Fabulous fabric turns the Seamwork Oslo cardigan into a coatigan!

I’ve had this pattern forever… so glad I finally matched it to an awesome fabric and sewed it up. This is a great piece for fall – more of a coatigan really, especially with the heavy weight knit I chose. I found this Ponte de Roma knit a while back and couldn’t get myself to leave the store without it, even though I didn’t know what to make with it. I love the stripes (classic in black and cream!) and the fabric has a really nice hand. You know how some Ponte knits can feel really polyestery and icky? This is not that kind of Ponte. It’s smooth (but matte) and has more of a natural feel (maybe a rayon blend?), but with amazing stretch and recovery. They also had it in the opposite colorway (cream with black stripes) which tempted me, but I decided that the black was more my style. A recent dive into my fabric stash unearthed this fabric and I realized it would make a great Oslo.

Stripe-matching madness! Can she do it?

The problem with buying fabric without a plan is that I don’t know how much to buy…and inevitably I don’t buy enough. I barely eeked out this one. Because, you know, stripes (with like a 4″ repeat, and directional too!). This pattern is simple to put together and doesn’t have a ton of pieces – I can almost believe that you could sew it up in 2-3 hours as advertised – that is if you aren’t working with stripes. I meticulously pinned all my stripes on the folded fabric before cutting it out and managed to get the front, back, and shawl collar pieces nicely lined up. Then I cut out my sleeves and managed to get those to line up close enough. I obsessively pinned and basted every single seam before serging.

And yeah, I’m pretty proud of myself for sticking with it (I have a tendency to throw caution to the wind with these things), and with how well it turned out.

I slayed you stripes!

The bold pattern makes it a bit less versatile than if it was a solid color – I’ve just worn it with black tees/shirts so far and am still trying to figure out what else I can where it with.

Disaster strikes! Was all that stripe matching in vain?

Unfortunately, when I started sewing everything together I realized that I had cut out two left sleeves. Whoops. After studying the sleeve pattern a bit I decided to just go ahead and sew a left sleeve onto the right side (so basically I put the sleeve on backwards). There is a slight difference between the front and back of the sleeve, but it’s not a huge difference, and I figured that since this was a knit it would be somewhat forgiving, and since it has a drop-shoulder design, the sleeve cap doesn’t really need to fit your shoulder, and well, since I couldn’t recut the sleeve what did I have to lose anyway? Luckily it looks ok. I won’t say that I recommend doing this, and yeah, I can sort of tell when I look closely at the two shoulders, but for the most part, I think it turned out alright.

But wait, there’s more! Pockets!

(last dramatic headline, I promise)

As I was perusing other blogs for Oslo tidbits and inspiration, I ran across a few bloggers who said that what this cardigan really needed was pockets. Yes! Pockets! I love pockets! So I decided to add some side-seam pockets using the same tutorial and pocket pattern that I did for my Minoru jacket. I used a black cotton spandex jersey for this because I didn’t want to add much bulk to the side seams. The only rub was that this pattern has only a 3/8″ seam allowance – not much to work with to keep those side-seam pockets completely concealed on the inside. I decided that I’d just use a 1/2″ seam allowance instead for the side seams. This allowed me to sew the pockets on with a 1/4″ seam allowance, and still have them folded in another 1/4″. My measurements put me between the L and XL for this pattern, and I cut the XL, so I knew I’d have a bit of extra ease anyway. I think the slightly larger seam allowance worked out perfectly to allow for the pockets and a good fit. I hand-tacked the pockets to the inside of the front piece so that they don’t droop out the bottom.

This turned out so delightfully cozy! I’ve worn it out and about, but it’s also wonderful to wear around the house when it’s chilly.

Details

Fabric: Ponte de Roma knit from Fabric Outlet in SF (available online here)
Pattern: Seamwork Oslo Cardigan
Size: XL, sewn with 1/2″ seam at sides.
Adjustments: added side seam pockets