Leaving on a Jet Plane

We had a great time in Florida and as promised, I got lots of pictures! I actually had my own miniature me-made challenge as I was able to wear at least one piece of clothing that I had made on every day of the trip. And for those of you who may not know, I am sewing up garments inspired by the Cabi capsule collection, blogged about here.

So first up is my plane ride outfit- on the way out. Here, I am wearing the blue tank top and the ivory knit cardigan with jeans and flats.

I won't go into great detail about the tank. I've actually made it before using Simplicity 2593, blogged about here. I didn't change anything except for not making the twist neckline. A funny thing about the twist on my previous top- I actually ended up removing it after the first wear! It looked so cute... that is, until I put it in the wash. The twist was just never the same and ended up looking messy despite ironing. So I took it off and continue to get a lot of wear from this top. I used a wonderful blue cotton shirting from Gorgeous Fabrics. Looks like it is sold out now. But it's very lightweight, almost sheer and breaths nicely. I spent $12 for the tank.

For the cardigan, I used Simplicity 2603. Based off of the inspiration photo, I wanted a knit with some texture to it. I came across this lightweight, pointelle ivory knit at Hancock Fabrics. And it was on sale for half off! I spent $19 on the cardigan and about 3-4 hours sewing it up. I made a size Medium (14-16). I made the shortest version that the pattern had to offer and lengthened the sleeves slightly. I was aiming for full length sleeves but apparently was not doing my math correctly and only added a couple of inches (not sure how I thought this was going to be enough). So my sleeves are still 3/4 length but that's okay. The second change I made was to fold the back neck to the inside and tack it for about 4 or so inches. I had read this on a review of the pattern and it's a great tip for this pattern. When the back neck is rolled to the inside, the rest of the cardigan has a really nice drape to it. Without folding the neck to the inside, the front of the cardigan tends to roll outward, exposing the wrong side of the fabric. Now if I had made this with a solid knit, such as a rayon jersey, I would have left the ends raw instead of doing the narrow hem. I think it would have created a much cleaner look leaving the ends unhemmed, opposite of what you might think I know. But, because this was more of a sweater knit, I did go ahead and do all of the hemming.

This cardigan is a dream to wear! The fabric is perfect for warm weather. It's just the right weight to cover up in the cool air conditioning but not be too bulky. I love the design and style and the neutral color goes with just about everything. I actually wore this with several tops from my capsule wardrobe! I would love to make this again for fall/winter out of some rayon knits.

~Jenny