Megan Nielsen Jarrah Sweatshirt Pattern Review in collaboration with The Fabric Guys

Back in January I did a little audit of my wardrobe. Sewing as a hobby generally means you end up with a LOT of clothes in your wardrobe and I realised that mine was getting a little out of control with things that I loved making but didn’t necessarily wear very often because they didn’t fit in with my lifestyle. Day to day I tend to live in jeans, jumpers and t shirts and so I decided to focus my making on things I need rather than just things that I thought were pretty – at least for a little while anyway!

What I need at the moment are a few wardrobe staples like t shirts and sweatshirts, and I had two sweatshirt patterns on my wish list to try, the Linden Sweatshirt by Grainline Studios and the Jarrah Sweater by Megan Nielsen. After some deliberation I decided to purchase the Jarrah pattern because I liked the variations it offered, and I thought the tie waist option would look great with this lovely grey marl jersey from The Fabric Guys, adding a pop of interest to a relatively plain fabric. I

Lovely grey marl jersey from The Fabric Guys

This fabric is lovely, soft and cosy and I love the colours in it. I would say it’s more of a cotton jersey than a fleece style perhaps but for this pattern it worked perfectly as a lightweight sweatshirt. I ordered two metres of the fabric which was plenty as it is super wide, as always I washed, dried and pressed the fabric before going ahead and cutting out my pattern pieces. I traced the pattern in a size 0 because this was the closest to my measurements and as always I cut with a cutting mat and a rotary cutter which I find best for jersey as it doesn’t pull or distort the fabric while cutting.

I really love how beautifully easy this fabric is to sew. It is possible to sew the whole sweater on an over locker but I’m not quite brave enough yet to attempt such a thing with my jersey makes so I opted to sew my seams with the 0.6cm (tiny) seam allowance in a zigzag stretch stitch and then overlock which gave a really neat and hardwearing finish.

The pattern itself is a super quick make, it came together very easily until I got to the neckband. Neckbands are the nemesis in my jersey sewing journey, they make me panic and I never feel I make a very good job of them. I had cut the neckband according to the pattern piece but this was actually too long and after tacking it in I realised it was very gapey so I ended up re-measuring my neckline and then recutting my piece to 80% of this measurement based on the stretch percentage of the fabric. This was much better thank goodness and I can now proudly say that this neckband is probably my most favourite of all my neckbands J It’s worth taking the time to get the measurements correct, checking the stretch percentage and measuring correctly and I’ll learn my lesson for next time.

Finally the pattern calls for the whole hem, including around the tie to be turned and stitched. I did consider overlocking the bottom edge before turning up but decided against it as I was worried it might stretch the hem out. The turn and stitch method worked fine and as a finishing touch I added an extra row of stitching around the hem to give a twin needle effect. I did this with a long straight stitch as I don’t think the hem will need to stretch too much with wear.

I absolutely love this pattern and this fabric suited it like a dream. It will be a lovely addition to my wardrobe for spring. I would highly recommend both fabric and pattern if, like me, you are looking to add to your collection of basics this year.