My plan to sew something every month was almost derailed by April. Lots of things happening, and not much sewin’ goin’ on.

(I mean, I did sew a pair of knickers. They turned out a treat. No, I’m not showing you.)

Circumstances beyond my control have meant that I’ve felt obliged to tidy and declutter my living space. Since a fair (or should that be unfair?) amount of my living space is taken up with fabric, sewing notions and other related items of sewing paraphernalia, it’s meant a clear-out of these things, too.

One of the items my clear-out revealed was a donated half-completed project; a men’s navy half-zipped fleece. The main body of the item in question was pretty much complete but, since the donor had split up with the intended recipient of the garment before it was completed, the side seams and sleeves remained untouched.

I was given it a number of years ago and it had lain, stuffed into a carrier bag, while I worked out what to do with it. I mean, I could have completed it as-was, and given it to someone new. However, the karma it carried really never made that an option. I could have scaled it down to fit me, but the details were too large for my tiny frame.

And so it waited, waited, waited. Until I received Feb 2014’s Prima magazine, and saw their pattern for a ‘coatigan’.

(Yes, I subscribe to Prima. Yes, I’m clearly a grandma living in the suburbs of Swansea. Yes, I like it, OK?)

As someone who is indoors quite a lot (more on this in a future post), something warm to pull on over other layers is always useful. Navy goes with most things, and it’s a lovely and soft fleece (which I suspect will pill, but it’s a gift horse, I’m not looking in the mouth right now). Plus, it makes a change from me making a dressing gown (I’ve made THREE of those in the last few years, what the hell is UP with that? Although, add a belt to this and it will look like Dressing Gown Number Four, goddamnit…)

What I liked most was the fact it appeared to be a super-simple pattern, with minimal fitting issues. It wasn’t all plain sailing, though. For one thing; I was limited by the pieces which had been cut, and some spare yardage. This meant that it couldn’t be cut to the length required, but governed by the length of the pattern pieces already cut.

(This is why there’s a seam to add on extra length at the bottom. Talk about turning a problem into a style line…)

I also didn’t notice that the donor had pinned and cut the sleeves out incorrectly (creating two left sleeves) until I cut out my OWN sleeves from the still-pinned pair. Cue a brief outburst of swearing, some trimming off of extra fabric, and the assertion that I could ‘bodge it together in the assembly (which I did, FTW. I am, quite frankly, awesome.)

The front edges are designed to turn back to create lapels. Brilliant. Until I realised that this fleece’s reverse side pills and looks weird wicked-fast. UN-brilliant. So cue pulling scraps out to find and make facings for the upper front edges. Fun.

By this point I confess; I just wanted the damn thing over with. Therefore, unsurprisingly, I added the also-found-whilst-decluttering bias binding in so slap-dash a manner that it’s definitely a round-the-house garment only [grimace]. But hey. That’s what I created it for.

(Am really, REALLY trying to live that ‘perfect is the enemy of done’ thing y’know…)

And the end result? Well, it fits. It’s warm. Given I’ve made something out of nothing, it’s not bad.

Do I forgive it for the fact that it looks like something I could have bought from the back of the Sunday supplements for about a tenner?

That I don’t know…