Whew!

Action shots

This post was almost titled “Disaster, Part II.” But at least temporarily, disaster appears to have been avoided.

Finished (?)

I finished Tyo’s Jalie 2795 bunnyhug late Saturday, and handed it to her to try on. I was a little apprehensive since an early test fitting had suggested it was going to be snug; the sleeves had been a little short, so I had added an extension to the cuffs, as you can see.

Well, Tyo couldn’t even get her hands through the cuffs without major pinching and pulling. That being said, once she did get it on, she didn’t even want to take it off to go to bed, always a good sign. So when I got up this morning I sliced off the old cuffs, grabbed the pattern piece, and dug through the mass of scraps under my cutting table in search of something I could make a new pair of cuffs from (since the rest of the fabric I used for this has now been reduced to scraps none of which are much bigger than 4″ square. I eventually (to my great relief!) turned up the remnant of the fabric from when I made this sweater last winter. It’s not as fresh and dark a black as the other sweatshirt knit, but there was enough of it and I was beyond caring (and I suspect things will even out after a wash or three)

Cuffs!

So I improvised some wider, extra-long cuffs, slapped them on, and the child was happy to go. Further examination indicated that the problem with the cuffs may have been more me than the pattern—I think I reversed the direction of maximum stretch in my attempts to cut thriftily, as the fleece grainline isn’t obvious, the only way to tell is by stretching the fabric experimentally.

Slim fit

The size, which I was really worried about, is definitely not generous. This will be great when I make one for myself, but isn’t exactly what you’re usually looking for for kids. I have a feeling the time she’ll be wearing this one will be measured in months as opposed to years or even seasons.

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Interfaced zipper

In an attempt to avoid wavy-zipper issues, I used a small strip of interfacing on either size of the zipper insertion. This seems to have (mostly) done its job, except I should probably have put it on the other side—the way I folded the zipper in to finish everything the edges of the strip show on the inside, which isn’t ideal.

Back view

I wasn’t too keen with how the hood, which inserts on top of the collar, looked when I first stitched it up, but I actually like it quite a bit when worn. The size is ok, not big but not too small to be functional, and the unusual seaming looks really nice when it’s down.

I used two main seam finishes in this piece, serging and topstitching on the black sweatshirt material and stitching the seams inside-out and covering the seam allowance with twill tape on the fleece. Both are pretty fun and make for a nice finish, but are a bit time-consuming (you have to go over each seam three times). A few seams, like the underarm/sideseams, I just stitched and then serged for finish.

Pocket and side panels

The one interesting bit of construction was the pocket openings. They’re set into the side seams, and you basically make a single welt and insert it into the cut-out in the side-piece. It gapes a bit towards the centre, but I don’t actually mind the look, and it meant that I was less likely to catch the welt in the seam. Yay! It also helps that my pocket lining and my side-panel material matched—I wouldn’t want to use a different material for the pocket lining (not that you normally would on a sweatshirt).

Most importantly, though, it was perfect for a day at the playground.

Play!