My Week in Sewing – Week 1

I am happy to say I met my sewing goal this week! The plan was to make both of these fabrics up into cowl neck sweaters with the extra deep cuffs and bottom bands of my magenta sweater above. I should mention I actually have two magenta sweaters, exactly the same. It’s a good thing I don’t go out much because I was wearing a magenta sweater nearly every day and people would have started wondering if I had stopped showering.

The Burgundy Cowl

I made up the burgundy first. I worried that the terry look of the fabric would make it seem like I was wearing a towel or pajama top, but I think I worried for nothing! It was cold here when I finished it so it went straight from the machine to my body.

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This is such a simple hack to make and a quick sew. I started from my pattern for the Tabitha Top. The Tabitha top is meant to have different options added to the bottom so the main body pieces are already somewhat cropped but you could shorten it more if you prefer a more cropped sweater.  I used the piece for the back of the split hem view for my width and increased the height to 12″ for my 6″ bottom band. Front and back at the hip are the same width, so I just cut two.

For the cuffed sleeve all I did was trace out a long sleeve and whap 6″ from the length. From there, I traced the cut-off part so it could be doubled into a cuff which makes an hour-glass sort of shape. The cowl and neckline I traced out from the Laundry Day Tee for this version. In the magenta version, I kept the Tabitha neckline but raised the bottom of the front by about 2 inches. Then I measured the new neckline and made a collar piece just an inch shorter than the neckline and 8 inches tall for my 4″ tall mock neck.

The Mossy Green Cowl

I don’t know if you can see it in the photo, but this fabric has a ridiculously subtle stripe in it. My attempts to lay out my pattern for cutting Saturday morning thwarted by the direct sunlight coming in the patio door, I had to leave it until evening to cut it out. In all the fretting over those barely visible stripes, I managed to cut the body and sleeves with the nap running the wrong way. I don’t care, it’s warm and I’m wearing it.

Assembly is pretty simple so once you have the pattern sorted out, you can sew this up in an hour or less depending on whether you top stitch or not. Top stitching does give it a more finished look, but it’s also just fine without. The sleeve cuffs are pretty fiddly to top stitch, but it’s doable.

So that’s my week 1 sewing goals met. Let’s see how I do next week, but in the meantime I’m amazed to own 4 new this year sweaters that I love wearing and feel good in. Usually I’m lucky to own two at a time because a) I’m a cheap skate and b) I hate shopping for clothing that much.  How did you make out with the short week last week?