Beautiful Dreamer Cardigan

I don't know if you would call this a work in progress (WIP) since I started sewing this cardigan last night (Tuesday) and finished it today (Wed). I bought this knit fabric to make a tshirt not realizing that it has a ton of holes in the design until I got home and actually opened up the fabric to look at it. Since it's lightweight I thought it would be a nice Summer cardigan for cool nights. 

This cardigan pattern is from Schwin Designs called Beautiful Dreamer Cardigan. It is an open style, no closure. For this stripe fabric, I needed to match up the stripes so that the cardigan would look nice and even on both sides of the front. As you can see, I had to put tons of pins to hold the stripes in place before I cut so the fabric doesn't shift. Nothing like stripes that don't match up. It would just ruin the whole outfit.

As I was sewing the cardigan together, I had a bit of mishap in my cutting so I ended up using a solid knit for the collar and front center. I thought it wasn't going to work but now that it's finished I kind of like the contrast of the yellow against the blue strips. 

I believe the collar is supposed to stand up and wrap around the neck but wearing it either way works too. There's plenty of room to overlap the front of the cardigan. Perhaps a pretty pin would look great at the V point to keep it closed and the bottom ends to cascade down the front. Now I really need to go find a pretty pin for this cardigan,  or maybe a belt...hmmm, decisions, decisions.

The instruction says to sew in the seam (stitch in the ditch) after the collar has been attached to the bodice but I went ahead and did a vary narrow topstitch. I think it gives it a nice little detail. The gathers on the shoulder seams were pretty easy to do. 

The sleeves were supposed to have a bit of gathers also, but I skipped that part because the sleeves really didn't have that much excess when I  went to sew it to the bodice.

This yoke was supposed to be done using a woven fabric but I went with a knit instead. I really had fun with this yoke. The pattern piece was missing the bottom triangle or I overlooked it when I was cutting. Either way I couldn't find it so I ended up having to cut another piece of fabric since the one I had already cut didn't fit. 

The back has a nice full drape to it. This whole cardigan is really comfortable because of the loose fit and it wasn't that difficult to sew.

After I took all these photos, I decided I wanted to add the cuffs to the sleeves. This was an optional piece. I think it looks nicer with the cuff. I did have to make an adjustment on the width of the sleeve to fit the cuff, otherwise I would have to gather the bottom of the sleeve or stretch it in order to make it fit the width of the cuff. In together, I think I would make this cardigan again.

Finish It Friday

TGIFF

Confessions of a Fabric Addict