Project #7   A Perfect Shrug!

Pattern:  McCalls 5038 or Kwik Sew 3361

Materials: 1 1/4 yards knit fabric (I used extra for long sleeves)

                 thread

Fabric    Raspberry Icicle (now out of stock)  Look through all our knits

 Some time ago I saw a darling little Kwik Sew (3361) shrug pattern made up of knit fabric in a Threads magazine article. I thought it would look  cute on my daughter and be fairly easy and quick for her to sew during  this busy time of the school year.

 We don't have a Kwik Sew pattern dealer nearby, so I looked for a substitute in the other pattern books. I found McCalls 5038. The  pattern is for a short sleeve shrug. But I was interested in having Rachel make a long sleeve one because it is cold in Massachusetts in  February! Changing sleeve length seemed like an easy alteration.

I chose for Rachel some nice Raspberry Icicle knit at Sawyer Brook that had god draping capability. Although since then we have gotten in some newer really fabulous spring time knits that would work up superbly!

Alteration tip!

Since we wanted to make a long sleeve version, I had Rachel bring me a  long sleeve tee shirt that she likes the way it fits. Then we laid out  the pattern sleeve on the fabric. We laid the correctly fitting shirt  over the pattern and drew out the longer length sleeve with tailor's  chalk. We added a little extra length for a hem.

 Cutting out was easy - just two fronts, a back and two sleeves. Before  sewing the fronts and the back together, we fused a 3/4 inch piece of lightweight knit interfacing on the front seam allowances to keep the shoulder seam from stretching after it was sewn.

 While sitting down to sew, Rachel turned to me and asked "Is there  anything I should know about sewing on slippery fabric?" I said "Just  sew slowly."

 Because the shrug is so small, the sewing went quickly and Rachel made a lot of progress despite sewing more slowly than usual to allow for  the slippery fabric.

 Probably the biggest problem she had was that pins would fall out as  she lifted pieces to move them to and from the machine and as she  rotated pieces while sewing. She pressed the seams as she sewed them.

 We used a zig zag stitch throughout to accommodate the stretch. One  happy note was that the thread seemed to sink into the soft fabric  during the topstitching of hems, hiding any minor stitching flaws. If  you have a walking foot or an even feed foot, you may want to experiment with it. I attached mine before Rachel did the topstitching  and it seemed to control the stretch nicely.

 Rachel made her shrug in just a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon.

Carole