When Life Sends You Snow Days...Make Sweaters

I finally eeked a sewing day out of all those snow days that we've had here.  What is the logical thing to make on a snow day?  A sweater of course!

After seeing this on Lucky Sew and Sew's Blog and loving the cardigans that she has made,  I bought the #110 Cool Cardigans Draped Front Cardigan from Pamela's Patterns.  I bought the pattern forever ago while visiting family in Pennsylvania and finally got around to making it.  

Pamela's Patterns

Since it was a snow day, I needed to use what I had. There is no driving in the snow around here!  Too many crazy drivers who think they know how to drive their little sports cars or huge SUVs in the snow. I bought some purple ribbed sweater knit about 20 years ago at an outdoor market when we lived in Spain.  It was cheeeaap!  So I bought a ton of it and it has been sitting in my stash ever since.  Perfect for a trial run of this pattern.

My 8th grade niece was my photographer of the day

The pattern directions were great - although it was pretty self-explanatory and was easily completed in an afternoon from cutting to finished. 

I made a size medium and used the full bust front (The directions say that the most common fitting directions are built into Pamela's patterns.  I think that mostly means that they run big).  

I was overall happy with the sweater.  I've already worn it a couple of times. 


For next time I would:

• raise up the shoulder a bit.  I thought it was ok, but the seam is falling off my shoulder more than I would like.  
• shorten it a couple inches
• Raise up the under arm a bit to give it a more fitted look.  

For a quick-sew, wearable muslin, I declared it a success and I got to use my new coverstitch machine to finish all the edges. I even figured out how to turn a neat corner with the coverstitch.  

Now...Does anyone have any hints about how to neatly end with the coverstitch?  So far, I have just been holding the fabric in place once I get to the starting point so that I get a few stitches in place, but it doesn't make for the neatest finish.  All hints welcome!

The last little bit of summer sewing.

I always have so many projects lined up that I could never in a million years finish them...At least as long as I have this full time job gig that keeps interfering with my hobby life!  :-)

I bought a bunch of summer-y fabrics this summer and was determined to actually sew them up in the same season I bought them.  The first one was the sweet white burnout knit that got made into the little sleeveless sweater I blogged about here.  I have gotten so much wear out of it that it is almost worn out already!

I also bought some stretch denim in a cool graphic floral print.  I knew right away this would be a short pencil skirt for summer. And a couple of weeks ago...just in time to still officially be summer...I completed it!

My late season zinnias match my new pink cardi!  :-)

I was going to use a straight skirt pattern from my stash, but while visiting my husband's family in King of Prussia, I dashed into a local fabric store - Obviously! - and saw Pamela of Pamela's Perfect Patterns.  I had seen her patterns sewn up while visiting the blog over at Lucky Sew and Sew.  So I grabbed up the Magic Pencil Skirt pattern and some of her Fantastic Elastic and gave it a try.  

The first thing I noticed is that the pattern measurements are very generous. Pamela has you measure your waist, hips and low hips and tells you to choose the largest measurement because you will take in the rest.  My largest measurement fell at the low side of the medium pattern. Medium?  Yes!!!

Working the model poses - or something...

I am such an "apple" that I ended up having to take it in quite a bit through the hips and thighs and it was still a bit more roomy than I really wanted for a pencil skirt.  Even the waist actually ended up being a bit big.  I also shortened it a few inches for a summer skirt look.

I think that next time I will actually try a small (Worth buying the pattern just to say that I am going to make a small next time!) and grade up to a larger waist size.  I think that I will get a better over all fit for my shape and will keep the pegged look better.  It fit well enough to wear it to work the next day and was certainly comfortable.

Overall it was a super easy pattern to make and I learned a lot about fitting me - which is my big goal in sewing right now.  I am definitely going to try another one!  I was happy to get two of my summer sewing projects done.  I still have several fabrics to sew up, but I think that I can use those for some cross-seasonal garments.  Maybe this weekend?  Is it wrong to hope for rain so that I don't feel guilty about spending the weekend in the basement sewing room???

Anyone else out there use Pamela's patterns?  What do you think?