The perfect summer cardi

I had so many good intentions to get all my 2014 makes, posted in 2014 ... but here I am on the evening of the second day in 2015 and I have five posts backed up :-(  Oh and today I finished my first make of the new year, which increases the count to six!  Let's get a wiggle on then ...

The Jenna Cardi: the first pattern released by Muse Patterns (a very talented local Wellington designer).  I didn't pick this pattern up until the end of September, when I was looking at a light but warm cardi that would see me through spring into summer. 

I picked up 1 metre of this orange NZ Merino from The Fabric Store earlier in the year for some specific purpose which I now can't remember (hehehe).  It was perfect for the Jenna Cardi, as I can't tell you how many times I've worn this since putting buttons on in late October.  It just goes with everything in my wardrobe, from casual weekend jeans to work dress.

I sewed up a size 36, variation A with long sleeves.  I made this up exactly to the pattern except for the sleeve cuffs where I added 1" to the length/depth - because I like a deep cuff and I have long arms.  After finishing it up the cuffs where way toooo baggy and luckily too long (what, that never happens!).

I fixed this by cutting off the cuffs cleanly around the seam line.  I then reduced the width of the cuff by 2" and reduced the width of the sleeve hem by 2" tapering to zero about 2" below the armhole.  They are now loose fitting but feel more to my liking.

I shuddered when I saw how many button holes where on this cardi.  My Janome has an automatic one step button hole and I haven't mastered it's idiosyncrasies yet, although I have a feeling that I never will.  I did a couple of test button holes on scrap fabric, exactly the same fabric layers, and they worked out fine, so off I set doing the band.  Three out of six were perfect.  The other three were unpicked and redone, and unpicked and then partially manually done - I HATE buttonholes!!!  I wish this machine had a three step process like my last machine.

I had seen a few Jenna Cardis where the shoulder seam was too long and hung down the arm rather than sitting on the shoulder.  Luckily I have a broad back and wide shoulders, but next time I will be tempted to reduce the shoulder seam by about 1/4" to bring it up just slightly.  I might also look at putting domes on the next one instead of fighting with my machine buttonholes again.

Sorry about the over exposed photos - I think this is a combinations of the sunlight, wearing a white striped t-shirt which over exposes the pictures or just a useless camera! Anyway, if I wait until I can get better photos I will never get anything to the blog.