Freemantle cardi save

I have made another Freemantle cardigan, but this time I made some pattern mods to change the collar style lines, making them wider around the neck and extending them down the centre front to create a separate button band. In my head it was supposed to look like a granddad cardi with a shawl collar and I was going to insert elastic into the bottom hem to bring it in a bit (much like my sweater version here). Adapting my pattern in the time that it took for my husband to go and pick up the kids from the in laws was probably not my best laid plan, as I just marked out what I thought would work without referring to anything on the body and have subsequently ended up with a garment that looks nothing like I had in my head. I would have been better off just using the original collar piece of the pattern and extending that down for a button band, but maybe I should just get onto the pictures!

As you can see it's nothing like I just explained I hoped it would be! First of all the new collar shape extends out to my shoulders, which I did not consider when cutting that the seam would look bulky on the edge of my shoulder. This creates a weirdly 40's type of silhouette, which I'm not averse to. It looks acceptable now, but I did have to remove a couple of centimetres from the collar seam to make it sit there, as it was just dropping off the shoulder when I first sewed it. I had also sewn in the elastic as previously mentioned and it had a distinct 80's blouson look, which I was not at all happy with. It's funny how changing minor details has a big impact on the success or fail of a garment.

The next thing to do was to remove a few inches from the front hem and shape it down to the original back hem. It needed some shape to help the silhouette, as it was either too boxy or too swingy.

I'm so happy with the back!

I only had limited fabric, so I omitted the underarm gusset. I wouldn't recommend it for a woven fabric, as it does limit your arm movement, but this is a wool/polyester knit and also has no front closure.

Problems solved and this didn't have to be banished to the UFO pile! It was a close shave as there were times that this was, to put it bluntly, ugly!!! I'm wearing it now and it is one of those wool fabrics that is not at all itchy, just cosy and warm :-)