Time for some fall sewing! You might recognize the fabric as one of the Merino wool that I got in the Anima pant competition. This is part of the knit pack prize from Papercut and the Fabric Store, a beautiful Merino wool jacquard in raspberry color.

Recently this blog was voted as one of the Top 50 Best Bloggers for Sewing Enthusiasts, and I got to choose five Burda patterns. How lucky! The cardigan pattern is one of the five, it is Burda Oversized Cardigan 07/2013 #109A. I don’t use Burda patterns very often so I’m quite happy to have this opportunity to try more of their patterns.

The pattern is not a petite pattern, so I printed the patten at 97% and proceeded to shorten it more about 15 cm. This is one of the things that I love about PDF patterns, I can shrink them and the result is not just a shorter hem but also proportionally smaller armholes and necklines. You have to be careful not to shrink them too much though, maybe not more than 95%.

Burda patterns don’t have seam allowances. I can see that it is a problem to some people but actually I kinda like it because I can see exactly where the stitching lines are. Also, most commercial patterns have 1.5 cm (5/8″) seam allowance while I prefer 1 cm (3/8″), so I usually have to add my own allowance anyway.

The grey bands are leftover from my Ensis tee, I didn’t have much left so there are several seamlines on the bands. The instructions for neckline and front opening finishing is actually using facing, but I finished them using fabric bands, the same way as the hem and sleeves. All seams were finished on overlocker except for the topstitching.

Initially I was not sure if I could pull of an oversized cardigan. I think it looks okay with black top and leggings though. I also tried to wear it belted to see if it looks good. Still not sure what else I can wear it with. The most important thing is that the cardigan is extremely soft and comfy! I wore it all day during wet and grey day yesterday and it was very comfortable. It also dried quickly so I didn’t have to worry about a few splash of rains.

If you see me holding an iphone in the pictures, it is because I was experimenting with taking all the pictures using iPhone 6. I installed Cheeez app (free) on two iPhones to make one act as a camera and the other a remote. The problem with this setup was I couldn’t see myself in the display. So I installed Reflector (not free), an airplay receiver, to my Macbook. I placed the iPhone 6 on tripod, connected the Macbook to the iPhone 6 and the Reflector would mirror the phone. In this way I can see myself on the Macbook and use the other phone in my hand to operate the iPhone 6.

Uhm… sorry, I tend to ge carried away with all these apps. And why would I want to do all of these? Actually I just want to do all photo editings on my phone using several apps like TouchRetouch, Snapseed, VSCO, and other million apps that I have installed. There are lots of good editing apps for iOS and many of them are free or very cheap (especially compared to Adobe Photoshop!). After editing them, I can just upload the photos directly to my Flickr account and only open my Macbook when I’m ready to type. Now I can edit my photos anywhere! Several minutes after these photos were taken, Shake was wondering as why I was sitting on the bottom of the stairs for so long staring at my phone.

Pattern is Burda Oversized Cardigan 07/2013 #109A, size 36 printed at 97%.