My Month of Tops Continues

This has been a busy week in my sewing room. I've finished the set I'll show you today and have cut out three other tops, one of which is almost done.And most of the fabrics have come from my stash!

The first part of the set is this simple turtle neck made from Butterick 3344, one of my all-time favorite patterns

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The fabric was a piece of stable sweater knit  leftover  from something else and is a really good match for this cardigan.The belt was a recent find at our local second hand store. It's gorgeous and I paid  $2.00.

The second piece is a cardigan.The pattern is B5394       to which I added patch pockets and a self belt.I also added three inches to the length, just because.

The fabric for the cardi is a wool sweater knit which has metallic threads running through it. It's very warm and cozy. I like it but it may look a little like a robe so I forgive you if you think so..But it's just the type of garment I'll reach for often on a cold day like today.

Special steps I took to make this unstable knit workable are as follows.

The knit was quite unstable and a little see through in spots so I knew I had to stabilize the seams. I used clear elastic at the neckline and a sheer  bias stay tape that has memory.( I no longer have the packaging so I can''t tell what kind). I had to trim the tape close to the stitching lines because it tended to show through in spots. Here's a pic.

As for the pockets, I hand stitched them to the sweater. It seemed the only way to make them as subtle as possible.

I didn't interface any part of the cardi. I wanted to keep the integrity of the knit and I'm satisfied with the result.

Here's another look.

It's very cold here in Eastern Canada today and I'm very comfy in my new sweater set.

More pics here.

Hope you had time to sew this weekend.

More later from