Sparkle Sweater Knit Julia Cardigan

For the holiday season, I wanted to make a festive cardigan to wear to the various parties I was scheduled to attend. Since time is always at a premium in December, I decided to make another Julia Cardigan rather than try a new pattern. This is the third one I’ve made, and I’m getting quicker with each one.

The fabric is from Fabric.com and was called “Stretch Sparkle Sweater Knit Silver.” In the time it took to arrive at my house, it disappeared from the website. This was my first time sewing with a sweater knit. It was a little more challenging than other knits I’ve worked with, but manageable. I didn’t pay a lot for it, and you can tell. My biggest complaint is that it snags constantly. In the cut I received, I found two major snags before I even started sewing. Short on time, I pressed ahead, but each time I wear this sweater, it snags every time I turn around. I fear it’s not long for this world.

Another issue I had is that the sleeves “grew” between the time I cut them, and the time I finished sewing them to the body. That problem was mitigated because of another problem that I created myself. In my rush to finish this in time, I sewed the first cuff on to the wrong side of the sleeve. I tried to fix it by making it a French seam, but it was way too bulky. By the time I had trimmed everything up, I lost an inch and a half of the cuff and an indeterminate amount of the sleeve, which offset the “growth” that had happened. That was the left sleeve. On the right sleeve, I trimmed an inch and a half off the cuff, but forgot to trim the sleeve, so the right sleeve is slightly longer than the left sleeve. With only a short time to go before I left the house for a day of parties, I decided to just leave it.

This is not my best work, but I’m okay with that. I reached my goal of sewing a festive cardigan before my holiday parties, and practiced sewing with a sweater knit. Next time, I’ll invest in better quality fabric, and give myself more time, in order to avoid preventable mistakes.