Como Set, StyleARC

I hope you are ready to cringe and chuckle. I did something SO dumb and I dedicate this post to the face palm!

And even though I could have made this post without telling you, I definitely want to use it as an opportunity to remind everyone to not "be like Mie", ha.

This is the Como Set from StyleARC and I bought it pretty much on the spot when it released (before ambassador agreement were reached in case you wondered.)

I actually don't totally love all my three pieces together, fabric really means SO much for the final result. Or I should specify, it looks too much of a Sunday at home lounge outfit which was not my vision when I started sewing this. Although I'm not sure why that was not my vision, since that's pretty much what these patterns are screaming. First face palm!

So I took a few photos with them all together and then I split up the outfit and took some photos just with the tee and pants and then some with the cardigan, styled the way I'll use it. A million photos later and a blog post were born, haha.

Before we talk about face palm moment number two, lets talk about what the Como Set actually is.

So it's this fabulous and cleverly constructed Como Cardigan.

And then it's a Como Knit Tee with a fabulous neck detail. And some elastic waist, wide leg Como Knit Pants that comes in regular plus a cropped length. Everything is drafted for knit.

You can of course buy them all separate but you'll save money when buying the whole set.

Use the code SLM10 for another 10% off.

This outfit (and the one above) is more my jam and I'll happily leave the house in this. In fact I can't wait for heat and humidity to be replaced with cool and crisp fall weather.

OKAY, let's get to it. What ridiculous thing did I do?

I got lazy/overconfident and stopped printing those scale/check squares. *Insert cringe and a million face palms.* Everyone using pdf patterns knows what I'm talking about. I have made over 25 of Style ARC's patterns, so at some point I decided they were trustworthy and stopped printing them. Never for a second did it occur to me that the mistakes can also come from the other side.... the user, ME! I know, I KNOW, so freaking dumb. And it shows a less positive side of my personality, haha. Me making mistakes...never! DUH!

So at some point I must have changed my printer settings to a 105% scale (of course I'm blaming my husband but honestly he barely uses my computer, ha. In fact I remember printing some things for my daughter's school project and needed it a bit bigger, ahem.) Right around the same time I decided to do a bulk print session, so I had them ready to go when I felt like doing some pattern puzzles. Usually in the evening in front of the tv. 

I printed seven patterns, taped them all over time and sewed freaking four of them. And although all four had some minor sizing problems, it still never occurred to me that I've printed them wrong. It was only when I was about to print another pattern, that I finally noticed my printer settings. And suddenly SO many small things with my last makes (3 of them is this Como Set and the last is the Perry Top which I haven't shown you yet) made sense, hahaha. Pretty much endless amount of face palms at this point!

I think what saved me is that I'm tall. I'm not totally sure how the scaling works but it seemed that my clothes became more 'too long' than too wide. I'll also say I'm surprised how big a difference 105% made. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME, folks! I made the pants first and they came out quite long and a bit too high waisted. I just thought my knit was more stretchy than recommended. 

The tee also came out rather long and with a bit deeper armholes than expected. But nothing was extreme so I chugged along on my blissfully ignorant sewing highway. Excited to move on to the cardigan which I always love to sew. Now here I did meet some new to me problems....the sleeves were way too long, like 5 cm 2" too long, which shouldn't happen to a tall person with long arms, ha. And that definitely made me stop and investigate. But like I already mentioned, I never even considered it was the printing. So I thought the sizing/grading might be off. And poor StyleARC received an email from me pointing out this possible mistake for them to check on their end. Ughhhhh! And don't worry, they also got an email and an apology, when I realized I was to blame, not them.

So what's the lesson: Don't ever stop printing/checking those squares, even if it's a pattern company you know well.

But with that said, it all turned out well in the end. Which is of course due to my fitting routines. I try everything I sew several times during the process, so I managed to get the lengths corrected.

I made size 14 because that fits my hip measurement. I tightened the elastic in the waistband during one of the fitting sessions. I never really check elastic measurement recommendations in patterns because it so depends on which elastic you are using. A bit like ribbing in tee necklines. So that's an individual fit every single time.

