This is a series to keep track of the stuff I make! Not necessarily on Mondays, but I guess it’s nice to pick a day to talk about it, so here we are – I am thinking I’ll throw a few tutorials around, but mostly this is just detailed notes on process, materials, and trying stuff in a general way.
As much as I don’t actually *like* it when the kids are sick – obviously, it’s no fun for them, and I sympathize – being stuck at home with a 4 (and A HALF, Maman!) year old who is spending the day sleeping off a fever and watching The Wind in the Willows can be a great boost to one’s productivity! I got some lovely simple bunting done for the kids’ room and also – THE SWEATER. More on that.
Sirocco has been growing at an alarming rate lately – shirts that where way too big when he started school mid November fit just right, none of his pants need the hems rolled up and the new sweater I bought him in September is definitely too small, as is his favourite hoodie. This last being of course an issue of major concern. The boy has always had opinions on his wardrobe and is not a fan of outgrowing his favourites. What with the Atelier (our little grown up haven of creativity – more on that later!) being all set up and having gotten the hang of my new sewing machine with a few quick projects for his sister I figured I could probably make him something. Add to that, that our local library allows me to check out sewing magazines with the patterns in them – it was a no-brainer to dig through a couple of back issues of Knippie and find something suitable. The next issue of course was fabric.
I’ve never actually sewn sweatshirt material and didn’t have any in my stash – which skews a bit girly and/or flannel-y for this project. Fabric shopping is a vast and complex sea of options, but local stores here have a fairly limited selection and ordering fabric is expensive (shipping costs are the bane of my creativity) and a bit dicey if you don’t know the quality of the product you are ordering. My solution? A trip to the thrift store! The pattern requires 3 different fabrics so we (of course Sirocco came with me – last weekend before the fever – to pick his colours!) searched the men’s and women’s sections for good sized sweaters in coordinating fabrics of similar weight. 15€ (and a long look through the enormous bin of buttons) later we were all set with a sorbet orange with a cool anchor with a crown logo on the back, a soft heathered pink and an over-dyed indigo. The boy’s colour sense makes his painter Dad proud, what can I say?
In my spare moments of the last week I disassembled the sweaters, traced and cut out the pattern in the correct size (122/sz 7 but *apparently* he’s right on average on the growth chart…). Saturday I took a deep breath, and cut the fabric. I largely ignored the actual directions in the magazine – in all honesty, mostly because they were in Dutch and I had no idea what they were saying. Also because the construction was basically that of basic a “peasant top” 4 rectangles, chop the top corners to make rectangles into irregular hexagons, attach all 4 at the neck, sew the side seams, boom. done. Because jersey doesn’t fray, I took some shortcuts with the piecing of the cutouts – added a bit of seam allowance on the under pieces, none on the top pieces and basically just appliquéed them with a double row of stitching. I also cheated with the hem and arm bands and stitched them as part of the length of the fabric, directly in the side seam, rather than making loops and applying them to the completed body. It loses a bit of the gathering effect this way, but was quick, looks nice and does not affect fit.
The sewing went fairly smoothly, other than some initial trouble with skipped threads in the testing phase – switching to a smaller needle proved an easy and effective solution – until I broke it with one side seam and a collar to go… and had no more jersey needles in that size. The larger needle seemed to work fine to finish off though – so I’m not quite sure what the problem was initially. Otherwise, just the usual – running out of bobbin thread just before the end of the project, re-threading 5 times before thinking of re-threading the afore mentioned bobbin, realizing that in my rush to finish I had put it in backwards – good thing I have this hobby to help me relax, right?
The end result though, is stunning, though I say so myself! And of course, he loves it. And was quite pleased that it had “rose” in it for Laetare Sunday yesterday! I think he’s planning on wearing it every day forever though, which might be a problem if I ever want to wash it…
Love,
Belligerence&Chocolate
Belligerence & Chocolate 