Scrap Busting September 2024

Happy October! Did you participate in Scrap Busting September this year? The endeavour is organised by my pal Meg Grandstaff who encourages us all to explore our creativity and resourcefulness by crafting with scraps and leftovers of fabric and yarn. If you'd like to hear more, check out this recent episode of my podcast, Check Your Thread, in which I have a hilarious chat with Meg. 

Trainer socks:

I'm making this post to record the items I made using fabric scraps last month. First up, I made two pairs of trainer socks using this free sewing pattern and tutorial. The pair pictured above were made using some 100% cotton interlock with cotton/lycra jersey for the band. The pair pictured below were made using some Liberty cotton/lycra jersey entirely. Both are wearable, but the second pair are more so because I adjusted the heel dart so there's less bulk underneath my foot. I'm so excited to have a well-fitting trainer sock pattern that I can use over and over in the future. 

Kid's undies:

I continued to raid my jersey scraps tub to create a couple of pairs of undies for my son. I used a new-to-me undies pattern from an Ottobre Design magazine because it was comprised of quite a few pattern pieces that would make it easier for using with scraps. I also chose it because the leg holes were hemmed rather than finished with bands. The waist is finished with visible elastic which feels to me like they'll have more longevity than with a band of fabric like most of the previous pairs I've made him.

I had a lot of fun picking the different jerseys to go together. I have had some of these scraps for so long, it feels good to get them out of my stash. 

Kid's joggers:

Next up was a pair of joggers, also for my son. I had lots of remnants of the same speckly sweatshirt fleece from the scrap bin at work. I didn't do anything clever, simply pieced sections together and topstitched down the seam allowances to reduce bulk. I wanted these to look fairly understated so he has the option of wearing them for PE at school, but I chose a scraps of striped french terry for the back pocket and cuffs for a tiny bit of interest. 

Again, the pattern comes from an Ottobre Design magazine. Those magazines are such a great resource for basic knit garment patterns. I didn't bother with the side seam pockets however, as I find they often create visible bulk, and he doesn't really use those pockets anyhow. I combined sizes (116 width and approx. 128 length) to more closely reflect his long, thin frame. He's already been wearing and enjoying them. I had to buy elastic to finish these off. 

Kid's scrappy cardigan:

And lastly, I wanted to reduce the volume of ponte and double knit scraps in my stash, so I proposed a scrappy cardigan for my daughter. She's got a whole Goblincore thing going on these days, and over-sized scrappiness fits well in that aesthetic. 

Compared to women's patterns, and patterns for younger children, the selection available for tweens and teens is really poor. I plan to create a post that lists the pattern companies I have found that do cater to this age group at some point. However, with the selection of suitable cardigan patterns incredibly limited, I ended up tracing her school cardigan to make my own pattern. 

I got my daughter to select the scraps that most appealed to her from the tub, which produced quite a wild effect! She also chose the top stitching colour, ribbing and wooden buttons from my stash also. It's so pleasing to make an entire garment from items you already own. And the best part is that she loves it! She's worn it basically every day since I finished it up. 

Scrappy Knit Cardigan

This is a recently completed project that is the result of an idea that I just couldn't shake. Inspired by the success of Pat's scrap busting Apollon sweatshirt (which in turn was inspired by the success of these scrap busting jersey tops) the thought popped into my brain that I could apply the same idea to actual knit fabric.     I am very interested in clever ways to reuse old garments, and am always looking to bulk out my chilly-weather clothing selection, which is pretty limited. So I cleared the decks of other projects and decided to have a play. 

I have a big bag of old knitwear garments and scraps: items that are moth eaten, felted, misshapen or badly pilled, plus scraps of knit fabric that can be bought by the metre. Some of the knit garments I've had in my stash for over a decade, that I've harvested bits from for other projects, mainly mittens over the years. I was keen to reduce the volume of my knit stash and claw back some space in my airing cupboard. 

I started out my selecting pieces that made a fairly pleasing colour palette. The chartreuse colour is my favourite. I previously used some of that moth-eaten jumper to make myself some mittens. I made sure to use include every last scrap of that garment in this project. There's quite a lot of pink in this project, which is NOT a colour I ever usually wear, but with the other bold colours, I think it looks ok and the over all effect is graphic and fun. 

As for the piecing, part of my goal was to try to be as economic with each piece as possible and be left with very few unusable scraps. I cut along the seam lines of some of the knit garments to access as much of the fabric as possible. I let the resultant shapes guide the forms and I jigsawed them together over the course of a few evenings until I had sections large enough to fit my pattern pieces on. 

