Mercurial Knitwear Collection

 Hello hello from snowy Minnesota! This is a four-piece knitwear collection I made in my cut & sew knits class this semester. The class was pretty easy, for the most part... I've been sewing knits for years (remember those t-shirt reconstructions?), so I got to find new ways to challenge myself by using interfacing, pairing fabrics with different stretch ratios, and inserting all kinds of pockets. It was all kinds of difficult to find proper fabrics--in fact, it was probably the hardest part of the class. Surprise, there's not much to choose from in the middle of nowhere, Wisconsin!

I did find some gems, though; most notably, this beautiful printed rayon/spandex lofty blend. It is a total dream to wear! These are my portfolio pages, following. We do this in pretty much every class,  and it only makes sense to present the work we've done in a concise fashion. Ignore the empty boxes where my fabric swatches go! These are just the electronic version of the pages... in the actual pages, I cut out the squares and under-mount the swatches.

 
 It is very important for these to clearly be technical pages. Thus, we add pattern corrections, fit alterations, sewing call-outs, and pattern development.

I am crazy about this hoodie and these leggings. Honestly, I wear them ALL THE TIME. More than I should. So comfy, so not sorry.

 I think I am going to put this jacket in the fashion show. I'm not positive, because I don't know what else I'm making, but it's a nice piece and I'm not letting myself wear it, just in case. It was my most difficult garment in the class--getting the zipper in and clean finishing it with the bottom band was near-impossible, rather head-ache inducing, and required a lot of finagling.

Aaaaand sequence of operations, pattern manipulation, call out of using the coverstitch machine, a beautiful fancy industrial machine with an air compression system (!) that just whirred like it couldn't be happier. Can you tell I loved it?

It's been an insanely busy year, and next year is shaping up to be even crazier. I'll have two jobs in the spring, classes like Functional Clothing Design & Knit Design Technology (knitting machine, here I come!), and an incredible summer internship coming up. And after that, I begin my senior year of college. How time flies.

Thank you for checking this stuff out. What do you have planned for the holidays? I'm home as usual, with the family, looking forward to staying cozy by the fire, and perhaps venturing out for some cross-country skiing. Whatever you have planned, have a Merry Christmas!