Constellation TGIFF

Hello and welcome to TGIFF! It's time to do our happy dances to celebrate whatever we've been able to finish this week. We all love to start new things, but there's something so wonderful about a finish, isn't there?

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This week I finished my Constellation pullover and it is so wonderfully comfortable. I won't be winning any modeling awards and my 16 year old son won't be winning any photography awards, but we can only work with what we've got, right? 😄

 The Constellation Hoodie is by Tami of Love Notions. It's a well written pattern, with several variations, plus there are tutorials for a few more that were shared during a SAL last week on Facebook. There's also a men's version and a kid's version, so you could easily outfit the whole family. She has a huge FB group that is wonderfully responsive and encouraging, which was a nice bonus as it's great to be able to ask questions of people who have already made the pattern. It also serves her well in that now that I keep seeing people making her other patterns I'm more and more tempted to buy those too, lol.

I chose to make the collared version, rather than the hooded version. I've never really been a fan of hoods on my sweatshirts, so it's nice to have the option to leave that off. I went with the curved hem rather than the banded hem this time, but I could easily see me making the banded hem version sometime. I seriously doubt this will be my last Constellation!

I used a french terry fabric and when I ordered it from L'oiseau Fabrics, I had no clue what to expect. That has been one of the biggest hurdles for me when it comes to sewing more garments and especially knit garments. I just have no idea what different fabrics will feel like or how heavy they'll be. The french terry is a bit lighter than I was expecting, but that works since I'm usually the last person in the room to be cold and a lighter sweater will be just right most of the time.

I love the contrasting fabrics, but next time I might choose not to have the contrasting fabric on the pocket. I think it might be better if the contrasting fabric were on the bodice. I also love the bright pink zipper!

This was my first time putting in a sleeve and putting a cuff on a sleeve and I am so pleased with how they turned out! I *may* have had to redo the first one of both because I managed to sew them on inside out, but I got it right in the end, lol.

The last thing I did was the hem, for which I used a twin needle for the first time ever. However, I didn't really think it through and the nice twin lines of stitching ended up on the inside while the "bottom" zigzag line is on the outside. Oops! At that point, I had used the seam ripper enough times that I just shrugged and decided it would be a design element. I'll get it right on the next garment!

Unfortunately, within hours of finishing it, I managed to flick brown candle wax onto it 😟 I removed the wax easily enough by ironing the spots with paper towel over them to absorb it, but the colour remained. I sprayed it with Shout and washed it, but they're still there. You may have noticed them in the previous pictures. They're pretty conspicuous.

I asked for suggestions for removing them on Instagram and received quite a few. I also asked my mother, who suggested peroxide and dish soap. I looked online for how much of each to use and found this recipe, which is what I'm trying first. Fingers crossed that I can get the stains out because it's not wearable as it is, except around the house.

So that's what I've finished this week! What have you finished? Link up below and be sure to visit a few of the other links as well to share in the celebrating.


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