Threadcount ultimate sweater set TC1912

Along with my Love Sewing Magazine this month came the above pattern. This was fortuitous because I had recently bought some knitted fabric (on a trip to Walthamstow) and jumpers are actually something I was short of.

This fabric was like nothing I had ever used before. It was a rib knit as in it looked like hand knitting but on a smaller scale. I had no idea how it was going to behave during the cutting out or sewing. At the bargain price of £5 per metre and I had bought only 1 metre.

My first ‘session’ with a pattern is always cutting out the pattern pieces and deciding what size to make or more truthfully deciding the exact mish mash of sizes for shoulders, bust and waist and if a full bust adjustment is needed.

Sizing decisions are based on comparing the pattern pieces with other garments I have sewn, measuring the sizes of the pattern pieces, looking at the fit on the pattern model.

In this instance for comparison I used a RTW jumper in a similar rib fabric which was a bit smaller and a bit shorter than I wanted the new one to be.

The pattern required fabric with 75% stretch, which mine had. This means when you lay the fabric out you are scared of over stretching it or stretching it unevenly before the cutting starts. The pattern calls for 1.5m of fabric, and from laying the pattern pieces on the fabric I could see I didn’t really have enough. The measurements on the pattern packet put me in a size L but due to lack of fabric , comments from the pattern tester in the magazine, and the size of the pattern pieces, I decide to cut a straight size M and trust that the large stretch element in the fabric would accommodate everything. Due to lack of fabric I had to divide the sleeve piece into 2 sections and cut the cuff end out on the cross grain. The neck piece also had to be about and inch smaller than the pattern.

Sewing up was quick and easy, with a narrow zig zag stitch for the main seams and a wide zig-zag for the seam finishes. There was no pressing involved with this type of fabric which speeds things up.

The whole thing was done in about 4 hours which counts as super quick for me.

There was practically no waste fabric, so little there was nothing at all worth saving .

The fit is everything I had hoped for, perfect length and no size issues, I may use this type of fabric again just because there is no sizing drama

Jumpers could be the way forward in 2020.

I think the only question mark over this make is the hem, it may stretch out.