Floral sweatshirt

I tried really hard to shift towards homewear sewing. Regardless of it being so much more logical these days, than keeping making fancy clothing, I still enjoy sewing dresses more. But hey, I will continue trying! For starters, I have this new sweatshirt, which is practical, nice and as much entertaining, as a sweatshirt can be, and I am happy with the result of this small project.

This was only the second knit fabric project that I have worked on. I am not huge fan of knits, but really want to learn more! If anything, this project gave me the opportunity to practice installing the neckband of the knit fabric. Other than that, it was rather easy garment to make, it came together in few hours.

I came up with an idea for this project while shopping at The Fabric store online during my recent fabric haul. First I found this awesome floral Liberty sweatshirting, which made me think what to make out of it. Then I saw this other jersey – in perfectly matching green. Bought both of them having in mind a perfect pattern for this duo, which I had found in Burda Homewear 2020 magazine. It is a simple sweatshirt pattern with few nice details – contrasting triangles sewn into the sides and rolled up sleeves.

Had to practice with stitches on my sewing machine that are meant for knits. Overlocked all seams. Making the hem was tricky as I do not own the cover stitch sewing machine. I have tried to sew with twin needle some time before, but unsuccessfully – my sewing machine probably does not support this feature, which is disappointing, provided that it is fairly new machine. So now, each time hemming knits turns into a little bit of an ordeal for me.

I could purchase the cover stitch machine. But… well, honestly, I do not enjoy sewing knits all that much. Am trying hard to fall in love with them, but this hasn’t happened yet. So in the meantime regular sewing machine and a simple straight stitch twice will have to suffice.

The neckband was also quite a challenge, as expected. I was looking to purchase matching ribbing, but the store did not have the hue of green I needed. So I had to make a simple piece of fabric cut on bias work. At first I cut it too long and had to shorten a bit. Probably I should have had it even shorter than that, as now it stands a little bit on the shoulders. But at that time, for this project, my mental capacity had already been depleted, and I figured that for something that is only a homewear garment, this should be good enough.

It looks nice, maybe not perfect, as the ribbing would have been necessary for the perfect finish, but nice enough. To have the neck band inside finish neat, I added a triangle of green fabric that my label got attached to. And then to conceal the overlock seam at the back, I sewed a piece of matching ribbon on. I like very much how that inside finish turned out!

I made this cozy sweatshirt using Burda Homewear 2020 magazine pattern #18. Bought both fabrics at The Fabric store online. The floral one is Liberty Linford Deborah sweatshirting, and the green one is called Kelly green. Other notions were a short piece of matching green ribbon, a little bit of 5 mm mobilon tape and thread. This sweatshirt cost me 25 EUR. It was made at the very end of March, 2021.

Am happy with my first attempt at proper knit sewing! It was a lovely quick make, it features this adorable floral print, I am sure I’ll be happy to wear it at home this spring!

Let’s all stay healthy!

~Giedre~