A sewing tutorial to hack the Châtaigne pattern

Some time ago I fell in love with a fabric! Once is not customary, you might say! It's the light Alcée sweatshirt from Lise Tailor (once is not usual :) ...), so beautiful, super comfortable and the icing on the cake is that it's made of organic cotton! So I, who try to pay attention to the composition as well as the origin of my fabrics, I was delighted!

Yes, but a pretty fabric is good, but a pretty fabric with a sewing project is better! What sewing pattern for this pretty fabric?

The La Robe du Chat pattern library does not yet have a sweatshirt to its credit, so I first thought about creating one, but I was too impatient to sew this little marvel! And then I thought of the Châtaigne pattern ! Bingo! A Châtaigne sweatshirt will do it seriously! And with its pretty open back, button and gathers it will make a girly sweatshirt for me! Come on, I won't make you wait any longer, I'll show you.

I sewed the long sleeve version of the pattern, but it is entirely possible to sew the short sleeve version!

For the production, I made some adjustments.

First of all, when cutting:

• I wanted a tight edge at the bottom, like a ribbed edge. So I removed 5 cm of length from the front and back pieces. Then, I created a new piece to make this edge: for my size 40 sweatshirt I cut a rectangle of approximately 1 m by 12 cm wide.

• I cut the rectangle for the strap from a scrap of viscose, in order to have a thin strap.

• I extended the width of the sleeve cuffs by 2 cm (i.e. 12 cm) in order to have the same width of the cuffs and the bottom of the sweatshirt.

Then, the sewing:

• I sewed my entire sweatshirt with a serger. If you don't have a serger, you can use the zigzag stitch on your machine.

• I used the straight stitch on my machine:

1. to make the seam to maintain the seam allowance at the bottom of the backless triangle.
2. to pass the gathering threads through the different stages of gathering.

Finally, the assembly:

• I carried out the assembly as indicated in the Châtaigne pattern booklet except for the sleeve cuffs and the hem which I replaced with a tightened edge.

Sleeves

• Start by assembling the edges of the sleeves right sides together.

• Assemble, right sides together, the short side of the sleeve cuffs.

• Leaving the sleeve inside out, pass two gathering threads through the bottom of the sleeve. The gathering threads are made by two large stitches with low thread tension. The first at 0.5 cm from the edge the second at 1.5 cm from the edge.
• Pull on the threads to gather the bottom of the sleeve until you obtain a length equivalent to that of the wrist.

• Fold the wrist in 2 lengthwise, wrong side to wrong side. Insert it into the sleeve, right sides together, with the open side facing out. Adjust the gathers using the threads. Pin.

• Sew with a serger or zigzag stitch.

And that's it for the sleeve cuffs, all that remains is to assemble the sleeves to the bust as indicated in the booklet.

The bottom of the Chestnut sweatshirt

For the bottom, I chose to replace the hem by installing a strip of fabric in order to give the "ribbed" look and at the same time, it recalls the sleeve cuffs. But you can also sew a classic hem.

The assembly of the "bottom" edge is very similar to that of the sleeve cuffs.

• Sew the short side of the strip. And mark a mark opposite the sewn side.

• At the bottom of the sweatshirt, pass two gathering threads. Lightly pull the threads until you obtain a length equivalent to that of the edge strip. Place the strip, right side on the right side of the sweatshirt, with the open side facing out. The small sewn side of the band and the mark are found at the level of the side seams of the sweatshirt. If your fabric has a direction (patterns), pay attention to the direction of the tape.

• Sew with a serger or zigzag stitch.

And there you have it, for sewing the Châtaigne sweatshirt. An easy-to-wear sweatshirt to pair with pants, shorts or a skirt. I hope you liked this article and made you want to start sewing a sweatshirt!

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