The pattern I used at the base of this projects was the Jamie cardigan by Ready to Sew, which I adapted slightly to my preferences. I used some black Ponte Roma for the neck band, and black ribbing for the cuffs and waistband. I like how the solid black of these pieces creates a kind of frame for the colours and patterns within. 

As you may have noticed, this cardigan features some basket weave type knit that I also used to make the polo neck top I'm wearing here. I'm enjoying the 'alternative twin set' look! It's also nice to have a bold, fun garment to wear when the weather is freezing. Any addition of colour in the winter is welcome. 

Cinnamon Brera Cardigan

Ta da!!! May I proudly present to you my first successful self-knitted garment! Every winter I bemoan my lack of chilly weather clothes. As a maker, I can't really bring myself to go shopping, and I'm not a massive fan of shopping for second hand clothes for myself either. Stepping up my knitting skills felt like the right option. 

I can't remember how I first heard about them, but I started following We Are Knitters (AKA WAK) and signed up to their newsletter. Eventually I bought a few of their chunky, super simple knitting patterns when they became available for individual purchase. They regularly have discounts and special offers, and at some point later last year I treated myself to the yarn to make the Brera cardigan. I think the yarn cost me about £80 with the discount. It felt like a lot in one hit, but I saw it as an investment. 

The colour is called cinnamon (which doesn't seem to be available at the moment), and it's incredibly soft. As you can probably tell, it is a super simple pattern. It literally consists of five rectangles of garter stitch, so if you can knit a scarf, you can knit this cardigan. My mum advised me to use the thumb method for casting on, and I watched the same Youtube video at the beginning of every rectangle because for some reason it won't stick in my brain. 

I really enjoyed working on this during the autumn and winter. It's nice to have something to do on the sofa when you don't feel like sitting at the sewing machine. But once I had the rectangles finished, I wasn't sure how to proceed so the project stalled for a couple of months. I wasn't sure if I needed to block them, but after requesting some advice via Instagram, I fell down on no, blocking wasn't necessary for a chunky knit like this. Eventually, I got my friend Julia, legendary sewing and pattern cutting teacher, who is also a knitting expert, to whip me into shape and show me how to stitch them together. 

Thankfully, after the investment of money and time, I am really pleased with the result. I love the chunky look, the colour, the feel, the coziness. It does tend to leave auburn-coloured fluff about the place, and the front edge has started to (inevitably) stretch out a bit. But I've worn it heaps, and will continue to do so for years to come I hope!

Free Pattern Friday: Kids' Woodall Cardigan

Welcome to my monthly 'Free Pattern Friday' feature, where I road test a free sewing pattern or tutorial: sometimes a children's one, sometimes an adult's one. I publish these posts every first Friday of the month, timed to provide inspiration for those who plan to get their sew on over the weekend. I firmly believe that, if you pick your projects carefully, sewing doesn't have to be a crazy-expensive way to clothe yourself and your family. Thanks to all the amazing pattern designers who have offered up their hard work for us to enjoy for free.

Ugh! So this is annoying: I've just road tested a fantastic free sewing pattern, and now I come to write about it, I discover that it is no longer available! Sorry everyone. It was the Goodall cardigan pattern by Petit a Petit patterns, which, I just learned, ceased trading at the end of last year. For those who had not come across them, it was a super cool kids' pattern company that offered up some really wearable and interesting styles for boys and girls. I downloaded their free Goodall cardigan pattern (just in time it would appear) at some point before they shut up virtual-shop, and busted it out last week when I discovered my daughter has grown out of all her non-school cardigans (like her mum, she's a big cardi wearer). Sadly, the whole blog seems to have been taken down too, so I can't link to them, but you can check out the IG account @petitapetitblog so you can at least see how cool the pattern brand was. The owner Celina (@celinabailey) is now concentrating her pattern-making energies on a women's line called Ensemble Patterns, which also looks wonderful and very wearable.

I don't have any other road-tested free patterns to write about instead, so I'm popping up a couple of photos of my version anyhow. Perhaps they will inspire those who already downloaded it to give it a go. I made it using some quilted ponte leftover from a sweatshirt I made Pat, and a sliver of pink sweatshirt fleece. But because this pattern is no longer available, there's little point in me writing a full review like I usually do. I'm so glad I didn't go through the rigmarole of trying to cajole my daughter into posing for some modelled photos! Normal Free Pattern Friday service should resume next month...

