Sewing has been a bit of a non starter for me recently. I had all these wonderful plans and ideas but I think something to do with the change of the season combined with feeling a bit overwhelmed with what I wanted to do meant I just kind of stalled.

I needed a project to kick start my sewjo again and this was it!

I came across the site TFG Fabrics in my search for some fleece backed sweatshirting and hit the jackpot! I was hunting the stuff down because I have some hoodie shaped plans for the family’s Christmas presents this year. I managed to find what I was looking and then some! The stuff I was after is the sweater knit fabric with the cosy insides, sometimes called alpine fleece or plush backed sweatshirting. I’d used similar stuff before and always loved how it feels.

The range of colours available were better than I’d imagined and I ended up getting sidetracked and bought myself some 1/2 metre pieces to make a colour blocked sweater!

I decided to make another version of the Grasser 513 pattern that I made in the spring (check it out here). The jumper pattern is already set up perfectly for colour blocking as the front and backs are cut in two pieces with an asymmetric curve.

As much as I loved the sleeve of the original pattern it is alarmingly impractical. The three quarter length sleeve finishes with a long tie which just seem to get in everything! I decided to put in a more normal sleeve instead! To do this, I overlapped the front and back sleeve along the stitch line and traced out a new one piece sleeve. I created a separate lower sleeve piece and then added a cuff. I opted to keep the lower sleeve piece as originally I had planned to colour block here too though in the end I kept it only as one colour.

Most of my thinking time was spent on which order of colours to use! I bought 3 half metre pieces of fabric in a mint green, pink and yellow. I finally chose to have the yellow on the bottom half of the sweater, pink on the upper half and the mint on the sleeve. I had also cut some yellow to do the lower part of the sleeve but decided at the last minute that I wasn’t keen on that combo.

Once the colour decisions were done, cutting and sewing was pretty easy especially as I’d done it before. The sleeves ended with more fabric than I’d intended so I chose to add some elastic into the cuffs to gather them some more.

I’m living my 80s fantasy in this sweater!

It’s fun and warm and exactly what I needed. This jumper is brightening these drab days and keeping me warm at the same time. It’s definitely gotten the sew-jo going as well as I’ve been in the sewing room most days since!