
With having never made a sweater before, I thought that this simple cardigan without buttons or other closures would be a good place to start. For my first wearable muslin version, I bought some pink/orange sweater knit from Joann’s on clearance. I bought far less than the recommended amount of fabric, but still had plenty of yardage to sew the short-sleeve version with a doubled hem. The sleeves are part of the body piece of the pattern, so I didn’t even have to insert them.
I used a zig zag stitch for all seams, and left any exposed seams raw. I’m hoping to get a serger soon, but haven’t sorted that out quite yet. The only place where I used a straight stitch was topstitching on the sleeve cuffs, if you can call them that.

There really was nothing tricky about this make: no hem, no closure, no interfacing, no sleeve insertion, nothing. Just a few seams to sew up. Thanks to this simple design, it was a quick make. The most time-consuming part was assembling the PDF pattern and cutting out the fabric. The actual assembly took less than two hours. That’s probably my second fastest make ever, after the Plantain.

I like the casual fit of the size small cardigan straight from the pattern, so this wearable muslin is very wearable indeed. When I bought the fabric for this version, I also bought a darker pink fabric for a second long-sleeved version. That’s already been made up (I told you it’s quick), so I’ll share that one soon, too!
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