This was supposed to be a dress.
Remember that Fabric Swap I went to a while ago, and came back with four fab fabrics? (Nope, I didn’t think you would, it was a long time ago!) One of them was a lovely navy sweater knit.
The label on it said it was 140cm wide and 180cm long. I thought that I could just about squeeze a knit dress from it. However, as I found out when I started to look at how to cut it, it turned out to be only 120cm wide, which made it much too narrow to cut the front and back side by side, so it was definitely not big enough to make a dress.
So I revised my plans, and went for a cardigan instead.
That meant cutting my front as two pieces instead of on the fold, and extending enough on the centre front to create self-facing button/buttonhole bands. I wanted wide bands, so I added 11.5cm, to create a 5cm band on each side and include a seam allowance. I wanted the neckline to be a turtle-neck, or thereabouts, so I raised it on the front pattern piece. I waited until I’d sewn the shell together, to check how it would fit, before finalising the collar cutting. The sewing up was easy enough, and the collar all worked out fine.
I had decided quite early on in my process that the buttons would be big red ones. Maybe white or navy would have been a more sensible choice, but the idea of red buttons was much more joyous! So I got these “clown” buttons from Ebay.
My next decision was whether to make this a fully functioning cardigan, that opens at the front, or a fake cardigan which will always remain closed, and where the buttons are purely for show. I came down on the side of Fake, because then I’d never have to worry about gape-age. So I sewed the buttons on, then stitched both sides of the button/buttonhole bands together. Yes, in that order, so that the stitches from sewing on the buttons won’t show. So it’s a cardi-sham.
And it all came out as well as I could have imagined. I’m always amazed at how I’m able to take something as intangible as an idea in my head, and turn it into something real and wearable. It really is a kind of magic!
Béa's Sewing Adventures 