My cosy Chat Chocolat makes

The collection is made up of a series of jersey and soft sweater knits in these amazing prints. I'm normally more of a block colour maker myself, but it's rare to come across such cool graphic prints - I couldn't resist trying them. If solid colour is more your bag, each print has a solid colour counterpart and matching ribbing - a nice touch! I already have a lot of 'wine' coloured clothes and accessories - this Ready to Sew Juliette faux leather skirt being just one of them - so the wine/pink/green colour palette was a natural fit for my wardrobe. (There's also a vivid blue/brown/orange colourway too).

Sample of the wine/green/pink colour palette

Despite Autumn/Winter being my favourite time of the year, I'm not a huge maker of jersey and sweater knit garments - I was even asked to test for the previous collection and didn't know what to make! It took the cusp of the changing season to help me see that I already had the perfect patterns in my stash: the Ready to Sew Jamie Cardigan and the Secondo Piano Basic InstincT t-shirt.

Fleecy underside of the sweater fabric

Good quality sweater fabric can be quite hard to come by, but the quality was obvious as I unpacked it. The sweater knit is thick and luxuriously soft, particularly the underside which has a fleecy feel to it. There's not a great deal of stretch to the fabric, making it really stable, and easy to both cut and sew with.

Ready to Sew Jamie

When I made my fabric selections, Véronique told me that they'd used the Jamie for some of their sample garments, so I knew it would make a good pairing with the fabric. I cut the longer version (View 1) to make full use of the cosy fabric and I opted for the size 38.

Back view

As with the other Ready to Sew patterns I've tried, I found the Jamie to be a smooth make with clear instructions. I was kindly provided with some of the matching plain sweater knit fabric for all of my hem bands and cuffs, which makes for quite a smart finish. The fabric was just right for the project, but I did find attaching the hem bands to be quite difficult due to the low amount of stretch. It's totally doable, but I'd probably gather all my edges in next time. I skipped the buttons as I'm quite happy with the finish as it is and can't see me wanting to fasten it.
The cuffs were particularly tricky as they're so narrow - regardless of the fabric stretch, there's no way I could have stretched them around the free arm of my machine - so I'd probably approach the construction in a different way next time. Perhaps joining them to the sleeve while flat, sewing the cuff/sleeve seam and then hand stitching the underside of the cuff in place would be an alternative.

Cuff close up!

I really like the finished garment, but would probably scale up the sizing in future to give it a more 'oversized' look. I'm definitely tempted by the cropped version too - this might actually go better with my current wardrobe as I wear a lot of high waisted bottoms - but this version definitely has the cosy-factor.

Basic InstincT t-shirt in Chat Chocolat jersey

(T)winning in Chat Chocolat

Wearing the two together is a fun, bold look, whilst still being pretty casual, but I also really like both as standalone garments too! The benefit of having a wardrobe made up of majority plain garments means that the odd bold patterned piece works with nearly everything, so I'm looking forward to getting both into rotation. I can see definitely see the Jamie becoming a warm staple for my cold workplace.

Thanks Véronique for inviting me to try such lovely fabrics. The 'Solid as a Rock' collection is released on 13th November. Chat Chocolat is based in Antwerp, but you can visit the website to find a stockist near you!

Worn with Lander Pants and favourite accessories

Fabric: Cotton-viscose mix jersey from the B&M Fabrics shop on the side of Leeds Kirkgate Market

Original garment made: Simplicity 8609 crop top (view B)

Leftover fabric amount: 1m. I had originally bought a larger amount of the fabric and it was earmarked for a turtleneck, but chose to make the crop top instead.

Sewing Leftovers make: Sasha of Secondo Piano's Basic InstincT T-Shirt (a free pattern in exchange for signing up to Sasha's blog)

Leftovers-wise what did I learn?: Sometimes you create your own leftovers, as I did in this case by changing my mind with the original make. I made the crop top without really giving the leftovers much thought at the time and while I'm glad I managed to squeeze a Basic Instinct Tee out of them, it could have been pretty wasteful if I couldn't. It has made me think a bit more about effective use, planning and reallocation of fabric.

About the make:

For those of you who prefer your tops untucked, it's a great length!

This is a seriously good pattern. It offers plenty of advice and guidance for anyone who isn't so confident with knits, whilst giving the option to step it up, with instructions on how to make adjustments to achieve the perfect stripe match. The stripe-match hack is something I've never seen before with other patterns and I'm really curious to give it a go - will report back!

The pattern requirements state that you need 1.1 - 1.3m of 150cm wide fabric, but I definitely squeezed mine out of much less. I've since made a second version using 1m of newly purchased fabric, which was just fine! I made a medium and like the relaxed but not oversized fit - the shoulder width is ideal - but if you wanted a more snug fit I'd recommend downsizing. 

Neckline detail

As well as being good for leftovers, I can see it as the perfect quick-to-make basic that will give other handmade pieces a bit of a lift. I'm planning another few in a range of colours (pale pink, black, brown or rust) to throw into circulation - a rust one would definitely encourage me to wear these orange cords more often! It's rare to find such good jersey, so I went back to B&M and already bought a metre each of pale pink and black - they had loads of good colours in at £8p/m, so those of you coming to Sew Up North, get ready!