KS 2948

I found a brown, plaid, knit fabric in the clearance section at Joann's back in September, when I went in for some thread for a different project.  Actually, it was my day in the clearance section, because I scored several nice pieces of fabric for just a few dollars each.  This rarely happens for me, and I usually find that Joann's is overpriced and has poor selection compared to what I can get online.  But that's another post altogether.

There was only 1 yard of this fabric, and I knew that wouldn't be enough for me.  My daughter is tiny though, and while she still fits into children's patterns for height and width, but don't account for her blossoming figure and wanting to dress a little more age appropriate (which is a very fine line at 13...).  The KS patterns in an XS seem to fit her very well with no fit adjustments (so far!), so I bought this piece for her, hoping it would work.  It did!

One of my concerns with using a plaid fabric was getting it to match properly.  Ideally, I would have bought an extra yard.  Since that wasn't an option, I decided to make sure the front matches.  Having to lay it out funky to match the front was definitely a challenge with the limited fabric.  One thing I didn't think about was the band that attaches to the front.  I have to admit, I just got lucky that it happened to match up.  I realized while I was cutting it out that it may be an issue, but there wasn't any other section I could use that it would have fit.  I was careful about lining up the fabric when I laid it out for cutting, which is probably the only reason it happened to match up well.

I did leave the sleeves a little longer, but this was after hemming the 1.5 inches already.  I thought about going back and adjusting them, but this will give her some growing room (yep, that's my story!).  I think the smile on her face shows how pleased she is with this cardigan. :)  And of course, she won't be wearing it over a purple t-shirt...at least I hope not, but she's definitely got her own sense of style, and one never really knows.  I've decided as long as she's dressed modestly, if she wants to mix patterns and colors, I'm going to bit my tongue...sometimes you just have to know when to pick your battles!