Another awesome Astoria

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There’s something incredibly snuggly about sweatshirt material. I think it’s probably something to do with the way that it looks like it’s been constructed from hundreds of teddy bears to give it the ultimate comf factor. When you get that comfiness and put it into something that can be worn for work as a cover up for smart dresses without looking slobby, well then you’re on to a winner!

I’ve had this for about two months now [let’s not look at my making to blogging time lag in too much detail….] and I can confirm that it is fab and gets worn with pretty much everything. In fact, I’m wearing it right now as I type this (and I have the picture to prove it!).

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What is it?

A cropped sweater

Is it blue?

You betcha!

What’s the fabric and where’s it from?

A super comfy sweatshirt jersey from Guthrie & Ghani. I had my eye on it for ages and then found a metre in the remnants bin; just enough for an Astoria. It’s like it was meant to be!

What’s the pattern?

The Seamwork Astoria

What was good about making this?

It continues to be a super swift make, which is a definite bonus

What was bad about making this?

I’m not entirely sure I had the fabric rotated the right way… Which isn’t exactly a bad thing per se, it’s more just that I found myself getting confused!

Would you make it again?

It does make a great throw over for dresses due to the crop of the sweater… I think if I could find a comfy grey I probably would (I truly love a grey jumper) but otherwise as much as I love it I might be exhausting the number of Astoria’s I can get away with!

x

Shiny Astoria jumper

Sparkly astoriaPart of the shopping trip to London included the super exciting purchase of some very sparkly fabric to make a dress out of for New Year’s Eve. In my panic of shopping I ended up buying a good half metre (and then some) more than I actually needed. Combined with knowing that I wanted to make an Astoria out of some very lovely teal sweatshirt material I got as a bolt end from Guthrie & Ghani, it seemed like the perfect time to test out the Astoria pattern and a couple of embellishment ideas I had in mind at the same time!

What is it?
A cropped sweater made in a super shiny black and gold jersey with gold topstitching at the collar and cuffs

Is it blue?

No

What’s the fabric?

Black and gold jersey material

What’s the pattern?

Astoria by Seamwork

Where’s the fabric from?

Another Walthamstow find, this one was from a shop that (surprise!) I can’t remember the name of. It had loads of rolls lined up and they were all under £5 a metre (indeed, this stuff was maybe £3 a metre?)

What was good about making this?

It was so fast! I think it took maybe an hour to get from cutting out to trying it on. I shouldn’t have been surprised given Seamwork pride themselves on patterns that take three hours or less, but it was nice to find out it was true!  It was also good fun to test out using gold thread for topstitching (especially as it worked!)

What was bad about making this?

Nothing. Actually, the amount of waste paper produced when printing out the PDF. Though I’m not sure what could have been done about that?

Would you make it again?

Yes, I just need to get round to prewashing that fabric!

x

ps. Apologies for the awful train selfie of this one. I’ve worn it loads since making it, but somehow never managed to get a decent picture!