Kinder Coatigan

Here's the Kinder cardigan pattern from Wendy Ward's 'Sewing with Knits' book, made up in a mystery woven fabric with no stretch. This garment comes in 5 sizes I made the 4th size.

The garment did not come out quite how I expected but I do like the final garment and hope to wear it regularly. I find fabric sometimes has a bit of a life of its own, this seemed to want to be the longer length etc.

The fabric might well be an upholstery fabric and was fairly thick where there are multiple layers (e.g. at the bottom of the band). It seemed to have a high cotton content plus something else to make it very strong. It has a sorted of ribbed texture with chunky threads which make accurate cutting of the front band very difficult.
I liked the selvedge and though it would make an attractive finish for the front band. It looked terrible, so I removed it, trimmed it down and reapplied as a smooth band which looks much neater.
The pockets are the full width of the front panels which makes for a really easy application but gaped unattaractively. I stitched the top down a couple of inches on each side, leaving a 6" opening for access which I think looks a lot neater.

It is also lined in a matching dark red polyester lining from stash. I bagged the lining, and then added the front band afterwards. The linign is not very exciting, but I already had it, the colour match was really good, and it makes the garment easier to get on and off.

I also made a belt which showcases the selvedge, I don't much like it with the coatigan so will probably leave it off. I also have a strip of the selvedge which I am imagining as some sort of felt backed brooch, though not sure it will make it into reality.

I made the knee length version of the pattern (there are three lengths this is the longest).
I would make it again, though probably in the middle length as an actual cardigan. It could also be more of a jacket style in the mid length.

Plans for Red Wine Collection

The last few years my Autumnal clothing had lots of brown and reddish orange in it. Though once I stopped colouring my hair and allowed the natural colour to show it was clear that ornage is not great for me. So this year I'm going to concentrate more on the rich reds seen in the leaves and have some of those in my wardrobe to mix in with dark brown.

I've also been inspired by Wendy Ward's 'Sewing with Knitted fabrics' book, Ottobre 05/2018 and some Style Arc pdf I bought. So I am going to try to move away from my TNTs and sew from some new patterns.

I'm currently thinking of starting with the Kinder Cardigan from Wendy Ward's book, though I plan to use a tweedy woven fabric for it rather than a knit.

In this terrible photo it is the red fabric, top left.

Hopefully I will be back in a few days!