct and cut the fabric. I'm really glad I stuck with my initial selection because I think the colour combo turned out awesome! The fabric type mash up was also an accidental win, as the sweater knit issuper soft and lends just enough warmth for a spring day :) while the jersey lends some stability to the pockets.
I was able to whip up this cardigan in a few hours (even with hand finishing the facing!) which was very gratifying, although the tiny 1/4" seam allowance gave me some initial trouble as I tried to just use my serger (THAT'S RIGHT GUYS! I GOT A SERGER!! I'm in the big leagues now! I'll write a post soon about my serger buying and n00b 'serging' experience). In future, when I make another one of these because obviously I will because this cardigan is awesome, I'll baste everything together on my regular sewing machine before serging (is serging a word? I feel like it should be....).
btw I'm wearing a tiny pocket tank underneath the cardigan, another amazing grainline studio pattern!
As usual, I had to make some modifications to the pattern to make it fit my 'short-ness'....I cut a straight 6 and then shortened the torso length by 1.25" to ensure that the cardigan wouldn't be too over-sized. I think the fit is pretty great, it's long enough to give off that over-sized feel but the sleeves are nice and trim so you don't appear 'lost' in the cardigan, or like a small child wearing adult clothing....
One small fail for this pattern was attempting but failing to complete the 'chain stitching' step to anchor the pockets to the hem....I just couldn't wrap my head around to make it work but I'm going to give it another shot soon as it would really help with controlling the 'flappy-ness' of the pockets. Do you guys have any tips for this step?
Anyways, I hope this posts inspires you guys to indulge in some spring sewing! And also I hope I've inspired you to get outside and enjoy SPRING!! :D