Pattern: Eleanor Cardigan, c/o Indiesew
Version: mid-thigh length with extra long sleeves
Fabric: ribbed knit from Indiesew (sorry, sold out!)
Boots: Nine West
Top: JCrew
Pants: Macy’s
Perhaps not the most original garment I’ve made (*cough* Allie’s version *cough*), but I absolutely love my new Eleanor Cardigan. For those of you who subscribe to my newsletter, I committed a few weeks ago that I would be strict about not sewing any other projects until I got a major chunk of my wedding dress completed. Well, since I’m in a “holding pattern” until next weekend when I can cut out my real dress at my parent’s house, I figured whipping up a little instant-gratification project wouldn’t hurt.
I actually attempted to make this pattern back in September for Selfish Sewing Week, but ended up chucking the project since the grey french terry I used made it look like a bathrobe. Not a good look, and a sad waste of nice fabric! It was also too big for my liking; I cut out a small when I made the first version but didn’t like how baggy the fit was or the fact that the sleeve seam was way off my shoulders. Fast-forward to October and Allie’s launch of a new fabric collection – I saw this fabric in action during one of her Periscope broadcasts and knew I had to have it.
The fabric is pretty nifty – it’s a rib knit that’s white on one side, black on the other. However, the print of the pattern doesn’t follow stretch of the fabric, the ribs run horizontally across the body. I had to cut the sleeves so the ribs ran vertically, increasing the degree of stretch like a normal knit fabric, and it changed the orientation of the print on the sleeves. Not a big deal, but it would have made the sleeves much tighter if the fabric was cut like the rest of the cardigan. I also had to be a little creative with cutting out the long neckbands, and utilized a section of the print repeat to create a zig-zag look down the front.
The Eleanor Cardigan is a super-fast make and you really don’t even need the directions to make it. I found Allie’s tutorial on serging bulky knit fabrics really helpful – I had wavy seams on some of my knit garments in the past and it didn’t really bother me, but now I know how to fix that on my serger and prevent it from happening in the future. Everything lays so nice and flat and neat, it feels very RTW!
