Sometimes a piece of fabric has to marinate in my stash for a while before finding the perfect project. Other times it's barely out of the bag before it's been assigned to a pattern and sewn up... this fabric falls into the latter category!
The fabric is a quilted jersey that I bought in Singapore with Fiona. We shopped at People's Park Centre in Chinatown, and I believe I bought this fabric from either Maggie or Malin (I can't remember which).. when we saw it, Fiona and I both reached for it and basically made cooing noises. So cool!
The fabric, which has a faux cable design, is cotton jersey on the outside, but then it's lined with a poly of some sort and the little cables are stuffed with a bit of polyfill to give them volume. Because this fluffy stuffing comes out at the edges where the fabric is cut, it's essential to finish the seams, unlike with most knits.
For a quick second, I was going to make a Seamwork Oslo sweater with this fabric, figuring the cream colored cables were perfect for an oversized grandpa-style cardigan/wearable blanket. But I hadn't bought quite enough to fit the Oslo. I tried every way, but couldn't make it work (silver lining: I have the pattern all traced and everything in my size, so now I just have to find another sweater knit to make one!). Then I remembered that I also had the Style Arc Coral Cardigan pattern in my stash and that it could work equally well. The Coral has smaller pieces, so it easily fit on my 1.5 yard piece.
I liked the Coral Cardigan because it has a cool, modern cocoon shape, very much in line with Style Arc's aesthetic. Grandpa cardigan, modernized! I went with a size 16, which was great. The sleeves are just a tad long, but not offensive. Otherwise, spot-on!
The fabric's cables run vertically, parallel to the selvage, but the fabric has a decent amount of stretch in both directions (and great recovery, to boot!). There must be some lycra in there, too. Because of the 2-way stretch, I decided to play around with the stripe direction a little bit, putting it horizontal on the cardigan's neckband, cuffs and lower front bodice. I kept it vertical for the sleeves, upper front bodice and back bodice. This also helped eliminate most stripe matching, too.
The Coral Cardigan has horizontal in-seam pockets on the front bodice, but I decided to leave them out because I was worried that the quilted jersey would be too bulky. Leaving the pockets out made this an extra quick sew.
Even though I sewed this cardigan very soon after buying the fabric, it took me forever to blog it because I just couldn't get photos I was happy with even though I took three separate sets in three locations!. None of the photos really captured the cool texture of the fabric. But these photos will just have to suffice!
