I jumped all over the extremely cheap clearance blush Loopback jersey (French terry) and interlock jersey from New Craft House when I saw it marked down – £4.80/m and £3.60/m respectively! These are a beautiful pale peachy pink colour and are perfectly matching, so I knew they’d be perfect for sewing another comfy sweatshirt.
I opted for the FibreMood Lara sweatshirt pattern again, same as the black Lestat one I made last fall. This time I went down a size to L instead, tracing off another size from my pattern magazine. The design is meant to be oversized, and I love my black version, but for this I wanted it to be comfy without being overly baggy.
I absolutely love this pattern – the dropped shoulders, the extended sleeve stripe up to the collar, the flexibility of choosing whether to have front and back princess seams or not… but the instructions for the kangaroo pocket absolutely suck. I ranted about these in my previous post – they’re overly complicated and the words and illustrations are at odds.
So I swore that I’d document a better method for constructing the pockets if I ever sewed it again, and I’m as good as my word!
A better order of constructing the front pockets:
(NO NEED TO CLIP TO THE CORNER MARKS!)
- Join the Front to itself at the pocket CF (& topstitch the opening folded edge if you want)
- Join the Side Front to itself at its pocket CF
- Sew the Front to Side Front at the princess seam down to the corner, across the pocket top, and back up the other princess seam (see photo below)
- Reach inside the bottom of the Front pocket and sew the short vertical seams and the angled seams joining the Front & Side Front pockets (either up to the mark or beyond it if you want your stuff less likely to fall out!!)
- Baste the bottom of the pockets together through all layers
I love that I could buy the same colour of fabrics in different weights, as it meant I could use the lighter, stretchier interlock jersey for the neckband, sleeve cuffs, and hemband, and the heavier loopback jersey for the body and sleeves of the sweatshirt.
In addition to the kangaroo pockets, I actually added an additional patch pocket inside for my phone! I used to do this all the time to make it extra-secure and far less likely that my phone might fall out into the river, and I’m glad I remembered to here, too, as it’s also handy for cycling.
I might add some heat transfer vinyl onto this at some point, but for now I’m happy enough to keep this plain. I love the colour, even though it’s hard to photograph accurately (most accurate are the photos in my sewing room), and the fabrics themselves are such high quality!