As per my new usual, I made two of these.
The first fabric is a ponte. It's my first time working with ponte. I loved the idea of it and was really excited when I ordered it. (From Drygoods Design, who have so many amazing fabrics!) A problem with buying all my fabric online - I don't get to touch it, and I have to acquire a lot of fabric in order to even start matching fabric to patterns. I am trying not to hoard and it is frustrating to see the pile of fabric grow! (As always, I'll be moving soon enough.)
So it ends up I do not like ponte. It feels like cheap old polyester.
I made the XS and the long version of this cardi, best to make all my friends happy. I didn't make any changes. Up to the final step - attaching the front yoke, I did the entire thing on my overlocker without even ironing.
This is partly because I hate the Singer Fashion Mate with a passion. My entire review of this particular sewing machine is: don't get one. If you have one and like it, you have founts of patience beyond mine. Sewing with it is a trial. The feed dogs are lazy. Birds nests form from perfectly wound bobbins. Don't even consider buttonholes - the alignment is off and it will make your buttonhole in the wrong place, and that's if it's willing to make it.
Back to the pattern: you are told to sew the bottom edge of the front yoke, but then to fold over the yoke SA to the inside to get a clean finish. That means the inevitable terrible corner at the bottom front is present - multiple layers that won't sew together neatly. I recommend only sewing the front corner and leaving a very large SA at that bottom edge, in order to mitre or tuck in when you sew the front down.
Otherwise everything done smoothly. I topstitched the yoke down which doesn't look very good. Next time I'd probably baste the SA, iron it prior to attaching that front yoke, and then stitch in the ditch.
I found this a bit too long for my taste, and of course I continued to hate the fabric. I think in the right fabric the length would drape nicely but I was excited to move onto the short version.
As usual for Papercut, the arms are quite loose. Otherwise I was happy with the fit. I gave it to my climbing partner and she loves it.
Version 2 is the short version, in a heavy wool fabric with a kind of irregular "plaid" to it. It does stretch a bit but feels more like mechanical stretch. I didn't size down because I knew this bulky fabric would make everything fit more snugly. I considered changing the hem to a ribbing, but the sleeves are bulky enough not to need different cuffs, and overall I wasn't sure I cared enough to go hunting for such specific findings. I discovered on the short version that the pockets are basically in line with the armpits. That's just a fact based on the pattern pieces. Also, the fronts lie far open on me. I expected to love this short version, but even careful attention didn't help me to get the trifecta of the hem band, front band and body to match up - the front band was way too short to have a seam allowance below the level of the hem band. It took me ages to finish it as I just lost enthusiasm when it came to fixing these small final matters and applying the front collar, and it sat in a pile underneath my ironing board for over a month. I had been really excited about this, but completely forgot about that.
I finally finished it shortly before leaving (deja vu! Leaving again!) and honestly it's fine. I like it. But I'm moving, so I'm sending it to a friend. This was quite a lesson to me. Sometimes an item really does need time out to be a UFO, and you need that time to dissociate your hopes from the start of the project and the end result. But the end result is often still lovable! I was a bit sad to give this away in the end though my friend will hopefully get loads of wear out of it.
In order to fix it, I overlocked the hem band to the body at the level to allow the front facing to still be longer and overlap it a bit, so I could finish it. In this fabric it's hard to see any messes I made and overlocking is good for keeping things neat even when they seemed hopeless. My "topstitching" of the front facing band is laughable. Again, I think the whole jacket itself makes that an invisible issue.
This pattern hangs open a LOT in the front. There is enough fabric to close the front, but the drape and the hang are further out. I would add a button of some kind if I were to make this again. In the heavier fabric I think the short version is good and the size is great too - it's loose enough not to need different bands.
The first fabric is a ponte. It's my first time working with ponte. I loved the idea of it and was really excited when I ordered it. (From Drygoods Design, who have so many amazing fabrics!) A problem with buying all my fabric online - I don't get to touch it, and I have to acquire a lot of fabric in order to even start matching fabric to patterns. I am trying not to hoard and it is frustrating to see the pile of fabric grow! (As always, I'll be moving soon enough.)
So it ends up I do not like ponte. It feels like cheap old polyester.
I made the XS and the long version of this cardi, best to make all my friends happy. I didn't make any changes. Up to the final step - attaching the front yoke, I did the entire thing on my overlocker without even ironing.
This is partly because I hate the Singer Fashion Mate with a passion. My entire review of this particular sewing machine is: don't get one. If you have one and like it, you have founts of patience beyond mine. Sewing with it is a trial. The feed dogs are lazy. Birds nests form from perfectly wound bobbins. Don't even consider buttonholes - the alignment is off and it will make your buttonhole in the wrong place, and that's if it's willing to make it.
Back to the pattern: you are told to sew the bottom edge of the front yoke, but then to fold over the yoke SA to the inside to get a clean finish. That means the inevitable terrible corner at the bottom front is present - multiple layers that won't sew together neatly. I recommend only sewing the front corner and leaving a very large SA at that bottom edge, in order to mitre or tuck in when you sew the front down.
Otherwise everything done smoothly. I topstitched the yoke down which doesn't look very good. Next time I'd probably baste the SA, iron it prior to attaching that front yoke, and then stitch in the ditch.
I found this a bit too long for my taste, and of course I continued to hate the fabric. I think in the right fabric the length would drape nicely but I was excited to move onto the short version.
As usual for Papercut, the arms are quite loose. Otherwise I was happy with the fit. I gave it to my climbing partner and she loves it.
Version 2 is the short version, in a heavy wool fabric with a kind of irregular "plaid" to it. It does stretch a bit but feels more like mechanical stretch. I didn't size down because I knew this bulky fabric would make everything fit more snugly. I considered changing the hem to a ribbing, but the sleeves are bulky enough not to need different cuffs, and overall I wasn't sure I cared enough to go hunting for such specific findings. I discovered on the short version that the pockets are basically in line with the armpits. That's just a fact based on the pattern pieces. Also, the fronts lie far open on me. I expected to love this short version, but even careful attention didn't help me to get the trifecta of the hem band, front band and body to match up - the front band was way too short to have a seam allowance below the level of the hem band. It took me ages to finish it as I just lost enthusiasm when it came to fixing these small final matters and applying the front collar, and it sat in a pile underneath my ironing board for over a month. I had been really excited about this, but completely forgot about that.
I finally finished it shortly before leaving (deja vu! Leaving again!) and honestly it's fine. I like it. But I'm moving, so I'm sending it to a friend. This was quite a lesson to me. Sometimes an item really does need time out to be a UFO, and you need that time to dissociate your hopes from the start of the project and the end result. But the end result is often still lovable! I was a bit sad to give this away in the end though my friend will hopefully get loads of wear out of it.
 |
| Channelling my inner grumpy old man today... |
In order to fix it, I overlocked the hem band to the body at the level to allow the front facing to still be longer and overlap it a bit, so I could finish it. In this fabric it's hard to see any messes I made and overlocking is good for keeping things neat even when they seemed hopeless. My "topstitching" of the front facing band is laughable. Again, I think the whole jacket itself makes that an invisible issue.
This pattern hangs open a LOT in the front. There is enough fabric to close the front, but the drape and the hang are further out. I would add a button of some kind if I were to make this again. In the heavier fabric I think the short version is good and the size is great too - it's loose enough not to need different bands.