I’m not normally one for trends. Between you, me and the doorpost, I’m hovering on the edge of wondering if they’re still applicable to me.

Sure, I look at fashion spreads and check out the occasional ‘must-buy’ list but, you know what? I’m rather enjoying getting to the stage of my life where I can look at a season’s trend report, go “Yeah, I have that stuff already”, and then completely forget to get it out out of the wardrobe while it’s still “hot” (floor length green velvet skirt, I’m looking at you, honey).

So Normcore was a thing several years ago, right? But it took me till a year ago to sew something that looks, to my (exceptionally untrained) eye, pretty norm-core-ish.

Because a plain grey marl sweatshirt is just utterly, well .. plain, isn’t it?

But, this fabric .. well, yet again, it’s another from my stash that I’ve loved for years and had very little of. And finally I succumbed to the sheer practicality it afforded me, through Simplicity’s 1317;

I’ve long had a fondness for this pattern, purely because it looked SO DAMN COMFY. And, with the addition of some cotton sweatshirting with a soft fleecy reverse, I can tell you IT IS.

But plain doesn’t HAVE to mean PLAIN. And so, the eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that I did a ‘thing’ on the hem. Basically, I stole the side hem curves and faced hem finish from another pattern I love (and which I’ve sewed up before); Simplicity’s Cynthia Rowley 2192 (now sadly discontinued);

And what do I have? A comfy sweatshirt to dress up and down, but mostly the latter because MY LIFE but I have SPANGLY NECKLACES ON STANDBY OK

‘Cause hey, who said plain had to be boring?