My Mum was saying she’d been watching The Shopping Channel and saw a cardigan the same as I’d made her, but in black. She said it was $150, and wanted to know if I could make one for her for less.

I can hardly imagine a little peplum cardigan costing that much, but I assured I could do it for a lot less than that. And I did. It’s an early birthday present for her. My Mum will be 89 this Spring, but I thought she might want to wear this before it warms up too much.

 It was the same McCalls pattern I’ve made a couple of times now, in fact the same style even, so I didn’t need the pattern. I also have some Ponte material.

Once again I’m revisiting McCalls 6844. I think I’ve made most of the sizes now. I had originally made a size Small for my Mum. This time she wanted a size Medium. She wants it big enough to wear things under it. So, my Mum is getting her way. I made her the size Medium – even though I seriously doubt she needs it that big.

The only other change I made this time was to use the serger. My hubby helped me re-thread it (again) and I oiled it (again). The repair man did say to oil it well, so three times is well, and it hums away now. It’s actually hummed away well enough to do a few projects with it.

So here’s my Mum’s McCalls 6844:

I dressed it up a bit with a pretty scarf just to add a bit of color. Black on black against beige really doesn’t show much.

I really love the shaping on this cardigan. It flatters, well, it flatters me and my Mum and we’re pretty different when it comes to our shapes. She’s always been very thin-hipped, and I’ve been curvy for as long as I can remember. This cardigan flatters both of our shapes.

Even the back has a nice shape to it.

I loved having the serger working and making such quick work of this. Every time I’ve sewn it before I not only double-stitched it – where I’d sewn the regular seam and then a second one 1/4″ away from the seam allowance. Then I did a zigzag over the trimmed edge. That was a lot of work. Serging my way through this project made it seem super quick and easy.

One last comment. I made the size Large last time I made this for me and it fits me loosely, which is what I wanted. However, I’ve wondered about making myself a more fitted version as the envelope photo shows a more fitted cardigan.

So I thought before I send this off to my Mum, I’d give it a quick try on to see what changes I might want to make to a size Medium. And I did try it on, but I didn’t get a photo of me in it! I had another parcel going to the post off that day, and wanted to get them both sent off. Let me just fill you in here on my thoughts.

The first material I used had a lot of stretch to it, and if using a knit like that, I could easily go with the size Medium. However, the Ponte doesn’t have as much stretch and it felt snug in a few places like the arms and across the bust and hips. I could probably make the Medium/Large cross if using Ponte.

Did you notice I have a new badge on my blog? Amy, from Cloth Habit is starting another bra sew-along – and it starts today! I can’t wait. I had so much fun on the last one she did.

Happy creating!