I am so excited to be involved in the Sew Fab Bundle Sale from 5th – 15th April, where you can get lots of exclusive pdf patterns from indie designers at bargain prices. We are including our Sophia Faux Wrap Dress which I am very excited about as it’s super flattering and quick to make.
I wanted to try one of the patterns and as I’m going on holiday this week so I thought I would give the Clara Wrap a go by Angelyn Bennett of Greenstyle Creations. Our own contribution is the Sophia Wrap Dress, so it made sense to try this one.
I used a beautifully soft four way stretch knit in petrol. It was awesome and the cardigan is absolutely smashing. I am a stickler for sleeves and these fit very well.
Because it was so soft, I reduced the binding length for the neckline by 3 cm to make sure it wouldn’t be loose. I also changed the binding to my Frocks & Frolics technique, which I find really simple and fast.
I ironed the binding lengthways in half, sewed it to the right side of the neckline, serged and then turned it over to the front. I could have just left it serged but I did want to try this technique and it also kept to the look intended by the designer.
The cardigan was already beautiful! Next I attached the ties to the fronts. I serged the edge where the front was attached to the ties. Then created a rolled hem from there.
That worked fine but with the ties, I really learnt my lesson! My knit was way too fine to cut the ties across the fabric in the direction of the stretch! Look what happened to my beautiful ties after a few hours of wearing!
Argghhhhh!!!! So what to do right? I am not sure even cutting them along the selvedge, across the grain, would have worked much better either. For flimsy fabrics I would definitely double up the ties and just turn them inside out. That way they will have more structure and won’t stretch like mine did. Adding a facing to the back will make this perfect in the flimsiest of fabrics. I am sure to make this cardigan again in a more stable knit, and use the suggested one layer.
The hem of the sleeve I handstitched to avoid nasty puckered looking topstitching. This is a really easy technique which I used in my kiddo knit cardigan, the video for it is free, so you can check it out Here.
Its a very easy cross stitch, in Germany we call it a ‘witches stitch’. It retains the hem stretch and you can’t see a thing!
And that is it. A great pattern, I will use over and over (I will double up my ties next time). Hope you enjoy this pattern too, it is now available at sewfabpatterns.com.
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