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!