Ever since I saw this glorious sweater/top from Alice Alexander Co (a company I’m just a touch obsessed with) I’ve been a little bit obsessed with the idea of a non-stretch woolen top/sweater. I’ve pinned a lot of inspiration to my ‘boiled wool sweater’ pinterest board and taken numerous inspirational screenshots.
I consulted the instagram hive mind a few days ago and was flooded with recommendations and folks sending me pictures of their own non-stretch wool sweaters and was totally inspired to jump into action!
I made this sweater from my Cashmerette Montrose Top pattern and hacked the pattern quite a bit but totally unprofessionally to get to this long-sleeve box!
I didn’t want to buy a new pattern and I wanted something I already knew fit, and since I’m obsessed with the Montrose Full Bicep sleeve,
I very haphazardly used the top half of that and joined it on to the bottom half of the Harrison Shirt Sleeve (sans cuff piece). The sleeve is in two parts- mostly because I think it looks cool and also for pattern tetris and cutting ease.
Size details: I sewed the C/D cup bodice in a size 20, and since I knew I wanted a very boxy look and split side seams, I cut straight down from the underarm seam on both the front and back bodice pieces. When sewing up the top, I sewed only a seam rippers length down from the underarm seam (very scientific).
Since I cut the top part of the front bodice in two pieces, I decided to add some decorative top stitching along the seams there, and also on the arm seams. I left the bottom hem unfinished, but I think I’ll go back and add some similar top stitching to a largeish hem down there too!
I did a bit of a messy job with my bias binding neckline, I thought that this ‘Perfectly Imperfect’ label from Kylie and the Machine was an excellent match!
