Planning and Design

This poor fabric. Initially used for my first (not-to-scale) attempt at the Sable Boyfriend Cardigan, then unpicked once I realised my mistake and cut up to test out the Fitzroy Hoodie (this was before I decided I didn’t need to test Style Arc patterns first). I used another leftover knit fabric for the hoodie lining and interfaced it for the pockets. And…I HATED it. I knew I would never wear it. So it hung in my closet for a a fair while as I considered what to do with it. Then, I made the Simpson Sweatshirt out of a similar heavy knit and loved that. It was so comfy and cozy and so I decided I would remove the hood and make it into a sweater too. Third time lucky???

Materials

• Fabric – Repurposed Black Self Stripe Heavy Knit (Remnant Warehouse)
• Fabric – Scrap black ribbing (Homecraft Textiles)

Construction

So I unpicked the hood and recut it as pockets. I also unpicked the sides to remove the interfaced pockets and sewed the pockets to the side seams. Then I used the easy basic technique to make side pockets because I didn’t want the Fitzroy Hoodie style pockets which have a surface seam on the front. I cut the ribbing to 80% of the neck and hemlines and applied these. Done!

Reflections

When I put it one a hanger, it looks pretty nice and almost stylish with the wide neck! But having it sit nicely like that when I’m actually wearing it mostly just doesn’t happen 😅 The hemband also doesn’t fall that nicely because I’ve stretch the ribbing over the pockets… It’s still fairly comfortable though and I’m only using it for home wear so just need to remember to adjust it when I’m going on a video call for work haha.

Things I learnt:

• Heavy knits don’t make for nice hoodies
• Pockets should be nice and soft so you actually want to put your hands in them!
• If I have pockets that attach to the hem then I probably shouldn’t stretch those portions to fit the ribbing. Or don’t use ribbing and apply a non-stretched hem band

Categories: Sewing

hikaru