Completed: Skulls Fleece Renfrew

I confess that I bought this fabric on a whim. I was choosing fabrics at Plush Addict for my niece’s hoodie, when I came across this gorgeous fleece. Honestly, I couldn’t let it pass. I have just checked their website and this fleece is gone. Completely understandable.

I usually buy fabrics with a pattern in mind unless it’s a bargain or I suddenly fall in love with the fabric. I try to avoid this, since I would be indulging too often and our apartment is very small. I know, fleece takes lots of space, but well,  this time I couldn’t let it pass.

I had the fabric in my stash since the beginning of December, but I  was so afraid of cutting into it that I kept thinking for months about the perfect pattern for it. Ringing some bells? I spent some time convinced that this could be ideal for a dress, but now that the worst part of the winter is gone I couldn’t think of wearing something like this. And probably it would rub against my stockings and climb upwards and I would then fall out of love with it. And that couldn’t happen. So I opted for something to cover just my torso. I had the Renfrew pattern since last year and I hadn’t it used yet (so many patterns, so little time) and after browsing a bit over the internet and seeing some nice versions I decided that this was the best. I fantasized for a very short while with modifying the pattern to include an asymmetric zipper but I discarded the idea knowing that too much thinking leads to very little sewing, especially with a new pattern. And even the idea was a nice one that I will try one day, let’s be honest, this print is large enough to be disturbed by zippers, even if I tried to match it perfectly. I decided to be lazy and on the safe side this time.

I used view C, and even I saw some people using a thin knit for one of the layers of the cowl I stuck with the fleece. After I finished the sweater I almost regretted it, because the cowl can stand on its own if not folded, and it looks quite bad if folded just once (you should have seen Koen’s face).

But a miracle happens when folded twice. That horrible 80’s vibe disappears and it becomes something nice. I wore it yesterday to my sewing class and the teacher said she liked it a lot but didn’t know it has handmade!

As I’ve said, I’ve used view C for the collar and view A for the sleeves. Instead of going 1 or 2 sizes down like with the Thurlow Trowsers, I used the size the matched my measurements (size 6) and shortened bodice and sleeves by 2 cm, and due to the thickness of the fabric it came out perfect. A bit snug on my chest but you know, I’m a bit swollen these days. You know how that works 😉

I used my walking foot and I just had some little issues when I had to sew several layers of this thick fleece. If it was not because of that I would have finished this project much sooner.

I have a couple of knit fabrics to make t-shirts from this same pattern, but I’m wondering if I should stick to size 6 or go one size down. Any thoughts?

You can see my last pair of Thurlow Trowsers on these pictures. Pity that the weather is getting too warm sometimes to wear them (almost 20ºC today, yay!). And BTW, I trimmed my bangs again last week, giving them this time a slight Betty Page curve. I like them 🙂