My Abakhan Challenge for July

If you are a follower of my blog then you will know that I accepted a challenge from Abakhan  to turn £15 worth of anything that they sell into a project. As I am a crocheter and sometime knitter of course I chose yarn. This project was supposed to have been my June project but as I have been plagued my some health issues and a couple of deadlines this has turned into my July project.

The theme of my project was to try to be able to wear Summery clothes even when the weather wasn't particularly warm and sunny. We all have those summer dresses in the wardrobe and don't put them on as we don't want to put a heavy jacket over the and yet are cold with our arms bare  My aim is to show that a pretty short sleeved jacket will fill the gap.

A design similar to this makes even my sleeveless dresses wearable when the air is chillier than it should be for Summer. It is pretty and warm and yet light enough to look Summery. This pattern is the Short n' Sweet by Angie Best which can be found in the Stitch and Bitch The Happy Hooker book.

As you can see from the back view my version is more of a Long n' Sweet. That is the beauty of making something yourself. It can be adapted to suit your figure type. As I am plus sized then I like my jackets to cover my hips as I think that the longer line is slimming.

The yarn that I used is James C Brett Cotton On   which comes in such a variety of colours that I was spoiled for choice. The reason that I chose this colour was simply because I had bought some new dresses that had splashes of this colour in them. I am so pleased with the way that this yarn has worked up. It is a cotton mix so it has the properties of the cotton mixed with the lightness of an acrylic. At £1.85 a ball this jacket cost me £11.10p to make. It would have cost me a ball less if I had made my sleeves just an inch shorter which is very good considering that I am plus sized. An average sized lady making her jacket shorter and smaller could make it for £8 - £9 at the most.

This is a close up of the stitch. Despite looking complicated it is quite an easy stitch to follow. I like the way that the jacket is worked top down all in one after the armholes. As the sleeves are crocheted downwards too there is hardly any sewing up, except for the yarn tails, which is my kind of crochet.

 Another reason why I had to dip int my 6th ball was that I added an extra edging around that wasn't on the pattern. I tried it on and although it is meant to be an edge to edge  jacket I felt that it was looking a bit too far apart so I added a couple of rows if a shell edging around it to give me an extra inch on either side. Now I can fasten it with a fancy button or a brooch if I want to.

As the weather in the UK has been so dismal this Summer I think that I am going to make more of these little jackets in different patterns. I don't know about you but I am so sick of wearing my dowdy winter type clothes instead of pretty Summer dresses. Instead of freezing this Summer make yourselves some boleros, jackets, stoles  or shawls in pretty colours and get those dresses out of the wardrobe and get them worn. If you are not a bright colour loving person, like me, then there are some lovely shades in the neutral or paler colours that will fit into your wardrobe colours a treat.

Happy crocheting.