Grainline: Linden Sweatshirt

I’ve made two of these lovely Linden sweatshirt jumpers and will no doubt make many more. A quick and satisfying sew.

I love my mustard coloured Linden, and although it has some minor fit issues, it’s the perfect jumper to snuggle up in on a cold night (or to wander around Scotland on a cold day!).

My first knit pattern

This is the first garment I made using knit fabrics, and was a great introduction. The pattern is simple to follow, and it’s really quick to sew up. I made it using the sewing machine, but you can also use an overlocker.

Alterations and fit

I made the jumper as part of a beginners knits class, and was advised that I might want to check the sleeve length before cutting out my pieces, as they come up too long on may people. I shortened the sleeves by around three inches, and they’re still a little long.

For future versions of the pattern, I think I’ll try to take some volume out of the side seams of the jumper and the sleeves as it is pretty big.

I had some trouble with the neckband as it didn’t have enough stretch to reach all the way around the neckline. In the end, I just made a slightly longer neckband from some scrap fabric and this worked fine.

A little about the fabric

I really love this fabric. It’s a 95% cotton fleece sweatshirt fabric from Guthrie & Ghani in mustard, and has tiny colourful flecks running through.

FYI – Sarah loves mustard.

Anyway…Guthrie Ghani still have some of the fabric left over a year later. It’s really soft yet stable enough for a beginner to knits. It’s probably not got quite enough stretch in for this pattern given my issues with the neckband, but it’s easy to get around that issue by simply lengthening the band.

A great birthday gift

I decided to make one for my sister too as a birthday gift (well, to be honest it was meant to be a Christmas present, but the slow sewing meant it wasn’t finished in time….good job her birthday’s in January!). She picked out a similar fabric to mine – it’s got the same colourful fleck through it but this time is in aqua.

Again, I had the issue with the neckband not being stretchy enough, and so, as I didn’t have enough fabric to cut a new one, I added a little scrap. An imperfection, but as it’s at the back on the neck, nobody can see it.