Blackwood Cardigan Review - Hint, I love it.

For those of you who don't know, we have a social sewing and knitting group that meets every Thursday evening (you should come, it's awesome!).  After Christmas this year we discussed a sew-a-long project and after much deliberation pretty much the only thing we could all agree on was this: the Helen's Closet Blackwood Cardigan.

The Blackwood Cardigan is something that I've seen popping up on Instagram over the past little while and it's been on my to do list, but to be honest, not super high on my to do list.  I wanted to make it, but there are other things I wanted to make more.  You know how it goes. 

I got in touch with the lovely Helen, and ordered a bunch of patterns, which arrived as digital files, and I got them printed at Netprinter.  I was super impressed with the sizing information in the pattern - Helen has only just updated it (we got the patterns on the day they were re-released) and has added an impressive sizing range - not only from 0 - 30, but also with two cup size options.  There was also a lot of detail on the pattern about different areas of sizing - how big the bicep measurements were etc.  Awesome to be able to pick and mix your perfect pattern sizings.  Netprinter delivered the patterns a couple of days after I ordered them (what a super easy process that was!) and the next Thursday evening we got to cutting them out.

The Blackwood is a great beginner sew for those of you who've know sewn with knit before.  With clear instructions, it's a great choice for a garment you know you can make fit - satisfaction guaranteed.

We made a couple of changes for ease of sewing and neatness - one of which was the pockets.  Instead of cutting the normal patch pocket pieces, we cut a pocket out using the lengthen/shorten line on the pattern and cut the shape below that.  Then hemmed the pocket top, by an inch.  The pocket was then sewn into the seam during construction. This stopped imperfect topstitching from ruining the garment, and was so much easier too.  The result was a bigger pocket, perfect for this type of garment.

If I were to do these again I would probably cut it an inch taller - just to get the full big pocket feel.

The other change I made was instead of sewing the front/ neck band on together and having the raw edge showing (as we weren't using overlockers).  To get around this, I sewed one side of the band, pressed a hem, and then topstitched it.  This probably doesn't make much sense - but it left me with a neat finish and all raw edges on the band enclosed.

 So that's the Blackwood - would I make it again - yes! I liked the construction of it so much that I've added it as a class in the spring/ summer schedule - you can find it here.