Hello again! I’m excited to be back with two makes for this month’s post – the Coppelia Cardigan from Papercut Patterns made up in two ways for layering goodness all year long!

I squeezed the first version, a cropped wrap with long waist ties, out of about a yard of leftover bamboo knit from my Santa Fe top as a wearable muslin. The fabric is sold out now but I could definitely use a version in this Charcoal Rayon Jersey Knit or this Navy Bamboo Knit. For reference, I cut a size XXS graded to XS at the hips and cut the hem ties lengthwise instead. Since the fabric had a decent amount of four-way stretch, it was fine. The only other change I made was to shorten the cardigan by 2″ before adding the waist ties.

The pattern itself comes together quickly with five pieces for how cute it looks. The smaller pieces such as the neck band and waist ties are both folded in half before being attached, so ironing them flat kept the edges from curling. Everything was sewed with a small zig zag stitch and neatened with a serger. The only issue I had was with topstitching the hem band – now that was a wavy nightmare! Once I get my hands on a walking foot, I might attempt this again on a third version of the cardigan with lower tension and increased stitch width. For now, I’m satisfied with how it looks from a reasonable distance (who’s going to be staring at my waist anyway??) and love how it looks tucked into my leopard skirt for Spring.

Unfortunately, the weather in New Jersey has been a little crazy and the cold weather came early so I only wore the first version out twice before it was time to pack it away for next year. Of course, the solution was to make another one just for fall / winter!

The second version is a longer faux wrap top using some Emerald Green Rayon Lycra Jersey. This version is even easier to complete as the hem is finished with a bottom band and not waist ties. The only change I made here was to shorten the pattern by 2″ before cutting the fabric and I am pretty happy with the fit. I would say that my favorite versions online all use light weight fabric with lots of stretch since you have to really stretch the neck band as you sew it to prevent gaping in the neck and shoulder area. I’m not even sure if I stretched it enough, but all in all, I love this color and it’s so comfy I will be living in it for the rest of the year.

Thanks for reading and bearing with the indoor photos – it gets dark by 5pm now. I’m crossing my fingers that for my next post, I will be on vacation somewhere warm wearing this awesome palm print I have waiting on the shelf. 😉