Greek summer dreams in fabic

I am an early riser, some might even say a ridiculous early riser. I normally get up at 5.30 am on a workday and it is not uncommon for me to do the same on the weekend. I love this hour of the day when I have the feeling that it is only me and a few more that might be up.

Why am I starting this blog post with my sleeping habits ? Well, because I woke up last Saturday at 5 am, birds singing and all and whilst lying there and waiting for my "inner machine" to start up, I decided I would quickly sew myself a new Linden Sweatshirt. 

When I was teaching at the Village Haberdashery a few weeks back, Annie had just stocked the utterly gorgeous 'Paparounes in Crimson' from the new Skopelos Collection from Art Gallery fabric. At first I was disappointed that it was a knit rather than quilting cotton as I had earmarked this striking fabric for a quilt back. But I just could not, not buy some and decided I could do with another sweatshirt.

And oh boy am I glad that it was a knit as this turned out just fabulously. I have not sewn with jersey knits before and was conscious of the stretchiness of this fabric. I used a jersey needle and as I don't have a serger closed the seams with a wide zig-zag stitch. I used a normal foot but would use my walking foot the next time around.

Like with my last Linden Sweatshirt version I did not finish the sweatshirt with ribbing but instead simply hemmed it but this time I used a twin needle which was also a first! It gave the hems a nice finish but I should have used a thinner thread.

The neckline was a little tricky to do and I suppose I also should have used the twin needle there but I was a little apprehensive to use it there but will also do so next time.

I made this version a size bigger than the last as I wanted the sweatshirt a little roomier and also thought that it would look better it being a knit. It sits really well just like my Nani Iro one. It really took only two hours from cutting to wearing. And yes I was wearing it at 8 am when I walked to the corner shop to get myself a well deserved butter croissant.