I’ve definitely waxed on and on that I worked in a costume shop during college.
One of the many advantages is the availability of excess fabric that qualifies as scraps. And that’s what both of these cardigans were made from, over a couple of weekends about 6 years ago.
They’re both an earthy green, because it’s one of my favorite colors to wear, and I guess I was able to get sizeable enough scraps of pretty much the same color!
I think the first one I made was what I call the “round” one, because it’s got rounded edges on the fronts. I knew what the general shapes should be for front, back, and sleeves. One weekend I went into the shop when I knew it wasn’t going to be busy and I just draped the fabrics on a dressform and cut the vaguely right shapes out. The front and back fabric has a nubbly texture, and isn’t very stretchy, while the sleeve fabric is, so I’m glad I made that choice.
The one thing I remember from that weekend is that I put it on and immediately found it super uncomfortable because it wasn’t reaching around my back all the way. So I cut straight up the middle of the back piece and added a rectangle of the sleeve fabric. And then when I tried it on, I didn’t love the volume of the addition around my waist, so I made a couple tucks!
To finish the neckline and armbands, I turned each over once and sewed it down. For the circular area of the front, I just serged it.
It has been a staple of my wardrobe for years. The downside is that I made the arms a touch too short, but I almost always shove my sleeves up anyway, so it works as long as I’m not in the middle of winter, I’m good.
The other one was based off of a blog post I found through Pinterest (and have since seriously lost track of) where it laid out the way to cut out this cute cardigan with exposed seams and a facing detail that was pulled back by buttons.
My fabric is more flimsy, and I was super new to interfacing, so I had no idea that the buttonholes would be super flimsy… but they are. Going in, I did know that I wanted full length sleeves… but more on that in a sec.
I made up the cardigan, taking care with sewing down seams (both exposed and not) with a zig zag stitch, and I used some pearly buttons at the shoulders and a very special button for the front.
This button was part of my very first purchase from Mood Fabrics. My mom and I had watched some Project Runway while I was in high school, so during a trip to NYC, I met with my parents and my mom and I dragged my dad to Mood for a quick look around. On a next to nothing student budget, there was a lot I could dream about buying, but I did purchase some lace and this button. I keep thinking I’ll scalp it from this cardigan someday, but I haven’t found another good thing to put it on!
Remember how I said that I wanted full length sleeves? I found out that I couldn’t, not with that fabric, so I found another fabric, that I think was a grey or a black, and it didn’t have stretch. As a newbie sewist, I was naive and thought it’d work out. I made what could be considered sleeve extensions. They were uncomfortable, and they were
A couple months later of not using the sweater, I decided to unpick the weird sleeve extensions and here we are!
Six years with these, and here’s to more!