Two Sweaters in One Day

A benefit of having my class canceled was that I was able to devote all of yesterday to sewing. I made the most of the entire day. One of the patterns I traced Tuesday afternoon was View D (bottom) of Simplicity 9385:

This is a dead simple sweater. It’s also very similar to Burda 6315, or how the current iteration of Burda 6315 looks. I’ve messed with that pattern so much that I decided I needed a clean slate. This looked like a good candidate. I used my Burda 6315 pattern pieces to determine a size, because the ease and finished measurement chart on the Simplicity pattern envelope were way off and would have had me cutting two sizes larger than I really needed. Yes, sweater knits need more ease than a clingy rayon spandex knit, but I didn’t require six inches of ease at the bust.

I have four yards of a Walmart sweater knit in my stash. You’ll see from the photo that it looks almost black, but it’s actually a very dark green. Eh. Not really a jewel tone, but I knew it would be good for a muslin.

I sewed it up but decided I didn’t want a hem after all. I like the banded bottom of the Toaster Sweater. The only reason I didn’t just use the Toaster Sweater pattern is that it’s a raglan and sometimes I want a set-in sleeve. Rather than shorten the sweater and cut and attach a band, I employed a serging trick I’ve used to make cuffs on baby leggings. I folded the bottom of the sweater up to the inside by about 3" and then folded it out again by another 3". Think “blind hem” on a pair of pants and you’ll get the idea. The result is a fold of fabric with a third layer of fabric on top. The raw edge of the third layer is even with the fold. I serged along that fold/raw edge and voilà!—instant band on the bottom of the sweater.

I didn’t want a band that drew the bottom of the sweater in tightly, but this band really needs to be a smidge smaller. No matter, I got the information I was looking for, which is that I like the band and I like the overall sweater length. This is about as “cropped” a sweater as I can make and still have the proportions look reasonable on my body.

I made the changes to the existing pattern and made a separate pattern piece for the bottom band so I could make it a tad smaller than the body.

For version 2.0, I pulled out one of the sweater knits I ordered recently to coordinate with my hot pink corduroy skirt and/or pants (I have both). I really had to work to get the pattern pieces to fit, so the band is not as deep on this version. I also had to abandon the idea of a cowl neck instead of a turtleneck. I thought I had ordered two yards of fabric but I think it was meters (this was an Etsy seller). I had a literal handful of scraps left when I was done cutting.

I made it work, though, and I am very pleased with the outcome:

This pattern has a bit of teal in it, too, so I could wear this sweater with a pair of teal corduroys in my closet that have been begging for a coordinating top.

I have two more sweater knit fabrics with hot pink in them. Both likely will be sewn up with this pattern.

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I am ridiculously excited about the release of the movie “Wicked” tomorrow. If you are unfamiliar with the story, it is based on the novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. The story is set in the time before Dorothy lands in Oz and follows the friendship of Glinda (the Good Witch) and Elphaba, who eventually becomes the Wicked Witch of the West. The novel was adapted to a popular Broadway musical (Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth) and is coming out as a movie tomorrow. If the trailer is to be believed—watch it here—I think the movie is going to be fantastic.

I chaperoned band tour the year DD#1 was a junior in high school. We went to Seattle and Portland and saw “Wicked” in Portland because the kids were playing music from the soundtrack in their spring band concert. And if I remember correctly, the girls saw it in New York City on one of their trips with their grandparents.