Three strikes and I want more! This is my third Longley Cardi by Wendy Ward, previous versions here. I had in mind to make a stripe version of this cardi for a while, I pictured wide stripes in either a sturdy or drapey jersey. This particular stripe jersey is from Ditto Fabrics, the last of the pieces I binge-bought back in January!
I saw the picture, registered the size of the stripe and added 2.5m pretty much immediately to the basket. I didn’t read any further. You know what’s coming….
So when you don’t order samples and don’t read the fabric description properly, sometimes the fabric that arrives is a little bit of a surprise! The stripes run the length of the fabric, opposite to what I thought they’d be. I was expecting your typical viscose jersey, in feel and handle. What came felt rather different. It’s described as having a “silky feel”. To be honest, when it came I would have described it as full on polyester. So procrastinated, wasn’t even sure I liked it.
One thing I really don’t like is waste, and not using this fabric felt a whole heap like wasting. So I just got on with it. I wanted the stripes to line up going up and down across the bands, so I made sure to cut the hem and neck bands very carefully to line up with the back piece on the fold. I couldn’t get the front band stripes to match both the back and front, and as the front has lots of drape it was decided it would be more forgiving to non-matching.
After all the kerfuffle and uncertainty, I’ve decided I do rather like this cardi, stripes, fabric, the lot. It counts towards my Sew Seasonal Wardrobe and being a staple blue and white, will go with pretty much everything already made and those pieces yet to be sewn.
I like the way the stripes change with the drape on the front, horizontal stripes on the front neck band contrasting with vertical stripes on the sleeves. It’s a more interesting cardigan than I thought it was going to be! No bad thing there. So it’s a success in the end, have you had doubts about a project, only to have it turn out ok on the day?
THE COMPULSIVE SEAMSTRESS 