If you have been on my Instagram lately then you know I’ve been down and out with a pinched nerve and muscles spasms the past week. I was stuck in bed in pain for a solid week and I am thankfully starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel! In the later part of the week I started this Pattern Scout Lulu Cardigan (View A) jacket. It could’ve been sewn entirely in one night on my serger, but because of my limited time feeling okay each day, it took me the whole week. And that is all I was able to accomplish on my LONNNNNNG list of things to do. Which means that I’m playing major catch up right now! Anyway, I just wanted a brief background before I gave you my pattern and fabric review! And all the fun photos!
First off….. The fabric. This month for my Measure Fabric Post, I chose this LUXE “bonded Scuba Double knit” fabric. When I say luxe…. I have never touched a fabric like this in any fabric store I’ve been to. It is incredible. I have so many ideas of what it could be used for (knit blazer, a dress with cool raw-edged ruffles, sports/workout wear, I mean…. anything). I love it so much and when I saw these two colors next to each other I knew they were meant to be color-blocked together of course!
Before I began cutting the pieces I colored the illustration of the printed PDF pattern to decide which colors I wanted where. I had not planned that stripe down the middle but…. I accidentally cut two pieces for the back center instead of on-the-fold, so it was a happy accident! And I HAD planned a stripe on the shoulders, so it just continued the theme!
Sometimes mistakes lead us to better solutions than our original ideas. Have you ever found that to be true? I’ve seen it happen in art, sewing, and life in general. Sometimes its better for things to not go “our” way because the end result is much richer than if we’d had no problems or resistance! This “mistake” was minor but it just got me thinking about how often magic happens in those instances.
If you ever see a lady posing like this next to those big red balls outside Target, just walk on by. Pretend like its not weird okay? I definitely had cars slowing down trying to figure out why I was doing all this stuff on the ball this morning…. like….what??
Hey I’m just stretching over here okay?!
So on to the LULU CARDIGAN PATTERN REVIEW:
The instructions were very well written, as with everything I’ve made from Pattern Scout, and the illustrations were clear as well.
The only modifications I made were: I made color-blocked/striped shoulders and back (the accidental stripe fix), and then for the cuffs, I found that the sleeves were almost the perfect length on my arms so I made a narrower cuff.
My measurements are 36″ Bust 28″ waist 36″ Hip which put me in between an 8 and 10 for bust and waist and a 2 for hips. When that happens I usually do some grading, but since that was a big difference, I looked at the finished measurements to get a better idea. I ended up cutting out a 6 in the bust and waist and graded down to a 2 at the bottom of each piece (starting at the waist), but then realized it doesn’t actually go to my hip so I probably could’ve graded down to a 4 and been fine.
*If I had done View B with the snaps I probably would’ve stuck with the size 8 or 10 at the top so there wasn’t any pulling.
My 8 year old asked me today if she could borrow my new beautiful jacket (its that fabric I tell ya!!!) to wear to school tomorrow (yes my 8 and 10 year olds regularly raid my closet already!!!), so I’m going to say its a win. I am cool enough as a 38 -year-old mom to have her kids want to borrow her stuff. Woohoo!
Now when my doctor husband saw that I took these particular shots… while still dealing with a pinched nerve and muscle spasms….. he may have had some words.. like… WHAT WERE YOU DOING??? hehe. I told him I rested the rest of the day! That laundry and a 2 year were much more taxing! And that it was mostly my legs, not my back and arm! …….
Thank you Target for your red balls, your red carts and your red walls. All of which I couldn’t have taken these awesome photos of my new SUPER SCUBA BOMBER without.
