Finlayson Sweaters

A couple of years ago I bought a handful of patterns from Thread Theory in their Black Friday sale. When my brother-in-law's birthday came around last November, I decided to make the Finlayson Sweater for him. I had bought a mystery color palette sweater knit box from Sincerely Rylee about a month before, and it had a lovely thick, soft, charcoal rib knit that I immediately decided was perfect to make something for myself. However, once I decided on the Finlayson for my brother-in-law, that particular sweater knit had to be used for it! So I sacrificed it, and after some hours of working at it, managed to get the pattern pieces all to fit!

  I've only worked with unpleasantly difficult hacci fabric before, and not a sweater knit like this one, so I was a little concerned that it would be a beast to sew, but I didn't have any issues with it! It pressed much more nicely than I'd expected it to as well, even though I'm pretty sure it's mostly polyester.

  I used a solid black knit for the hood lining, and didn't add the twill tape at the back neckline, because I thought I didn't have any, and didn't want to take a trip to the store for it. I also left off the decorative facing. The hood edge is supposed to roll to the inside more, but since the knit I used for the lining had more stretch than the sweater knit, rolling it more made the hood lining baggy, so I just did a thin edge.

  The pattern seemed pretty decent, although not perfect. I added just a little bit of length to the sleeves and hem for my taller-than-average brother-in-law by using a smaller seam allowance- I didn't have enough fabric to lengthen them otherwise, although I probably could have fit the pieces on my fabric more easily if I'd reduced all of the seam allowances to 1/4", then lengthened the sleeves and body slightly.

  The way the neckline was sewn leaves a gap to either side of the center at the front crossover. I'm not sure if that's intentional, or if the markings are wrong, but I ended up going back in and sewing past the markings.

  I felt like the cuffs were too narrow for the sleeves.... there is a secondary piece included for cuffs in fabrics with little to no stretch, by my fabric had a nice amount of stretch (about 45%) so I used the regular ones. The sleeves are wide enough that I think narrowing them would be the best option, instead of using the wider cuffs.

   I used the kangaroo pocket for this one... it sewed up nicely!

  I haven't sewn a lot of sweaters as gifts prior to this, but I love the idea- it's like a wearable hug!

  And I got to see this one on my brother-in-law, so I know that it fit well, and looks significantly better worn than in flat photos.

  I liked that charcoal one so much that when my brother's birthday came along a few days later, I knew I'd have to make one for him too. For my brother's version, I left off the kangaroo pocket, and sewed the shawl collar. I used a thinner green sweater knit, also from a Sincerely Rylee mystery sweater box. I had a larger piece of this fabric, so it wasn't such a puzzle to lay out!

  I sewed the same size, and lengthened the sleeves and hem the same amount. For this one, I added the twill tape and decorative facing, and I definitely prefer the finished look when those are included! I didn't want two lines of stitching at the outside from sewing the twill tape, so I sewed the first line to the seam allowances only, then folded it down and sewed the lower edge through all of the layers.

  I added a tag to the facing... next time I'd move that up just a bit!

  I had the same issue with the un-sewn portions at the base of the neckline on this one, and it was a lot more noticeable in this fabric. Once again, I went back in and sewed farther.

  I thought the shawl collar looked a little too narrow once I started sewing, so starting from about three inches from the end I reduced my seam allowance to 1/4", then tapered back at the other end of the neckline. I like the slightly wider collar... it's more proportionate to this size.

  I used the wider cuffs for this one, but again, I think narrowing the sleeves might have been a better option.

  I was very careful not to stretch the knit out at all when sewing the facing down, but I ended up actually wishing I had pulled it slightly, since the facing is woven, and the knit drapes down over it a little bit when it isn't laid flat.

  Once again, this one fit nicely!

  And my brother seemed quite happy with it, even though I didn't get it to him until February!

Thanks for stopping by,