Saturday, November 12, 2016

Fleece Sweatshirt

I'm cold. All. The. Time.

And, I love thumbholes. If I could put thumbholes on every shirt, I would. I might. I find it amusing that thumbholes are now a thing, since I used to wear out the cuffs on my sweatshirts and push my thumbs through once they broke, and it was great, but looked ratty. No more!

Since I'm new to sewing apparel, I had to break down and buy a pattern for this one - McCall's M6614. Let me tell you, it probably took longer to cut out the pattern pieces than it took to actually sew this thing!

Oh and I learned a new equation: Serger + Pin = BAD.

I've sewn over pins on my regular machine before, worst outcome is a broken needle, no biggie. I got just a scooch too close to the upper knife with a pin on the serger and BAM! Blade snapped and shot across the room. All I could think is, "you'll shoot your eye out, kid." Fortunately my eyeballs are intact. However, serger blades are not easy to come by locally...so I had to stop, order, and wait. For two whole days...ack! While I waited, I used my regular machine to assemble most of it and decided I'd serge it later, which I think was a good call. NO PINS near the serger ever again. I ordered two sets of knives just in case though!

Overall this was a good pattern to work with. I made some modifications, including a sort-of-mock-turtleneck instead of a standard crew neck, and of course, my thumbholes. The next one I make, I'll have to remember to just cut the sleeves longer and incorporate the thumb holes rather than adding a cuff with the thumbholes. I made the thumbhole cuffs a bit wide and would like them to be a little more fitted to my hand, so I'll need to work that out. Plus, I haven't really nailed the turtleneck fit. I need to make those a little more fitted as well.

Fit is ok. Since I used fleece, it doesn't have too much stretch to it. But, it's warm. You'll find me curled up in a ball, wearing this and my plaid flannel pants I made, under my flannel sheets, fleece blanket, and primaloft comforter with my space heater on to keep my bedroom at a toasty 80 degrees. And I'll still be cold. :)