Towards the end of last year, I made Mr SoZo a sweatshirt out of scraps and leftovers. It was pretty wild, and despite his insistence that he liked it, I wondered exactly how much he'd wear it. Around the house only perhaps. Well, turns out, he wears it almost every single day, in all the places!
It has received a lot of compliments also, which can only have bolstered his confidence in wearing what he terms as 'post-apocalyptic chic'. Anyway, he's started to worry that it is going to look tatty very soon due to the amount of wear it receives. We only wash garments when they actually need it round these parts, however, it will start to look faded before long, so it made sense to make hime another.
I've been going through all my fabric scraps and leftovers lately due to my participation in the Last Sewist Standing challenge. For that challenge, I have pledged to try and not buy any new fabric for a year, starting Valentine's Day 2023. I truly believe that scraps and leftovers are a wonderful resource for garments sewers, although the speed at which they build up can be alarming, and it is easy to feel overwhelmed by them. Part of my motivation for taking part in the challenge was the push it'd give me to get my scraps under control, and turn many of them into awesome, useful items.
So having sorted through all my sweatshirt scraps recently, I was able to quickly pull some out that I didn't have plans for and create this fairly pleasing colour palette. I like the autumnal vibes it's giving me, which also suit his colouring well. I took the same approach as I did with the previous sweatshirt, piecing the scraps together on my overlocker until I had shapes big enough to cut the pattern pieces from.
The only issue I encountered was with the ribbing. My original plan was to use black ribbing for the neckband, waistband and cuffs to create a 'frame' around the mishmash of prints and colours within. I think using a single colour for these makes the whole thing look more intentional and considered. Except, I didn't have enough black ribbing in my stash, and to buy some would send me into the lightweight division of the Last Sewist Standing challenge, which I'm desperate to avoid. I searched through my scraps of Ponte Roma and other double knits, in the hope of finding something solid black that I could substitute for ribbing to make the waistband, but to no avail. During my hunt, however, I discovered a small amount of ivory ribbing that I didn't know I had. There was just enough for this project, phew!
