CJ made: Linden

Sunday, 8 May 2016

Liberty Linden

Of course I finished making a sweatshirt on the hottest day of the year!
Having tackled my first Linden a month ago I knew I wanted to make one in a Liberty sweatshirt fabric. As luck would have it last week Liberty's had a 30% off any fabric sale and I jumped at the chance to buy one metre of Liberty loopback fleece.

As you can see this fabric is a pricey affair even with 30% off it was £34 for one metre. I have cut out the Linden and there is still enough for some Liberty sleeves on Linden number three?! - I will get my moneys worth. The black knit ribbing is from Ray Stitch and I used about 1/4 metre for the neckband, cuff and hem-band.

Read my post here about the construction / changes I made to the pattern.

Compared to the Girl Charlee UK terry knit fabric on my first Linden the Liberty fleece has very little width-ways stretch so the sleeves are a little snug around the cuff area - nothing that needs changing just an observation.

It is at this point in my journey of making my own clothes that I wonder about purchasing an overlocker.... the seams would look so much prettier.

Overall, I am really happy with my second Linden and can see a few more in my wardrobe.

Pattern: Grainline Linden (Initial purchase price £14 as it's been used for a second time = free)

Shell Fabric: One metre of Liberty Speckled Clouds Murray A = £34.00

Gutterman Thread: Black and white from stash

Total: £34.00

Friday, 8 April 2016

Olive Grainline Linden Sweatshirt

2016 is the year of the knit for me. After winning the stash of Girl Charlee UK knit fabrics at SewBrum in October 2015 it has been my mission to overcome my rather irrational fear of this comfortable to wear stretchy fabric.

The Grainline Linden sweatshirt has been in my PDF patterns inbox on my laptop for a good while so I knew that the olive terry sweatshirt fabric would make a fantastic sweatshirt. I purchased a walking foot in January from Weaver Dee in the 25% off sale on sewing machine accessories. In addition I bought some ribbed knit and some stretch needles from Ray Stitch in Islington.... all this preparation for a basic sweatshirt! Seems crazy doesn't it?

With my new walking foot this was lovely to sew. I set my machine to stitch length 3 and stitch width 3 which created a small stretchy zig-zag stitch that worked well for this weight of fabric. The only issues I had with construction was when sewing the cuff and neckline on - ideally I always like to match the seams but to avoid dodgy sewing I offset the cuff and sleeve seam / neckline seams to reduce the bulk of 6 lots of knit fabric going through my machine.
Normally my Bernina would be able to deal with this amount of bulk but since coming back from her service last summer the handwheel / bobbin-winder has been slipping and then cutting off power to the needle (something I will have to look into at a later date). Overall I now feel much more confident tackling knit fabrics!

Well judge for yourself. I am very happy with the final Linden. It is not 100% perfect but I am not going to point out any of the slight mistakes as they are pretty minor.

Here are some close up shots.

Here she is out in the wild today when I visited the fantastic Newport Street Gallery at Vauxhall, South London. It is a free art gallery owned by Damien Hirst to exhibit his vast personal collection of art. The current exhibition is by the painter John Hoyland whose saturated canvases were the perfect backdrop for the Linden! Thanks to my friend Nao who took the photos for me.