Purple Check

 I did it! I made a for-me version of the pieced checkerboard sweatshirt I just made for the kiddo.

I used Kwik Sew 1650 as the base again--technically a bit small for me, but it has 1980s Ease, so it works for me.

I mostly used dark gray thread, just because I have a little bit of it left on a spool with an entire other spool of it waiting to be used.  I temporarily switched to a pale purple on the spool to top stitch around the neck band.

There were several flaws on this fabric.  The big one was the line the entire length where the knitting machine switched to the next row, and where the mill should have cut to make flat yardage.  But they didn't! (image in this post.) So knew I had to cut around that.  What I forgot about was an additional flaw that ended up near the armscye here.

Ah, well.  At least there are other things to distract from it.

There are more pieced squares making a checkerboard design on this shirt, than on the last one I made, because I had much less of the purple fabric, so I needed that extra checkerboard area to make it work.

 

 There are three rows of five squares on the front and back, so I alternated their layout so the pattern would continue properly across the side seams.  The sleeve geometry didn't work out as cleanly, but, again, there are a lot of other things to distract from scrutiny here.

 I used the same wide ribbing as the previous shirt, too.  I don't have a lot of it left, and I will be sad to see it go.  (When unraveled, it also makes fantastic natural texture doll hair.)

Everything serges on the inside, after being constructed with lock stitching.  I should probably make peace with the way I prefer to use the serger for finishing and not construction.

I remembered to add stabilizer at the shoulder seams, although it's just more of the purple knit, cut crosswise.  And I'm still putting the neckband seam just behind the left shoulder seam, which I saw in a mass produced shirt once and thought was a good idea--a little less obvious than the seam being center back or directly aligned with the shoulder seam.

And the back!

It is not as slouchy when I wear it as it looks on the hanger.