Friday Night Out Cardigan

I haven’t spent too much time lately sewing for myself. It’s been all about the kids. But my hubby and I had a night out that we’ve been planning for months and I wanted something new to wear.

I’ve had this piece of grey/silver/black sweater knit for more than a year (another awesome remnant bin find at SR Harris) and I had been thinking I wanted it to become a long cascading cardigan, and I had two patterns to choose from.

McCalls 6408 or

McCalls 6084

After looking over reviews on both patterns, I chose the second, M6084. Mostly because there were fewer pieces so it would sew up faster. I was, after all, just deciding to do this the day before our night out. =)

And it did sew up quickly, I constructed it mostly on my serger, with the exception of the shoulder dart. I sewed the sleeves in flat and it was finished in about 20 minutes. And it was enormous!! I cut out the XS and I was swimming in it.

The biggest problem was the shoulder fit. Or lack of fit. The shoulder seam fell off the edge of my shoulders by a good inch (it actually looks better in this picture than it did in real life). And the sleeve had an outrageous amount of ease.

So I cut off the sleeves, and scooped out an inch of the armscye from the shoulder seam to about halfway to the underarm seam, tapering to nothing. Then I sewed the sleeves back on (this time not in the flat as the underarm and side seams were already finished) and it was MUCH better!

This is after the first shoulder/sleeve was corrected, comparing it to the non-corrected side. See how much shorter I needed to make that shoulder seam. And I have broad shoulders! (and this was an XS!!)

Then, the second fit issue was just a matter of it was too big all around. I ended up taking it it 1 inch (so 4 inches total) at the side seams and I narrowed the sleeves by two inches each. Ah, much better again. Looking back at the pattern envelope, I realize it was intended to be loosely fitting, but it didn’t translate well in real life. It still is loosely fitting, just in better proportions for me.

Now the only downside: the sleeves came out too short! I added 1” in length when cutting, but I think the sleeves were on the short side to begin with (should have measured!!) and shortened even more after the shoulder correction. So I ended up wearing it pulled up to a 3/4” length for the evening. I think I’m going to go back and add cuffs to make them truly long sleeves.

This is how I wore it out last night. It was very comfortable and warm! I left the hem unfinished for now, since it’s a knit and it doesn’t ravel. I do want to finish it with a rolled hem in my serger, but I didn’t have the right shade grey/silver of thread on hand.

Over all, I’m really happy with it! Now that I know what changes to make, I do already have another sweater knit that I will use for this pattern.

Pattern Review can be found here.

S2193 and Instruction Modifications

I've been busy churning out dresses for my girls lately and was excited to try out Simplicity 2193, which I picked up during the first pattern sale after it's release.



I had to take a moment and get past the envelope to see appreciate this pattern. Reminds me of what Mena at The Sew Weekly had to say this week about the subject in the later half of this post. Cracked me up! I'm not sure how they get away with calling those things "sleeves" (referring to the red dress on the right hand model) but anyways.... I saw past this to the line drawing and the design of the dress. I loved it because it reminding me of a RTW dress that I had purchased at Target last summer for my girls that I LOVED.

I really was pairing this pattern with some fabulous fabric that I picked up at JoAnns a few months ago, but I wanted to work out some kinks in the pattern first. So here are my "muslins".

My first adjustment was to widen the skirt portion. I could tell, both by the envelope but especially by the pattern piece that this was not going to be a very flowy dress. I wanted more width at the hem so that it would flow better, so I added 1" at both CF and CB, for a total of 4" more width. I did not change the width of the yoke, so the extra 4" would just be gathered into the same size yoke.

Then I went ahead and began construction, following the pattern instructions like any good home sewist should.... except I'm not. I do not follow pattern instructions, because most of the time, they are bad. Very bad.

This was no exception. Per the instructions, you construct the yoke front and backs, attach the sleeves or ruffles, sew the yoke lining at the neck line, attach the skirt portion and the finish the armscye with bias tape. I foolishly did just so, and while the dress is cute and perfectly wearable (especially for a two-year-old), the bias finishing of the armscye almost ruined the whole dress. After you figure in the yoke, interfacing, lining, ruffle and double fold bias tape, you've got eight layers of material in a 3/8" strip. It is so stiff, it no longer has any drape at all, it sticks out and makes the ruffle stick up and the skirt portion to roll out under the arm. UHG!! I had finished the first side and then realized the results were not going to be good, but could not bring myself to rip it out and do something different. So I plowed ahead and ruined the second side as well.

So for dress number two, I constructed the yoke differently. Here is my recommended construction method to anyone interested in this pattern.

As an aside, after sewing the first dress I thought the fit in the yoke was just a tad bit wide, so I reduced the yoke at CF and CB by 1/4" and I also added some length to the skirt, the first dress was just a little shorted than I prefer.

1. Sew interfaced yoke front and backs at shoulder seams. Repeat for lining pieces.


2. Hem and gather ruffles and attach to yoke, right sides together.


3. Layer yoke and yoke lining, right sides together and stitch together at neck line AND armscyes. Trim SA, clip curves, corners, etc.




4. Turn yoke right side out, press. See? Isn't this nice?


You can barely tell the difference between the right and wrong sides. Not only did this method eliminate the bias tape and extra bulk, but also there is no need for top stitching, which was another thing I did not like on the first version of this dress.

After constructing the yoke, I did use a small strip of bias tape to finish the armscyes on the skirt portion of the dress.



Then I gathered between notches, attached the yoke to the skirt and finished by sewing on the buttons. Here is the first attempt (on the left) and the improved second (on the right).







When I go to cut my "real" fabric, I am going to be adding a lining to the skirt, so that will eliminate all bias tape from my construction process.

Overall, I think it's a cute pattern, needing a few minor adjustments and a different construction method. I'm excited to work on this one again.