More Knits: my Makes for the End of the Year 2022.

In the winter it got cold and dark, the days were short, too short for sewing, too tiresome… I felt sleepy all the time. There has been a beautiful viscose shirt unfinished since last September, hanging on my bedroom door and waiting to be finished. I felt disencouraged to complete it, the thin fabric was difficult to sew and I have made a mistake in gathering the sleeve making two sleeves uneven. The only thing I could do about my sewing mood was to sew knits, something fast and more appropriate for the season. I had a wonderful faux angora from Beyond the Pink Door in dark teal green colour. Perfect for a sweater or a cardi. But with difficulties that I have with sewing knits on my machine, I was reluctant to sew something with buttons. The fabric, however, was too good for just a jumper. There a wonderful pattern crossed my way! The Foget-Me-Not Patterns released Kirsi Cardigan. Oh, how I love these kinds of garments! Feminine, wrapped, no buttons and no button holes. Perfect, perfect, perfect for the fabric that I loved and that I have been saving for1 year, I don’t know what for. And the sewing was fast and easy. Something wrong happened in adjusting the bodice on the right, but it’s a knit so it doesn’t matter so much. It turned out:quite all right. I don’t remember how much fabric I had but it was apparently not enough for a particularly long belt. I had to cut and sew several parts of the belt, changing the direction of the fabric. Well, hopefully it not easily seen when I wear it. Here are the looks: 

And another beautiful knitted fabric has been waiting for me since last Summer. It was also purchased from the BTPD and it’s a product of wonderful fabric and pattern producer Atelier Jupe, a Belgian company. Their good taste calls to many sewists and sewers as I can observe online. I see their fabrics and patterns in many shops all over Europe and not only. 

I bought pure knitted cotton in an off white colour. Not too thick, as it was released in the Summer. I think it was meant for summery layering garments. I, however, wanted to make something more universal: a simple classic top, so that I could wear it both in the Winter and in the other seasons. The pattern I chose was Nº 117 from Burda Style issued in January, 2021. I changed it slightly. Instead of elastics around the wrists I went for the cuffs and instead of the straightly cut bottom I made slits and a longer back/shorter front. Then I realised it is too long all together. But the original pattern is perhaps too long too. The fabric, beautiful as it is, is difficult to sew with the domestic machine. I don’t have a serger. Finally I had to come to the rescue of my friend, a professional tailor, she finished the cuffs for me. It was impossible to make them on my machine. Here it is how it looks like:

And the last one. Just a simple blue jumper. The fabric I bought in a local shop in the beautiful Polish city Gdansk. If you don’t know the city, google it. Really worth visiting. I went there to pay a visit to one of my best friends and I discovered this little fabric shop. They sell Italian fabrics. I was told that this gorgeous sky blue knit was a mixture of pure linen and cotton, which made me buy it very quickly. But I am not sure if it was true. Maybe it is not so pure, I don’t know… Anyways, I went for a simple jumper from Burda Style, which slightly changed. I cropped the front bottom and made an elliptic junction with the bottom back line. And I narrowed the sleeves so that I could avoid making cuffs. The original pattern is Nº 115 from Burda Style issue December, 2021. Here is how it turned out. It’s a casual garment, really useful for cooler days.