Seen and Sewn Together Tour (Cozy Cardigan Hack)

Welcome to the Seen & Sewn Together blog tour.

Arielle from Seen & Sewn Patterns is creating patterns with a focus on encouraging people to join the #handmaderevolution by sewing their own handmade wardrobe.  A group of sewing bloggers have joined together to share with you how we’ve taken the Seen & Sewn Patterns and let our creativity loose with them. We want to inspire you whether you’re just starting or well on your way to building your handmade wardrobe.

Welcome to day 4 of the tour!  Kim here, and I am one of today’s stops.  I am very excited to be here to share my version of the Cozy Cardigan with you!  I have a love hate relationship with dusters.  I love the length of them, but I always end up disappointed because they're more like puddlers than dusters.  I am sitting pretty at around 5’1” so anything that is ankle length ends up dragging on the floor so store bought is out for me…even at petite length.  When I saw a tour call for Seen and Sewn Patterns, I took a wander through her pattern shop and found the Cozy Cardigan.  Immediately, my mind started turning over how I could turn that into a duster length cardigan.  The pattern is already pretty amazing as drafted because it hits right about knee length in back, but I was sure it was perfect for hacking into a duster.  I’m a jeans and tee kinda gal, but sometimes, it's nice to dress things up. 

I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted for the fabric, but I went ahead and put the pattern together.  Once together, I measured how much longer the back would need to be to make it the length I wanted.  For me, that would be six inches.  The front is drafted to be shorter than the front to give this awesome hi-lo effect so I needed to add twelve inches total to the front to make both pieces the same length in front and back.  There pieces have lines marked for shortening/lengthening so that made the modifications easy to do, and all I had to do was smooth out the lines after extending.  Don’t forget to lengthen your neckband as well...like I possibly did, possibly.  I also reduced the width to make the neckline a little thinner.

I ended up going with a white sequined fabric that didn’t have much stretch so I sized up (I was a large based on the measurement chart), and it worked out perfectly!  I also opted to leave off the cuffs and simply hemmed the sleeves so that I wouldn’t have to fight getting them one and off with the fabric I chose.  I toyed with the idea of straightening the side hems, but I decided to keep the curve and adjusted the side seam on the front as well to match the back to give it a bit of an upward dip after construction.

I am so excited that I could make me a simple wardrobe piece that fits me perfectly, and the pattern was a breeze to sew together.  The directions were clear and concise, and the instructions had illustrations for every step.  I’m super visual so I really appreciated having something that I could refer to if I wasn’t sure that I was doing the right thing while I was sewing everything together.  The pattern pieces lined up perfectly for me, and really, putting the pieces together was the longest part of the process.  Sewing the cardigan together was incredibly fast, and I was done with all of the sewing in about 45 minutes…maybe even faster.  I really love everything about this piece, and I am so excited to see what Arielle creates next!  

As I said before, there are bunch of us who have joined together this week as part of this tour.  Take a look at the line up to see who has already shared their creations and whose stop is still to come:

Monday June 17th

Sew For Five, Sewing A la Carte, Aurora Designs

Tuesday June 18th

Idle Sunshine, That’s Sew Lily, House of Estrela

Wednesday June 19th

Mahlicadesigns, Sewing with D, Fee Bricolo, Aurora Designs

Thursday June 20th

Let’s Go Hobby, Sewing from Scratch, Craftstyle Living, Mama You Can Make It

Friday June 21st

Claire Cruse, Make It Sew with the Bear and Pea Atelier, Sew Cute Couture by Kathy

Now, for the fun part!  There’s a prize pack giveaway from Seen & Sewn Patterns that you can enter below. The prize pack for US residents includes 1 pattern of choice, a Slow Fashion Tee, and a Slow Fashion Pin. For our international readers the prize pack would include a copy of all Seen & Sewn PDF Patterns. As a bonus, all readers will receive a coupon code for up to two patterns of choice for $1 each (expires 6/30/19).  Just head on over to the rafflecopter and enter to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

Thanks so much for joining me today and don't forget to head over to the other stops on the tour to see what the other bloggers have created for you!  We'd also love for you to join us on the Arielle's Facebook group: Seen and Sewn Patterns Sewing Group to share your creations with us!  Thanks again for reading along!

Blessings and Happy Sewing,

Kim