Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Fun with Fiona (Style Arc that is)!



I'm planning a trip away soon and it includes a cruise with two formal evening meals. I'm not really into the formal wear at all - I just love comfy no fuss clothes. With this in mind I put together everything I had that was suitable for cruise evenings and found that I had everything except a Style Arc Fiona cardigan. 'Shrug' had come to mind, so looking through the Style Arc website I found exactly what I needed. A little longer than a shrug but not a big heavy cardigan.

I had been saving some Affinity wool jersey from Knitwit for something special. I had two lots of 1.8m - black and blue. I thought the black would be ideal. I practised on some polycotton (I can't remember the name) from Knitwit and it all went together perfectly. Fitted so well that I'm keeping that one (a plus) - even though it has polyester in it!




Hanging up over one of a few tiny pocket tanks (without the pocket).

I photographed the cutting layout to help me - it's a little bit light here but it might just be possible to see! 




It was hard to get the layout all in one. You can get the idea that with the sleeves and body in one it takes a lot of planning! 

Now to the cutting out of my black Fiona. Well let's just say that it didn't go perfectly at all. The material was so soft and floaty that it was difficult to cut out or keep on my granite cutting table (otherwise known as the kitchen bench/depository of all things useful). As I had made sure that all the pieces fit (it can be quite hard but it is possible) I cut out a pair of the collar pieces. Then somehow or other I discovered that the stretch on this fabric did not go selvedge to selvedge and I hadn't checked first. Lesson learned here - always, always always check. This meant rearranging the material and the pattern pieces. Quel horreur! The pair I had already cut out with stretch going the wrong way were useless to me and I didn't have room for another pair on my wool jersey.

This is where I decided to use the blue for that piece. I had no choice if I wanted the stretch the right way. Thinking about it now I suppose I could have used the pieces with the stretch going the wrong way - it might not have made much difference! Oh well - I ended up with a pair of blue collar pieces and a pair of black. Everything would be fine.

All the band pieces (collar and back) have to be joined together in two almost circles. Now Style Arc patterns don't give many instructions but this top has great coloured pictures - it was easy to follow - the first one I made proved that. But I sewed some pieces together the wrong way round and had to unpick on this soft, delicate fabric. In the end I thought to myself that it was ruined so I might as well just go ahead and finish it anyway. What did I have to lose?

It turns out nothing, because I'm quite pleased with my two Style Arc Fiona cardigans now.

Excuse the selfies - no choice for now!







And I have enough blue fabric for a three-quarter sleeved Deer and Doe plantain top - already cut out and waiting to be sewn. What do you think of the blue collar? Mr SLTS (who isn't very patient when taking photos of my clothes but I'm working on it) thought that it looked pretty good (high praise indeed because he hardly ever says anything about my sewing)! Thank you Knitwit and Style Arc!

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