Saunio cardigan

The February pattern for sewmystyle is the Saunio Cardigan from Named Clothing. I decided to make this a combo Sew-from-Scratch/Refashion-Project.

First things first – I put on Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly . I had heard a couple of songs on Lastfm, but only just got round to buying Searching for the Hows and Whys. A good purchase!

I found this cosy ribbed knit in my out of control toppling mountain of fabric stash (one of those pieces of fabric that looks kinda familiar, but I don’t exactly remember buying….can fabric multiply and breed???)

I only had enough of this rib for the back and front pieces, which is where the refashion part of the project comes in.

I had picked up this big sweatshirt at Goodwill a couple of months ago – I liked the frayed hems, and I know I’ll always use T-shirts or sweatshirts for something because they’re somewhat forgiving on size and quick to sew.

I wanted to cut off and open up the shirt sleeves and keep the original frayed hem cuffs.

Uh-oh ….PROBLEM: the sweatshirt armholes aren’t as deep as on the Saunio pattern. Therefore the sweatshirt sleeve isn’t wide enough.

Oh well….SOLUTION: I figure nobody’s going to be doing underarm inspections on me (that would just be weird??), so I pieced the sleeves together, overlocking scraps of fabric on either side.

I just managed to get the facings out of the body of the shirt.

The whole cardigan is a quick sew – it took longer with the swearing (a frequent part of my sewing projects), the sweatshirt deconstruction and fudging the pattern layout.

If I make another, I’d bring the neckline a little closer in and make the body longer, but it’s more comfortable to wear than a jacket. It also looks good in a variety of fabrics (see #sauniocardigan on Instagram)