Modal Kinders

If autumn was an object, surely it'd be a rust-coloured cardigan, no? My wardrobe is hardly a cardigan-free zone, but I felt an urge to own one that would offer my outfits a pop of colour. A pop of colour other than mustard, that is. Speaking of mustard cardis, I recently made another one, however this one was for my best mate Vic.  

Pattern:

For both these cardigans, I used the Kinder cardigan pattern from Wendy Ward's 'A Beginner's Guide to Sewing with Knitted Fabrics' book. I was given this book for free when I participated in the blog tour, and I must admit that this is still the only pattern I've used from that book so far. But oh how I've used it! I've made six Kinder cardigans so far, and I doubt these'll be the last.

Both these cardigans were made using the size medium. The rust version includes the separate cuff piece and hip length pieces. Vic's mustard one is effectively a copy of my own mustard one, which has the plain sleeve, and is in-between the waist and hip lengths included in the original pattern. I omitted the pockets on both these because I felt the fabric is too stretchy. 

Fabric:

Speaking of fabric, for both of these I used some beautiful modal french terry from Fabric Godmother (mustard for Vic's, terracotta for mine, but I'm calling it rust!). As far as is possible, I'm really trying to only use great quality fabric for my sewing projects these days, especially for basics like cardigans that are likely to get tons of wear. If I'm buying virgin fabric, I've got to give the finished project every chance of having a long, useful lifespan. 

Thoughts:

As if you couldn't tell, I really love this fabric: it's soft and has really excellent stretch/recovery. As modal's a regenerated fibre, it's super drape-y, which limits the cardigan patterns it can be used for. But a simple, no-frills style like the Kinder makes the most of that quality. 

Stripy La Trop Facile Jacket-igan

"Is this a jacket, or a cardigan? Jacket? Cardigan? Jacket-igan?"

Well, dare I toot my own horn and say that I'm smashing my #2020makenine plans?! I do dare! In January, the epic leopard ponte became an oh so subtle cardigan. In February, I scratched my boiler suit itch with some gorgeous, rust, sanded twill. In March, I made my Romero trousers (further tweaks may still be made) from the nicest denim I've ever encountered (and I've encountered A LOT of denim). And now I present to you April's creation: some stripy ponte turned into a jacket. Or a cardigan. I'm not sure. Anyways, here it is. 

Fabric:

If you feel you may have seen this fabric before on this blog, then you are both correct and super observant. Fifty points to you. My sweet and lovely mum bought me 2m of this lovely, striped, cotton ponte/doubt knit a couple of years ago from C&H fabrics. Some of it became my Breton toaster sweater, but because the fabric was soooo wide (over 2m!) I was also able to squeeze this jacket pattern out of it as well. It's clearly softer and slightly more fluid than the fabric I used for my first La Trop Facile, so I think it gives this garment a very different look to my first version. 

I added a tiny little anchor patch that Tilly (of TATB fame) bought me back from Japan years ago. I forgot to take a photo, but I also used some anchor print grosgrain ribbon to visibly stabilise the shoulder seams, and to form a hanging loop at the back neck. The devil is in the details, after all. 

Pattern:

My original La Trop Facile jacket is about 2.5 years old now, and it remains one of the garments I enjoy wearing the most. The pattern is by Belgian designer Delphine et Morissette (pattern shop here), and I'm obsessed with her many patterns. All but one or two are only available in French, so Google translate and I are good friends at this point. The La Trop Facile is a genius combination of elements that I didn't know I was looking for until I made my first version: it has volume, but isn't overwhelming, and it looks and functions like a jacket but is feels more like a comfy cardigan. 

For this stripy version, I had to omit the turned-back sleeves detail due to fabric restrictions. The heaviness of the turn-backs might not have worked too well with the knit fabric anyhow. As the name would suggest, this pattern is a very quick make, especially for a jacket. Obviously, I had to pattern-match the hell out of the seams and pocket application, which slowed the construction process down a touch. 

Thoughts:

Generally speaking, I very happy with this garment. I'm not entirely sure that this pattern and this ponte were a match made in heaven though. It's likely that the garment style would be better suited to a fabric with a touch more structure, but I think I've just about got away with it. The stripes also make this garment a little harder to pair with other tops underneath. I'm hoping that Me-Made-May will help me discover a few tried and tested combos so it gets the amount of wear that it deserves.  

