Space Kyoto

I feel like I’ve been having a bit more fun with sewing lately. Case in point, this sweater with all the shiny and ruffles thrown at it!

The first part of this project came about when i meet up with the lovely Jess on her recent trip to the UK, and dutifully took her to my wonderful local fabric store, Ray Stitch. Jess got some excellent sweatshirt knit and striped denim and since I can never leave there empty handed I picked up a few of these sparkly space embellishments for £1.50 each. (Some are in their online store, but not the stars.)

[Image sources on my Pinterest]

I’ve been a bit obsessed with space print stuff for quite a while now and have quite the little collection of moon’n’star-festooned clothing, along with quite a large wish/inspiration list. Some of it can run quite pricey so it’s the ideal candidate for ‘DIY instead of buy’.

Luckily I’d just made my pick of fabrics for my December Fabric Store ambassador allowance, amongst which was a black merino-mix sweatshirting that was calling out to be bedecked with shiny things. I’d call this fabric a French terry more than true sweatshirting; it has a smooth front side and loopy back and isn’t too thick, so it was a great candidate both for these iron-ons and for my choice of pattern, the Papercut Kyoto sweater.

I made the Kyoto up as before, with an inch or so of length taken out of both the body and sleeves. This time I added the fun ruffles to the sleeves, which worked really nicely in this medium weight knit. I simply overlocked the raw edge of the ruffles rather than hemming to keep them airy and drapey.

I ironed the embellishments on right at the start, after cutting but before construction. I placed them on the front of the sweater fairly randomly, used a bit of washi tape to stick them down then pressed a hot iron over the back of each patch for ten seconds. They feel very well stuck down and hopefully they will launder ok.

I’ve been gently encouraging myself to get more into sewing in the evenings again, and this was a perfect post-work fun and relaxing sort of sew, which was done in under two hours. I’m thrilled with how this sweater turned out. It’s a little bit novelty and silly but also highly wearable and of course perfect for this festive time of year.

Fabric provided by The Fabric Store as part of their ambassador program.

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