My mom’s coat is almost done—just needs buttons and the hem finished—so I took some time to play around. I had pre-washed this stripey end of heavy French Terry back before Christmas, thinking of a Paprika Patterns Jasper sweater-dress. But time was at a premium and then I realized that stripes plus princess seams could, um, be a little bit of a headache. Plus I was not at all sure I’d have enough fabric.
Fast forward to that post-coat high and I really just wanted a quick project. I decided to attempt a shape not too different from my last sweater dress, based off my knit sloper—kind of an exaggerated pear shape that I’m finding fun at the moment. And if I had enough fabric left over, I could morph a Jasper hood onto it.
I took my knit sloper, added a bit of ease since the fabric is not overly stretchy, and traced out a fantastical side seam with hip bubble right onto my fabric.
Spoiler alert: I had enough fabric. Barely. This knit was tube knitted, which is great for optimizing your cutting layout, but the grain of the knit is at a distinct angle to the stripes, which made stripe matching an iffy and uncertain prospect. Frankly I was kinda expecting the sleeves to corkscrew around on my arms. Which they don’t seem to be doing, so I’ll call that a win.
Anyway. What I’m basically doing is excusing my lackadaisical attempt to get my stripes to line up. Sorry not sorry?
I also didn’t do any fun stripe-playing, partly out of concern for stretch issues but mainly from lack of fabric. It would’ve been pretty cool to cut the hood frame with the stripes running vertical, though. Oh well.
I forgot the pockets when I first sewed up the body, so I had to go in and retrofit them in, but it was worth it because a) pockets, and b) they kinda support the weird hip shape. There’s a strip of fusi-knit where each pocket piece is sewn on.
So, um, basically this is another in my attempt to create an entire wardrobe of sweater-weight cozies. Maybe this urge will fade… maybe by May?
At least this one isn’t grey.
Tanit-Isis Sews 