Look, Ma! No sleeves! - Simplicty Sew Simple A1738

Well, well, well... It seems that I missed my 2 year Blog anniversary this past Tuesday. Two years already! I feel like I just started learning how to sew yesterday... well not yesterday but maybe the day before yesterday lol. I'm grateful to everyone that follows this here humble blog and I appreciate your support and comments and encouragement and help. The sewing community has been so awesome and I am glad to be apart of it!

Let me go ahead and tell you about this UFO that has been chilling in the UFO basket since JANUARY. Ain't that a shame?? Anyway, it's Simplicity "Sew Simple" A1738. I came across it in blogland when I first started reading sewing blogs and I believe it went OOP because I couldn't find it anywhere but then I ended up copping the last one in a random Wal-Mart around my way.  I liked the idea of an easy cardigan or blazer that I could finish in an hour or so. (idk how an hour turned 5 months lol)

I made it up in a black ponte knit that I got from JoAnn Fabrics back when I thought there was only one kind of ponte. I thought I was buying ponte roma like I used for my valentine pencil skirt but this was VERY different from that lol Not as much stretch, thinner, ever so slightly ribbed. I went with it though.

On all of the princess seams, I folded the seam allowances under and topstitched them so I could have double topstitched seams. I only did one side of the seams on the back though because of the band back there. I was so focused on the double top-stiched hem that I didn't realize that it was going to give so many drag lines on the front and back. I'm not too bummed about it though. It's mostly on the back and I can't see back there lol

You may notice that this version of the pattern does not have sleeves. Your eyes would not be deceiving you lol. When I had first finished the cardigan, the sleeves were like 2 huge tubes on my arms plus they were really short. I don't know why it immediately annoyed me as much as it did but looking in the mirror was met by rolled eyes and a death stare lol. I had just read a blog post about how we should look at the pattern envelope to see how things fit on the pattern models to see what kind of issues we might deal with when making specific patters. Sure enough, when I went back to look at the pattern envelope, the sleeves had no shape and they were short on the arm of the "model".

I had already serged the sleeves and everything so I was pretty disappointed but I refused to let these 2 good yards of ponte go to waist so I got out my scissors, cut the serging off and made bias strips from the sleeves. I bias-bound the sleeves and catch-stitched them to the inside because I didn't want that line of stitching on the outside. 

I ended up catch-stitching the hem too just because apparently I really like to catch stitch now lol.

The directions on this pattern are definitely "sew simple" I didn't have any other problems aside from the sleeves. I didn't even have any swayback issues which is usually my plight.

All in all, I now have a pretty reliable basic and layering piece for practically all seasons. I'm very happy with it :-)

What about you? Do you have any really easy finish UFO's that you've been neglecting for some time now?