I AM Zebre

Let’s start with the fact that I am not a sweatshirt kind of girl. You will just never really find me in one unless its got some kind of cute element. You will never find me in a regular t-shirt either! Not sure why, but I avoid them like the plague! That being said, I really wanted a sweatshirt I could be cozy in while still feeling super cute!

Fabric Choice!

I think that a medium weight knit is nice. I went with a solid, which I don’t normally do, but a girl needs some solid versatile pieces sometimes! I didn’t want a rayon jersey because I wanted to see the gathering on the sleeves clearly. I didn’t just want it to collapse. I also wanted it to have a sweatshirt type feel. I love the feeling of this Girl Charlee french Terry! They no longer have this color, but there are plenty of other options available still. It worked so well for this pattern. I also think a lighter ponte would look cool and really accentuate the shape. You could also use a more draped jersey, but that definitely would look different!

Pattern- The pattern instructions were adequate. I did not have trouble but I felt as though the instructions were very succinct. No embellishments!

Fit- Overall, I feel that I could have gone with a smaller size. However, I still like the look of my sweater.

The Cuff- This piece posed a challenge for me with my tiny wrists. Knowing this in advance about myself, I sewed the cuff closed and before I attached it to the sleeve, I pulled it over my wrist to see if it would fit. It was massive! I knew this would happen! I kept taking width off by just serging it tighter and tighter. I finally reached a point where it fit my wrist perfectly! Anytime you change the seam line or width of something, you have to think about what it is connecting to. Well, I knew that this cuff was going to be connected to a gathered sleeve at the wrist! No problem. I will just gather the sleeve a little more! Voila!

Button Placket- I always like patterns that give me an opportunity to add embellishments and make them my own! This one had the button/snap placket on the side. Super cute addition! Of course I used this opportunity to use my moon phase buttons from arrow mountain! I decided to close the placket closed on the underside using the fold of one and the serged edge of another.

Then I just sewed on the buttons from Arrow Mountain, evenly spacing them over the placket. The pattern called for 3 snaps but I didn’t want to deal with snaps going through such thick fabric. After all, I am no snap whisperer! I also didn’t think I needed that area to open and close. I carefully pinned the shoulder closed and tried on the shirt to make sure it could fit over my head. I dont want to stretch the neck too much so I was careful. It fit very easily, so that is when I decided I could just close it up and sew some permanent buttons on the top through all the layers. Could I have made button holes? Yes. Did I really want to do that? No. I love the top so much and I have to say the buttons were my favorite touch. Its all about the details!

Styling- This is my favorite! For this sweater I think large earrings (my favorite) or even just large pearl earrings would be nice. I think it would be nice to wear the hair up to accentuate the buttons, but I just pushed mine to the side for the pictures. A side braid would also be nice! Any necklace you want to wear would work with this shirt. This would look great with a scarf! I think you could wear this over a dress or with jeans. Its so versatile and I love it! The neckline is rather high up so you could even wear a collared shirt or you could get away with a dress that has a higher neckline underneath! Oh the endless possibilities! Of course, I would wear my bright new Able boots! Because they are my favorite! But you could also wear sneakers and look fabulous!