James’s birthday was on Thursday and since we can always use more warm, comfortable clothes around the boat, I decided to try BurdaStyle’s free Amin pattern that was just posted a few weeks ago. The example made in the photos uses a thick and chunky sweater knit, but I opted to make James’s as a more practical sweatshirt that could be tossed in the washing machine at will.
It’s got really nice lines for a mens pattern – princess seams (or would that make them “prince seams”?) that flow nicely into concealed hip pockets, but I decided to make these one better and create an iPhone pocket-within-a-pocket –
James was listening to something on his iPhone a few weeks ago when it clattered out of his jacket pocket in a Tube corridor, so that gave me the idea to create a special inside pocket to ensure the iPhone wouldn’t fall out. It’s just a simple patch pocket placed against the back of the standard pocket piece, with an open top (so the headphones can be plugged in), and against his body (so he can feel it ringing with headphones on). But because he’s always got his iPhone with him, I had to make a quick 30 second measurement of it when he was in the toilet one evening so he didn’t know what I was up to!
I used navy blue sweatshirting from Pennine Outdoor (which is now my very reliable “go to” for basic sweatshirting and cotton interlock!) and expensive, but very nice ribbing from Kleins to match.
I could’ve ordered the ribbing from Pennine, also, like I did I did with my hoodie, but I thought I’d branch out since I was going to be trawling around the Soho haberdashery shops anyway on my day off. The ribbing from Kleins is a lot thicker and more “knitted” looking than Pennine’s athletic-looking stuff, though you get a lot less of it for your money. I was barely able to squeeze the hem band, collar, and sleeve cuffs out of the half metre I bought (for £9!), but it just looks fantastic on and I’m really glad I splurged on it.
He wore it to a party we threw on Saturday night and more than one person simply could not believe that I’d made it (“But it looks like you’d buy in the shops!”), and I think that’s party down to my splurge on the ribbing. I also packaged up some metallic silver fabric paint and a nice brush along with this when I gave it to him so we can try out the freezer paper for a stencilled design on the back, too. I know he’s got a car design in mind, but I figured he’d be better suited to know what to put on it, and unlike painting on RTW garments, at least here we’ve got scrap fabric to test on first!