from the drafts: Chenille sweater

About a year ago, I made the Kommatia Patterns Chenille sweater as a "cheer up" project after too many planned projects in a row turned out unsuccessfully. And I really liked it! But I never posted it. When I realised I wasn't going to have a new garment completed in time for today's post, my first thought was this sweater, already photographed and waiting in my drafts. Then I came back and looked at the photos, and remembered why I'd never posted it. So this morning I hastily took a new set of pictures and completely rewrote the post. So much for saving time!

The pattern is a fairly simple loose-fitting sweater with an exaggerated batwing. It's confusingly uncommon for pattern designers to produce knit tops with any kind of aesthetic, and I was really drawn to this one despite it being way outside of my usual style and silhouette. Every so often I get this idea in my head that I could be cool, or at least do a decent impression of a cool person,

The fabric is from Walthamstow (sigh, I miss Walthamstow so much, I really hope all the traders are okay) and it's the perfect thing for this top. It's a light, soft, very loose-weave sweater knit with metallic gold thread running through it. If you'd asked me to design my ideal fabric for a loose jumper this is what I'd have come up with. It was also £1 per metre, somehow.

As you can see, it is VERY batwing. I don't dislike this in any way, but it is VERY batwing. I'm glad I went for a very soft and drapey fabric because this would look bizarre in a more structured jersey. It's also super cropped, higher in the front than the back, and finished with bands at the neck, sleeves and waist. I made an XL, as I always do in Kommatia patterns.

Construction was mostly incredibly simple, and I would say the only difficult bit is getting the huge amount of fabric in the sleeves to fit into the very small amount of fabric in the cuffs. It's worth the effort, though - I really love the look and the drape of these sleeves.

I haven't really worn this since I made it, which annoys me. I don't want to get stuck in a rut silhouette-wise, and when I just stand with my arms down like this I think it looks super cute and taps into a vibe I don't ordinarily get to experience. On the other hand, I really don't know how to wear this as an outfit. As soon as I have any volume on the bottom it looks ridiculous, and there are many angles I could stand at which also make it look ridiculous. I tried photographing it with a bunch of different outfits last year and none of them looked right. I'm trying again today with my Jalie Clara leggings (which I'm actually wearing as loungewear at the moment, to my immense surprise), and I think it looks cute riiiight up to the point where I have to lift my arms.

That's a lot of midriff. If I were to go outside in this (which I wouldn't, I don't think, because leggings aren't trousers to me) I would need a tucked-in top underneath, and it's just way more thought and planning than I want to put into this level of casual outfit. Now that I am wearing leggings at home, though, this will get a decent amount of wear inside and I may also start wearing it over my gym gear when we're allowed back to the gym again.

I keep thinking about making another one, because I really do love this design, but I know it's not realistic or useful to do so. Grrr.

I'm having a pretty rubbish week (general situation and anxiety combined with period and getting scammed has not done me well) and I'm not really getting much done. I've started the jacket but it's coming on very slowly, motivation is scarce and I mostly just want to eat cookies and snuggle into my sofa groove. We'll see how this weekend goes and whether getting a bit of vitamin D does anything to help. Fingers crossed!