After a bunch of selfish sewing, here’s a little number I made for my mum a couple of birthday’s ago; a soft blue jersey cardigan, using the cute OOP Vogue V8819.

I resisted buying the pattern itself for ages, right until it went into Sew Direct‘s out-of-print section during a sale.

Why? Because I just couldn’t resist the rear view in the pattern book.

Look at it! Cute, right?

And why did I make it for my mum? Honestly? Because I’d planned to make her a dress, but the fabric I ordered was too flimsy and low-quality to use, alas.

I was forced to shop my stash – not a bad thing, to be honest – and knew that this beautiful, soft, mid-blue one-way stretch cotton jersey with a delicate floral print wasn’t right for me. In fact had never been right for me but the quality of it (and, uh, the price) had won me over.

I knew that if I made a dress out of it, it’d look like a night-dress, though. And so, given that my mum loves a good cardigan, my gift dilemma was sorted. Besides, I could show off the linear print, right?

The pattern came together surprisingly easily; the joy of using a nice, stable jersey. And when I tried it on after completing it, it almost crossed my mind to keep it (did I mention how soft this fabric is??) With a nice belt, you could get a lovely peplum effect.

But like a good daughter I gave it to my mum, who opened it and asked with a puzzled face; what is it?? She dutifully put it on and, to my mind at least, I thought it looked lovely.

She stroked the fabric, perhaps a little disappointed that it didn’t have pockets. Or wasn’t a dress. I don’t think she’s ever worn it; maybe it still looks too much like night-wear.

Sigh. Oh well.

You can’t win them all, eh?