I’m a bit late to the Linden party, but better late than never. This is a pattern by “Grainline  Studio” and its a sweatshirt and its been about for years!

I bought this pattern over a year ago. It can take me a while to get round to making a new pattern. I’m always put off by the effort of trying to work out what size I am. I still don’t really know how to do it properly and it usually ends up as guess work.

Fairly simple to put together, my only headache came when I tried to attach the neckband the first time. Had a couple of issues. One being that the instructions weren’t very clear and I wasn’t too sure how exactly I was supposed to go about it, however I worked it out. Secondly was that I was originally going to use the same fabric as the main body of the sweatshirt for the all the bands. And it turned out that the sweatshirt fabric didn’t have enough stretch. At first I thought I must be doing something wrong, so I googled for some ideas, and found a blog where someone else had done the same (can’t remember the blog name now), confirming for me that the sweatshirt fabric didn’t indeed have enough stretch. And she ended up using ribbing. So I had to go get some ribbing. I found some gorgeous stuff in Merchant and Mills, which has coordinated beautifully with the sweatshirt fabric.

I really didn’t like it when I finished it and tried it on. Its quite different from my usual makes. Its more fitting and quite snug around the hips. And at first I was thinking it was too small (it isn’t), and I didn’t like the sleeves. I made the short sleeved version, which have no cuffs. And when I tried it on wished I’d made the long sleeved version. Although they were hemmed, the sleeves looked unfinished to me.

So I took it off and decided that was that, and reconciled myself to a failure!

After thinking about it for a while, I tried it on again. Really wasn’t happy about it being a failure as the fabric was quite expensive and I took a special trip to Rye to go to Merchant and Mills and get the ribbing. Didn’t want it all to be for nothing (had toyed with giving it to a friend). However, when I tried it on again, I had a moment of inspiration, and decided to add ribbing to the sleeves. Luckily I had enough left from the neckband.

And thats what I did, and that small alteration made all the difference.

I made it with a split hem.

Just look at that lovely ribbing. I love the thin gold stripe running just above the grey stripe.

Its not perfect, nothing I make ever is, but I’m still pretty damn happy with it! Hubby says it looks professional :0)

Another reason I didn’t like it at first was the length of the body, I usually like longer lengths on me, but I’m embracing something different. And I’ve come around to it.

I’m also quite satisfied with the short sleeves, as I don’t often wear long sleeves, if I do I end up pushing them up anyway.

This is one of the first things I’ve made that I’ve worn on the same day I finished it. And blogged it!