Fresh off the Day and Night Dress Challenge, Coffee and Cocktails, I’m headed to Lisbon…
… the Lisbon Cardigan by Itch to Stitch, that is.
I cut out my pattern pieces and fabric with the help of Sophie!
I love this knit fabric, a “shades of grey” (and black) paisley Topaz knit, 85% polyester, 10% rayon, 5% spandex. Others seem to like it too! I have two co-workers who have RTW cardigans in variations of grey paisley knit – that’s why I knew I had to have one too!
I didn’t have a problem cutting out this PDF pattern. 23 pages turned into three large pieces and four small. I didn’t mind that. My fabric was a bit of a challenge though, as the knit wouldn’t lie flat and the layers bunched up and stuck together. After carefully cutting out this fabric for my Lisbon, I still had enough of it left over to cut out a matching top too! Bonus! 😁👍
Sewing this knit together was not difficult. I used a narrow zig zag on my sewing machine.
I do not like raw seams showing on my RTW cardigans, but there is not much I can do about that, so when I make my own cardigans, I try to make the insides neat! I bound the armscye seams in single fold bias tape.
I sewed my side and arm seams by placing one side of the sewn seam into the other folded side of the seam and zig zagging the two together again – stronger and neater – sort of like a flat felled seam without the topstitching.
When it came to sewing on the facings, I did not do them as instructed. I sewed one side of the interfaced facing to the bodice front by machine and folded and pressed the other side of the facing to the inside, handsewing it in place. I get a bit of stiffness in my right hand if I do too much hand sewing – I love sewing machines! They save my hands! – so I spread the handsewing out over a couple of nights.
Here’s my insides …
… and my outsides!
Now that I’m finished, I noticed that my shoulder seams seem a bit too long. Perhaps I could have made my Lisbon a size or two smaller? Or could it just be the stretch in this knit fabric? Next time I might try a smaller size. On this one, I could use some bias tape to reinforce the shoulder seams so they don’t stretch… I’ll see if that helps!
Notice I don’t have any buttons or button holes yet?
Apparently, I have 1 1/2 cookie tins full of buttons (mostly given to me by my Mom) and yet I cannot find 7 matching buttons for my Lisbon. So a button shopping trip is in my future!
Seriously, what do you do with 1 1/2 cookie tins full of mostly “single” buttons?
Happy Sewing!
STASH BUSTING WITH THIS PROJECT? 1.6 metres (139.9 metres remaining!)
26 Responses to “Itch to Stitch Lisbon Cardigan – No Buttons though!”
Beautiful fabric choice for your cardi. If you come across any drop dead styles that use just one button, let me know! I have tins of interesting but lonely ones.
Thank you! I’m sure we all are looking for a home for our “one button” sets! 😂👍
If you asked Mom to pick some buttons for you out of the button box you’d have 7 buttons in no time. They might not match but they’d “do” (at least in her opinion). All kidding aside sometimes mismatched buttons look really cool.
I agree! She would pick 7 random buttons that didn’t match but are “good enough”! I need a little bit more symmetry in my life though!