Creation: Cute Knit Sweater

Fabrics Used: Natural Hemp Knit

The Visionary: Tara, Girl Like the Sea

Our Thoughts: Tara at GirlLikeTheSea made a cute fisherman style knit sweater using our Natural Hemp Knit. she looks adorable.

 

 

 

 I had this on my to do list already because I got this really awesome hemp/organic cotton sweater knit to work with from Organic Cotton Plus. Have you ever checked out their selection? I really want to make some things with their french terrys too, and their peace silk. And pretty much everything else in their shop. Lol.

 

There’s something sort of rustic and throwback to this sweater that I love. And it’s a great weight for chilly spring mornings. She looks like a little fisherman’s kid in Ireland or something. Maybe its the nice oatmeal color of the knit that gives me that vibe.

 

When I got the fabric, I realized that I had no idea how to finish the edges since on most knit garments like this, you would just have ribbing that’s one fluid part of the rest of it. At first I was going to use some french terry to finish the cuffs and neckline, but ended up just using the sweater knit itself. The stretch recovery isn’t the greatest, but I think it looks nice. This stuff would make a great yoke for a top because it’s got an interesting texture that would contrast with jersey .

 

 

Since this knit is really loose, and tends to fray easily, I needed to finish the seams. But my serger had wacky mismatched thread in it, which I knew would show through the open knit. So rather than take the time to rethread, I just double zig zagged over all the seams inside the sweater. Once through on the actual seam, and another pass over the edge. It seems to be doing ok so far.In retrospect, I think I should have made the sweater a bit looser to capitalize on the nice drape of this knit. But Clover really likes it, and she tends to be weird about things that are loose anyway. I used the Oliver and S field trip raglan as my pattern.I also added darts to the shoulders because I had a gapey neckline the last time I made a sweater with it (it’s a tee pattern meant to be made with jersey.) That totally solved the gape issue!

I’m definitely going to be working with fabric from Organic Cotton Plus again. Their selection is all really high quality.