This was a freebie pattern that came when I ordered my Lorie jacket. It was well timed, because I had been eyeing Stylearc zip-front knit jackets for awhile.
The fabric is merino sweatshirt fabric - I haven't seen anything like it very often. It's like cotton sweatshirting with the fleecy inside and flat outside, except it's merino! I got it at The Fabric Store, which I visited in LA. It was a labor of love because I was in the States to deal with the Black Hole of my luggage and this was bulky stuff to lug back to Europe. So I was totally fantasising all the way home about this jacket.
It came together slowly partly because I really wanted to do a good job, but also because I was dogged by lack of equipment. It took awhile to get the main zip and bindings, and I hadn't brought a fabric swatch with me. Then I had to get the pocket zips...then I ran out of thread...the instructions were crap, as expected, but unexpected too: the instructions refer you to an "in-seam zipper tutorial" which I could not find on the Stylearc website. I browsed various other sites but couldn't get a straightforward demonstration of putting an inseam zipper into a knit pocket. I figured it out but I didn't put any interfacing in, which I later regretted.
My friend Joana did the photoshoot in Bern (Urban chic?) It gives a better sense of the colour, I think, as my camera was doing funny things at home that day.
I got a size 8 as before in Stylearc. I measured the back length and the shoulder breadth (it's about 14.5") and shortened the sweatshirt by about 2", trying to do it at the same height on the princess seamed side pieces. The breadth seemed the same as a sweatshirt I have, so I didn't widen it. Because I hadn't brought a swatch with me, I got heather grey bindings. I was working on the blue Undercover Sweatshirt at the same time and suddenly decided this would look nicer with self bindings, so I used the Undercover Hood sleeve binding (but the Stylearc pattern's bindings for the bottom and neck.) I have only recently realised how much stretchier ribbing is, and that might have been nice to have, but I do like everything being the same colour.
Final thoughts:
-zips in the pockets are not beneficial and just weigh the jacket down. This is partly because I have all riri zips (it's hard to find anything else!) and they are heavy metal. Plastic zips might be less bothersome.
-topstitching makes everything look much more professional and it holds the seams down on the inside.
-why is there a facing? I didn't use it.
-...but if you don't use a facing, how do you finish the inside zipper edge neatly? (I used two layers of topstitching and zigzagged.)
Despite shortening this sweatshirt, and it does fit fine, and I love it about 92% as much as I hoped, it is still very shapeless. I know two projects is early to make global judgments, but so far Stylearc seems to be Queen of Shapeless. I am about to order three more Stylearc patterns...we shall see how they go.
The fabric is merino sweatshirt fabric - I haven't seen anything like it very often. It's like cotton sweatshirting with the fleecy inside and flat outside, except it's merino! I got it at The Fabric Store, which I visited in LA. It was a labor of love because I was in the States to deal with the Black Hole of my luggage and this was bulky stuff to lug back to Europe. So I was totally fantasising all the way home about this jacket.
It came together slowly partly because I really wanted to do a good job, but also because I was dogged by lack of equipment. It took awhile to get the main zip and bindings, and I hadn't brought a fabric swatch with me. Then I had to get the pocket zips...then I ran out of thread...the instructions were crap, as expected, but unexpected too: the instructions refer you to an "in-seam zipper tutorial" which I could not find on the Stylearc website. I browsed various other sites but couldn't get a straightforward demonstration of putting an inseam zipper into a knit pocket. I figured it out but I didn't put any interfacing in, which I later regretted.
My friend Joana did the photoshoot in Bern (Urban chic?) It gives a better sense of the colour, I think, as my camera was doing funny things at home that day.
I got a size 8 as before in Stylearc. I measured the back length and the shoulder breadth (it's about 14.5") and shortened the sweatshirt by about 2", trying to do it at the same height on the princess seamed side pieces. The breadth seemed the same as a sweatshirt I have, so I didn't widen it. Because I hadn't brought a swatch with me, I got heather grey bindings. I was working on the blue Undercover Sweatshirt at the same time and suddenly decided this would look nicer with self bindings, so I used the Undercover Hood sleeve binding (but the Stylearc pattern's bindings for the bottom and neck.) I have only recently realised how much stretchier ribbing is, and that might have been nice to have, but I do like everything being the same colour.
Final thoughts:
-zips in the pockets are not beneficial and just weigh the jacket down. This is partly because I have all riri zips (it's hard to find anything else!) and they are heavy metal. Plastic zips might be less bothersome.
-topstitching makes everything look much more professional and it holds the seams down on the inside.
-why is there a facing? I didn't use it.
-...but if you don't use a facing, how do you finish the inside zipper edge neatly? (I used two layers of topstitching and zigzagged.)
Despite shortening this sweatshirt, and it does fit fine, and I love it about 92% as much as I hoped, it is still very shapeless. I know two projects is early to make global judgments, but so far Stylearc seems to be Queen of Shapeless. I am about to order three more Stylearc patterns...we shall see how they go.
No comments:
Post a Comment