High-Vis Sew House Seven Toaster Sweater #1

 

I am a fair-weather cyclist. I enjoy cycling, but it is not my main mode of transportation. Many things seem to get in the way of regularly cycling to work during dry weather - mostly my kids' extracurricular activities. It's hard to plan all the taxiing to and from lessons that happen right after school/work when you are also factoring in one adult's desire to walk to work and the other adult's desire to cycle to work. Luckily, for a while our schedule worked so that two days a week I either cycled or rode the bus to work. 

I live only 5 miles (8 km) from work and it is a relatively pleasant 25 minute ride. A good portion of the way is on a bike path, but most of the route is on shared roads - some with marked bike lanes, but not all. After a couple of close-ish encounters with automobiles, I started to think about a lightweight, high-vis jacket that I could throw on to help drivers see me pedaling along.

The fabric I found is one of those super-light wicking fabrics. It's breathable, but a little sheer and so lightweight that I thought a zipper would be quite stiff and awkward. I shifted my thoughts to a pullover garment - loose enough to fit over a t-shirt, with long sleeves and a collar to protect me from the sun.

I decided on the Sew House Seven Toaster Sweater #1. There are a lot of very cute and cozy versions of this sweater out there, so I look forward to making a version for the cooler weather, too. I'm not usually a fan of raglan sleeves, because I find them hard to fit, but I liked all the other aspects, so I went for it.

I made a muslin out of some knit fabric with a similar stretch to the high-vis fabric, and I found that I wanted to both lengthen the bodice and narrow the waistband.

I finished the muslin on March 6, 2020. I went on to make the high-vis version, not knowing that in ten days I would be working from home and no longer commuting anywhere!

When I am working with lightweight knits, I often have problems with using my serger to finish the seams. Often they roll up and do not lie flat. Then I loosen the tension and then the threads do not lie nicely against the raw edge of the fabric. It's tricky for me to find the sweet spot. So my go-to strategy is to use the 3-step zig-zag on my sewing machine to finish the edges of the seam allowances. For this garment, I top-stitched them with a narrow zig-zag to keep them flat, but stretchy.

I finally wore this top one night recently. David and I have been routinely walking a couple of miles in the evenings since we've been working from home. One night it was already getting dark and cool when we left, so I threw this top on over my t-shirt. It worked perfectly! I felt visible to traffic and I didn't get hot.

So this is a success! And I will keep my eyes open for appropriate sweatshirt/sweater material, too.