![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Striped light jumper
Aug. 25th, 2017 09:38 amIn the lull between orders I decided to pick up some sewing for myself. I'm struggling with some parts of product development (always picking the wrong fabric for the thing I want to make, apparantly) and next week the orders will start again.
I spoke earlier about how I always make summer sewing plans and then they never happen. The fabric for this light jumper has been lying in wait for a while and I knew this was a quick project I could pick up at any time. So I did.
I already had a good basic dart-less pattern for a sweater and it's been tested when I made the blue jumper with a-symmetrical collar and collarbone zip. As far as I can recall, that sits very well, despite my shoulder head being rotated forwards.
One thing that has happened in the past is that a blouse I made for myself on an older block falls backward. The back collar stands away from my neck and it feels weird. This is also what happens with t-shirts I buy in the store, especially the looser types (the tight tee's don't have room to move, so they stay put). But on any store-bought shirt the shoulder seam is always behind my actual shoulder. I was hoping the shoulder of this jumper block was fitted correctly, and from wearing the blue jumper I really hope that is so.
Bottom-right corner is the model I sketched initially.
This striped fabric is 100% polyester jersey. It was planned for a jumper with a round neckline. So no collar to hold it in place (although that didn't help for the blouse). The front would be cut on the bias to create chevrons of the pattern. While fitting, the front and back were too long and the front V-shaped hem did nothing to visually slim my figure. I need my t-shirts and jumpers to stop roughly 5 centimers above my hip line, that looks best on me. Anything shorter makes me look bottom-heavy (I am bottom-heavy, but I'd like to camouflage it!). Anything longer looks hippy-esque and ungroomed.
I learned quite a lot!
Working with this pattern a second time means I can predict how the thing will actually wear, in stead of the two seconds I wear it while fitting. I hope this doesn't "walk to the back" like all my loose t-shirts do.
The neck opening took a little fiddling to get right, as the black ribbing needs to be smaller than the neckline you sew it into. I heard 30% smaller at my first school, but I always thought that was rather ambitious. Cue me having to carefully unpick the 20% smaller ribbing because it was too loose. Lesson learnt! 30% smaller is perfect, it lies flat against the body and it doesn't distort the fabric of the jumper at the seamline.
(So for my neckline of 35 cm the ribbing is 24,5 cm, or 10,5 cm smaller.)
The shoulder is a wee bit wide for me, because the fabric is a little loose. I should check the blue jumper if it has the same problem and maybe shave off 1 cm at the shoulder to fix this for future jumpers. Now my sleeves are too long and the cuff ribbing is wide enough to fall over my hand -- a luxury for tall people who always struggle to get their sleeves the right length.
It has a slight bit of pyjama feel to it (model + striped fabric) so I should probably steer clear of loosely fitted striped fabrics with a round neckline next time.
But it's made well enough to be forgiven, I think. This should be a perfect rainy afternoon jumper when Autumn comes.
I spoke earlier about how I always make summer sewing plans and then they never happen. The fabric for this light jumper has been lying in wait for a while and I knew this was a quick project I could pick up at any time. So I did.
I already had a good basic dart-less pattern for a sweater and it's been tested when I made the blue jumper with a-symmetrical collar and collarbone zip. As far as I can recall, that sits very well, despite my shoulder head being rotated forwards.
One thing that has happened in the past is that a blouse I made for myself on an older block falls backward. The back collar stands away from my neck and it feels weird. This is also what happens with t-shirts I buy in the store, especially the looser types (the tight tee's don't have room to move, so they stay put). But on any store-bought shirt the shoulder seam is always behind my actual shoulder. I was hoping the shoulder of this jumper block was fitted correctly, and from wearing the blue jumper I really hope that is so.
Bottom-right corner is the model I sketched initially.
This striped fabric is 100% polyester jersey. It was planned for a jumper with a round neckline. So no collar to hold it in place (although that didn't help for the blouse). The front would be cut on the bias to create chevrons of the pattern. While fitting, the front and back were too long and the front V-shaped hem did nothing to visually slim my figure. I need my t-shirts and jumpers to stop roughly 5 centimers above my hip line, that looks best on me. Anything shorter makes me look bottom-heavy (I am bottom-heavy, but I'd like to camouflage it!). Anything longer looks hippy-esque and ungroomed.
I learned quite a lot!
Working with this pattern a second time means I can predict how the thing will actually wear, in stead of the two seconds I wear it while fitting. I hope this doesn't "walk to the back" like all my loose t-shirts do.
The neck opening took a little fiddling to get right, as the black ribbing needs to be smaller than the neckline you sew it into. I heard 30% smaller at my first school, but I always thought that was rather ambitious. Cue me having to carefully unpick the 20% smaller ribbing because it was too loose. Lesson learnt! 30% smaller is perfect, it lies flat against the body and it doesn't distort the fabric of the jumper at the seamline.
(So for my neckline of 35 cm the ribbing is 24,5 cm, or 10,5 cm smaller.)
The shoulder is a wee bit wide for me, because the fabric is a little loose. I should check the blue jumper if it has the same problem and maybe shave off 1 cm at the shoulder to fix this for future jumpers. Now my sleeves are too long and the cuff ribbing is wide enough to fall over my hand -- a luxury for tall people who always struggle to get their sleeves the right length.
It has a slight bit of pyjama feel to it (model + striped fabric) so I should probably steer clear of loosely fitted striped fabrics with a round neckline next time.
But it's made well enough to be forgiven, I think. This should be a perfect rainy afternoon jumper when Autumn comes.
