Liberty Linden in Manning fleece

This is my sixth Linden sweatshirt. It’s also my favourite Linden and is made from an extremely cosy Liberty fleece that I bought from Goldhawk Road. If you’ve seen fleece or loopback jersey in Liberty, you’ll know it’s pricey stuff so I couldn’t walk by when it was going for a mere £15 a metre. I bought 1.5 metres which was plenty for my Linden and the front bodice of a Linden I made for my sister.

So can we talk about the print. It’s called Manning and looks abstract at first glance but it’s actually a digital print created from photographs of Icelandic glaciers and mountains. It’s really striking and I love the colours.

As I was using fleece, I left out the hem band and cuffs to reduce bulk. I also wanted a simple design in keeping with the modern print. I shortened the sleeve by 2 inches and used a 2cm hem which I overlocked and turned up.

I lengthened front and back bodice by 2 inches and then chopped off another 2cm from the front to create a high low hem. I made a side vent and hand sewed the side seam allowances for a clean finish. The hem is 1 inch which I turned up to reduce bulk. The sweatshirt was sewn with a zig zag stitch on all seams except on the neckband where I used a straight stitch. I went over my stitching again for strength.

I cut the neckband on crosswise grain so my fabric had more stretch. There was no give on the lengthwise grain. I guessed the fabric might not be stretchy enough so added 2cm to the length of the neckband. The neckband was quite a bit shorter than the neckline and I really had to stretch it to fit. Luckily it worked out but I’d add more length if using a similar fabric. I used a 0.5 seam allowance at neckband to get the width I wanted.

This has turned out pretty much how I wanted. I love it soo much I never want to take it off.