Boucle sweater knit - what a great fabric discovery!

While places in the world with seemingly endless fabric choices (Hello America) have probably been sewing with this for ages, it's a new discovery for me. And I love it! It is boucle sweater knit from 'Fashion Fabrics Club', which I found while choosing my prize for the Pattern Review jeans contest.

The fabric is the weight of fleece and is slightly fluffy inside like fleece. The outside is textured a bit like towelling and it's soft and cosy and fabulous. I've made a jumper and a jacket with my, almost 2 yard, length.

Image source

For the jumper, my inspiration was this picture (above).

I used the Briar t-shirt pattern as the basis for this. I lengthened the front and back and lowered the front hemline curve. I made the neckline higher, drafted long sleeves and added cuffs and a hemline band in black ponte.

Simple to make and cosy to wear.

With the remainder of my fabric I made a jacket using my old favourite Jalie 2795. I used black ponte again for contrast on the shoulder pieces, collar, cuffs and hip band.

I have made this pattern up many, many times. It's a great pattern but, in some of my versions (adult and child versions), the jacket was a bit short. 

Jalie 2795

This time I added 5cm to the length of the jacket. I left the pocket openings where they were so I have lovely, deep pockets in this jacket.

I also added some piping for a bit more interest. It is made from a knit remnant from Potter's Textiles and is just a folded strip of fabric, not real piping. I'm not sure if I love the piping, but it's ok. It's a bit hard to see but I doubled the cuff length. I can fold the cuffs down to the tops of my fingers on cold days.

I bought a longer zip so it would fit the new jacket length. This one was from Spotlight.

You can see the boucle fabric quite well in this picture, although it doesn't really do it justice. Oh yes, I also did a bit of quilting on the shoulder panel. 

Jalie patterns seem to have lots of little tricks for getting a great finish on garments. These pockets, for example, are so easy to make with the excellent instructions provided.

This is just the best jacket for wearing inside and out in Perth's cooler weather, where the houses are often colder inside than outside. Heating, what heating?

I've had this finished for a couple of weeks and have been wearing it non-stop. I'll certainly be looking out for more of this fabric locally in the future. I hope I find some!