And as per usual StyleARC nailed the fit of the pants. I only changed lengths (due to printing) nothing else. I also skipped the pockets because of the fabric I used. The fabric is this butter soft bamboo jersey knit from Blackbird Fabrics and I knew pockets would be way visible and annoying with that fabric. I wish I had used something more stable. In fact I'm dreaming of using this thin French Terry from L'oiseau for my next pair. I've already used it for THESE things and I think it would be more perfect.

Here is a look at the waistband and the tee.

The tee is suggested to have a double layer at the front and as much as that makes sense, I didn't wanted to do that since I used cotton/lycra and I was afraid that it would be too thick with two layers. So instead I drafted a facing. I love the end result but gah, it did give me some sewing problems. 

I fully interfaced the facing with knit interfacing but when it was time to sew that final visible stitch I had one layer that stretched and another that didn't. Which is not problem if you can have the non-stretch layer at the top when sewing. Maybe this is the situation where a walking foot is useful? I've never personally tried it, so I don't know? But I wanted to sew from the outer layer because the stitch is so visible and that was the stretching layer. I finally made it work but another time I'll only interface the facing on the neckline, not the whole thing. That way both layers with equally stretch and a good press will save the day in the end.

After all the struggles with the neckline, my usual perseverance were worn down and I ended up following the direction for the pattern on how to finish the sleeve hems. I usually avoid using techniques where I hem first and sew the side seams afterwards. It's just too cheap an industrial method for my personal taste. Why should I choose a method meant for a mass produced $15 tee when I'm just making myself ONE and spending 15-30 minutes more on that step will make no difference to the budget. But apparently it did make a difference for my sanity that day, so I folded the sleeve hem allowance, coverstitched it and then sewed the side seam afterwards and it actually didn't turn out too bad, ha. I guess it's all about balance, like anything else in life. ;-) 

As you can see in the photo above I used my sewing machine to sew the side seam first and then finished it with my overlocker. That way I could better control that the hem stitch would meet up, plus I could raise the armhole a bit. (Again, it was a bit too deep because of my printing issues.)

The tee is a size 8.

So maybe this fabric is not the best for showing off this cleverly designed cardigan. It's hard to see the lines/seams.

There are no shoulder seams and the front pieces wraps over your shoulders and creates that yoke you can see. Shoulder darts create shape. Really cool and fun to sew and figure out. The patterns I can't figure out with a first glance are my favorites. And StyleArc do them so well. (The Violet Knit Jacket and Ebony Woven Pants are some of my favorites for that very reason).

They do a great job of adding letters to the pattern pieces that tells you which crucial points are meeting up plus you CANNOT ignore the notches. I always start these type of patterns by putting the paper pattern together with pins. That is a giant help. Remember how I told you, that during my education we were taught to pretty much have the whole sewing process and all the steps in the right order in our heads before we even began sewing. A smooth sewing process is all about the planning.

The style has dropped shoulders, although my (wrongly printed) version probably has more dropped shoulders that intended. I did take some off during fittings plus as you can see, I used some of that glorious wide sleeve hem allowance that this style has, to fold up the sleeve an extra 3 cm like a cuff. 

This is a size 10.

I didn't add extra length to the actual cardigan besides what my 105% scaling did. Man, this is really not helpful is it, haha. And no I'm not recommending you start using printer scaling for grading. Absolutely under no circumstances NOT! I just wanted to be clear about that, because I do see that question asked from time to time around the interwebs. 

I'm feeling so good in this outfit. The gorgeous jacquard stable knit from Nosh Fabric gives it, together with the jeans styling, almost a light coat look which is exactly what I hoped for.

You can get your Como Knit Tee HERE, Como Knit Pants HERE and Como Knit Cardi HERE. The Como Set HERE. The links are to the pdf versions of the patterns because that's what I personally prefer. They come as paper patterns too. And when it says "single-size pdf download" it really means, you'll choose one size and you'll automatically also get the pattern in the size above and below your choice. Choose size 8 and you also get size 6 and 10.

And just to be clear. Yes, I'm representing StyleARC but the opinions are still mine, and honest. And I'm not making any money if you click the links, as in they are not affiliate links.

But if you use the code SLM10 then you'll save 10% on your order and that's pretty cool if you ask me.

Thank you!

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