Accent Cardigan

I love cardigans and it so hard to find ones that I really like.

So when I saw this amazing sweater knit fabric in Adelaide in 2012 it just had to come home with me.

Blue, caramel, cream, rust, brown sweater knit

The next decision was how I was going to make this work with Jalie 2566 as my previous versions here and here are made from knits that are a lot thinner.

I decided to do the following:

• Not add the neck band facing at this would be too bulky, so I added 3.5cm to the neck edge.
• As this knit does not have a lot of stretch, I added 1cm to the side seams as well as the sleeve seams.

The cardigan was sewn with navy thread on my trusty 4 thread Singer Overlocker and to keep the seams flat I whipped stitched them down.

 the colour is really wrong in this photo!

and now they are almost invisible in the cardigan

To finish the neck edge I fused some 2.5cm wide stabilising tape to the edge and then sewed some purchased bias binding, turning it to the wrong side and hand stitching it in place.

The lovely ladies at All Buttons Great and Small at Newtown found these gorgeous buttons for me and then I again purchased the buttonholes again from Mick at Quick Buttonhole Service at Alexandria.

and finally,

I've realised I need some new necklaces that will fill the "v" for when I want to wear the cardigan buttoned up.

This cardigan has turned exactly how I wanted it to.  I'm not sure how much wear it will get this year now that Summer has arrived with haste!


******************
2014 Stash Out: 32.2 m
2014 Stash In: 48.75 m

Navy linen skirt - Vogue 1247

As promised back here, here is the navy linen skirt that is part of my "Starting from Scratch Wardrobe".

This skirt was cut out, along with the shirtmaker and cardigan for the sewing weekend I attended back in May.  Both the shirtmaker and the skirt are from a gorgeous slate blue linen purchased from Tessuti in 2013.

One of the things I like to look out for during craft shows are fat quarters that can be used for pockets and this one was perfect for this skirt.

I did manage to get the skirt sewn up to hemming during the sewing weekend, and it has been hanging around for a few months now waiting to be finished.

Oops I forgot to pull my top down!

The skirt is lined as well as using the twill tape for the waistband.

This is the third time I have used this pattern, the others are here and here and I imagine there will be a few more as it doesn't take too much fabric and the pattern pieces easily fit on those odd scraps left over from other garments.


******************
2014 Stash Out: 30.95 m
2014 Stash In: 48.75 m