Juniper cardigan, Adrienne skirt and Idyllwild top

I didn't expect that my last three winter makes would go so well together! The patterns are the Adrienne skirt from Style Arc, the Juniper cardigan from Jennifer Lauren Handmade, and the Idyllwild tee from Itch to Stitch.

The Juniper cardigan is one of those patterns I admired for a while. I was most intrigued by the shape of the sleeves. I expected this cardigan to be somewhat complicated to make, but it was actually a rather easy project. The pattern has very clear instructions. There are notches in all the right places to help you along. Jen has a sew-along on her blog, and I would highly recommend to visit it before starting on this cardigan. Jen talks in-depth about important things like fabric choices, sizing and intended fit as well as provides tutorials for various adjustments.

I knew I wanted to make my cardigan from merino. I bought the fabric for this cardigan from The Fabric Store during one of their sales. Premium merino is not cheap, even on sale. I was not going to cut into it without making a trial cardigan. My first muslin was in size 10, which I measured for, made in cheap and nasty polyester sweater knit. I needed a broad shoulder and a small bust adjustments which didn't come as a surprise. You see, I intended to wear my cardi during cooler months over a long sleeved top. I am extremely cold blooded and usually wear a singlet top underneath my long sleeved tops as well, and I felt my trial cardi was a little too fitted for my liking. I made another muslin in size 12 from cotton/elastane knit that Spotlight was selling off for $8/metre. I really liked the way it fit over multiple layers. I tried it with a few high waisted skirts I had in my wardrobe and decided to lengthen the body by 2 cm. Please take note that if you decide to lengthen/shorten the body, you will need to do the same for the front band! I also performed a small bust adjustment following Jen's tutorial.

The most complicated part of construction for me was making the buttonholes. Five buttonholes took me an hour and a half! I had to unpick and re-do three of them! The very bottom buttonhole is still a mess, but it is the best that I could manage. My buttonhole foot refused to go over the bulk of fabric at the bottom of the cardigan, so I resorted to using a clear craft foot, which is listed as another option for sewing buttonholes in my machine's manual. I am sure I got a few more grey hairs in the process, but all's well that ends well.

I must admit there was a point when I got annoyed with myself for choosing striped fabric. What if I didn't match the stripes right! It would be so obvious! I spent a lot of time carefully matching stripes and pinning fabric. I basted the front band in place and did not put it under the knife of my overlocker until I was certain there would not be any unfortunate stripe mis-matching. This took a fair bit of time, but can we just stop and admire the result for a second?

The Adrienne skirt came as a freebie with a top pattern I purchased from Style Arc a little while ago. If you are new to Style Arc you may not be aware that each month they offer two patterns that can be added to your purchase for free, one at a time. This skirt was a queue jumper. I didn't feel I had anything in my wardrobe that went well with it, so I expected it to sit on a shelf for a while until I made something to pair it with.

This skirt is made from the same denim as my Ivy pinafore. The Adrienne was one of the skirts I tried on with a muslin of my Juniper cardigan and was pleased with how well these two items went together. My new skirt didn't have to wait on a shelf for ages after all!

I made the skirt in size 8, widened the waistline by a couple of cm and shaved a little off the curve from the waistline to the hips to accommodate my V shaped body. I opted for a shorter length as I think it suits me better.

The front split on the skirt practically demanded top stitching, so I obliged. In order to achieve precise top stitching I used my magnetic seam guide. I turned to my trusted secret tool, a piece of soap and a ruler, to mark a stitch line along the split, including the V at the top.

The Idyllwild tee has become my go-to pattern for fitted knit tops. I managed to make two basic black tops out of 1.5m of performance knit (90% cotton and 10% elastane) from Spotlight. The time I spent playing Tetris growing up was not wasted!

I get excited when I discover patterns that I want to use multiple times, and I can highly recommend these three for sure!