Agh!!!! I hate winter. I cannot wait for it to be over. However, this top is making it somewhat bearable. At the start of every winter, I think to myself, 'I really don't own enough warm clothing'. However, I always come up against the same problematic equation: I don't buy RTW, I don't knit and I never find knitwear I like in charity shops. But when Fabric Godmother got a whole load of actual wool knit fabric in last December, I realised this was my chance to sew myself a cosy top that would hopefully function like a cosy, knitted garment.
I snapped up 1.5 m of this cream basket weave wool fabric as soon as I saw it, then threw out the question of what I should make with it to the Instagram massive. (BTW, Fabric Godmother currently have a version in coral pink on sale.) Some suggested a boxy top like a Toaster, some thought a tighter fit top for wearing under dungarees and pinafores would be useful. Others thought a chunky cardigan like a Kinder should be its destiny. All were fabulous ideas, and all potential garments I'd love to welcome into my wardrobe. However, when the pre-wash shrunk it by about 30 cm, my options became limited.
I *just* managed to squeeze a long sleeved Tilly and the Buttons Freya top from the fabric. For this, my third version of the Freya pattern, I decided to do a sway back adjustment. I found my previous two Freyas bunch a bit at the small of my back, and I really didn't want this chunkier fabric to so the same. I used one of the three sway back adjustment methods explained in this excellent YouTube video and it has worked out really well: no annoying pooling of fabric above my bum. The only other alteration I made to the pattern this time was to make the funnel neck a little higher.
I wasn't sure how to approach actually sewing this chunky fabric. In the end I settled on stitching all the seams with a walking foot on my regular sewing machine, and going over the raw edges with my overlocker afterwards. If fabric hadn't been so tight, I would have considered finishing the cuffs and hem with bands. But the situations being what it was, I turned both back a scant 2 cm and stitched them in place with a three-step zigzag stitch.
I've worn this top A LOT this winter, usually under my black linen Heyday dungarees, black linen York pinafore and, more recently, my vintage denim Ivy pinafore. The hem has started to stretch out a bit, so I need to go back and nip it in again at the side seams around the hips. How comes it's so much more appealing to start a WHOLE NEW PROJECT than to make a minor improvement to a completed garment?!
5 comments:
In full summer here but I've got to do sway back (SB) adjustment on my woven tank pattern. I fudged my way through the 2nd method, correcting and truing lines as I went, but your video shows me how to fix it on the pattern. I am intrigued by 1st method though, as I also need to do low round and wide back adjustment. I really like how she shows revised pattern overlaid over old, as an old fitting book I've got shows how once you've learnt what the adjustments you need to make result in what changes to the outline of the pattern, you can make all future alterations around the outside, instead of messing with hinges and wedges.
So I'm trying to get a mental image of what the sum total of the adjustments I need to make will do to my pattern outline. If I slide the waist down (1st method SB) and slide it apart at horizontal line midway between shoulder and armhole (and hinged to shoulder - for wide round back) I'm trying to get a mental image of the sum total of those changes, I think some of the changes will cancel out. Too much to figure with mental images. I am going to have to get my pattern out 😅
Hi Zoe, Happy Friday! That is one cool way to get a jumper without knitting. Good job you ar an avid pre-washer. Phew! Jo x
I am wearing a Freya today, although not a wool one. A real fan of yours
Really lovely sweater Zoe. The texture is fantastic and it fits you so well.
It looks GREAT.
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