Thursday, January 08, 2009

Sewing review - McCalls 4923



I feel like I'm on fire. Its been a difficult work week, but I've managed to come back home and do something sewing related most days this week. Granted, I've clothes to put away, laundry to do, etc, but I'll get to it on the weekend.

Fabric: A great find from WalMart's $1 bin - a printed cotton knit. I bought 2.5 yards? I really liked this printed knit, it is cotton, I think, and the fabric felt very cheerful.

Pattern: McCalls 4923 - now OOP. I've used this pattern a few times before, here and here. This time, I made both the shell and the cardigan using the same fabric, so Twin-set! (I actually find very few cardigan patterns, for some reason. Dunno why, twinsets are always ridiculously expensive, RTW, and I'd make as many of them as I can find fabric for.)

Pattern adjustments: Standard pattern adjustments - took 2 inches off the torso. I also adjusted the shell to finish the neck and edges using binding, vs using a knit lining.


Notions:
5 blue buttons, from stash. These buttons actually came off this fabric - yay for reusing!

Cost: Fabric - $2.50. Pattern, $2 - but I've used it a few times before, so, in reality, less. And buttons, from stash.In all, under $5. (This does seem to be a recurrent theme with me, but its mostly because I'm sewing from stash, and for the longest time, I wouldn't buy very expensive fabric, since I didn't want to fail on expensive fabric.)

Time taken: About 4-5 hours? It was broken up in chunks on two evenings, Tuesday evening I cut and sewed the easy seams, and then, today, I finished up.


Good things:

1. I love the fabric, and it went together quickly.
2. It fits well.
3. I'll get a ton of use out of this.
4. I managed to avoid the hem stretching too much. I'm not sure if this was because of the fabric, or using the right needle, or whatever. I still think I need to practice this more, so I can be generally sure of not screwing up.


Bad things:
None, baby. I love this.

The grand conclusion? Pleased as punch.

6 comments:

Shannon said...

What a cute twin set!

cidell said...

You should be pleased as punch. That's A-dorable.

Summerset said...

Love it! The bright colors are perfect for winter and you're so right, those twin sets are so expensive it isn't funny.

Kath said...

Really cute. I had that pattern in my wish list, but unfortunately didn't pick it up before it went OOP.

Chicago Sarah said...

Gorgeous. Well done!

elbereth said...

You look fantastic! Great job!