Sunday 28 July 2013

Lucky 7th, Burda Style 03-2013-107 cardigan

I love reversible fabric. I bought this interesting double layer mystery knit in November 2012 from the Nerang branch of Fabric Frenzy on the Gold Coast. It was my only purchase, after I searched very hard amongst the otherwise disappointing selection, so I have my doubts about its quality, but it was really fun to sew, and co-ordinates beautifully with the 6 pieces already made for the winter extension of the University wardrobe.

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technical drawing from http://www.burdafashion.com


Fortunately for me, the March Burda turned up with the perfect pattern for this fabric, 03-2013-107, a smart little cardigan for knit fabrics, with front ruching, but how to make it reversible?

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I started with hand sewing bias binding to the wrong sides of the seams, treating one side as the right side, then the other, but as my fabric is not terribly stretchy, (and despite making one size larger than usual after reading reviews of the pattern) the cardigan was very close fitting, I abandoned the bias binding trim after the shoulder and armscye seams due to worries about the lack of stretch in the seams making the cardigan unwearable.

I had used the coverstitch to topstitch the "right" sides of the earlier seams, and decided that the wrong side of the coverstitch could be considered a sporty embellishment for the dark side of the fabric, where it was less noticeable.

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For the neck and front binding, I used left over polartech powderdry, which made a surprisingly stable edge (previously used for Jalie yoga pants). I hand sewed one folded side down as invisibly as possible.

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 For the hems, I used the rolled edge binding (credit to Sham's tutorial) previously used on the necklines of two of the wardrobe tops (my daughter is wearing one of these underneath the cardigan), with the neat edge on the light, more tidy seam side, and the rolled edge on the dark, more roughly finished side.

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Fastening was the next issue.

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 I had considered snaps, but in keeping with the other outer garment in the wardrobe, ended up using double buttons fastened with elastic loops. (AKA hair elastics!), again this was my daughter's input and she sewed on the buttons whilst I started on my next project ;).

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I am very pleased with this sewing experiment, and my daughter loves the cardigan.



12 comments:

Clio said...

Nice! What interesting and fun fabric. Double sided is perfect for a college wardrobe, and your daughter looks great in it with her fun scarf.

Kyle said...

I dressed like a lumberjack in college. Your daughter dresses much more smartly! Cute cardi, fun fabric.

Ronniie said...

The cardigan is great. Its funny how people perceive things differently, I have always enjoyed going to fabric frenzy as I have thought they have a good fabric selection, certainly much better than my local Spotlight store.

shams said...

VERY cute! What an interesting fabric! You used it very cleverly.

Anonymous said...

That is really cool fabric, great job making it reversible!

fabric epiphanies said...

I really like what you have done with this pattern. I am sure your daughter will get tons of wear out of it.

Mary Nanna said...

Super cute - daughter and cardy combo!

I really like this cardy - I'd love to make it but wonder if I could make that ruching not look like it was not concealing a sack of puppies or making big pointy horizontal lines to my "buberage" (that would be borrowing Sham's "uber boobage" and shortening it).

Your daughter need not worry on those fronts - she seems to have a lovely figure to sew for.

Incidentally I love lots of things in that March issue of Burda - it's one of my favourites this year.

velosews said...

This is a great style and the fabric has been used very smartly. Good on you.

The Slapdash Sewist said...

Very cool fabric. I like the tonal floral print on the light side and the texture on the dark side. Nice job finishing it to be reversible!

Zoë said...

Love the double sided fabric :) I had a look at the fabric frenzy website, it seems like a store that would be packed and crazy!

Joy said...

Wow, very cool fabric - and making it reversible was not small feat. I love how much valuable input you are getting from your daughter (not to mention her own sewing). All your years of work have paid off, apparently!

SewRuthie said...

Great cardigan and how clever that it is properly reversible - I am impressed!