Made By A Fabricista: Ready for Hibernation!

While I absolutely love creating cosplay content for my blog posts (and we will be returning to cosplay for my next post I promise!), I'm currently on the edge of “Cosplay Burnout”. Like any form of burnout, it's leaving me with negligible amount of desire to see, and one of the ways I like to overcome that is with doing an easier project for just me to enjoy, and that's the route I opted with for this project!

When I saw this fur-like wool blend I fell in love with it!

I considered making a labubu hoodie, but changed directions to a cardigan as that's a style I'd wear most often! It's currently in a blank slate state where I'm debating adding rabbit ear, or bear ears, but until I come to a conclusion, it'll just be a warm and fuzzy option now that the temperature is dropping!

For the pattern of this cardigan, I drafted it right on the fabric since the wool blend is a knit, I knew it'd be somewhat forgiving. I had my fabric folded in half for the front and back, then set to marking out a center line and determining how long I wanted it to be. I settled on using around a yard for the length, then used my measurements to map out my shoulders, armscye, collar, and for once remembering the angle of the shoulders, something I commonly forget.

Once I had the main body cut, I mapped out my hood and sleeves onto the fabric giving myself a little extra length for a bit of bagging at the cuff. While I often cut my fitted sleeves on the bias, since I was working with a knit and limited fabric, I went ahead and cut on the straight grain and just gave myself an extra inch in width to make sure I had enough wiggle room since that can be removed from the seam allowance later if need be!

To finish the edges and make the cuff I used a spandex rib knit (funnily enough labeled “Teddy Bear Brown”) cut into six inch strips sewn together and sewn on the edges. I started with the bottom hem, which went smoothly, but the stretch worked against me around the front edge and caused some twisting that will get fixed at a later time when I'm less burnt out. And the cuffs turned out exactly as I hoped, the spandex allowed me to get that little bit of poof without needing elastic and it's so soft that overall I'm very happy with my fabric choices!

While I am allergic to sheep, I'm not allergic to wool, and working with a knit allowed this garment to go unlined. While it does have a small amount of “itch” to me, it's not enough to actually bother me, and I will absolutely be reaching for this cardigan all winter!