I love cardigans and sweaters. It’s like librarian uniform. It’s in my DNA. Do you remember that show Felicity and all those sweaters? Yeah, me too. I’m sure it comes as no surprise that when the Julia Cardigan by Mouse House Creations made its rounds in the blogging world I was drooling all over my phone staring at them. I’ve been wanting to make this cardigan for ages. My problem was that I just couldn’t choose a fabric for it. I don’t know why this was such an issue for me, but I wanted to make it out of something light weight and not boring. I wanted to wear a cardigan in sunny CA summer weather!
I ended up with a lightweight knit fabric that has texture and lovely color variation from Fabric Outlet in San Francisco. I saw it and knew it would be perfect. Then when I got it home, I didn’t have enough! Serves me right for thinking I could squeeze it from just one yard! What was I thinking?!! I think the lady behind the cutting counter’s singing and dancing was making me feel awfully optimistic.
Then I was faced with finding a coordinating fabric of equal weight. While wandering through my local fabric shop, I found this lovely grey striped fabric that was going to be perfect! I was practically bouncing and squeeing. Not dignified at all, I know, but you get me.
It’s also a very thin knit, perfect to layer over the other knit for the giant “collar” portion. I also like the texture. I believe both fabrics are hatchi tissue knits, but since both bolts were unlabelled, that’s just an educated guess on my part.
I used my serger to assemble the entire cardigan, and it took very little time. Most of the work was putting the pieces together, specifically the giant collar portion, and using tiny binder clips to hold them together. In addition to wonder tape, tiny binder clips are my favorite knit fabric tool. You can see at the bottom of the above picture just how wide the collar portion is. It does take quite a bit more fabric than one would think 😉
I really like how the striped fabric stands out and compliments the other fabric. Happy mistake! It really looks like I painstakingly planned this out huh?
I’ll get more use out of this cardigan when it gets warmer. It doesn’t fit perfectly under a long sleeve top, but comfortable enough in a pinch. I’m wondering if I should make a bigger size in a heavier knit…
Have you made this cardigan yet? Any favorite cardigan patterns you’d like to share?
penny sew vintage 