flannel Archives - Patterns for Pirates

The Carefree Cardigan is such a great drape cardigan and as it has a nice loose fit you can easily use it to make a vest and because of the shape of the cardigan it will work in woven. Yep I said it you can make this vest in woven!

This is a super quick hack, start by cutting your 2 front pieces and back out of your flannel and you are going to want to choose the longer length of the two length, you aren’t going to need any of the band pieces for this. Depending on your height you may want to remove or add length. I’m a shorty so I remove a couple of inchs from the bottom and also from the front side as the drape is quite long on me.

Sew your shoulder, skip the sleeves and sew the side seams as per the directions. Now instead of adding bands we are going to hem the armholes and all the way around your neck, down the front and across the bottom. I serged all the way around first to finish the edges. The serged edge gives me a perfect 1/4 inch to flip and iron and then I flipped it one more time so my serged edge was hidden and hemmed all the way around as close to the fold as you can. Another tip is to trim your corners, it just makes them a bit less bulky to hem. Do the exact same process to your armcycles and voila you have perfect draped flannel vest! If you don’t have a serger just use a zig zag stitch to finish the edges. Another cute option would be to fringe the front of your cardigan, you would still need to hem around the neck and down the sides but you can easily just pull the threads along the front and or the bottom till you have the amount of fringe that you would like.

I live in Canada so I really like the extra layer that sleeves add so for this second version I cut the back and sleeves out of a knit and then cut the front pieces in a flannel. I used the exact same construction as above with no bands and just hemmed all the way around and I have another cute cardigan but got to use my warm flannel!

Now go sew up all that gorgeous plaid flannel that you have been hoarding! – Angela Newman

Take a look at our jam-packed schedule of cardigan love!

Saturday, January 21: #P4PCardiWeek Announcement

Sunday, January 22: Cocoon Lace Hems & Butterfly Ruffle

Monday, January 23: Ribbon Tie Closure Hack

Tuesday, January 24: Carefree Cardigan Fringe Hack

Wednesday, January 25: Duster-Length Adjustment

Thursday, January 26: Kimono Ruffle Sleeves + Hem

Friday, January 27: Varsity Sweater Style Hack

Saturday, January 28: Carefree Cardigan Flannel + Vest Hack

Monday, January 30: #P4PCardiWeek Winner Announcement

You can follow along on the blog here, or in our Facebook group. Search #P4PCardiWeek to be able to find our posts all over social media. And please feel free to sew-along with us on one or all of the days. The more the merrier!

But wait, there’s more! We wanted to create a friendly pirate-y competition with our P4P Cardi Week!

Between tomorrow and Saturday, January 28, sew up a Patterns for Pirates cardigan using one of our hacks, or by keeping the pattern as-is. Share your photo with us on Instagram or in our Facebook group and use the tag#P4PCardiWeek We will pick our favorite and the winner will win a free P4P pattern of choice AND be featured on this blog. Fun right?

To make it even better we have put all the cardigan patterns in the shop on sale all week (no code needed)!

Now get out there and sew some cardigans, matey!

It is officially fall! The crisp morning air should make its appearance soon and what better way to embrace it than by treating ourselves with a cozy flannel top. For my blog today I’ll show you how you can take the Summer Kimono into fall and I’ll also give you some tips for working with flannel.

You will need your printed and cut kimono pattern pieces. You can chose any of the styles, I went with the curved hem because it’s my favorite. 🙂 Now grab your Grandpa Cardi pattern and print just the pocket piece. It’s on page 22-23.

Sew your pockets according to the instructions. I opted for the band pocket but you can certainly use the non banded option too. Remember to press the bottom of the pocket too! You’ll now stitch them on to your two front pieces. Placement it’s a matter of personal preference so I’ll show you where I stitched mine on but you can certainly move them higher or lower. I placed the pocket about 4 inches from the center and about 2 inches from the bottom (remember the bottom is not hemmed yet). Sew the pockets on the front pieces.

You will now start assembling your kimono according to the instructions. Something very important to keep in mind, especially if you are sewing sizes L and up is that most flannel fabrics are 42-44 inches wide. Your fabric may not be wide enough to cut the entire length of the sleeve so in this case you have a few options. You can either do what I did and just shortened the sleeves length by 2.5 inches or so and either add the sleeve band (as per the pattern) or just hem it. The other option would be to attach additional fabric to the selvage and cut the pattern pieces as they are. You could use the same fabric as the main one or even coordinating/contrasting fabric for a colorblock look. Get creative!

TIP: When sewing a curved hem on woven fabrics I like to first serge the raw edge, making sure I don’t cut any of it with my serger knife. This will basically give me the 1/4 inch mark and make the fabric more stable. Press the 1/4 inch hem, and then press again another 1/4 inches and sew in place. Wasn’t that easy? That’s the magic of serging the raw edge first.

I know a lot of you have asked in the Facebook group is the Summer Kimono can be made with flannel fabric so now you know it can…and it’s pretty cozy on top of that! As always, don’t forget to show off your creations and tag me if you have any questions!

Alex

P4P Cardi Week :: Carefree Flannel + Vest Hack

Flannel Kimono with pockets

Newest Patterns