This is my first make as part of the #sewmystyle community sewalong. If you don’t know about it, then you can check out the initiative at Bluebird Fabrics or on Instagram with the hashtag, where there are a ton of Toaster Sweaters to peruse. That’s because the challenge involves sewing one collective garment a month (completely voluntary) from now until the end of the year. I plan to be sewing 9 out of the 12 (one, the Saunio cardigan simply will not suit me and two of the others I have alternative patterns for already). This is the Toaster Sweater #2 (there is a quite different #1 version too) from Sew House Seven and it’s the first pattern I’ve sewn from this company.

This is, in essence, a very simple sweater as it only has three pieces. The neckline is really what sets it apart. It’s a shallow boat-neck and it’s this that had initially made me hesitate when the pattern first came out. I like the style on others, but am slightly conscious that a high neck does a large bust and over-generous chin (thanks, Christmas) no favours. I tried to combat this by going for a slightly roomy look (which I rather like in sweaters anyway) and made the XL. Oh, I also have to mention that this is a hard fabric to photograph. That, combined with the lack of daylight hours, has made for a rather crappy set of pictures. You get the idea, though.

This has had the desired effect, but unfortunately the shoulders are too wide for me in the XL and, while this doesn’t make the sweater unwearable by any means, I would probably start with an L next time and go from there. One change I did make to the pattern before construction was to add 2 inches in length. I had seen quite a few comments about the cropped length (it’s higher in the front as well as being cropped) and so studied pics carefully. It’s always hard to know how it will look on you, but I did a quick comparison using the finished length measurement and decided this was needed. I’m glad I did – I think it’s a good length for me.

In addition, the sleeves were around 2 inches too long on me. I saw something the designer had written about being able to put a thumbhole in the sleeve and hence the longer length, so it’s something to bear in mind. The sleeves were also long on me on the Breton top, so maybe I have short arms as well, although I’ve never had that impression before.

For the jumper I used a sweater knit I bought a while ago from Miss Matatabi. It’s a quilted double layer affair and I really like the embossed effect. It’s quite thick, so I thought it would be just the thing for this make, enabling the neckline to stand up properly.

The facing, turned down and stitching it down.

The construction is fairly simple. I used a zigzag stitch on my machine for most of the work, finishing edges with the serger. It’s really just a matter of creating the neckline by folding and stitching down the piece to make a facing, adding the sleeves on the flat and then sewing the front and back together. My fabric was rather hard to press, due to its quilted, bouncy nature, so I ended up adding a little handstitching to the inside of the facing to make it behave. The side vents are made using a very simple and pleasing method, so I rather enjoyed that part!

I don’t have too many notes apart from that. It does pull slightly to one side, but I think that’s partly the nature of the shape, and almost certainly because I was slightly off when I stitched in the ditch to secure one side of the facing. I think I just got it off-centre. I’ll be sure to look out for that next time. The instructions are very good and clear, and I can vouch for the cosiness of it as I wore it on a very recent march on a cold, rainy day (I’ll let you guess which one) and it kept me snug as a bug in a rug.