Stella is fourteen, and her current style aesthetic is heavily reminiscent of 90s grunge (maybe with a touch of emo and/or goth thrown in, although she’d deny both those descriptors).  This means that everything is black, grey, or white, with only an occasional flash of another colour.  I know, how can this be my child – where is the colour and print!

A consequence of Stella’s style preferences is that there is not much ‘mum-made’ that has been entering her wardrobe. I took a punt one day some months ago when I was at The Cloth Shop and bought a length of wool check and coordinating black ribbing, intending to sew the Style Arc Sabel boyfriend cardigan. Stella had expressed a wish for an oversized cardi, so I crossed my fingers hard and hoped that this would meet with her approval.

Although the cardigan is designed for knits, I used a woven. I was pretty confident that it would still work; it’s like a boiled wool, so has some give in it. And of course, the rib that I used for the bands is a knit. I chose to sew size 6, which is the size that I buy in shops for Stella.

From the pattern website: This trendy oversized cardi has a dropped armhole and slim sleeves. The large patch pockets finish off this fashion forward cardigan. Use lovely big snaps on the front closure. FABRIC SUGGESTION: Sweater knit, or any knit suitable for a cardigan.

Stella made this cardigan even easier for me as she didn’t want the pockets or buttons/closure included. This made for a very fast sew. I did of course pay attention to matching the checks across the side seams, and centred the stripes down the sleeves. They match up okay with the body as well, but are not precise at the shoulder seams.  I used grey overlocker thread, but now wish that I’d used black. The grey thread shows up so obviously on the black ribbing when the cardigan flips open during wear, which it often does. Dammit. Hems were sewn on the sewing machine, and the thread sunk right into the textured wool.

Other than that, both Stella and I are happy with how this cardigan has turned out! She has worn it a couple of times, which is saying something since we’ve mostly been in lockdown since it was made and her main garment of choice has been her Oodie. Now I’m wracking my brain to come up with what I could sew for her next.