I'm in love with Variegated Sweater Knit....

**This is NOT a sponsored post... I wish lol

I have this T-shirt that I got from Ross. The brand is "Free Kisses" and it is the softest most comfortable and chic looking t-shirt I've ever had. It's one of my most favorite pieces in my wardrobe and it's all because of the fabric. The fabric is soft and fluid, with 4 way stretch and it has an interesting look about it. It's white, speckled with black and it coordinated with ALOT of things in my closet. It could be dressed up or down and it was the epitome of secret pajamas. After failing in my search, online and in-store, for more of the same shirt, I stumbled across a green v-neck-ish top of the same brand and fabric! In South Carolina no less. lol As soon as I saw it on the racked I picked it up with a quickness!

I then became obsessed with finding out 1) what sorcery fabric is this?! and 2) could I get some to make my own tops?? Well a few weeks later Carolyn was celebrating National Sewing Month with a number of discounts from different companies and StyleMaker Fabrics was one of them. They actually had been doing a blog tour for their new Fall line of fabrics I believe. Well... quiet as it's kept, I've been on a fabric fast since March and I had been doing a really great job with not buying anymore fabric. I just told myself that I would just BROWSE the site and MAYBE I would stumble across my beloved textile.

Before I even went on the site, I decided to look at the tag of my shirt to maybe see if the name of the type of fabric would be on there. I knew it was a long shot but it couldn't hurt. Coincidentally I was wearing it that very day lol. The tag said "48% Rayon, 48% Polyester, 4% Spandex". I went ahead and googled those percentages just like I've written them.... nothing.

My next course of action was to make up a name lol I knew that it felt kind of slubby but I also knew that it wasn't quite french terry (have never felt btw). I came around to identifying it as a sweater knit and then something clicked. I was reading a blog post of another sewer talking about how they topstitched with variegated rainbow thread it hit me that my fabric was also "variegated". I wasn't concrete on that but as soon as I googled it, my suspicions were confirmed! So I went back to google and typed in "Variegated Sweater Knit Rayon Polyester Spandex". Lo and behold one of the first site recommendations was from StyleMaker Fabrics lol.

They had 5 different options of variegated sweater knit but I didn't want to break my fabric fast quite yet. What I did see was that swatches were available. I have never ordered swatches before but I'm glad they were available because I didn't feel certain that this was the fabric I was looking for. The main reason I was unsure was because even though the listing showed the fabrics as having rayon, polyester, and spandex, it did not have percentages, and I know that that could def make a difference. I went ahead and ordered the grey (because from the pic it looked like my t-shirt), pumpkin and charcoal.

Not quite assured, I went back to google and this time typed in "variegated sweater knit" with the exact percentages as my t-shirt tag. A recommendation for Fabric.com came up but the fabric is called "Telio Topaz Hatchi Knit". The percentages didn't match exactly but I saw that swatches were available for those as well, so I went ahead and took a chance in getting some. The fabric content for the Hatchi Knit is 80% Polyester, 15% Rayon, and 5% Spandex. I ordered 3 swatches (mustard, red, and topaz) but swatches for the white color (which looked the most like my t-shirt) weren't available. I went ahead and ordered 1 yard of it.

I figured that was enough searching for the day and I waited for my swatches to come in. The first to come were the swatches for StyleMaker Fabrics. The colors were pretty. The right side of the fabric was soft like my t-shirt but the wrong side was a little stiff. The first problem was that it did not have 4-way stretch, only 2-way. Don't get me wrong, the fabric is very nice and seems of high quality but it wasn't what I was looking for unfortunately. My spirits were a little down but I waited patiently for the swatches from Fabric.com

When the swatches came from Fabric.com, they LOOKED just like the StyleMaker swatches. And the right side felt just as soft. The difference is that the wrong side was soft as well... and the fabric is 4-way stretch! Although it wasn't EXACTLY the same fabric as my t-shirt, it was close enough. I think that the lack of Rayon really makes a difference. I squealed and ran to my mom to show her! lol Then she said "oooh that yellow looks nice.. I need a cardigan out of that" -__- lol

I wasn't going to buy the fabrics right away because I didn't want to break my fast until the end of the year but then I said "oh, what the heck! why not!". Well I do know why I shouldn't have... but I did anyway lol And you might say I went a little overboard. I bought 5 different colors in varying yardages. I did buy 4 yards for my mom's long cardigan but the other colors are all for me. I'm just envisioning all different styles of everyday shirts that can be dressed up! (From top to bottom) I bought red, pine, purple, topaz, dark grey and mustard (they've added new colors since I ordered last month). I didn't buy anymore of the grey because I figured I didn't need toooo many grey shirts.

What's funny is that, you can see in the picture below, the "grey" knit from StyleMaker Fabrics and the "white" knit from Fabric.com are exactly the same color. And they aren't even a match to my t-shirt. lol It's okay though. I'm definitely going to be happy with the tops I make out of these fabrics. I don't know when I'll get to them! But I know I'll be happy when I do lol

Now that my fabric fast is broken, I went ahead and indulged in a Fabric Mart sale the other day as well smh. That's really it though. No more fabric for the year! lol

Have you ever tried or heard of variegated sweater knit? How do you feel about it? Let me know in the comments!

Be back soon with a dress I finished last week! Just have to take photos this weekend!

xoxo,
Tasha