The toaster sweaters went through a revamp a few years ago, and somehow I have lost the instructions for this version. I looked everywhere. No instructions. I used the size chart and SA from Toaster Sweater 1, and made size 2. I was aided by 2 blogs, one of which showed the hem, and a tutorial by Sew House 7 with advice on keeping the neck down using wonder tape or hem tape.
The fabric is a very not stretchy italian nubbly stuff. This pattern took very little of it which was too bad, because I was trying to use it up and give the top to a friend. I came at this in a true spirit of entertained curiosity, and I was blown away by how fun it was to make, and how cool the results are. I used iron on hem tape for the neck - I sandwiched it between the layers, positioned everything, and ironed it down, and now the neck is stuck in place! Nothing flappy! I have no idea if I did the hem properly but I am happy enough with the way things look. I think I overlocked everything, sewed the corner mitres, then flipped it and topstitched with the coverstitch machine (which was a bit crazy at the corners). I tried different clever things at the top of the split, but ended up just stitching across to strengthen that spot. The fabric doesn't show stitch lines so that was an advantage.
The fit of this is great on me. I'm short, it is pretty short, the arms are tight, but my friend is smaller than me. I will decrease the SA on the arms for myself and use some more stretchy fabric, but I'm definitely making myself one of these.
Since the pattern pieces were on the floor, I did that sooner rather than later. Unfortunately I had to use my last piece of the nice cashmere Mind the Maker fabric for my boyfriend's snowboarding midlayer, and I absolutely could not tetris two tops onto the fabric I had. So spots it is:
This is normal weight sweatshirting. It's not quite as cozy as I thought, I went down to about 3/8 or sometimes 1/4" SA since I was overlocking anyway, and so it drapes straight down the front and lets a draft up. Also, I used the double iron tape again, but I didn't get it at the absolute bottom of the neck band bit, and so my neck band is still trying to flip a bit.
Thus I could comment - this pattern is really great for not-very-stretchy knits. I think the neck is suited to that type of fabric. For a stretchy knit it's still ok but I do really hate any kind of facing that flips around and I'm worried this one might irritate me from the small bit of flipping it's doing. Other people have commented on how the pull from the shoulders across the front of the neck creates a kind of wrinkle, which looks good in drapey fabric, but looks a bit funny in more structured ones. I have noticed that more here than in the blue top. The blue fabric had more body so it might have been less obvious. This is cute but I do struggle with sweatshirts so it might end up going to a friend, we shall see! It will be kind of funny if I cave in and use the rest of the blue fabric to make myself another one like the original...but it might happen.
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