Leopard Print Cardi: So Very Neutral

Here is the result of a recent experiment. I've been testing the limits of the popular theory that leopard print in a neutral. What could blend in to a wardrobe more easily than a simple, leopard print cardigan? See? I bet you hardly even noticed it in these photos!

Fabric:

So I've been regularly working part-time at Fabric Godmother for about a year and a half now (before that I would occasionally help out at their open days, plus I taught some classes there when they were running those). During the first year of the regular gig, being in close proximity to all the lovely fabric (plus access to a generous staff discount) meant that I bought more pieces of fabric that I'm entirely comfortable admitting to. Not a wild amount, but neither did I wait until I used each piece before I bought another. But then I got ahold of myself and put the breaks on. At the end of that first year, I vowed only to buy something if it is truly special, and when this leopard print ponte di Roma came along, I knew at a glance that it definitely fell into that category. 

This fabric is produced by German fabric company Albstoffe, who have a GOTS certification, meaning that their cotton fibres are grown organically and the fabric production passes a series of sustainable, ethical and fair trade requirements. It is also A-MAZING quality and (for some, including me) eye-wateringly expensive without the aforementioned staff discount.

So having bagged myself 1.5m of this special fabric, I really wanted to do it justice. How to turn it into a garment that would show off its attributes well, and also see a lot of use? One part of me envisioned some sort of awesome sweatshirt style top, with or without a ruffle thrown in to the plans. But ultimately, knowing how I like to dress, I decided a cardigan would get way more use. 

Pattern:

So having landed on a cardigan as my chosen garment style, I mulled over the question of what attributes the cardigan should have. I wanted something fairly loose that would fit over a variety of blouses, tops and dresses. There's a lot I love about Wendy Ward's Kinder cardigan pattern, likewise with the Ready to Sew Jamie cardigan pattern. But there are also a couple of things that I don't love about both. So I set about drafting my own cardigan pattern, that took inspiration from both, but ultimately had its own proportions and volume. Kind of like the Kinder and Jamie had a baby, if you will. 

Having finished the drafting process, I made a (hopefully) wearable toile in some ponte from my stash, so I could test out my design before cutting into the precious. I was so happy with the outcome that I decided zero tweaks to the pattern needed to be made. I'm going to send the wearable toile to a friend who loves a good cardi almost as much as I do!

Thoughts:

I'm soooo glad that I took the time to allow plans for this fabric to fully formulate. I love the final shape and style of this cardigan; it's exactly the type of garment I want to wear right now. I think it shows the crazy leopard print design off well; I deliberately chose to avoid patch pockets so as not to disrupt it too much. And the fabric feels sooooo nice to wear. My only hurdle now is to work out how to incorporate it into some outfits that don't always involve pairing it with a black top....

All The Quilted Mustard Cardigans

Recently, here in the UK, the weather has turned a bit shitty. Therefore, it doesn't feel at all out of season to be sharing these recent makes. I'm trying to be more mindful about what fabric I buy to make additions to my wardrobe with, and I must confess straight away that I already own two mustard coloured cardigans (this one and this one). However, neither provide much warmth, so I justified making this one because a cosier mustard cardigan would be serving a slightly different purpose to my other two. I know I said in my Me-Made-May 2019 Lessons to Learn post that I was going to start branching out of my limited colour palette, however I'd already bought this gorgeous fabric before I'd come to that realisation, plus it only came in mustard and navy anyhow! 

Fabric:

Throughout the recent autumn/winter/spring, I massively over-relied on my black quilted ponte Kinder cardigan. By that I mean that I wore it so much/often that A) it's starting to look pretty bobbly, B) I panicked over what I was going to wear when it was in the wash, and C) I felt slightly embarrassed (which I know is stupid) at how often I was being seen in the same garment. When I saw this quilted mustard jersey at Fabric Godmother, I knew it would be great for making a similarly-cosy alternative to the black Kinder. Plus, it appealed to me because it's 80% cotton (the black quilted ponte was 100% polyester), and I'm trying to keep purchases of synthetic fibres to a minimum. Admittedly this mustard quilted jersey is also 20% polyester, but I felt this was a step in the right direction. As well as being warm, it has a lovely, soft feel, and I really enjoy the feeling of it on my bare arms. 

