This weeks Crafty Bloggers Club post is from Dani, you can find more of her makes on Instagram @pocketortwo and on her blog pocketortwo.blogspot.com

Sadly, the jersey Dani used for her sweater has already sold out! We will try and get more in if we can, but we have lots of other lovely jersey fabrics that would also work beautifully for this pattern.

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Hello Readers. I’ll begin this blog post with a confession just to get it out of the way: I have a sweatshirt problem. I can’t stop sewing them. When Freya sent me photos of the new jerseys to chose from, I was immediately drawn to the prints and the shark fleece-backed sweatshirt (I LOVE a print!) and then I thought: “Yes, I can sew another sweatshirt!” My second thought was: “Another one?” And then I remembered that I had been coveting the Nina Lee Southbank Sweater Dress pattern for ages. I have seen so many bloggers and vloggers in this pattern and it always looks super cosy and stylish at the same time. So I decided to pair this fabric with the Southbank pattern, which I also got from Crafty Sew and So. I mean a dress is different to a sweatshirt, right?

I love to sew with knits as they’re generally quick makes. This one was no exception. I hadn’t expected to sew it up so quickly but the sewing part took around 3 hours in total. I used my overlocker to sew the majority of the pattern and just used my sewing machine (with a ball-point needle) for attaching and under-stitching the pockets. The instructions are really thorough and there are lots of pieces of advice to read before you start sewing, so if you’re new to sewing with knits, this is a good pattern to talk you though needles, types of stitches etc. Alongside the dress, the pattern also contains two other versions – a regular length sweatshirt and a cropped sweatshirt. The cropped version is next on my list after making the dress.

For the dress, I graded out from a size 10 to a 12 at the hips. I looked at the finished measurements to check the fit and realised that the straight 10 would have been too small. I’m really pleased with the fit. The pockets do add a bit of extra volume at the hips though, so if you don’t like this addition, you can easily omit them from the pattern and just sew the side seams straight down. Alternatively, you could make the pockets from a lighter-weight jersey. 

 I absolutely love this fabric; it’s really snuggly and soft and the shark print is super cool. There is one thing to bear in mind if choosing this fabric for a garment that requires stretch. When I came to sew the collar, I realised (before I’d sewn it up and onto the garment) that there was no way it would stretch over my head. Although the shark fabric has some elastane content, the stretch is greater length ways rather than width ways. So, I decided to cut another collar piece, but this time, I cut it lengthways (so the sharks are facing upwards). This adjustment worked fine and I really don’t mind the change in direction on the collar at all.  As for the Southbank pattern, I also love it! I will be making more versions. It’s a great essential to add to my stash. 

 Thanks for reading, 

Dani 

(@pocketortwo) 

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Crafty Bloggers Club Contributors are given products and materials to test from Crafty Sew&So. We hope you enjoy their honest and impartial reviews of the products. All opinions are their own.