Pendrell, I think I love you...

What a little gem of a pattern. I can see why Karen has made umpteen of them. Here is my Pendell, sewn up with material I got for £1/2 a metre in Walthamstow Market.

Ignore the thread hanging from my seam - it's actually just stuck to my jeans!

I absolutely love it, I think it is my favourite make so far (apart from maybe my first Rooibos). 

I have to admit I'd have been lost without Tasia's sewalong, so I'm extremely grateful for that, thanks Tasia. This was mostly to do with the bias binding on the neck and arm-holes, a technique I'd never used before. I now think bias binding is BRILLIANT and want to use it on EVERYTHING! If only I'd known about it for my last make, I could have bias bound the neck and arms and saved myself from faffing about with stupid facings. *doh* I also needed the pictures for getting my head around how to make the sleeves, but once I'd got it they were extremely satisfying to make. I also bodged the arm-hole (the second one I'd done so can't even blame inexperience!) by sewing the binding to the wrong side of the fabric. Lesson learned, don't sew for too long without a break or any food, your concentration will wane!

Another problem I had was the sizing - I cut out a size 12 as I wanted to make sure it sat nice and loosely over my hips. The finished make made me look like a floral clad american footballer! Far too much material in the sleeves and shoulder area. I think I could have got away with the size 10, and I may even need to cut a bit smaller through the shoulders/bust. It was reasonably easy to fix though, I just took in the side seams by about a cm, and then the two front/back seams in by about half a cm up to the bustline then graded it up to take in about a cm/cm and a half through the bust and shoulders. I was worried it might ruin the line of the top, but I don't think it's suffered too badly. 

I immediately want to make another one, but I'm still loathe to cut into an expensive fabric as I think I may have more sizing issues to work through. A gingham version may be making an appearance after all...!

To summarise:

Pendrell = ACE.