My sewing in 2023 kicked off with an awesome start, thanks to a couple of days home with a feverish little girl who wanted to just snuggle in my chair in the sewing room and relax quietly with a stuffed animal and a show! I finished 5 projects in the first 11 days of the month, which truly has to be a record for me!
This sweater was the last of those 5 makes, thanks to a little wait for the perfect buttons. Once they came in, buttons and buttonholes were sewn in, and it was certainly worth the wait. I ordered the buttons that True Bias has deemed perfect for the Marlo Sweater – and they certainly are. I ordered some in each color, because I’ve fallen in love with this pattern and have at least 2 more planned this year. I wanted to be ready with buttons next time, so I don’t get stuck admiring my nearly-finished sweater on my mannequin while waiting for those final touches to arrive! (see below – Eileen the mannequin spent a few days looking VERY cute in her little sweater, though!)
This sweater fabric is one of my Monthly Make My Stash fabrics for the month of January! I’ve chosen 2 fabrics off my fabric shelves to sew up each month of 2023. I purchased this sweater knit last year from the now defunct fabricdotcom – I believe this was a purchase influenced by @alissahthreads when she debuted her Valdivia Sweater pattern. If I remember correctly, she’d sewn one up in this fabric – I’m a sucker for sweater knits, so I placed an order for this Rose color, and another cut in an Ivory (which is yet to be sewn!).
Let me tell you something. This sweater is so cozy to wear, but it was a heck of thing to sew with dry winter hands. I feel like I keep my skin pretty moisturized, but this slightly fuzzy knit kept pulling at all the tiny spots of dry skin on my hands! A little tube of hand creme may have ultimately been my most important tool in the making of this sweater!!!
On the subject of unexpectedly important tools used in this Marlo…. Micellar Water. Yes, you read that right. The Micellar Water that I keep on my bathroom counter to remove stubborn eye makeup came in absolutely clutch for this sweater. As I got dressed to wear this out for the very first time, I leaned over my countertops to apply mascara. In some comical turn of events, I dropped the freshly-loaded mascara wand and proceeded to bounce it off of my sleeve four or five times before it finally fell into the sink, leaving me with big chunky streaks of mascara all over my brand new sweater. I panicked, and then grabbed the only thing I knew always gets my mascara off – Micellar Water. It worked AMAZINGLY, leaving me mascara free without discoloring my sweater. I was shocked – the picture below is about halfway through the clean. Can you tell in the nicer pics? They were all taken after!
When I first cut out this fabric, I had about half a yard leftover that I didn’t expect. I waffled back and forth – should I save this in my weird scrap bucket, and maybe come up with something to sew myself out of a half yard of sweater knit in the future? Should I throw it out? Then, my tiny girl looked over and asked “What is that part for, mama?”… Well, obviously it’s for YOU little mini! So she got a quick pair of pants! Of note, I do not recommend purchasing this fabric with children’s pants in mind. After one day of play, they are pilled up, and they attracted all the wood chips at the park. But if you’ve got scraps left over and no plans to use them, they make some very cute and cozy pants!
I’m super happy with both of these makes. I’m always pleased to use my leftover fabric meaningfully, and my little girl and I love mama mini matching moments. I’ve set myself a few sewing goals this year, and I thought it would be fun to consider after each make whether my new garment lines up with my goals or not. Some of the goals I’ve set are:
- Focus on utilizing my awesome fabric collection (this is where my Monthly Make My Stash project comes into play. If all goes according to plan, that’s 24 stash fabrics getting sewn this year!)
- Limit new cuts of fabric coming into my home (for this, I’ve set a goal of purchasing no more than 10 cuts of fabric this year, and sewing no more than 12 fabrics gifted as parts of collaborations!)
- Add more solid colored items to my wardrobe
- Choose fabrics in my color palette (I recently had my colors done and have learned I’m a twilight autumn, otherwise known as a deep or dark autumn! While I certainly intend to use all the awesome fabrics I already own, whether or not they’re in my palette, I want to be purposeful about choosing only new fabrics in my palette and considering how this will maximize my wardrobe!)
So for this project, I’d say I actually met all of my goals! Stash Fabric – check. Solid color – check. In my palette – check! This color actually correlates with the “soothing” color in my mood palette, so it’s clearly destined for some snuggly moments.
Sweater: handmade by me
Pattern: True Bias – Marlo Sweater
fabric: Telio Montana (via fabricdotcom) – Rose Sweater Knit
buttons: True Bias – Ivory Wooden Buttons⠀
Key Ingredients:
Brother XR9500PRW Sewing Machine
Brother 1034D Overlocker
Schmetz Jersey Ballpoint Needles
Dahle 36×48 Self-healing Cutting Mat
Heat & Bond Soft Stretch (Lite)
Thanks for reading my thoughts on this pattern! The fabric used for this post was purchased by me. The Marlo Sweater pattern by True Bias was provided to me as a gift after completing a pattern test for another of their wonderful patterns. All words and opinions expressed throughout this post are my own, as always. Links provided throughout this post may be affiliate links – if you choose to purchase any products through these links, I may receive a small commission, at no cost to you. This simply helps me justify the costs of my sewing habit and the time it takes to share it with you!! Happy Sewing!
- XX Elizabeth
