New Fabric in the Shop and a Discount, Too

As many of you know, I've been working toward expanding the sustainable cotton sweater knit collection. I'm happy to announce that the color-grown jerseys and plaid now have matching color-grown 2x2 ribbing available! It's sold by the half yard. The sustainable, natural white cotton ribbing, formerly available only as panels, is also available by the half yard now. The 2x2 rib will give a lovely finish to your natural and grown in color cotton sweaters. If you haven't read it yet, please check out the Ginger Makes Grainline Linden Sweatshirt sewn with the O! Jolly! New Hudson and matching 2x2 rib.

Also new to the shop is a chunky, sweater knit in traditional honeycomb stitch (sold out). I didn't develop this fabric; it's an overrun from the knitting mill I've been working with. It was knit with conventional cotton yarn that was not dyed or mercerized. Though I've chosen to seek out sustainable yarns to work with whenever possible, I also believe that unused post-production sweater fabric, no matter what it's source, shouldn't be destined for the landfill. This fabric is reclaimed and wonderful!

Any machine knitters seeing this pic may recognize the stitch pattern as an alternating double tuck. Translation for non-machine knitters: This is a very wide fabric -- 80 inches.

THE OFFER BELOW HAS EXPIRED.
So what better way to celebrate the new fabrics in the shop than with a special discount for readers, customers, friends in real life, and social media friends. Get 15% off when you spend $50 or more on Ready to Ship sweater knit fabrics in the O! Jolly! Crafting Fashion Shop and use the code MIDSUMMER at checkout. The discount is valid through August 9th, 2015. To get discounts and other goodies delivered directly to your email inbox, be sure you're on the list.

So hard to believe I'm saying this on a day when temperatures reached 94ºF here in New York City, but it won't be long before I'll have warm wool sweater knits in the shop. More about those another day!

O!

The Fisherman is Finished

As promised, here are pics of the finished sweater. I've got to admit it: Working with panels of sweater fabric was certainly one quick and easy way to make a sweater! And if I hadn't cut off the bottom ribbing, it would have been even quicker. 

I'm generally not one to sew quickly. I've often caught my self doing things "the long way", because I really do enjoy the process, I guess. I've pretty much already blogged this process; here are links to the previous posts all in one place:

• Fabric for a Cable Sweater
• Placing (and Cutting) the First Pattern Piece on Sweater Knit Fabric
• Matching the Texture or Color Patterns in a Cut and Sew Sweater
• A Fancy Neckline
• Hemmed When I Could Have Ribbed

There are a couple more items about the sweater I wanted to share. Because the fabric is bulky and I wanted my seam allowances to lie flat, I topstitched the seam allowances to open with a 3-step zigzag (3.5mm x 2mm). The stitches simply disappear in the fabric and are nearly impossible to see, unless you look for them.

Also, the sweater really isn't longer in the back, as it appears in the top picture. I must have bunched it up in the front with my hands or pulled it down in the back. I'm showing this pic because I wanted to show my side seam. As I mentioned in a previous post, I chose a shaped (slightly contoured) sewing pattern, even though the vertical stitch pattern begs for a sewing pattern with straight sides. The shaping is subtle and I ended up being happy with the result.

Be sure you're on the email list if you'd like to know the next time sweater knit fabric panels (sometimes called sweater bodies or sweater blanks) become available.

O!

Hemmed When I Could Have Ribbed

If I'd been using the beautiful fisherman cable knit fabric panels the way the designer had intended, it would have been an extremely quick project -- an unshaped sweater, pattern pieces easily aligned and cut along vertical motifs of cables. I assume the panels were originally designed to be cut and sewn quickly and accurately. With this fabulous Aran-style stitch design, I know I would have loved the result.

I'm not sure why I often choose the more complicated route. This time it started when I decided to use a slightly shaped sewing pattern that I'd been wanting to try out for almost a year.

I used the sweater panels' original ribbing as rib cuffs on the sleeves, as seen above. But I cut off the ribs that were meant for the bottom of the sweater and went instead with a ribless hem. (Ok, not entirely ribless. There's a fly weight rib fabric, used as hem facing, invisible on the public side. I'll get to that shortly.) As I blogged previously, I used a column of cutaway cable stitches to make a fancy neckline.

It's not that I'm disappointed with the hem. It's just that now my removal of the ribbing seems so pointless. I believe I was unduly inspired by this lovely design and this one and thought I'd come up with my own fabulous asymmetrical hem or shirttailed sweater. But after several delays to my sewing packing up my workspace in preparation for much needed floor repairs; restoring the workspace after the floor was repaired; and then a couple of days sitting in the jury pool; and keeping up with the knit business half the night; inspiration left me. I just wanted to finish the darn thing. So with ribbing already cut from my sweater, I chose to make a plain hem. At least I have the cut off ribbing and pretty seed stitches saved for another sweater some day. And I didn't leave the edges raw as in this cowboy's sweater, spotted on my way home from jury duty.

Click pic for a closer look at the Rochambeau ombre cable sweater and shorts.

Ok, enough on what could've been! I'm happy to report that my new sweater has been completed. It's been washed and is air drying as I write. And I really do enjoy sweaters that just start their business at the bottom without any ribbed introduction, sweaters that begin with just a plain hem or thoughtful bound edge. One day I'll let my frayed edges show but not this time.

When hemming a medium to bulky sweater knit fabric, I've found that it's important to use some sort of facing. In the past I've used lingerie elastic on medium weight sweaters and interfaced lightweight jersey on bulky ones. This time I used stashed flyweight rib fabric. This is how I did it.

I measured the paper pattern at the place my hem would be to get a circumference. (My sweater is significantly shorter than the original sewing pattern.) I also needed an accurate measurement just in case the bottom edge had become a little stretched out. (I had thread traced all edges previously to help prevent overstretching, but not this cut-on-the-fly bottom edge for some reason.)

My facing fabric is really very thin and very stretchy and so I cut the facing opposite to the "usual" way. That is, I cut the facing, so that the least stretchy direction is what's going around my body. Also I cut the facing twice as deep as necessary (so I could double the thin facing) plus added seam allowances. Click diagram to enlarge, if needed.

Next I sewed the short ends right sides together, trimmed the seam allowances, and pressed them open. I folded the facing wrong sides together. Then I sewed the raw edges of the facing to the bottom raw edge of the sweater (right side of facing to right side of sweater) matching quarter marks on the facing to side seams, center front, and center back on the sweater.

I steamed the seam allowances toward the facing and stitched the seam allowances to the facing with a 3-step zigzag. After turning under the hem and steaming again, the folded facing made a good edge for blind stitching the hem.

I promise to take pics of me wearing the sweater soon. :)

O!

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Last edit 19Mar2016. Rib fabric source no longer available.