Now that I’ve got over the fear it seems pretty normal to be inserting a sewing project for the man into my make it list.

I decided to make him the Finlayson sweater from Thread Theory designs, one of the few pattern companies that I’m aware of that do menswear patterns. I chose View A with the collar – it also has a hoodie version and you can have a kangaroo pocket if you wish.

I’m using a piece of this thick textured jacquard knit with a cable pattern that I seem to be seeing everywhere in all sorts of colours and I’m quite a fan of. I chose this grey piece for Gary from @1stforfabrics. This proved to be a good choice for this pattern giving it sufficient body to make the collar stand up well.

A fresh blade in the rotary cutter sailed through this like butter cutting out the 7 pattern pieces quickly and easily.

Start with the back neck facing remembering to finish this and add anything such as the label before you attach it to the back piece. The shoulders are joined and then the collar attached. This is the detail that attracted me to this pattern. I like the wrap over collar effect and gives it a chunky look adding just a bit of the extra interest rather than a plain neck.

It’s important to get this in well because there’s quite a bit of bulk you need to make sure to match notches and markings very carefully and make sure that your stitching is accurate and maybe employ some judicious clipping. It’s the focal point of the top as your eye will definitely fall here.

This sweater comes together so easily, I think I completed it in 3 hours – printing and assembling the PDF was probably more time consuming than making the jumper itself. Apart from attaching my label I sewed all of this with the overlocking function on my cover lock.

I’m really very happy with how this turned out. I think it looks great and my client really really loves this top and has barely stopped wearing it since I made it.

Mission accomplished. This sewing for others malarkey is quite satisfying.

Thanks for stopping by.