Searching for a great sweatshirt…

I am on a sewing roll at the moment. None of these things that I am making are on the list of makes for my wedding – must get onto that…

In the meantime if I’m sewing, I need to photo and blog. Did I mention its winter? Aah well, see the things I put myself through. Today wasn’t too bad, but I had a lazy start so by the time I got out of the house to get some photos, rain was on the way and it was COLD! How cold? This cold…

So while todays post may not include the most exciting photos, they were gathered in an atmosphere of dire threat of hypothermia, so that adds excitement value surely?

And todays post is on my first attempt at a Linden sweatshirt from Grainline studios. This is my second Grainline pattern with my Moss Mini sadly in the mending basket as its waay too big – not that I know what I’ll do with it, but nonetheless! When this pattern came out it didn’t grab my attention. It was just a sweatshirt and that’s not really interesting is it? But I’ve got a few pieces of knit fabric that would work for sweatshirts so I started looking for patterns. Initially the Linden still didn’t call me, as it had a high-ish neck on it, and I like mine slightly lower (the neck band for this seems tiny when cut it out). But as more bloggers made this up I figured I could maybe lower the neckline myself. Not listening to myself, and arguing that with all the patterns I already own I surely could cobble up something, in the end I used a BurdaStyle pattern for the lovely red knit I had. The less said about that make the better I say. After taking in approx 10 inches from each side and playing surgeon on the neckline I ended up with something wearable – but the only pic I have of it on is this one from Me-Made-May. Weirdly enough wearing the same jeans as today!

Anyway I was still on the hunt for a good sweatshirt pattern, Linden was popular so I grabbed the PDF and gave it a go. And am really glad I did. The hardest part was choosing a size to cut out – I knew I didn’t want too much ease, and there’s about 6″ ease in this one in the bust, but that goes down to 2″ at the hips. I’m smaller in the bust and hips, but with only 4″ between waist and hips on a good day my measurements are usually 2-4 sizes apart. In the end I went with a straight size 10, and it was a pretty good fit.

My fabric is one I got from a fabric sale the other week, meant to trial Seamworks Astoria but I’ve already made two of those and this fabric now called for something else! Its a mottle green and black and I think it has a bit of cotton in it. It was easy to sew, with the only issue being that the edges curled, but otherwise was a pleasure.

Even better that sewing the fabric was sewing the pattern – this is really well drafted, all the notches matched, and it came together really easily as quickly (only 45 mins to sew it all together). However I can’t comment on the instructions as I didn’t read ’em at all! What a rebel 🙂 I suspect if I’d read the instructions it would have said some about not stretching the neck band too much, but I still haven’t read them so I’m not sure. Some of the other Linden’s I’ve seen blogged def show a much smaller neckline than mine. But actually I’m delighted with how the neckline on this worked out, it’s just right for me.

So to end, some pics of this make, on a windy, cold day. Hope those of you in winter climates are coping ok, and those of you in summer climates aren’t too hot!

See you soon