Colette Seamwork Astoria Sweater

Let’s get it out of the way that I’m not pleased with this, although it is in no way the pattern’s fault. I messed up by thinking I could get away without a short torso alternation on a cropped sweater and my fabric being a rayon blend may be contributing to the length issue. On the plus side, I didn’t make a sloping shoulder alteration and the shoulders look pretty okay.

This is a pretty simple pattern, there isn’t much to say. The instructions were even more in depth than Colette’s usual offerings and I think this top is simple enough that I could have made it instruction free. It’s a very beginner friendly pattern. However, they do not have you stabilize the shoulders, but I did with some clear elastic just to safe.I do think the layout of the pattern pieces could have been better and saved me some paper, but it wasn’t a horrific paper hog.

Back to alternations, after seeing the way the neckband stuck out on some of these I’ve seen made up, I thinned out the neckband by half an inch as another reviewer mentioned doing.I was little worried it might look skimpy, but it seems in proportion to me. I apologize for the photo quality, you’ll need to trust me on this. If I make this again, and I will, I’d take an inch and half out if the length of the body of the sweater and draft bands for the sleeves so I don’t have to twin needle topstitch on this kind of material. I may also tighten it up a little bit in the future, the fit is loose despite me following the size chart.

I feel like this has the potential to be really cute and versatile, if I can get the proportions right, so I going to see about getting more sweater knits.