Sewing: Week Two - Men's Casual Pullover — 3ten

Week Two

Men’s casual pullover is a great pattern to start off with. It’s easy, especially if you have a serger. One of the main reason’s I got a serger was to reduce the bulk when sewing clothes. The seams look more professional and polished.

For this project I used a Simplicity pattern – 1287, yet I have a few adjustments that I made, so be sure to read before you start your project.

Tip

First – make sure you read the finished measurements. I made a hoodie for my husband about 3 years ago and it was so long – like way, way too long. The downer part is I wanted it to be a surprise, so I didn’t seek out his help. All I did was use his measurements and pick the right size. This time I had him put on one of his favourite pullovers. I measured the length from the base of his neck to the bottom of the ribbing and I even measured the whole pullover for all of it’s finished measurements. In my opinion, these are more important than the actual measurements. For example, on this pattern, if the chest is 42 inches, the finished chest measurement is 49.5. That’s a huge difference! It all depends on the fit you’re looking for.

When I first started sewing, I’ll admit, I was so nervous to make items too small. My biggest bad habit was cutting the garment just a little bigger than it should be – then I would end up with a sloppy mess. Take it from me, it’s better to measure your body, look at the finished measurements and then trust your measurements. To date, I haven’t made anything too small.

Let’s Start

I picked pattern A and I did it in one colour, using contrasting ribbing for the neck, cuffs and hem. The pattern doesn’t call for ribbing, but rather using the same fabric. Use ribbing, it looks better.

You can see below all of the pattern pieces cut out. Both yokes and bodies, as well as the sleeves are cut out of a lightweight jogging fleece – like sweatshirt material, but lighter. Then, the cuffs, neck and hem – as well as the triangle accent piece are cut out of blue ribbing. Cut the ribbing about 1 inch smaller on the hem and about 1/2 and inch smaller on the cuffs and neck to ensure the ribbing stretches well.

Okay, time for my order of sewing this garment. First, put on the triangle. This is the only time I used my sewing machine. The rest was on my serger. If you wanted it to be 100% serger, you could use a flatlock stitch on your serger.

Steps

zig-zag stitch on the triangle
then, serge the front yoke to the front body (yoke on top)
next, serge the back yoke to the back body (yoke on top)
serge the front to the back (front on top)
then, serge the sleeves onto the body (body on top)
next, serge the sleeve and side boy in one long seam (front on top)
serge the bottom hem ribbing on to the body (body on top)
then, serge the cuffs on the sleeves (sleeve on top of ribbing)
next, serge the neck on the body (body on top)

Okay – what do I mean by yoke/body/front on top? When you’re serging the two items together you need to put one piece of fabric on top of the other. When the stitch is done and you press it, the fabric that was on top will look like it’s rolling over the other one. If you follow my ‘on tops’ above, the garment will follow the ready-to-wear clothes you probably already own. Being consistent will also ensure the pullover looks polished and professional.

Don’t forget – iron/press after each seam.