A sewing blog about building a functional, cohesive handmade wardrobe, one garment at a time.

Thursday, November 16, 2017

Ponchos for fall

Last week I had an hour to myself, as well as a hankering to use up a 2-yard cut of wool jersey I found at the thrift store last year (for $3.50!).  So I made this.

Make this DIY wool poncho in 30 minutes!

The jersey was the perfect warm, mid-weight, stable fabric for the button-up, drape-neck, fall poncho of my dreams.  I draped it over myself, pinned it, re-pinned and re-draped, and came up with my preferred proportions.  Basically my fabric was a 70" wide pentagon that was 33" long in the middle and 26" long at the sides.  I hemmed the top with interfacing, folded my fabric in half with the 26" sides aligned, and then sewed up all but 12" of the top.  

Make this DIY wool poncho in 30 minutes!

After I made it, I decided it needed something, and decided that that something was buttons.  I sewed the buttons through both layers of fabric rather than making buttonholes.  I used two different kinds of buttons because I was working from stash and didn't have enough of any of the ones I liked.  I toyed with alternating them, but in the end I just decided to group them together.  I really like how it looks, and since the buttons are just sewn on, I can replace them later if I want to without worrying about matching sizes.

Make this DIY wool poncho in 30 minutes!

I hemmed the top edge of the fabric so that the neck opening would be neat, before overlapping the top edges (where the buttons go) and sewing them together.  I left the bottom is left raw - this jersey won't ravel and I dig the sharp-edged look.  


Make this DIY wool poncho in 30 minutes!

Immediately after I finished it, the temperature dropped, and I've been wearing it pretty much non-stop ever since.  And as soon as she saw my poncho, my sweet little Z asked if I could make her one. As it happened, I had just enough fabric left over to make that happen.  She's been wearing it proudly ever since.


 I think she looks ridiculously cute in it, though I have to remind her to take it off before eating or (shudder) going to the bathroom.


So there you have it, Mommy-and-me wool ponchos. Keep scrolling for directions to make your own.  And as always, thanks for reading and see you next time! 



MAKE YOUR OWN PONCHO

Want to make your own poncho? Here's how I did it. I'm not the best technical illustrator, so hopefully these instructions are clear.

Instructions to make your own wool poncho.

Instructions to make your own wool poncho.

Instructions to make your own wool poncho.

Thanks for reading! If you try this out, please leave a comment and let me know how it went!

Make this DIY wool poncho in 30 minutes!

6 comments:

  1. Super cute! Well done! I'm always curious where people find wool jersey--I never see it anywhere! It seems like a unicorn fabric. That is a perfect fabric and a great piece.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Last year Fabric Mart had a bunch of it, but I've been looking around for more lately (with maybe a lower price than Mood) without much success. Thanks!

      Delete
  2. Oh my goodness, could you two be any cuter???!! (Answer: No, not possible.) What a great use of a small piece of wool! I have an even smaller thrifted piece of wool jersey (pretty thick though) that I've been considering for a "sweater vest." Yay winter sewing!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I adore this, so elegant. This would be perfect for our ram sales.
    Good job.
    xx N

    ReplyDelete
  4. Do you have a pattern?

    ReplyDelete

Hi! I am so happy you came by. Thanks for your comment!