1990's Oregon Rain Pullover

Finished The Man's Christmas present. And it's still technically less than a month late, go me!

This is from a 1990's Stretch and Sew pattern that my friend, Jessica, scored at a fabric swap. She's brought home a couple of these vintage beauts and they work very well for my guy.

The pattern is designed for polar fleece, but we have a Great Pyrenees, so that was a non-starter. Her fur sticks to polar fleece like velcro. Instead I used a nice, toasty sweatshirt fabric I got from Cali Fabrics. I think got 3 yards and darn if I didn't use most all of it. I was hoping there would be enough left over to make a little something for me.

The envelope art gives you a hint that this is a true product of the 90's. The back of the envelope notes that it's intended to be worn with 13.5 inches of positive ease. That's a lotta ease.

My guy prefers a trimmer, GQ kind of a fit, so I cut him the size for a 34 chest. He'd normally be more like a 40. Then during the fitting (yes, we did a fitting for a sweatshirt) he suggested it could still be a tad tighter, so I took in the sides about another 1.5 inches.

It's still pretty roomy as modeled by me, but he looks mighty slim when he's wearing it.

He was after a pullover sweatshirt without a hood, and without a bunch of logos or team names or advertising on it. The pullover version of this pattern was a very nice beginning, but I made a few small changes to make it more sweatshirt-y.

I added cuffs and a hem band, and The Man said he'd prefer inseam pockets to the zippered welt pockets. Thank you, sewing gods! I didn't have to try to install a neat welt pocket in sweatshirt fleece.

The pattern would have you finish all of the edges with strips of nylon/lycra fabric. I didn't have anything suitable in stash, so I subbed in some black fold-over elastic. If I make this one again (and I just might) I'll rethink the collar and neckline finish to ditch the edge trim entirely. It was hella hard to apply neatly. I tried a couple of times and, even with some washout stabilizer in the mix, there are still some little wrinkles at the front. Otherwise, I like the pattern a lot. The yoke and sleeves are cut in one piece and there's a cool little cut-on gusset at the underarm. Overall, it's an easy sew and I like the results.

 My pattern review is on PatternReview.com here.