fleece – THE COMPULSIVE SEAMSTRESS

Spicy Toaster

Well, it’s finally happened, I made a Toaster Sweater for myself!! After making so many for the girls, I’m glad to finally have one of my own. I used Toaster #1 for me. I like the look of the other version, but thought the length would be too short, the sleeves too long and the neckline too high for me.

I adjusted the pattern slightly by adding FBA and omitting the high-low hem and split side seam detail. The sleeves needed to be shortened too, I took 4c out of the length! I evened up the length of the body, making the front and back the same length as the back, and just sewed the side seam all the way. The Talvikki has that same detail, and it’s ok, but I prefer it without.

spice-toaster-4

My fabric is a spicy rusty terracotta colour that’s rather tricky to label. I had wanted more of a paprika colour, similar to that of the linen I bought and loved so much in the summer. This has more red in it, and might be a slightly cooler tone. But – it will still work with my colours, and that’s what counts! My good friend, Jane in Chicago sent it to me as an early Xmas present! She’s a good friend.

spice-toaster-2

The feece has just enough stretch in it to qualify, but next time I’ll make the sleeves wider if my fabric has just that much stretch again. It’s fine with tight fitting sleeves, or short sleeves, but if there’s more to my shirt underneath, it gets a bit crumpled and uncomfortable. However – this is a great sweater/fleece!! It’s so warm! And that’s the point – to have a warm, cuddly, toasty sweater now the weather has changed and winter is on it’s way. Now I need to make more…

Toaster Time!

Apologies for no Work in Progress Wednesday this week, I’d spent the day sorting out my vintage pattern stash. It is time to make room in my pattern drawers, time to move on the patterns I know I’ll never make. Someone else can have the chance to pat them, drool on them and store them in their own pattern stash! If you fancy seeing what I’m moving on, you can check my Etsy shop. I’ll be adding more patterns regularly, as soon as I check them and photograph them!

collage cream toaster — Two collar styling options!

I have actually started another project – two in fact! I’ll show them off later, but today I’ve got a couple of Toaster Sweaters that I made for Daughter No1 last month. The cream fleece was bought from Closs & Hamblin in Winchester. I actually got enough to make two of these, one for each of the girls. I’ve made quite a few of these Toaster Sweaters now, and they’re nice and quick to run up! I like that the collar is floppy enough to wear up or folded down!

cream toaster 2 — We had such beautiful colours on the climbers on the front of the house. They were gone by the next weekend.

cream toaster 4

The raglan sleeve seams, joining seams of the hem band and collar are topstiched with a twin needle. I have a feeling I should have bought more of the fleece when it was available!

cream toaster 3 — The fleece is soft enough that the collar can be folded over and give a rolled look.

cream toaster 6

I also had some grey jersey with sweatshirt backing. It has nooo stretch, so I went up a size in making it. I had bought it years ago from Fancy Silk Stores in Birmingham, and I made a Sewaholic Fraser for Daughter No2 with it. The rest (about 1.5m) has been hanging around in the stash ever since, waiting for Daughter No1 to choose a pattern. Eventually, the Toaster was named as the lucky pattern this year.

collage grey toaster — I made the medium to accommodate the lack of stretch.

grey toaster 3

grey toaster 5 — Long sleeves mean you can tuck your hands inside to keep them warm!

grey toaster 1 — This is one warm and snuggly Toaster Sweater!

The weather this weekend is absolutely perfect for wearing these sweaters, she’ll be warm and toasty! 🙂

Work in Progress Wednesday

I’m working on two cream polar fleece Toaster Sweaters today. I’d made one for Daughter No2 last year, in the Autumn and she loved it – until I put it in the wash with a whole lot of dark things. Not cream anymore! Still wearable, but dull and dingy. So I promised I would make it right, naturally. In the meantime, Daughter No1 announced she’d rather like one in that colour please, not the dingy one, a nice cream one.

Ever obliging, 3m of polar fleece was duly purchased from Closs & Hamblin, washed and ready to go. I cut the straight Medium for Daughter No2 and the Small (across the body and in length and width of sleeves) for Daughter No1. She likes a looser fit across the top half, so I cut the medium in the raglan and neck area. Make sense?

A little pile of small pieces, cuffs, collar and hem band

The fleece is lovely, they say it’s anti-pill and I really hope it will be. It’s a lovely colour, warm but not too buttery-creamy. It cuts easily and doesn’t want to roll. Now normally I’d use the overlocker for 95% of the construction of a Toaster Sweater, leaving the sewing machine to do the topstitching. But my trusty Janome is out for a service, and I’ve drafted in the Queen of Diva Overlockers, the Bernina. She’s a tough old cookie and will not do a 5 thread overlock with chain stitch for me at all. I’m reliable informed she’s not the only one, so it’s not just me. So I used the sewing machine to sew all the seams, overlocked and trimmed the edges with the overlocker, and went back to the sewing machine for twin needle topstitching.

Overlocking and triming the seams of the raglan

With the construction of the Toaster, I pin all the pieces I can and bulk sew, production line style. So that’s the cuffs, neck and hem band and all the raglan seams, then I feed them through the machine, one after the other. Then the small pieces are turned through, seams pressed to one side and I pin the raw edges together, matching the notches, so they’re ready to be attached to the body. After the raglan seams are done, I topstitch then add the neckband – before the side seams are done! So much easier to do neckline treatents when your garment is flat people!

4mm twin needle for topstitching, using the centre line on the machine foot to line up with the seam, finished topstitched seam

I used the 4mm stretch twin needle for this job. It gives good distance with the seamline running in the centre. Once all the small pieces are attached, they can be topstitched too. I added a little bit of ribbon to the centre back of the neckline, different on each one. This is so I can tell them apart and not deliver the wrong one! It’s also a nice touch to mark out the back when one is getting dressed in the half dark, which is coming…

Blue and cream ribbon for Daughter No2’s Toaster, and olive green and white spotty bias for Daughter No1’s

I have just over half a metre of the cream fleece left over after cutting these out, I might have to get a little more (maybe in a different colour) to make something else. Waste not, want not! But before I get carried away, I need to finish these!