spring sewing: Gemma sweatshirt

How's everybody doing? We're on day seven now, still mostly holding it together. Patrick's 40th birthday was yesterday and was obviously a much more subdued affair than we'd planned, but I made a cake for him and we had champagne over Skype with a couple of friends. The working from home is driving him a little crazy (as it seems to be for everyone), so he's voluntarily joined in with my anxiety bullet journalling. I was really sceptical of bullet journals to begin with - it just seemed like an excuse for women with disposable income to buy thousands of slightly different sellotapes - but it's actually working really well for me, both as an aid to my anxiety and my executive function issues.

Now, sewing! Gemma sweater! I've been going back and forth on this one for a long time. I've always thought it was a really cool design and heaven knows we all need a few more patterns that are actually prepared to be vaguely interesting, but I was concerned about the fit. The sweater looked to be super loose and the maxi dress skin tight, neither of which I'm crazy about. I'm not sure I'll ever make the dress, even though I'm actively looking for jersey maxi dresses right now; I can't see a clear way to get a looser fit without removing the shape entirely. But I really wanted the sweater, so I had a go.

This was my first attempt:

It's a little pointless to even show you this. You can't see the detail, but you can see my horrendously bumpy overlocker seams. This was the first non-test I sewed on my new toy, and it was a BAD idea. It just hated this fabric, and this fabric hated it right back. I thought that I was doing something horribly wrong until I tried to sew a bunch of other fabrics and it was all smooth and quick and lovely.

I picked this fabric out of the Abakhan by-the-kilo bin for one reason only: it is the softest thing I have ever touched in my life. It makes me feel like a cartoon angel rolling around on a cloud. I wish it looked different. I haven't worn camo since 1997, when All Saints and combat trousers were the number one trend and camo dresses were the only thing I could get in Mark One (the shop of choice for twelve-year-old me) for the school disco. And even that was purple camo. Which I fully accept is probably worse. The point is, I have never felt the urge to wear this kind of print and this hasn't changed my mind. But I have been wearing this a lot at home, because SO soft. It's also super drapey, which isn't really the right thing for this pattern but has made me want more drapey sweaters.

I didn't make many changes on this one. I swapped the collar out for a neckband (I didn't alter the neckline) and I didn't put the drawstring through the bottom. Hemming it at all took it to a weird length I didn't like, so I haven't. I can deal with the camo better when it's a long, slouchy sort of thing.

When I sat down to write my plan, this was the only version I had in mind. As I was writing about the weird camo, a little voice in my head suddenly said "but a black version with leather contrast tho" and I got very excited. Excited enough that I didn't really care when the first version came out a quasi-failure.

I am so pleased with this. It's exactly what I pictured when the idea hit me. Textural contrast is not one of the things I'm good at, so I'm extra happy that I thought of this and that it's worked so well. 

I got the leather from the jacket I was cutting out (I cut out my contrast at the same time, and I'm glad I did because I don't think I'd ever have squeezed it out of the scraps otherwise) and then spent some time mulling over black sweatshirting. I eventually went for the Stoff & Stil French terry, which I've used before and really liked. It has very low stretch and a very soft wrong side, which makes for a great cosy sweatshirt.

(Please excuse the random mish-mash of photos from two different days. I'm not really sleeping at the moment and it's been tough to get any pictures at all where I don't look either despondent or murderous. If things don't improve I may well end up making some sort of Venetian mask and wearing that for all my photos.)

I really wanted to make sure the leather pieces lined up properly, so I basted each seam before overlocking. The point of the triangle was slightly off on my first attempt, which you can't really see on that one but would be glaringly obvious here. I'm glad I did, because I haven't done much of this kind of diagonal panel sewing and my understanding of how the pieces needed to line up at the seam in order to sit properly was extremely wrong the first time I tried it. 

Both this and the previous version are the same size, a straight 44. I almost sized down for this one because I really didn't want it to be that oversized-looking, but thanks to the much stiffer fabric it looks much more fitted. I knew I wasn't going to want the drawstring hem so I didn't grade out for my hips the way I normally would. It's more obvious on this second version that I should have sized down in the shoulders, but I don't think it's that big a deal for a garment like this. 

For version one I sewed the elasticated cuffs as directed in the pattern, but for this one I replaced them with simple ribbed cuffs. I quite like the way the cuffs look on the first one, but a lot of what I like about them is the drape they create at the wrists, which this fabric was not going to be able to recreate. Also I wanted to make the neckband out of ribbing and thought it would look more balanced if I had the same fabric at the cuffs. The hem is a normal overlock-turn-and-stitch job. 

I will absolutely make this pattern again, I think it's great. I'll probably wait until I get another good idea for the contrast, or I work out how to turn the maxi dress into something that would fit me the way I like. Something I'd quite like to do is hack it into a hoodie, and maybe see if I can draft a front kangaroo-type pocket that fits in with the rest of the panelling. 

Up next on Thursday will probably be Patrick's fancy birthday shirt, assuming I can persuade him to be photographed. I'm hoping to get the silk dress finished this week and at least make some kind of start on the first leather jacket of doom, but I'm also trying not to only sew in case I burn out and it's not fun anymore. I would love recommendations for good how-to YouTube channels - I'm almost not bothered what I'm learning as long as it's taught well. Currently I have three things on my To Learn list: wire wrapping, Python, and basic Welsh. How useful will any of these things be? Who knows. 

Named Clothing Gemma sweatshirt

Fabric: Light sweater knit from Abakhan // French terry from Stoff & Stil

Cost: £4 // £15

Pattern details: Loose-fitting sweater with contrast panels, funnel neck, elastic cuffs and drawstring waist. Also a tight fitting maxi dress with back vent

Size: 44

Alterations: Swapped funnel neck for standard neckband, left off drawstring waist, cuffs changed on version two

Would make again/would recommend: Yes/Yes