Oversized sweater

Most of my fabric comes to me via my computer, but I am actually not that brave at trying new on-line shops.  I tend to buy fabric from the same few places over and over.  I branched out earlier this year and bought some knits from Craftymamas.  The service was great and the fabrics seem pretty good too, thought this is the first one that I have sewn up.

It is such a pretty orange colour. It wasn't listed as a sweater knit, but when it arrived, it did not seem right for a t-shirt.  It is 100% cotton, no lycra, and so doesn't have great recovery.  It feels soft and cuddly, so I thought I would use it to make a sweater.  

I have been wanting an over-sized sweater, but in spite of my vast pattern collection, did not have a pattern for just what I wanted.  I like some of the indie patterns out there for sweaters, but I am so over taping together pdf patterns, that I didn't buy any of them.  The week I sewed this, Spotlight was having a pattern sale on Simplicity, Kwiksew and New Idea, but I couldn't find one amongst those that I liked.  This surprised me, because I thought Kwiksew were all about the 80s activewear!

In the end, I did a mash up of the Stylearc Lisa t-shirt and the Jalie 2918 men's t-shirt.  Strange combo, but I think it worked!  I knew the shoulders on the Stylearc tee were about where I wanted.  I have very square shoulders, which poke out of dropped shoulder styles, so I only wanted a slightly dropped shoulder.  Then I used the armhole shaping, neckline and sleeve from the men's t-shirt.  I didn't think that this fabric would hem very well, so I sewed hem bands, narrow cuff bands and a neck band.

So now I have a lightweight, snuggly long-sleeved top, that is so comfortable that my children have even worn it to snuggle in, in front of the tv.