(image source: Ready to Sew)

Pattern:

Umm, yeah so you made have noticed that the sample pictured above appears to be made from the same fabric as I have chosen. Well, at least I knew that my quilted jersey was going to work well for my selected pattern! It's the Jamie cardigan pattern by French pattern company, Ready to Sew, and it's been firmly stuck to my 'Sewing Patterns I Want' Pinterest board for months. The volume and poufy-ness of this boy-friend style cardigan appealed to me, and feels like a mild deviation from my current usual style, which excited me. 

I made the straight size 40 which related closest to my measurements, and the fit through the body seems to be fine. I deviated from the construction method to add clear elastic to the shoulder seams to prevent them from stretching out. I always do this anyway with knit garment projects, however I think it is especially important when the sleeves are as full, and therefore heavy, as these. I also added some fusible interfacing to the lower sections of the neckband which was not asked for in the instructions, to strengthen the area for buttons/buttonholes. As you may have noticed, I have yet to add buttons. I didn't have anything suitable in my stash, and I'll probably add some eventually, but that's not stopping me wearing it in the meantime. 

Thoughts:

When I first put my finished cardigan on, I found that the sleeves felt uncomfortably short. I unpicked the cuffs and recut them from some scraps so that the finished length was 3cm longer (I added 6cm to the depth to the pattern piece, which gets folded in half). In the future, I'd probably add the 3cm by extending the sleeve piece itself, then add an additional 1.5cm or 2cm to the finished length of original cuffs as well. I also think the waistband would benefit from being a bit deeper. 

Aside from those tweaks, I'm super happy with this garment. It is definitely fills a spot in my wardrobe when I want extra warmth, and I've loved wearing it with my Heyday dungarees and basic, white, Agnes top. I'll keep my eyes peeled in the future for different, interesting knits to make another.   

The Jamie cardigan pattern required 1.5m of fabric, so I bought 2m thinking I could use the extra to make Frankie some joggers. But then Dolores had a massive growth spurt which left her low on warm tops. I didn't have anything else suitable in my stash, so the leftovers became a cardigan for her instead. 

(image source: Brindille & Twig)

Pattern:

I reached for the Retro cardigan pattern by Brindille & Twig, which I've used many times (you can see the previous versions here and here). You can't accuse me of not getting my money's worth from this pattern! I already had this, the largest size (sniff), printed out including the tweaks already done from when I made her the black quilted ponte version (another mini-me cardi using scraps from my own cardigan project). If memory serves, those tweaks included making the curve of the front section where it joins the neckband smoother and not so angled, so that it sits flatter after the neckband has been applied. I also made the waistband and cuffs deeper. The original pattern has the same widths for the waistband and cuffs across the size range, from preemie to 5-6 years, which looks odd to me in the larger sizes. It's possible I also made the neckband a little wider, but I can't be sure at this moment in time. 

Thoughts:

Dolores is tentatively leaving her pink phase, and has embraced this cardigan surprisingly well. I thought it was going to be a grower, but she's worn is a few times in the couple of weeks since its completion, including on her non-school uniform day. I wonder if she likes the colour, enjoys the soft feel of the fabric, or because I have a near-identical one. I can't even deal with how grown-up she looks in the photo below. I may use this pattern again once or twice for Dolores, now that I have the pieces prepped. I will continue to use it for Frankie as well for several years to come. I still have a limited amount of scraps of this quilted jersey left, and I may combine it with some other leftovers further down the road to make a coloured blocked cardigan or sweatshirt for Frankie also. 

The Kinders Keep Coming

At the start of 2018, I already had a solid selection of handmade cardigans, all made using either the Jenna and Cabernet cardigan patterns. However, over the last couple of years, I've been experimenting with looser style tops that have different amounts of volume than my previous rockabilly-casual style tended to have. I've often found it a struggle to fit those Jennas and Cabernets over the top of a lot of the tops and dresses I usually wear these days. Therefore, it made sense to include a slouchy, 'boy-friend'-esque cardigan in my then-forthcoming #2018makenine project plans. 

The FAIL:

After some poking about, I discovered that I already owned one that I thought might fit the bill. An old copy of Burdastyle magazine that was nestling on my shelves contained a slouchy looking cardigan pattern, it's this one that can also be bought via the Burdastyle website (spoiler alert: I wouldn't bother). I traced out the pieces and combined the lower sleeve piece with that weird extra band that formed the top part of the sleeve to make it into one pattern piece. I requested and was kindly granted a sample length of this fabulous mustard french terry from Girl Charlee UK, and got to work. (Ironic) Ta da!

