Hello again!  I’m back with my entries for the Sweater Contest over at PatternReview.  I don’t expect to win, I simply wanted to join in on the fun and try my hand at drafting my own pattern.

I have a sweater that I love; it has been worn, washed and dried a zillion times.  It’s even taken on black dye from stupidly washing it with some black silk twill fabric which created a really cool gray coloration.  Unfortunately it only lasted for 4 more washes.  The sweater is 100% cotton and can has withstood a lot of abuse….thankfully.  So it was my inspiration.

I began by laying it out flat on my cutting table and tracing each seam-line, the sleeve and half of the front and back.

Then I used my trusty French curve to true each line and added a 3/8″ seam allowance.  Each seam was walked to make sure they would sew together evenly. I love this process of technical thinking.   One of the coolest new tools I have is a Curve Runner that is for measuring curves! It makes it so much easier to be accurate.  This proved to be essential for measuring the neckline and Raglan sleeve seam-lines.

Drafting a Raglan-sleeve top is pretty basic and IMO is much more forgiving as far as fit goes.  We all expect some extra fabric in the armhole…its the nature of the style.  I decided to draft the waistband, sleeve cuffs and neckline pieces at 7/8 the length of the seam.  This is something that can and will change based on the amount of stretch of the binding fabric.  I made a total of 3 versions, thus the name Sweater No. 3.

I ended up making four in total before I reached my final version.  What was really great, is that I ended up with liking all of them.  Each is made from different fabrics which undoubtedly changes how the top fits, but I was really looking for a loose-fitting top like in my cream-colored version.  I don’t have a picture of my 3rd one yet, but will add it when I get around to another photo shoot.

Version #2 …this link will take you to my PR review where i explain the fabric and other deets.

Version #4…this link will take you to my PR review where i explain the fabric and other deets.

Fabric Used:

• Version #1 is a swirly textured polyester blend sweater knit purchased from SilhouettePatterns.com
• Version #2 is a polyester rib-knit from Fabric.com
• Version #3 (not pictured) is a french terry cotton
• Version #4 is a textured sweater knit with matching ribbing from O’Jolly.com

I really enjoyed this whole process and it only took a day and a half from start to finish.  I want to make more patterns and learn how to draft (and grade) in Adobe so I can make PDFs.  Then…if anyone wanted one, I could offer pattern downloads.  All in good time!

Disclaimer: none of the links in this post are affiliate nor do I get anything for linking. I simply want to share in case it may help a future sewing friend!

Thanks for getting all the way to the end.  Have you self drafted any of your makes?

I would love to hear what you think, so drop a comment below so we can meet or better yet, link your blog if you have one!