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!)
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!