Pink sparkly Pineapple Linden

Sometimes when you´re wandering through a fabric store,  fabric just jumps into your arms and it would be rude of you to ignore its pleas to go home with you.

That´s exactly what happened when I saw this heathered grey sweatshirting with pink sparkly pineapples printed on it. I took home 1.5m and just knew I wanted to make a Grainline Linden sweatshirt.

I bought this pattern the minute it was released but other than a Linden sweater dress last year, I´ve never made it. So after a lot of hours research on Pinterest, I decided a view B Linden would be best and maybe I would still have some fabric left over for my girls.

I wanted to add bands to the short sleeves to make them elbow length just like my prime inspiration here. Seeing as I had forgotten to buy matching ribbing (and I didn´t want to go back to the fabric store) I thought about using the reverse side of the fabric for the binding and bands. Because this fabric turned out to have almost no stretch, I cut the bands the same length as the arm openings (forgoing the pattern piece) and did the same for the neckline binding. Because the wrong side of the fabric is nice and soft, it makes the bands really nice and soft 🙂

The sweater itself came together really quickly on my overlock. But when I put it on, I didn´t like it. Too short! So I added a split hem band at the bottom, making the back hem slightly longer than the front. I just measured both pieces and eyed the length for the back.

I still didn´t really like it when it was finished so I took the neckline binding off, made the neckline opening wider and sewed a new piece of binding on. It was better but I was still in doubt when I went to bed. It looked way too boxy.

I slept on it and in the morning I looked for some RTW inspiration in sweatshirts, which led me to add the triangle and some decorative stitching along the bands. Now I really like it. I´m guessing I´ll like it more when I loose the baby weight since I don´t feel particularly foxy in it but I do feel hip and fashionable and it´s a start. Somehow the hubby seems to like it even though he´s usually not a fan of sparkly pineapples.

Final verdict:

I love Grainline patterns and this one is no exception but the boxy design might not be very suitable to my shape. I might give it another try in a drapier fabric but that remains to be seen.

Summary:

Size:

• Cut a size 10 based on the finished and my pre-pregnancy measurements. (If I had followed my current measurements, I would have cut a size 14)

Alterations:

• Added arm bands
• Lengthened the neckline binding
• Added split hem bands

Fabric:

• Pink sparkly pineapple sweatshirt fabric (I bought it here)