BurdaStyle Wool Sweater

 I live on Vancouver Island in Canada. While it doesn't get as cold here as other places, it is super damp, which sometimes feels even colder in my opinion. The best way to beat damp cold is wool, and so as someone who is nearly always cold, I worship wool.

So when I found this amazing sweater knit at my local fabric store that is not only 100% wool (100% wool!!!!), but at half price, I did a little happy dance right there.

I'm pretty sure that the side I used as a right side is actually the wrong side of the fabric, but I preferred the bumpy texture of it to the other side.

I knew it needed to be a simple cozy sweater, so I decided on this BurdaStyle pattern which I've had for a little while. I would definitely recommend sizing down on this pattern. Guys-this oversized thing is an extra small (I usually wear a small). So it definitely came out way bigger than I expected, but luckily it worked out. It stops just shy of being unfashionably oversized, and the neck is wide enough to do a cute off the shoulder thing, but not wide enough to be uncomfortable. Also, it covers my bum, which is a nice cozy factor.
I love the fit of this one, but just the same if I make another I'll probably take the seam allowances off.

The other couple things I would do differently are:
-slightly increase the length of the arm, front, and back bands, although my fabric may not have had enough stretch to it
-possibly shorten the back band a little.
-tighten the bias tape binding a little more (see below)

Probably my favourite part of this sweater is the little gingam bias binding at the neck-it is the cutest little hidden touch. I've heard some stories about burdastyle instructions, and here's the lowdown on how they tell you to do the neck. First you sew one shoulder seam, then sew on the bias tape to the right side, fold it over and hand sew it down, then sew the other shoulder seam. The hand sewing I don't actually mind because it gave me an excuse to watch TV and the invisible finish is perfect for this fabric, but I do have 2 other problems with this method:
1) Because it was put in flat rather than in a ring it was hard to gauge how much (if at all) to pull on the bias tape. I ended up not pulling it much and as a result the edge is ever so slightly stand up-ish.
2) If I am going to take the time to hand sew something, I'm not then going to sew an ugly seam into it. I kind of got around this by unpicking the ends of the tape, serging the seam (I used my serger for the whole thing), and then folding under the ends of the tape and sewing them down over the seam. It's not perfect, but its better than an unravelling serger seam.

In summary, I am TOTALLY IN LOVE with this sweater. It's cozy but cute and amazing and I never want to take it off. At the same time I know a few little things that would make it even better (which I find hard to believe possible, yet I know it is) so I am super excited about it.