So hideous. I want to blame the way the cardigan is obscured in the shot on the Burdastyle model, but equally I could blame my own eyes for not seeing that this cardigan pattern is pretty horrid (IMO), and has also been made up in a much sturdier knit than what I had tried it in. Either way: FAIL. The project got thrown into the corner of my sewing area, promising to return to salvage the fabric when I felt less rubbish about the whole debacle.

The mustard success:

Whilst the fail-cardigan resided in the corner of shame, I was asked to take part in the blog tour for Wendy Ward's 'A Beginner's Guide to Sewing with Knitted Fabrics'. As part of that, I made her Kinder cardigan pattern, and liked the result so much I went on to make another. Having worn the living shizzle out of both AND knowing that they were able to worn over looser tops, it didn't take me long to work out what to do with the mustard french terry, once I'd salvaged what I could of it. 

After slicing up the failed Burdastyle cardigan, I realised I wouldn't have quite enough fabric, so I begged Girl Charlee for an additional metre, which they were swift to supply me with, the legends.  However, even with the extra fabric, I didn't have quite enough to make the mid-length option (as per my black ponte version). So my new mustard version ended up precisely half-way between the short and mid length pattern options. I even remembered to alter the neckband pieces as well! 

Let's talk more about this fabric. In short: it is AMAZING. It's soooo soft and has an amazing drape, perfect for a flow-y cardigan plus I bet it would work fabulously for a knit skater-style dress, if those are your bag. Because of its softness, I decided to opt for the cuff-less sleeve option of the pattern, and the whole this has worked perfectly. I LOVE wearing this cardigan so much. I knew that a mustard coloured cardigan would work well with the rest of my clothing selection because of how much I have worn my mustard Cabernet cardigan (and the mustard hand-me-down RTW cardigan I made the Cabernet to replace). However, I must admit that I have barely worn my mustard Cabernet now that I have this Kinder one. It fits over all my tops and dresses much more easily and feels so lovely to wear that I can't resist reaching for it first.

I've learnt the hard way to always reinforce the shoulder seams of knit tops. For this project, I added an extra cute little detail by overlocking some narrow rainbow grosgrain ribbon into the shoulder seams of. It makes me very happy when I see the rainbows as I'm popping it on. With the remains of both the original fail-digan and the extra metre that I was sent, I was able to squeeze out a pair of joggers and a T-shirt for Frankie. The joggers are currently covered in yogurt so I couldn't get a photo, but I used the same Ottobre magazine 'straight stripes' joggers pattern that I used for these pairs because they were such a success. For the T-shirt, I used the free Ringer tee pattern by Brindille & Twig, that I previously wrote about here. This time, I omitted the bottom band and added a little woven ribbon detail, in part to help distinguish the front easily when getting the squirmy little guy dressed. 

The navy version:

After creating such a successful cardigan, I had an eye out for other fabric that the Kinder pattern could work its magic on. I ended up with an end of roll length of this interesting navy and white knit (sadly no longer in stock) from Fabric Godmother whilst working at one of their open days earlier this year. I really loved it, and it certainly fit within my usual colour palette, however, with less than a metre of it, I just wasn't sure what to do with it. Then I remembered this image (see below) from my Pinterest boards of a cardigan/jacket-hybrid that I believe came from Anthropologie that used a fabric with a similar look. I didn't think a cardigan like this would use much fabric, so with the Kinder pattern in hand, I attempted a vague recreation of the Anthropologie garment. 

I opted for making my version 5cm longer than the short-length option on the pattern. The sleeves ended up a bit shorter than the 3/4 length I was aiming for because I was was working with very limited fabric. However, I think overall the proportions work ok, and there's definitely a passing resemblance!

I didn't use anything cute to reinforcement the shoulders in this version, but I did add a little nautical back neck hanging loop. It's something that I wished I had included in my mustard version to keep it from slipping off the hanger.

Despite being completely my colours and style, I decided to make this version for my amazing and inspiring friend Harriet, who lives in Barcelona. In our correspondence, I had offered to make her a garment as she reads my blog from time to time and is always very complimentary about my creations. She had mentioned that she liked my cardigan/jacket creations, and although I think she might have been referring to my La Trop Facile jacket, the Kinder has a similar kimono-y, fastening-free look so I hoped that she would appreciate this project. She's received it and says that she loves it, and it truly gives me more happiness to know that she wears it than it would if it lived in my wardrobe, particularly because I already have three Kinders and three navy cardigans already in there.