Sew House Seven Toaster 2, a review and pleasant surprise

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.

Sew House 7 Toaster sweater number 1: wangling minky and other adventures

Not long after this fabric arrived I allocated it to this pattern.  It's a rather small piece of minky and I loved the design, which is why I bought it from Blended Thread along with some other pieces. The fabric itself feels very soft and is very floppy, it's quite cozy.  And of course, it has nap. 

It's been a long time since I made this pattern (here.)  So long that I lost my pattern pieces, which is rare for me. I really loved the fit the first time around but I still found it oddly useless in my wardrobe and it didn't stay around.  

So, reprinting etc later. I was really committed to this fabric for this pattern despite knowing it would be a serious tetris game.  I didn't really know how the minky would sew up either. The new modified pattern has new, modified sizing, and I went with a size 2, as the bust is correct and I thought the waist measurement would be a bit irrelevant.  

It was a serious tetris game, and I lost - I decided to just use the rainbow selvedge edge on the hem, which a friend of mine has done on a different project recently.  I wasn't sure I like it as a design feature, but you know, live and learn. 

The real story here is that minky is horrible to sew.  It's like velvet but with higher pile.  Simply sewing two pieces together, they try to shear away from each other, as velvet does, but the real tragedy came when sewing the folded over pieces like the neckband, cuffs and hem.  The pile doesn't like being folded in half and so it would squirrel away from itself.  On the hem I had learned, and basted the hem together.  The cuffs were a pain.  This is a problem that continues post sewing: the neckband and hem don't want to be folded, so they kind of mush up and slide around.  

I ended up really not liking this fit for this fabric.  I debated cropping the top, as when it was shorter it hung more loosely and that was both more flattering and suited the fabric more, but because of the annoying shiftiness of the bands, I decided to give it to a friend along with a shipment of winter clothing, so hopefully she will like it as is!  Her hips are a touch narrower than mine too so overall it will hang more nicely on her.   

I have had mixed feelings about my Blended Threads fabrics - none of them have been quality I would buy again, and this is also the case here.  I didn't find the minky fun to work with and it's polyester feel makes me think it wouldn't be nice in most clothing other than maybe vests or jackets.  I have not seen much fading of the prints on the Blended thread fabrics, but the best of the lot was the bamboo spandex.

Sew House Seven Toaster sweater in double faced merino

This is one of the final projects that I made last winter before going off to Nepal.  It hasn't been worn much yet but it was an easy make and I really like it, so I expect it will eventually gets lots of wear.

The fabric is double faced merino from the outlet fabric shops in Auckland.  It's dark olive on the outside and a more subtle dusty aqua on the inside.  I went with version 1, and size S.  I loved the inside colour but I couldn't think of any nice way to use it as accents, as the olive is very clearly an exterior sort of fabric - it won't catch on anything, but it's also not as nice against the skin, whereas the texture of the aqua inner is more like usual merino.

A raglan sleeved sweatshirt is pretty simple as sews go.  The fit is good, and I'm glad I didn't bow to temptation to make an XS.  I wouldn't make any changes to this pattern for fit.