Vogue 8546 Finished

Well, almost finished. I still need to hem the sleeves but I'm out of the thread I was using so I need to go get more first.



The fabric underneath is just that — fabric. But it will become a top to take along on the trip. It has greens which match this cardigan (jacket?) and the matching pants perfectly. I've been hoarding this piece for years, but its time has come.

I opted for a lazy fast & easy closure method. I sewed ties to the inside fronts and called it done. The "lapels" of the jacket hide where they're attached and they don't show when worn open, even with movement. I really only want something to hold the fronts together on a windy day so I don't take off into the clouds. These ties will do the trick and won't get in the way on other days.



I finished the entire edge with a 2-thread stitch on my serger. Because it's unlined and the reverse side shows as the lapels, there's really no way to turn under a hem and not have the wrong side show somewhere. The edging thread looks shiny in the photos, but it's not. It's just plain sewing thread, nothing fancy. There's a lot of distance to cover and I had to do two passes because my serger decided to mess up on one section for no reason at all. Stupid serger. ;-) (This is why I ran out of thread before I could hem the sleeves.) But everything happens for a reason since I actually like the edge better with the second pass.

The hood is not elegant at all, both in how it lays on the finished garment and how it's sewn. I think I'd like to make this pattern again but I will definitely be turning the hood into a flat collar before I do. Even when I manually lay it all nice, there's still a big weird fold in the middle.



But truthfully, unless I have a valet dressing me, it will never lay that nice and will look like this mess instead. Good thing I don't have to look at my rear view.



As you can see, I did manage to eek out the pattern onto the green fabric. My less-than-2 yards was considerably less than what the pattern calls for. I did have to shorten the cardigan to make it fit on the fabric, but only 1/2" by just folding the pattern up at the bottom. But since I didn't turn a hem, I gained that length back anyway.

I also had to cut the pocket bags from another fabric. You can see it peeking out when I pull on the pocket. But I do have to pull for it to be obvious that there's a non-matching fabric in there. So, no big deal at all. No one else will ever notice. (My topstitching looks horrible here, but it's a weird camera angle and I swear it's even.) And, of course, I had no fabric left for a self-belt, but I wasn't planning to make one anyway.



Overall, I like this cardigan a lot. It reminds me of a favorite coat I had in the '80s, which had a throw-over-your-shoulder cape/cowl kind of thing. I loved that coat.

Someone mentioned in the comments that they were unsure if this would be flattering to larger busts. I think it's very flattering, because those lapels totally hide what's underneath and the big vee shape makes one's eyes follow that and not rest on the bust area. One day, I'll be photo-ready and get a pic of me wearing this. No promises as to exactly when that will be. ;-)

Next up will be some tops for the trip, but I haven't decided what pattern & fabric combos yet.