With only two days left to go I finally entered my cardigan in the sweater knit competition today. Phew! I think the end result came pretty close to my original idea, but it’s a wee bit too tight, as this pattern is more like figure hugging top in the sizing and my fabric doesn’t have enough stretch to compensate fully for that. Also I was so strapped for fabric that I had to do the cardigan shorter than I had planned. But at least it is below the waist and this is one of the instances when I’m happy to be only 5.3 (160 cm)!
I’ve already talked plenty about my process, but I’ll add a few things: Firstly I deviated quite a bit from the original pattern. The main difference is that the Burdastyle pattern has no ribbing at all and is more constructed like a blouse with a button placket and regular hems. The second difference is that I moved all the gathers to the bust, the reason being that my cardigan is substantially shorter and having gathers all the way down simply didn’t work. Another thing is that I used faux buttoning, i.e. the cardigan is closed with sew-on snaps and the buttons are merely there for decoration. The rib was thin and you can’t interface fabric that is stretched out so much, so I decided that this would be the most stress free option. I normally like sewing buttonholes on knits, but only if they are stable and interfaced. If you are curious check out my tutorial on how to sew buttonholes on knits.
Overall I am happy very about the result and I got to try out a few new things with the ribbing. I just wished that I had checked the finished ease a bit more thoroughly before cutting the fabric. But this is definitely a cardigan in my taste and I can see myself wearing this plenty. You can see my review of the cardigan and look at the impressive and inspiring competition over at Pattern Review’s sweater knit gallery.
