Ahoy!

When Papercut Patterns released their latest collection, the Bowline Sweater immediately jumped out at me. I love a good sweatshirt, and the striped sample they had sewed up just made me happy. My Aunt gave me a voucher for The Fabric Store for my birthday, so I made good use of it and picked up the pattern and some navy merino fleece backed sweatshirting. I will admit that I really wanted stripes, but I managed to reign myself in and go for a solid colour. My wardrobe is bordering on too many stripes (if there is such a thing), I need some plain things to match them with!

  

Firstly, the fabric. It is so lovely! Its a lighter weight than the sweatshirting I used last winter for my maroon Linden Sweatshirt, but is still lovely and soft and fluffy. It was really easy to work with, not too thick for my overlocker to munch through the several layers at the point where the neckband, shoulder seam and pleat meet. The brushed inner face makes it so nice to wear, and its warm and breathable and just everythingthing you’d expect from merino. (They don’t have this exact fabric on their online store, but they do have it in black, if you’re interested…)

   
 
Sewing this up was fun! The front pattern piece looks like one of those mystery patterns you get in Drape Drape or other oragami-esque Japanese patterns, but it all sewed together easily enough. The instructions are really clear and easy to follow, as I’ve come to expect from Papercut. I did take an inch off the bottom before I sewed the hem band on, and an inch off the end of the sleeves and off the cuffs (2″ off total). I always think I have proportionally long arms, until I make Papercut patterns! I like the length of the sleeves now, just long enough to tuck my fingers into, but not long enough to look sloppy. 

  
Possibly could have done with some sort of sway back type adjustment, but its a sweatshirt so I can’t get too hung up over it! I’ve worn it several times since it was finished, its a nice weight to throw on for my walk to the train station in the morning. I like wearing it with my jeans or with my casual skirts (like this Moss Mini) equally.

  
I had a terrible time taking photos today, the auto focus on my camera just wasn’t playing nice. I had a couple of pictures turn out like the one above, and the rest seem to be in slightly soft focus. I had hoped to take these photos down by the waterfront or somewhere suitably nautical, but our good weather finally seems to have given way to some much needed rain, so my trusty teal wall will just have to do! I also seem to have cut the top of my head off in all but one of these photos, just an all round bad day for photography.
 
There might be something of a hiatus here over the next month, I have some school work do do and some sewing for others that has been sorely neglected! I also desperately need to tidy my sewing space before anything will happen in there, its like a mini tornado has rampaged through it…