There came a point about midway through the construction of this where it suddenly dawned on me that I was creating my second draped collar sweater with pieced sleeves of the month. Clearly the sweater knits in my stash were calling out to me, and I’m naturally drawn to drapey styles. Though I really must remember when I’m in fabric stores that 2m really isn’t enough for long sleeves and a big collar!
This the Michael Kors-inspired, collared sweater from the June 2011 Manequim magazine. Last week I showed you details on the construction of the various pieces and altering the size “Small” pattern to my basic knit tee pattern.
The only problem was, when I was laying out the pattern pieces onto my awesome, ex-Versace sweater knit from Ditto in Brighton I realised that yet again, I didn’t have enough fabric to lay out the sleeves without piecing them, argh! I didn’t want to back down since I’d tried to use this fabric for something else last winter, but 2m of a really narrow fabric really limits your possibilities. So I carried on, introducing two seams in the lower arms. Frankly, sleeves tend to bunch up so much around the sleeves that I find the seams kinda get lost visually around that area anyway.
In the end, I was forced to cut the collar on the bias simply because the fabric was too narrow to place it on the cross grain!
You can finally see this sweater worn with my recent grey flannel trousers as intended, but also with my new l-o-v-e, Max Factor Lasting Lip Tint in “06 Royal Plum” (I’m so buying more in other shades!).
Here’s the side and back views:
I really love this big, floppy, warm draped collar. On first glance, it looks really similar to the collar on Paco’s draped collar tunic, but the pieces are entirely different shapes, and you can see that the collar layers overlap here, so that in the centre front, there’s actually four layers on the collar side!
I already mentioned the pieced sleeve, but when laying out the extra sleeve pieces, I was down to such tiny scraps that I couldn’t quite make the full sleeve length even with piecing. I ended up with a funny shaped sleeve hem, and I figured I’d either trim it back or even it out somehow when I first tried it on.
But as a happy accident, I actually really like the sleeves this long, and the cutaway at the inner wrist just means the sleeve flares nicely over my hands. In order to keep this, I had to leave the raw edge visible, so to make it look more intentional, I left the main hem of the sweater raw, too. This knit is in no danger of unravelling, so I think it really works here*.
And finally, a nice full-length shot for you!
Coming up this week: The February KnipMode and…. my Burda February dress!! Oh yes!
* Yes, I totally understand the sewer’s compulsion to never, ever leave anything looking unfinished! It was a hard decision to make!