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January 14, 2021 1 Comment
Hi! I’m Cass (CraftyProfessor) and I’m excited to show you how I hacked the Jarrah Sweater by Megan Nielsen Patterns to be a button up!
Fabric
First let me tell you about this amazing fabric. This is a bamboo cotton spandex 4 way stretch sweatshirt fleece in charcoal gray (also available in light gray, eggplant, and dusty mustard). It is light to medium weight, and is seriously the softest fabric I have EVER worked with. That’s saying a lot! I gave a scrap to my husband and he just decided to keep it in his pocket so he could touch the softness all the time. Seriously! The fleece has a really nice drape that I would describe as bouncy. It has about 30% horizontal stretch, but actually has a lot more vertical stretch, which I found very interesting! So, if you are dead set on using this fabric for something that requires more stretch, you could always cut your pattern pieces on the cross grain. I also used the matching bamboo cotton spandex 4 way stretch 1x1 ribbing for the sleeve cuffs. This fabric is also fabulous, but more like a light weight sweater knit. It worked well for the cuffs, but in hindsight I could have just as easily used the fleece for the cuffs also.
The first thing I do when I get my fabric is wash and dry it. I want to make sure it’s not going to do something funky right away. I washed and dried on my normal settings and all was well. The reverse fleecey side may have tightened up a bit, but no other noticeable changes.
I tend to kind of obsess about what I’m going to make with a fabric until I have decided. For this fabulous fabric, I knew I wanted something that I could wear a lot. I spend a lot of time in semi-pajamas – joggers and zip up sweatshirt, and I recently got rid of that very worn-out sweatshirt. So, I figured this would be a great replacement. I wanted something that was casual and comfy but not too basic. I actually looked at Ready to Wear leisure wear on Pinterest for inspiration and was drawn to these boxy slouchy turtle neck sweaters and sweatshirts, so I immediately thought of the Jarrah pattern (which I’ve used like 10 times already!). To make it a little more interesting I decided to hack it with a button placket. I’ll go through all the steps and measurements for this hack, but you can do this with any pullover top, so you don’t need to have this exact pattern!
Cutting the fabric
The Megan Nielsen Jarrah sweater already comes with tons of cute options. For this top, I chose a combination of the funnel neck collar, cuffed sleeves, and the curved hem. The pattern pieces that will need to be modified slightly are the front bodice and the funnel neck collar. The measurements I’m using assume a 3/8 inch (1cm) seam allowance.
Front Bodice – normally this is cut on the fold, but we are going to cut two mirrored pieces. I measured out 1 and 7/8 inches from the fold line. The placket for each piece will get folded in 3/8 inch and then folded in again 1 inch (for the math geeks, this is calculated as 3/8 that will get folded in, 1 inch folded in again, and then ½ inch of overlap when the two plackets sit on top of each other – trust me it works!).
Funnel Neck Collar – because the funnel neck collar is doubled, I chose a slightly different construction for this than for the bodice, but they fit together perfectly and result in a really nicely finished looking inside too! For this I just added ½ inch to this piece, and I still cut it on the fold. But, the part that says it is the center back will now be the center front and part labeled center front that is cut on the fold will now be the center back. (Only a ½ inch for the overlap needed to be added to this piece because the pattern already assumed a 3/8 inch seam allowance in the center back that we are just shifting to the front.)
Construction of the button placket
Final Thoughts
I absolutely love how this turned out. It can be worn casually with leggings, or dressed up a bit with jeans and boots. And did I mention it’s the softest fabric EVER?!?
Thanks for reading! Follow me on Instagram to see more of my makes and feel free to send me a message if you have any questions!
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October 01, 2024
September 12, 2024
Tammy
February 24, 2021
This fabric is luxe. Thanks for sharing your hack of the MN Jarrah!