Love a Cardi! Making the Eccles Cardigan

The Eccles Cardigan is a free zero waste pattern by Emily Handler of Empty Hanger patterns. It’s a “wardrobe staple” style, with a classic crew neckline, and long or 3/4 sleeves.

Eccles comes as part of a collection of other free zw patterns, with an option to pay for them (recommended). It comes in 17 sizes, to fit from a 29.9″/76cm bust to a 55.1″/140cm bust.

The pattern can be drawn straight onto the fabric with the aid of templates for the armhole, neckline and sleeve head, or as a projector file. There’s a video sewalong, which I didn’t look at, as the instructions were good. It’s for intermediate sewing ability.

The cutting layout is modular, with the body forming one block and the sleeves another. Although the pattern is drafted straight onto the fabric (which might be a new experience for some), I made a paper pattern in case I got distracted and cut the wrong part.

The sleeve head is cut in two parts, and rearranged like this to give a horizontal seam through the middle:

This pattern is designed for knit fabrics. I used some heavy cotton-blend knit from Maaidesign. The colour is dusty pink; so dusty it’s almost a neutral!

It’s a fairly straightforward make – probably the neckline is the most challenging part. The front neck is faced with bias strips.

I had hoped the fabric would not need overlocking, but it crumbs, so I had to.

The sleeves have elbow patches, which made me happy as this is where all my lovely little cardigans fail first. As the knit fabric was fairly thick, I’d thought to handsew the patches in place (and had already basted them in place, looking forward to a spot of handsewing later), but while I had the twin needle set up for the hems I thought: Liz, it’s now or never! Finish it! So I twin needled the patches on. They stretched a bit but improved with a press, and will probably improve again after a wash.

On bigger sizes, the elbow patch pieces could be used as pockets.

I basted the sleeves in to check them before stitching. Can’t believe I did so much basting – normally I’m a baste-o-phobic. The sleeves went in very well.

There’s currently no front closure on this cardi, because I didn’t have anything to use. It doesn’t look too bad left like this, but I might get some press studs to sew on.

Sizing-wise, I thought the sizing looked good. I went up a size as I plan to wear a spencer and long sleeved shirt underneath. I have a 35″ bust and made a size 42. The pattern instructions give ways to make adjustments, and ideas for adapting the cardigan into a dress, shirt, short sleeves and more.

The Verdict: If you’re familiar with sewing knits and using pdf patterns, this is a fairly easy cardigan to make, and very economical on fabric. A great wardrobe basic.

Cheers! Liz