Grainline Studio Lark Tee – Cardigan version!

Cascade, waterfall – all those beautiful coats that have been popping up make me so jealous of people who actually have seasons. I want one! red or camel or black. With a scarf and gloves and slouchy knit hat. Can’t have everything, so I made a waterfall cardigan.

The Lark Tee

And I got so much help.

I’ve been lurking the Grainline Studio Lark Tee. It comes with four necklines – scoop, vee, crew, and boat neck. But it’s a tee. How many tee shirt patterns do I need?

Apparently one more 🙂 I convinced myself when I read Jen’s (free) tutorial on making a cardigan with the crew neck version of the Lark. I even had suitable fabric at hand, a Maggy London cotton/poly/lycra stripe from Fabric Mart. It’s been hanging out in my stash since last May, because the stripe is simply too small for a dress. But this cardigan is perfect – I had to buy the pattern.

Here’s Jen wearing her version:

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The Lark Tee is long at 28″ or so, which I like since I don’t tuck my tops. For her cardigan, Jen took 2.5″ off the length of the tee. And I added 3″ to mine, because I like to cover my bum.

 

Here’s a look at the very simple redrafting of the crew neck pattern:

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In typical Grainline Studio style, both the instruction booklet that comes with the Lark, and the tutorial for the cardigan, are beautifully done with clear illustrations and understandable directions.

I pretty much followed the directions, but I ran into difficulty when it came to hemming the neckline and front. The instructions are to turn in the edge 3/4″ and topstitch/coverstitch to finish. Aaack! A raw edge inside that would show outside in the cascade. Worse – I simply could not get the fabric to turn in 3/4″ around the tight curve at the shoulder seam/back neckline area.

So I fooled around with some scrap fabric, trying for a rolled hem finish. It was OK – but not the nice finish I like.

Finally my coffee kicked in (it was early this morning), and I remembered TwoToast’s Sunday blog post  in which  she describes how she finished the edges of her new cascade cardi. Lightbulb moment – what a great approach! I cut 1.5″ wide strips of rayon jersey, folded them in half wrong sides together, and attached them to the cardigan, pretty much the same way one would attach a band to a neckline. A little topstitching to keep the bands from rolling out, and done.

It’s a little hard to see on black, but here’s the outside and inside of part of the band. I really like the way this looks:
 

One note of caution: the sleeves are straight from the tee shirt pattern, so they are slim. I’m wearing a sleeveless Bantam vest under my cardi – I really couldn’t get it over a long-sleeved tee very comfortably. It would be easy, though, to widen the sleeve. Also, I sewed the size 10, which matches my measurements. I always cringe mentally when I go down a size, but the pattern is true to its size charts.

I’m glad I made this, it’s pretty neat. But I’m not sure it’s the best look for me. Maybe with a turtleneck. Or long hair. Or a long necklace. (Or a scarf, mittens, and a knit cap 🙂 But I scratched my itch to have a waterfall coat, and I still have a wonderful tee shirt pattern to play with in the future. I have another two yards of this fabric, so I’m thinking a crew-neck tee with a cuffed sleeve.

Bye for now! Coco