Over the past weeks, I’ve been waxing poetic about the Linden Sweatshirt by Grainline Studio.  This next top has nothing to do with my fall capsule, but I love it so much any way.

In the winter, I made the cutest maternity top with these adorable mint kitties. I kept the scraps because that’s what you do with fabric this cute. When I discovered how little fabric was necessary for a Linden Sweatshirt, I got really excited and immediately ran to my scrap bag. I had exactly enough to cut a shirt front (but no back) from the mangiest piece of fabric (not a straight edge in sight. I totally had to eyeball the grain).

I knew that I would not be satisfied with just one panel of kitties, so I opted for the obvious choice: elbow patches. I had already drafted a elbow patch pattern for a sweater I tried to make a couple of years ago, so I pulled it out and chopped off the 1/4 inch I had allowed for folding under the edges. My plan was simply to zig zag around the edges, but I knew I needed to experiment first with stabilizing.

I had a feeling that I would struggle to get around the curves without fabric moving or stretching weird, so I did a little test using stretchy, fusible interfacing. While the interfacing made sewing easier, I still got some rippling and the interfacing sort of bubbled once stretched. In the future, I might try wash away interfacing, but I figured it wasn’t worth the trip to the store to get some. I decided to forgo the interfacing and hoped that pressing took care of the bulk of the rippling.

I pinned the heck out of those patches to eliminate as much movement as possible. I ultimately had to go really, really slow and do multiple small pivots around the tight corners. I managed to minimize rippling this way and my iron took out the rest.

Because I only had enough fabric for a shirt front of the cat fabric, I am so glad I was able to pull off the elbow patches. I love the little bit of meow from the back.