Here’s a tip for all you cozy fabric lovers: grab some of this chocolate brown french terry today!
With this softer than soft chocolate french terry, I made a Tallinn Sweater by Hey June Patterns for myself. (Oh, and I just noticed the Tallinn Sweater is the featured pattern of the month over at Hey June, so it’s 15% off using the code “Tallinn15” !!) It’s very stylish, and discreet for nursing my baby too. There is crossover front piece, which opens for nursing, but leaves the other front piece covering the body. Hard to explain in words, but really easy to feed the baby while wearing! Maybe this photo of me chasing one of my kids helps you see the opening better?
The fabric is very stable to work with, it was easy to sew both 2 layers for the side seams, and 4 layers for the bands. Speaking of bands, there is no hemming with this pattern!
The Tallinn pattern can be made with a turtleneck like you see here, or a cowl neck which I want to make too! I love the turtleneck, probably because I’ve only had 1 other turtleneck that fit since reaching my 6’ tall height at age 17! And I had to pay a whole bunch of money for it from a specialty tall shop. That is something amazing about making your own wardrobe…the perfect fit! And with super reasonable prices of the French Terry at CaliFabrics, I’ll never have to pay high dollar prices for clothes again!
So I know you’re wondering what I did with the leftover fabric, since I’m the original Fabric Scrooge! You might know that I’m a pattern designer, and I just released a new Reversible Beanie Pattern. (It’s free until 2018, so grab it now!)
When I design a pattern, I sew up quite a few samples as the pattern is going through development. This pattern is available in 7 sizes from newborn to adult, so there were lots of test to be made! The chocolate french terry was perfect for running a quick fit check, or a slight style change.
For example, the early version had ears on it, and every time I made a change to the pattern instructions I had to sew up another reversible beanie!
In the end, I left the ears off all together because it required a hole in the hat to allow the ears to reverse, which kind of defeated the purpose of keeping the head warm.
The Reversible Beanie ended up being reversible slouchy beanie and skullcap with contrast band depending on how it’s styled. And of course, there are 4 looks since it’s reversible!
Since I have 8 kids, by the time the pattern was ready to go to the testers, each kid had at least 1 hat, and most of them used leftover chocolate french terry! It’s lightweight enough to be slouchy when worn as a beanie, and warm and soft when worn tight against your head! So of course, I had to have one too.
Well, that’s all for me! Go grab your (FREE for now) Reversible Beanie Pattern by Savvy Patterns, and start some stash busting sewing for yourself, your family, and all your friends! And if you don’t already have french terry in your stash, I highly recommend this chocolate brown french terry!