Black geometric lace cardigan, Simplicity 1945

I had the need for an open weave type of cardigan. I found that in pictures recently taken with me in my new Appleton wrap dresses that my solid black and solid brown cardigans really made me look chopped up. Especially from the back, where all you would see is the bottom portion of the dress sticking out from the bottom of the cardigan. For some reason this was bothering me! 

If I'm wearing a cardigan strictly because I'm cold then too bad! If someone wants to see my dress they can look at the front of me ;) However, we all have those times where we just might be cold so we grab a cardigan to through over just because. Well, for those times I thought it would be nice to have something that still provided some sense of an extra layer but still let the dress fabric show through. 

An open knit cardigan would be perfect! I found this great fabric on smugglersdaughter.com and picked it up. The quality of the fabric is just lovely!!! Unfortunately, I did not notice the run down the middle of it until I started working with the fabric. Boo :( 

Lesson learned: always fully check your fabric when it's delivered to your home! I always do this in the store when buying yardage...

Anyhow, mistakes happen and I decided to work around it. 

The pattern is an old one I've made before. Simplicity 1945

I had to cut the back in 2 pieces due to the fabric run and made this pattern matching a priority. Otherwise it would have just looked dreadful in the back. However, this meant that I did not have enough fabric to match the pattern across the fronts or the side seams. I decided to just ignore the side seams! For the fronts I was not able to match the patterns but I was able to do a full offset. So at least I had deliberate plan and it did not just look pattern didn't match! 

I was a bit worried about sewing up this fabric due to the open weave. Worried for nothing! This actually sewed up like a dream. Both the serger and the sewing machine had no problems whatsoever with it. 

For the neckline and the front edge, I used a cotton knit facing that I sewed on, flipped, pressed, sewed at about 3/8 inch from front edge and then just trimmed the raw edge on the back. The knit won't ravel and I feel like this gave just enough weight to the front edge to hold it in place. The rest of the hem and the sleeve hems were just folded under, pressed and cover stitched. 

The hardest part of the entire project was getting creative with the layout and matching the center back seam. The rest of the sewing was just taking my time, careful handling and it went together great!

Here is a photo of me in it... An action shot from the last Sew Chicago ASG meeting. 

Next up on my work table... A French jacket and a fun and funky skirt to go with it! 

Happy Sewing!

Happy face :) she's blowing kisses! Melt my heart!!