Paprika Patterns - Jasper x2

 I have a very strong frugal streak within me and as such I have a really hard time buying sewing patterns.  Especially indie type patterns that cost that little bit more.  I'm never sure just how many changes I'm going to have to do to get the pattern to fit and whether on not I'm just going to waste my money and have to effectively redraft the pattern anyway so most of the time if I see a pattern I like I will simply draft it from scratch using my basic block instead.

This is the reason why - despite loving the Paprika Patterns Jasper Sweater from the minute I saw it - I was unsure about buying it.  This year I decided at the last minute to add it to my Christmas wish list and was lucky enough to be gifted it by my Mum and Dad.  I'm so glad because I love this sweater!

Thankfully I already had some appropriate material in my stash so I was able to get started on this right after Christmas.  I spent a couple of days trying to decide what size to use.  My basic measurements put me at a size 7 for bust and hip and size 10 waist so I printed off the size 1  to 7 pattern pieces and measured them to see how they would fit and decided that I could probably just get away with a straight size 7 in width.  However I knew I would have to do something about the upper chest/shoulder region.  I used my sloper pattern to compare that region and as per usual there was way too much length in the size 7 for my body.  I ended up cutting the pattern to a size 1 height but size 7 width in the front and scooped the neckline at the back down to a size 5 height. 

The only other modification I did was to the sleeve pattern.  I looked at how much I had taken off the armhole - 3cm - pretty much all off the front of the arm hole - and removed that from the sleeve - slashing the pattern down the center line and overlapping the front half of the pattern. 

I'm really happy with how this pattern turned out.  A few minor modifications and the fit is really good.

The material that I used for my first version was a plaid fleece in red, black and white.  I only had 2 yards and the pattern called for 2.3 yards if I wanted to do the hood.  I cut out the main body and sleeves first and then had to figure out if I had enough left over for the hood or if I was going to have to go back to the collar.  I decided that I could squish the hood on, but that didn't really leave any room for pattern matching.  Luckily I'm not overly picky about having everything aligned otherwise this sweater would kill me.  Ahh well lesson learned for next time.

The pattern calls for three buttons on the hood, but since one of the things that drew me to this pattern in the first place was the little epaulet on the collar I decided to add the epaulet to my hood instead.  I think it works quite well actually.  I pinned it in place for an afternoon (or two) to figure out exactly where I wanted it, and was going to sew it on/add a button later, but then suddenly it was New Years Eve and I wanted to wear this sweater out, so I grabbed an old broach I had lying around and used that to attach the epaulet (slightly nicer than the safety pin I had in there), and ended up loving the look so much I've left it there.

I love this sweater so much, but unfortunately the material is not holding up so well - it's pilling quite badly so I don't know how long it's going to last, but that's OK because I've already made another one.  I decided that since I loved this sweater so much I wanted a second one, also I wanted to try the collar out so I went shopping for some more fleece and found this beautiful blue plaid fleece.  

This fleece seems to be holding up a bit better than the red, must be slightly better quality.  I only bought 2 meters of this fabric but since I was making the collar rather than the hood there was more than enough to deal with pattern matching problem.  This time rather than trying to match anything I cut the collar, cuffs, hem band and pocket welts all on the bias. I like this much better.

And speaking of welts I really like the instructions for these welt pockets, I've never done a welt like this before but I really like the way it works.

This time rather than even thinking about a button for the collar epaulet I went straight to my jewelry box and found my other broach - this time a little silver cat- and used that.  

These two sweaters have become the workhorses of my wardrobe for the last month and are in constant rotation - I may just have to make a third one.  I'd like to try the hood again and cut the size of the hood down just a bit.  I like the red one, but it's a smidge too big.