I am delving back into the rapidly receding past with this blog post, since all three garments were sewn while at Sewjourn in May.  Two of the patterns are repeats – the Style Arc Molly top and the Style Arc Fay skirt.  The cardigan is the Tessuti Megan Longline Cardigan.

I’ll start with the patterns I’ve used before, which were for the top and skirt. The petrol blue knit is a medium weight viscose from Darn Cheap Fabrics – one of those fabrics that you wish you had more of (especially since it was from the $2 table). The Fay skirt is self-lined, and is essentially a long tube (with slight shaping) that folds into itself to fully enclose the side seams, then has elastic applied around the waist edges. No hemming needed, so it’s one of the fastest garments to sew ever. I shortened the pattern by folding out a chunk to retain the slightly pegged shaping. It does take a fair bit of fabric, because of the self-lining, but it’s worth it. The skirt was the third garment I cut out for this outfit, and used up all of the solid.

The first of these three garments to be cut out was actually the cardigan, and there was a decent sized scrap left over. Suddenly I realised that I could cut the front of a Molly top from the printed scrap and match it with some solid petrol blue viscose that was in stash for the back, sleeves and neck band.  My cardigan has just evolved into part of a three piece outfit.

The fabrics worked together beautifully, and the neckband is just drapey enough to fall into nice folds. This is only a small cowl, and I am finding it highly wearable. You can find my previous Molly tops here and here.

Now to the cardigan! This cardigan is the opposite to the rest of the outfit in many ways. The pattern was new to me, and the fabric much more expensive than the petrol blue viscose used for the rest of the outfit. The print is from Tessuti, and it’s a viscose knit. I bought two metres to make this cardigan, and other than the scrap that I used for the Molly top it took every little bit. I think that I even had to piece the bands. But it’s in my colours – loads of them! It’s currently still available on their website here.

I really wish that I had some outdoor action photos of this cardigan, because it is actually much nicer than in these photos. Tessuti describe the pattern as follows: This longline flared cardigan features full length sleeves, a centre front and neckline bind and flared side seams with an asymmetrical hemline. The simple style looks fabulous worn over sleeveless tops, pants or dresses and is a wonderful wardrobe staple. Ideal for soft jersey knits such as viscose/elastane and wool jersey.

I sewed the Medium, which is my usual Tessuti size, and didn’t make any length alterations despite my lack of height. The only fiddly part was attaching the bands along the fronts. I was slightly confused by the instructions a couple of times, but once I just used my brain instead of relying on the instructions I figured out how to do the area where the bands meet the hemline. I wish that Tessuti would format their instruction pages a little more carefully so that instructions are always on the same page as the photos that they relate to. I often get confused as to whether I should be looking at the photo above or the one below. Please tell me that I’m not the only one!

This is a pattern that I know I will use again. I’m really pleased with my unintentional three piece outfit. Isn’t it great when things evolve like this!  So far this is the only way that I’ve worn the cardigan – I need to start mixing it with other clothes from my wardrobe. After all, I chose the fabric because I thought that it would coordinate well with the rest of my things!

I think that most of us have an affinity for particular pattern lines, especially when it comes to independent pattern lines.  The large companies like Vogue, McCalls, Butterick, Kwik Sew, Simplicity, Burda and New Look tend to cover lots of bases in terms of style and aesthetics, although they definitely not exactly the same as one another.  In fact, they do have different tag lines to differentiate themselves.  Vogue’s is “the exclusive source for designer sewing patterns”, Butterick are “the world’s first name in sewing patterns” and McCalls claim to be “sewing patterns for today’s fashion trends” and Kwik Sew have “making sewing a success”.  This all says a little about how they position themselves in the sewing pattern market.  Independent pattern companies position themselves in different ways.  Some design for a particular shape, like Sewaholic who design for a pear shaped figure and SBCC who designs for short women.  Others design particular types of clothes, like Jalie who specialise in sports wear.  Ottobre have what appears to me to be a distinctly European aesthetic.  Style Arc say they are “the fashion industry secret that keeps you ahead of the rest”.  You could go through a huge list of companies and work out who they are primarily designing for.

So the point of this?  I think that Tessuti design patterns for people like me.  They don’t explicitly state it, but they design simple shapes with nice details that appear to be drafted for – dare I say it – an Australian middle-aged woman’s body.  Their styles don’t look remiss on younger women or older women, as they are fairly classic but are not staid and traditional and they definitely have a modern, inner-city vibe (whatever that really means!).  I really, really like most of what they design. Which brings me to the Sydney jacket!

First, the description from their website. This oversized, draped jacket features a relaxed collar, back yoke, extended cropped raglan sleeves and side pockets. This jacket is ideal for layering over garments and is the perfect cover-up for the autumn/winter months. Ideal made up in boiled wool knits, ponti knits, boiled felted wools and neoprene fabrics. IMPORTANT: Not suitable for woven fabrics that fray when cut.

As the description says, this jacket is constructed without edge finishes. The seams are overlapped rather than sewn right sides together (except for the side seams).  That’s why they recommend fabrics that don’t fray when cut. However, I’ve now seen some wonderful versions in other wovens; the fraying just needs to be taken into account when they are constructed, and either used as a feature on some seams or the construction methods need to be varied. Anyway, I used a fabric that doesn’t fray. Despite owning and sewing many garments from Tessuti patterns, I don’t actually use a lot of Tessuti fabric – way out of my budget most of the time! This fabric is a beautiful wool/cashmere blend that I actually found in my stash! I think it was a gift from Jodie one Sewjourn a very ong time ago – and unsurprisingly I was thrilled that there was enough of it when I went stash diving for this jacket.

After considerable deliberations I made a straight size Medium. Although it’s an oversized style, I needed to make certain that it would fit well across the shoulders. I could possibly have made the Small, but feel that the Medium doesn’t look too big.

Construction was simpler than I had anticipated. You definitely need to get that chalk pencil out and mark a big cross on all the wrong sides of the fabric pieces, and take things one step at a time in order to jigsaw all the pieces together. I’d have liked a few more markings on the pattern pieces to let me know what edge went with what, but figured it all out without much difficulty. Just don’t rush!

Like others, I had wondered what the point was in a winter jacket with short sleeves and no lining or closure – but it’s actually been very warm and snug to wear, especially given that Melbourne is so well heated indoors during winter. Thumbs up for this pattern! If it wasn’t such a distinctive style (and if I didn’t have about 497 jacket and coat patterns in stash) I’d even make it again.

Which pattern lines do you have a particular affinity for – and do you know why?