JAM 7: Simplicity 2154 is Done!

I finished up the retro cardi yesterday with minimal drama.

I made the vertical buttonholes with Babylock Audrey's automatic buttonhole function--just straight onto the fabric, no stabilizer required. I think the grosgrain ribbon facing really helped in that respect. I made the top buttonhole manually with zigzag stitching. It's not perfect by any means, but it's functional and the the stitches blend into the animal print so it looks ok at a glance. I couldn't use the buttonhole function because of the neckband seam. I made a bunch of samples and couldn't come up with a way to make it work. I'm going to experiment with this technique some more so I can use it on other garments--this happens a lot with machine buttonholes, so it would be worth having another option. I wouldn't want to manually make a whole set, sometimes you need another way for the occasional buttonhole near an edge or a seam.

The sweater came out pretty well for a prototype; I'm happy with the style and fit. I wear a lot of gray so I'll have plenty of opportunities to wear it. I also feel comfortable using this pattern for the expensive wool and rayon sweater knit. Mission accomplished!

The fabric is an acrylic and rayon blend sweater knit that I've had in the stash for several years. I think it came from Jo-Ann's. I was in Hancock's Friday, and it turns out they had some so it's back in production again. Since this project was working out so well, I bought a couple of pieces for future knit projects in green and purple prints.

BTW, my camera's battery was running very low, so bear with me on using this quick snapshot of the corner of the Sewing Cave. I think I owe you all a couple of "styled" photos of recent garments, and hopefully can do something about that soon.