Teal cardigan (from a throw)

There's something sold in home dec departments in the UK called a 'throw'. This is a small decorative blanket which can be artfully thrown across the sofa or bed. They are good for sunggling up when watching TV on cold winter nights.

I do have a taupe fleece and faux shearling blanket near my sofa for this purpose, however I also buy these on sale particularly when they are made from finished knit yardage and like to make cardigan jackets from them. Careful layout can utilise the ribbed edging for the finished garment and scraps can be cushions, hats, scarves and stuffing.

My latest throw was bought in the Sainsburys yesterday.

What is not too obvious from the tiny picture is that this has some silver threads running along the two ribbed edges and a smattering of tiny sequins throughout. After much debate and trying of layouts I decided to have the silver running up and down the fronts as the vertical line is more slimming than having this round the hem. This means the knitting is going round the body, though I am not finding that too upsetting.
I decided to cut the sleeves with the same detailing on the hem so the stretch is going round on the sleeves as I thought this would be more comfortable and give a nice wrist detail.

With a very loose knit fabric like this I try to keep the handling to a minimum, pin carefully on a large flat surface, then carefully gather and go to the sewing machine and immediately though the serger. Shoulder and back neckline are stabilised with ribbon.

I used a cardigan jacket pattern from the November 2010 issue of Prima magazine with the front flare reduced slightly and lengthened by about 12". Prima is a general women's magazine published in the UK, which if you subscribe comes with a free sewing pattern, often a very simple style, so good for things like this.

This has a front collar band which extends round and becomes the back neckline and collar and set in sleeves. I line up the bottom edge of the jacket with the throw edges, the front neckband with another edge and also use an edge for the sleeve hem. Then when sewn up this leaves no raw edges.