Pattern ‘F’ From Piece Work, sewn in boiled wool

Regular readers of this blog will know that over the last sewing year, I became fairly and squarely taken with Asuka Hamada’s book, Big Clothes & Small Clothes. And what’s the natural thing to do when you fall in love with a book? Go ahead and read anything and everything that the author has ever written. This natural course brought me to Piece Work, bought from Kinokuniya and also available here and here.

My purchase of this book serendipitously coincided with the arrival of our Italian boiled wools which also coincided with a fairly abrupt start to our Australian winter which had me (and, I suspect, many on the Australian east coast) feeling cold to the core. Based on this and my general fashion preferences plus an enduring love of turtlenecks, there was one stand out pattern in this book for me and that was pattern ‘F’. It’s a colour-blocked jumper and total winter winner.

The pattern is only available in one size. I did read one review that said it was oversized so I decided against adding the recommended seam allowances. The only exception to this was where I’ve circled below because I didn’t want to end up with uneven sleeve lengths. By using boiled wool and leaving the edges raw, no hemming was required although I do plan to go back and trim/hem those sleeve cuffs because the finished length is too long for my arms.

The pattern sews up pretty quick and, with the addition of raw hems, I’ll upgrade that to really quick. I used my sewing machine with walking foot to put it all together and used a cloth when gently pressing/steaming all seam allowances from the inside. The hardest (but actually funnest) part is choosing which combination of colours to use.

After playing around with swatches and feeling like I wanted a more statement light/dark contrast, I decided on Bollito Amara (sold out) and Mushroom (sold out) for the two main colours and Bollito Blu for the small sleeve contrast – visit our online boiled wool fabric collection to view the latest arrivals.

My meterages (bearing in mind that I didn’t add seam allowances/hems) are listed below:

Bollito Amara – 1.5m

Mushroom – 85cm

Bollito Blu – 35cm

If you’re going to add the suggested seam allowances, follow the layout/meterage guide shown in picture 5 of this post.

I’ve been wearing it with jeans and my Avalon Pants, but for a slightly dressier look this style also works really well with a skirt and boots. So if you’re looking for a winter project that’s quick, cozy, comfortable and potentially quite colourful, this one’s a good one.