My Retro Cardigan Craze

I'm not the only one on the receiving end of new cardis round here. Initially, I bought the Brindille & Twig Retro cardigan pattern because, like many babies, Frankie was going through a phase of not liking clothes being pulled over his head. He seems to be largely over that now, however they've turned out to be so useful and fun to make that I can't stop...

Pattern:

The Retro cardigan pattern is a fabulous unisex style which can be fastened with buttons or press studs/poppers/snaps. It is crazy quick and simple to construct, particularly if you omit the pockets, like I have done. You can basically stitch this up entirely on an overlocker/serger, and the only thing that slows you down is applying interfacing to the snap/buttonhole area of the neckband, and applying/making said snaps/buttonholes. 

The pattern is sized to fit between 0 months and 6 years, although, as with all the B&T patterns I've tried, I found this to come up a size or two larger than stated. Both the rainbow and navy/white striped cardigans here are size 6-9 months, but at almost 12 months, Frankie still fits them fine (he's about 8 months in the picture below). The cardigan Dolores is modelling, that we made as a birthday present for  her friend Arthur, is size 3-4 years (Dolores and Arthur are almost four). 

(image source: Brindille & Twig)

If you are making a buttoned version, I recommend you make the buttonholes on the neckband BEFORE attaching it to the rest of the garment, instead of making them at the end. The neckband is pretty narrow, so it'll be easier to do it first. One thing I noticed about this pattern is that the position of the top button/snap is a little weird, IMO. It is positioned on the curved part of the neckband, so when the the finished garment is fastened, it doesn't sit quite as flat and in line as it otherwise might. I adjusted that for the grey/black leopard print version and it sits better (I reduced the number of buttons because I only had four of the green I wanted to use).   

My only other criticised of this pattern is that the widths of the neckband, waistband and cuffs remain the same throughout the sizes. Looking at these pictures has made me realise that I'd prefer the waistband to be wider for the larger sizes, something I'll amend for future versions. 

Fabrics:

It seems to work in lots of different types of knit. The rainbow striped fabric is a kind of fleece-lined sweatshirt stuff that feels very cosy that came from the Village Haberdashery yonks ago. The navy/white stripe is some super soft interlock that was harvested from a thrifted T-shirt I got for 50p. The grey/black leopard print is ponte di roma, some scraps leftover from my Jenna cardi. The neckbands, waistbands and cuffs are all made from ponte di roma, but you could use ribbing, medium/heavy-weight jersey or interlock.  

I added a little ribbon tag to the side seam of the navy/white striped version to make that fairly plain garment a bit more interesting. It's possibly the most 'normal looking' baby's/children's garment I've ever made! The ribbon came from Textile Garden, they don't seem to have this one in stock any more but there are heaps of other lovely ones to choose from. I bought the white and red snaps from eBay, and the vintage green plastic buttons were 50p from a charity shop.

Thoughts:

These cardigans are one of my very favourite things to make at the moment. I love that they can be made in different weights and types of fabric to be suitable for different activities and types of weather. They're a very useful layer for the unpredictable and changeable climate that we live in. I've got some fine knit jumpers and cardigans that have gone a bit out of shape that I plan to cut up and try with this pattern next.