Tag Archives: make your own basics

Make Your Own Basics: The V-neck cardigan

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Make Your Own Basics: The v-neck cardigan

So far in our wardrobe of handmade basics, we’ve got a button-down shirt, a classic crewneck pullover and a sweatshirt. A well-rounded closet needs 1-3 cardigans, if you ask me, and for my money the most useful, hardest working of them is a V-neck cardigan. (Referred to increasingly often as a “boyfriend” cardigan, but that term gets up my nose!) Especially if it’s thin and light and knitted from a cotton or linen blend, a simple cardigan like this can be a year-round layering piece and girl’s best friend. Here are three great options, with key distinctions among them:

TOP: Uniform by Carrie Bostick Hoge has been mentioned often here — with an array of choices for sleeve length and shape, body length and shape, pocket approaches and neckback treatments, it might be the only pattern you need. Worsted-weight, raglan-sleeved, bottom-up seamless

MIDDLE: Equation by Enjolina Campbell has slant pockets I totally love. (It also has a decorative purl-stitch chevron motif on the sides that you could easily leave out, if preferred.) Worsted-weight, set-in sleeves, knitted flat and seamed

BOTTOM: Bly by Amy Christoffers (free pattern) is an ultra-basic raglan with a split-hem (which you could also omit) and garter-edged-ribbing detail. Worsted-weight, top-down seamless (See also: Shapely Boyfriend by Stefanie Japel)

(For more on sweater construction, pros and cons, see An intro to sweater construction)

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Make Your Own Basics: The sweatshirt

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Make Your Own Basics: The sweatshirt

In addition to a hard-working knitted pullover, any well-rounded wardrobe needs a trusty sweatshirt. It doesn’t get much more basic than that! In my mind, a true and classic sweatshirt is raglan-sleeved, like the Grainline Studio Linden Sweatshirt pictured at top and bottom left. But that nasty, beat-up, cut-off old sweatshirt I can’t let go of happens to have set-in sleeves, so I’m also offering up Named’s Sloane Sweatshirt (bottom right) as an alternative. Both come highly recommended by sewers I trust, and I foresee making one of each. But I also love the cropped, short-sleeved Linden option as a year-round garment. Sweatshirts for every season and occasion, I say!

(Please note, with regard to this series: I am by no means suggesting any of the patterns I recommend are the only ones that fit the bill — only that they’re the ones I consider leading contenders and great examples of the form. By all means, leave your alternate suggestions and links in the comments!)

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Make Your Own Basics: The pullover

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Make Your Own Basics: The pullover

Ok, continuing on with my attempt to build a small directory of patterns for anyone wanting to make their own wardrobe basics, let’s talk about the ultimate staple, the piece no closet should be without: the crewneck pullover sweater. Honestly, the Ravelry database is full of patterns for basic crewnecks — in every gauge and construction method — but the challenge is finding the best of them. These are just a few of my personal favorites, with minor distinctions among them:

TOP: Echo Lake by Courtney Kelley is the ultra-classic sweater pattern, knit in pieces (bottom-up) and seamed together, with picked-up stitches for the neckband, which means it will also stand up to years of wear. So if you really want to go old-school on the approach as well as the sweater, this is the one. Echo Lake is written for DK yarn/gauge. There is also a Custom Fit pattern that allows you to do this same thing, a seamed basic pullover, but at whatever gauge you choose — called Tramontane.

MIDDLE LEFT: Tide Chart by Amy Miller is the simplest of the batch in terms of construction, being a top-down seamless raglan. It’s also DK weight, and like everything I’ve chosen here, it has classic proportions and good neck shaping. (So many don’t!) If it’s a top-down raglan you’re after, you could also skip the pattern and learn to improvise your own at any gauge, using my top-down tutorial.

MIDDLE RIGHT: Polwarth by Ysolda Teague is a more advanced and detailed top-down raglan. In sport weight, it has slightly shaped and minimalist raglan seams, brioche in place of the ribbing, that classic sweatshirt neck detail, and even optional bust darts. This one is just as simple and timeless as the others in its appearance, but also looks like it would be really fun to knit.

BOTTOM: Classic Hemmed Crewneck by Purl Soho has a really polished look about it, thanks to the turned (instead of ribbed) hem, cuffs and neckband. It’s worsted gauge and is knitted in the round (seamlessly) from the bottom up, so it’s a hybrid approach. Another of my favorites — also worsted, bottom-up, seamless — is Purl Soho’s Sweatshirt Sweater (free pattern), which doesn’t have the sweatshirt neck detail like Polwarth but does have a gym-class-style kangaroo pocket, which is optional.

You’ll also find lots more suggestions (not all quite so basic) and a discussion of the pros and cons of different construction methods in Pullovers for first-timers: Or, an introduction to sweater construction.

EDITED TO ADD [Feb ’17]:

Make Your Own Basics: The pullover

I’m not sure how I forgot about Julie Hoover’s Veneto when first assembling this post, but it’s a top-notch and highly adaptable option. It is sport-weight gauge, so a finer weight, and has timeless proportions, subtle waist shaping, and perfectly shaped set-in sleeves and neckline. Also knitted flat and seamed — so a true classic in pretty much every sense. You can not only easily omit the color-blocking and make it a single color, but also tinker with the length, the waist shaping, the amount of ribbing (or alternate treatment) at each edge, etc., to transform it in any number of ways.

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Make Your Own Basics: The button-down shirt

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Handmade Wardrobe Basics: The button-down shirt

For a very long time, I’ve been trying to do a blog post — an overwhelmingly large blog post — that’s basically a roundup of patterns for knitting the array of basics that every high-functioning wardrobe depends on. I’ve finally come to the realization that it can’t (and shouldn’t) be done in a single post, and also that if the goal is to encompass the building blocks, well, that takes both knitted and sewn pieces. Many of us are striving to make as much of our wardrobes as possible with our own two hands (whether “as possible” means 5% or 50% or 100%), so my goal here, ultimately, is to compile a nice tidy set of patterns to work from. Here you’ll find nothing fancy or on-trend — just the basics, sure the stand the test of time.

I imagine most of these posts will include a small number of patterns that would fit the particular bill in various ways, but I’m kicking it off with maybe the greatest wardrobe workhorse of all — the button-down shirt — and in this case I’m featuring just one pattern: the Archer Button Up Shirt by Jen Beeman of Grainline Studio. Now, as you may know, Jen and I have collaborated on a pattern and become pals in the process. But long before I knew Jen, I knew how highly regarded this pattern was/is. And if you’re making a garment this necessary and detailed and fitted, you want it to be drafted by an honest-to-goodness professional pattern drafter. So one of these days, when I’m ready to brave sewing my own button-down, it’s Archer I’ll turn to.