Following on from this post, Skye has successfully completed her 'trio of tees'. Here's the final one, as promised at the end of the first blog entry!

For my next White Tree Fabrics Project, I chose this incredible warm jersey in grey. I intended to make the long sleeved top from the V8879 pattern, but after making the blue version, I knew that this fabric needed something different. 

Enter the FREE Hemlock Tee from Grainline. This pattern has been sat in my downloads folder for far too long, and I knew its time had come. 
This pattern is amazing - I can't believe it's free! Jen clearly knows her stuff, and the hundreds of versions of the top you can find online by other sewers is testament to that. I can't wait to make tons more, especially proper tshirt versions and not jumpers! (If White Tree Fabrics start stocking stripy jerseys then I'm in real trouble!) 

Anyway, the fabric is amazing and exactly what I'm looking for in a knit fabric. It's soft, cosy, has a subtle marl effect and was so nice to work with. Basically, I can't sing its praises enough! 
I was a little worried about using a heavier knit for the hemlock pattern, but I love the finished result and it came together so quickly. 

All in all this has been a winning combination for me, and I'm pretty excited to see this jumper become a part of my everyday wardrobe; thank you White Tree Fabrics and Jen :)

We were so pleased to be able to welcome Katie Marcus to our Blog Team. Not only is her blog wonderfully professional looking, but it's crammed full of top quality sewing projects and some truly amazing handmade clothing.  When Katie chose our warm jersey to work with, we were very excited to see what she would create with it. The answer was a fantastic cardigan that's perfect for cooler summer evenings and is the ideal way to wrap up when the sun goes down.  Here's Katie's make in full.

I’m very behind on photographing and sharing finished projects again (the old work effect, sigh), so this snuggly cardi is no longer very seasonally appropriate thanks to the lovely London sun we’ve been having lately. But it’s still a handy wardrobe builder and great for throwing over a dress or cami when the temperature dips. It’s a Style Arc Simone cardigan in Warm Jersey, which was kindly sent to me by White Tree Fabrics.

I was going to make another Julia initially but decided to try the Simone, mostly because pockets. I’m – eh – moderately happy with the pattern. I agree mostly with this Pattern Review post that the drape is not like how I expected from the diagram. It hangs very heavily and rather sticks out around the hips, one place where I really don’t need any extra weight! The pockets are made by sewing a large dart in the front then folding it to the side seam, so you have six layers folded up in the hem which obviously makes it quite bulky. A lighter knit that the one I used is recommended, so maybe that would help. The instructions are typically brief but easy enough. There’s one error to be aware of: you need to cut two neck binding bands and seam them at the CB (the instructions have you cut only one which obviously isn’t long enough).

Chunky pockets aside, the fit it pretty good. It’s a bit longer than I expected, ending below the bum on me when I was hoping for mid-hip. You can’t shorten it from the hem because of the pockets, so next time I would take a couple of inches length out from around the waistline.

The Warm Jersey fabric is a finely-knitted poly/elastane mix with a heathered effect from different coloured strands. Isn’t the colour just gorgeous? It matches both my living room and my blog! It comes in more scrummy muted colours too – red, brown, grey, blue (and Erin just used the richer aubergine purple for a hoodie). As the name suggests, it’s very soft and cosy and has a beautiful drape. I definitely snuggled in it like a blanket while deciding what to make it into. It was also great to work with – my overlocker and sewing machine both loved it. Despite being a proper knitted-looking knit it doesn’t fray or get fluff everywhere and it’s sturdy enough to not stretch all over the place when being cut and stitched.

The fabric behaved beautifully for the neck binding and I love how polished it looks – almost like a slim blazer lapel. There’s clear elastic in the shoulder seam to support the weight. One more change I would make next time is to hem the main cardigan before adding the neckband with the short edges pre-finished, because it feels a bit odd to me to have the hem going right over the band.

I think it looks best on me with the pockets shoved to the back, not hanging around the front in its slightly weird trapezium-shaped way. It will definitely get plenty of wear this summer and beyond, and I might make it again with the fitting tweaks I mentioned as I do like the style. Obviously, the grey warm jersey is calling my name for next time.

We love what Katie did with the warm jersey fabric, and we look forward to seeing what she does for her next project!
 

You can shop Katie's project here.

Cardigan material here ► Product code 0709, Warm Jersey Fabric 

Waterfall cardigan sewing pattern ► Vogue V8839

Batwing cardigan sewing pattern ► Vogue V8796

If you've already spied our warm jersey in our shop and you're wondering what you might be able to make with it, Seamstress Erin has got a pretty good idea as she created the perfect lightweight (but very snuggly) hoodie with it.  

Take a look at her teriffic make in full below.  

The highlight of the last couple weeks of my life? Not getting a subwoofer for my car. Not my brother's 30th birthday. Not even buying a wedding band for my fiancé. It's the fact that I can finally wear my leggings in public!! Okay, maybe that's a bit of hyperbole, but I've pretty much worn only this tunic since finishing it!

I used Vogue 8951. The cover art didn't do much for me (frankly it looked a little boring and, well, middle-aged). But I love hoodies as comfy clothes and it is tunic length (a must since leggings are not pants) and I figured I'd give it a shot. And I'm so glad I did! (It wasn't until after I sewed it up that I remembered my friend Shams of Communing with Fabric had made a great version although, since she has the opposite body shape as I do, the final effect is different.) The pattern and delicious aubergine knit were sent to me by White Tree Fabrics. As I said, the pattern is functional but oh my do I luuurve this fabric! It's so snuggly and a great color and the perfect weight for just about year-round West Coast wearing. They call it a "warm jersey" which is a pretty good description - it's just a bit warmer and fuzzier than a normal t-shirt weight jersey.

And let me say it one more time - it's so snuggly!

The pattern calls for a mullet hem which is NOT my preference, so I lengthened the front to match the back. I could have made the top shorter as it's closer to a dress length than a tunic length, but I think leaving the slits on the side makes it wear as a top. I graded the top out for my hips, narrowed the shoulder by 1", and added some height to the sleeve cap so that the sleeve shape was less of a drop shoulder and more fitted although you can see that with the large neck slit and the weight of the hood, the shoulders droop down.
The front slit is finished with a facing and the hood seam is covered with a back facing. I really didn't want the top-stitching visible on the front of the tunic as the pattern instructs, so I tried to wear it with only the back facing stitched down. It didn't work. The front facing kept flipping up. So I caved and topstitched the front facing down and, surprisingly, it totally doesn't even bother me when wearing it.
The pattern called for the entire front and back facing to be interfaced, but I didn't want to add too much structure since I wanted a drapey comfy top (and, honestly, I didn't have any more than scraps of knit interfacing on hand) so I went ahead and only interfaced the seam of the back neck. I also added interfacing to the seam of the shoulder seams to give them a bit of reinforcement (a tip I learned watching Craftsy's 40 Techniques Every Sewer Should Know).

Like I said, I've been wearing this tunic over and over. To the point I may actually make a second one as soon I get moved. Have I mentioned that I'm moving? Yeah, I know, I can't stop talking about it (especially on Twitter. Sorry tweeps!) The moving truck comes tomorrow, I just ran out of boxes, and there's a ton to do. And Adam is gone for work for the weekend. I'm kinda freaking out right now!
Thanks again to White Tree Fabrics for sending me this delicious knit fabric!

We absolutely love seeing our fabrics turned into something so fantastic and handmade.  We think Erin made a wonderful job of working with our jersey and we can't wait to see what she chooses for her next project with us!