Ruffled Cardigan

For Christmas Eve eve (yes, the night before Christmas eve hehe), I made Bean a Ruffled Cardigan from Blank Slate Patterns.  We had a family dinner to go to and I wanted something a little dressy, but cute and toned down a little when worn with jeggings.  I had tested the pattern so I knew it was a great shape and would give me exactly what I was looking for.

This pattern is meant for knits, but it sews up so simply that even if you're scared of knits you should give it a try.  It is so basic that I consider it a good beginner pattern.  Especially since the pattern calls for pre-ruffled ruffles so you could easily buy some ruffles instead of making your own.  I wanted to make my own ruffle so I could use a cute quilting cotton with a fun pattern to match, but either way once the ruffle is done the rest is easy easy.

The pattern calls for a ribbon to be tied around the waist to sort of hold the front sides together, but I thought it'd work better to use a belted bow so Bean couldn't easily remove it.  I have a quick tutorial for making the belted bow coming later this week so check back if you're interested.

The cardigan worked great for the dinner and she's worn it a bunch since then too.  It's a little snug now since I made it in the 18 month size and she's now into size 2T, but I think it's still cute.  It's really easy to make this completely reversible too.  The pink side looks just as great as the ecru side.  I made the sleeve edge of the pink side stick out a tiny bit longer so it looks like a nice contrasting band along the ecru sleeve edges.

I wanted to make another cardigan, but make the sleeves shorter and use the length of the 18 month size so it would come up a little higher than the size 2T would right now on Bean.  It should be a great layer as the days start warming up.

This time I made a button hole on one of the front edges so the cardigan could be buttoned.  I also made a belted bow to match, so that's a fun option that works even over the button.

I love the way this cardigan looks with jeggings.  It has such a great shape

 Below you can see how the new cardigan I made is meant to be a little short.

It looks so sassy.  Although maybe that's the sunglasses making her look sassy hehe.

By the way, in case anyone is wondering why Bean's mirror is excessively smudgy.....

(I should mention that I have recently added an affiliate link for Blank Slate Patterns on my sidebar as well as in some of the links in this post, but I sewed with their patterns long before even considering it. These are just great patterns that I truly stand by and I am excited about being an affiliate.)

As usual, linking up to: