Simple Sew Classic Sweatshirt

This months make is the Classic Sweatshirt

I have made a sweatshirt style top a couple of times before, but have not been super happy with the fit of the neck, so when Gabby asked if anyone would like to use this pattern I was happy to say yes!

I looked at the finished garment measurements and decided to cut a size 8 for the shorter view B. This month my fabric came from Doughty's Online and I chose a textured floral print medium weight knit in a combination of pink, mustard, black & turquoise. The colour way I chose doesn't seem to available now but there is a blue version. I deliberately didn't choose the blue one as I am trying to get a bit more colour into my wardrobe.

I received the pattern just before Easter weekend and the fabric just after Easter, so I thought I had plenty of time to get this done. Unfortunately, I had done something to my back and have been pretty immobile until this last week, so have been doing 'last minute' sewing which I prefer not to do!

Having washed the fabric, and finally got around to laying out the pattern pieces I found that unusually, the stretch went down the length of the fabric rather than across the width. I thought about what to do for a little while and then decided to completely ignore the lay plan in the pattern instructions and cut the pieces with the stretch going across them (selvages at the top and bottom of of my layout rather than down the sides).

Fortunately for my 'last minute sewing' this sweatshirt is a pretty simple sew - see what I did there?  The raglan sleeves make putting this together very easy - all the notches matched  and I very quickly had something that looked like a top.

The pattern recommends using ribbing for the neckband, sleeve cuffs and hem band.  I didn't think that I wanted the look of contrasting colour for those, so decided to use self fabric.

I haven't used ribbing before, but I am guessing that it is pretty stretchy. I really struggled to get the neckband on using the method in the instructions and I suspect that the fabric just isn't quite stretchy enough.

I wangled it on in the end, completed the sleeve cuffs and hem band, then tried it on - disaster - I really didn't like it.  It was too long in the body, the sleeve were too long and the cuffs were too tight despite trying them on before attaching them. Rather than try to fix it then and there, I went to bed and had a proper look at it in the morning.

I ended up cutting about 10cm off the length of the body and reattached the hem band. I cut the cuffs off the sleeves, shortened the sleeves by about 4cm, cut new cuffs 2 sizes larger (my unorthodox cutting had left me with quite a big remnant) and attached the new cuffs.

This fixed all my  'problems' and hey presto I have a new top that I really like!