Two recent purchases came together to make this ensemble. The Sewing Workshop pattern Ann's Cardigan and Tank matched with a recent Marcy Tilton fabric purchase Red Letters viscose knit.
Both the cardigan and the tank journeyed with me to Wellington the week before Easter. Amazingly the tank was finished and the cardigan was complete apart from missing sleeves and unhemmed. In a further burst of enthusiasm I determined to finish them before I started on my Pattern Review mini wardrobe items and they duly accompanied me to Ahipara for our Easter week away. It took me until the Friday after Easter to finally sew the hems on the cardigan sleeves and announce the ensemble finished.
Whilst the cardigan was intended to be part of my travel wardrobe because of its unfinished state another cardigan was packed (V2494 a Donna Karan waist length jacket made many years ago in a charcoal grey felted merino wool which I American smocked). Do they both count as part of the travel wardrobe when the grey jacket was used extensively during our week in Ahipara but went back to Christchurch with my beloved whilst Ann's Red Letter cardigan was part of the four days in Wellington wardrobe?
The finished garments
The finished cardigan is a great shape unfortunately the folded back front band doesn't stay in place causing the double sided nature of the garment to not quite work as imagined. It may be that this fabric is re-made into another cardigan only time will tell. For the tank the length doesn't seem quite right. Once the warmer weather returns next summer I will see how I feel about it and shorten if necessary. So neither garment is a resounding success at this stage but the pattern does have possibilities. |
| Ann's Cardigan with Moochi Precinct Sweater, Andrea Moore Boyfriend jeans and United Nude Lev Wrap Lo red shoes |
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| Ann's cardigan letter side out and Ann's tank stripe side out |
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| Cardigan with 1" sway back adjustment and tank without |
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| The cardigan and tank in their various combinations |
The fabric
This viscose elastane red letters French jacquard knit from Marcy Tilton is described as a stunning jacquard in red and black with a pleasing jumbled letters design. A variety of knitting patterns make up the design in this gorgeous quality jacquard from a French mill. We've never seen anything like this before! Fabulous. Softly textured with a pliable drape, crosswise stretch with a bit of lengthwise stretch, 9" repeat and just a touch of rolling at the cut edge. The light/mid weight is right for a top, t-shirt, tunic, cardi, dress or skirt.Pre-treat by machine wash/dry gentle. After sewing, machine wash gentle and air dry.
Unusually I managed to buy just enough fabric to make these two items with only scraps left over. The little pile on the left was saved for the coat idea that is floating around in my head, whilst the pile on the right was thrown away.
There is however a further purchase of this fabric wending its way to me as the thought of a double sided dress for a future travel wardrobe was too much to resist.
The pattern
This pattern is described as: open cardigan with cascading panels and fold-back front band, front and back waist seams, long sleeves and stitched hems.Wrong side of fabric will show. Scoop-neck tank with shaped waist, winged side vents, unfinished neck, armhole and hem edges.Suggested Fabrics are for the cardigan - medium weight knit such as jersey, double knit, ponte, French terry, sweater knit. Novelty knits. Wrong side of fabric will show. For the tank a light to medium weight knit.
The pattern alterations
My usual pattern alterations were made to the size medium cardigan and tank. For the cardigan I used the size small armhole, narrowed the shoulders 1", with a ½" forward shoulder adjustment, included a 1" sway back adjustment and lengthened 1¾". The finished back length should have been 29" but like the tank top it ended up longer than that but with the cardigan I don't mind the extra length.For the tank the shoulders were narrowed ¾" with a ½" forward shoulder adjustment and lengthened 4¾". According to the pattern the original back length was 21¼" by adding the 4¾" the top should have finished hip length, instead it finished just below my bottom which would be a 29" finished length. Should measure the pattern to find out why the top is so much longer than expected and adjust it for next time as this length doesn't feel very flattering.
Once the shoulders were narrowed the armhole was re-drawn to maintain the original size. This generally means it ends up being higher at the side seam, as is the case with this armhole.
To lengthen the tank top, the top half of the size medium is traced to the lengthen shorten line (left hand photo below), centre front/centre back length extended the 4¾" of additional length, the traced pattern piece is slid up so the extended centre front/centre back is at the original hem (right hand photo below), size medium hem line is drawn and the two size medium points at the side seam are blended together.
The sewing
Both sides of this jacquard knit are usable so I decided to make both the cardigan and tank reversible. This meant not using the overlocker for the sewing. Instead the cardigan had a faux flat felled seam sewn with the sewing machine. All seams were sewn first with striped sides together at ⅝", one side was trimmed and the other side folded over and top stitched.For the tank the side seams end in the winged side vents. Striped sides were still sewn together at ⅝" (but only to the marked point) then pressed open with both sides top stitched at ⅜" then trimmed. The winged side vents could then be hemmed easily.
In order for the turned back cardigan front band to be the same side of the fabric as the rest of the cardigan the opposite sides (stripe to alphabet) were sewn together. Originally the whole seam was sewn but that meant the hem couldn't be turned up with the stripe side on the alphabet side of the garment for both the front band and main body of the cardigan. The front band seam was undone, the hem turned and stitched then the front band seam re-stitched as in the photo below.
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| The re-sewing of the front band to the main body of the cardigan |
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| Perfect mitred corners - shame about the wonky sewing |
The outtake
No outfit of the day as it hasn't really been worn yet, we did however get an arty photo when doing the photo shoot (seems a bit pretentious for what we did with my phone camera) at our Easter holiday bach. The sun was streaming through the slats in the fence I was stood by and created this striped effect. Love the shell garden ornament which is the point of the picture, we just chose the wrong time of day to take it.
Love the jacket shape and the jersey fabric is really unusual. I'm not surprised you want to make a dress in it as well.
ReplyDeleteIt does seem to stretch a bit lengthwise with its own weight but still going to make the dress. I'm much happier with the cardigan than the tank. Just prefer sleeves to sleeveless, stops the shoulders getting sun burnt.
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