So I like a good cardigan and sewing was always going to facilitate this hobby. Recently I found Sinclair Patterns Candy, which I like because of the long front drape. I made one version as the pattern calls for, but I didn’t like how the hem showed on the inside. This of course meant it was time to experiment. First, I made a small lining. What I mean by this is that I made an extra piece, front lining, that traced the front neck and side collar, and some of the bottom hem. I sewed it up and now when the front drapes open you see the lining and not the back of the fabric. That was pretty simple.
Then I wondered what it would be like to make the lining the entire front panel. This also coincided with my thought that perhaps I should make a cardigan that wasn’t black. The skull and roses fabric seemed to fit the bill and so I made it. I simply cut four front panels instead of two. I followed the regular construction but before I set the sleeves I sewed the lining panels to the front pieces. Then I set the sleeves with three pieces of fabric at the front, the sleeve, the lining and the front panel.
After setting the sleeves flat, I sewed the side seam sewing the arms and the side seams together. At this point I closed the lining and the front of the front part of the cardigan together (and sewed them also to the back). It was shortly after I had done this I realized that there was no easy way to sew up the hem. I did eventually figure out a hack (cut into the side seam to the depth of the hem, then fold the hem pieces into and sew them together using an edge stitch on the outside. Then in the back piece I could flip up and hem that normally.
After this rather frustrating experience I suppose it was inevitable that I would decide to try one more time. This time I decided to line the whole cardigan. I was initially inspired by this post about lining a similar looking cardigan. I read it closely and I think the way she made it work was by having the seams exposed on the side seams. I could have done that but then I wondered whether I could simply line the entire thing, including the sleeves, and that led me to bagging.
Bagging is a technique that uses the machine to sew together most of the lining on a jacket. What makes it a bit mad is that it’s an exercise in geometry, particularly for the sleeves. How you sew them together is difficult to impossible to explain but it’s also brilliant and means that you have an almost entirely enclosed set of seams. It took me the better part of a day but I figured it out. And now I have a cardigan that is Hacci Sweater knit on the front and lined with Polartec fleece that will be super on those cold cycling in days in Atlanta. And of course it was back to black.
While I like the outcome of the black with lining, I really like the skulls cardigan so here’s another shot of it. For the curious, FabricMart is the source of fabrics for the skulls and the fully lined cardigan. Joann’s brushed knit was used for the first cardigan in this post.
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