Sewing an Intricate Pattern

Pattern - Jalie 2212 Half Zip Pullover
Skill Level - Advanced
Fabric - Bamboo French Terry from Discovery Fabrics
Skills - Pattern layout, marking, 

My son's birthday is coming up and once again he's requested a half-zip pullover from the Jalie 2212 pattern.  Jalie makes excellent patterns, but I don't find their instructions the easiest to follow.  And the big downside to this pattern for me is the fact that it's a tiled PDF that doesn't give me the option to print only one size and unfortunately, Jalie doesn't have any plans to update this super pattern. However, the result is a great pullover with lots of detail that my son loves.

All that detail means lots of pattern pieces!  And lots of topstitching!  Organization is key.

The first thing I do is lay out my fabric - in this case a lovely soft bamboo French Terry from Discovery Fabrics.  My son specifically asked for a fabric that was lighter than the recommended sweatshirt fleece. The softness and drape of this fabric means that it could stretch easily, so I put a chair back under the end to hold it up and prevent distortion.  I lay pieces out to make sure that they're going to fit on the length of fabric.

I have already made my alterations.  My son is tall, so I've added 2" to the torso and another inch at the bottom of the body pieces and sleeve because I'm hemming as opposed to the foldover elastic that the pattern suggests.  Don't be afraid to alter a pattern to what you really need.

Once the pattern pieces have been cut out, the next step is transferring the markings.  In a pattern like this with so many pieces, it's essential that markings are accurate.  I even go so far as to use quilting pins with different coloured heads and keep the colours consistent so I know what will attach where.

Marking done, I like to put the pieces into groups.  Front and back pieces are separated from each other.  And I keep the paper pattern pieces with the fabric pieces until they're used.  Some of the pieces look very much like each other and it would be easy to get confused.

Organization and marking done, I'm ready to sew.  I put the instructions up for reference.  With Jalie patterns you can download the instructions without buying the pattern so you can see what is needed and how the pattern goes together.  Pictorial instructions are on 2 separate pages for this pullover and the written instructions take less than a page of quite small type so you need to go back and forth between pages.  You need to have them both readily available.

Once all the prep work is done, you're ready to sew.  I find that the sewing takes so much less time than the prep work for this pattern.

When sewing something with so many pieces you really have to pay attention - and I got distracted!  I serged the right side of one piece to the wrong side of the other.  So here's a little trick if it happens to you.  I used my seam ripper to slice through the looper threads at the top of the serging in between the two pieces of fabric.  Then I pulled out the needle threads to separate the pieces, but I was left with so many tiny bits of thread!

Here's the trick.  I ran a lint roller over the stitches and it picked them right up saving me a lot of work and mess!  Yup - lint rollers belong in your sewing kit!

LOTS of topstitching!

The shirt is now done and packed, ready to give to my son for his birthday.  It took a lot longer than most patterns do because of all the pattern pieces and the topstitching, but it's a shirt I know he loves.  Being organized is the key to getting it done.

Happy sewing!