Seamless (almost!) Chevron Cardigan Butterick 5789

I love it when I find a pattern that is so simple, that it's genius.

That's how I feel about Butterick 5789. You wouldn't necessarily know that it's genius from looking at the cover, and based on how few reviews of it that I've found, I'd have to say this is a sleeper. It's been out a while, but has gone under the radar of most of us because the cover photo was in a blah beige.

But believe me, if you want instant gratification, this pattern will give you it. Why, you say? What is so genius about this design? Well, take a look at the sides. No seams!

And take a look at the back- no seams! And they did this while only using two yards of fabric.

How did they do this? Well- the front, back and collar are all ONE PIECE! The only piece that is separate is the sleeve, and well, you do have a few seams to sew if you want sleeves.   But, you can choose the vest version too, and avoid those pesky sleeve seams.

This is ideal for striped fabrics that are difficult to match like this chevron sweater knit. You can still match the sleeve stripes to the body stripes like I did if you want, but you don't have too- NO ONE WILL NOTICE BUT YOU! (I always have to tell my perfectionist sewing students to relax, and not sweat the small stuff.)

One caveat to this design though is that the fabric needs to stretch in two directions- that means both lengthwise stretch and crosswise stretch. The reason is that the main piece is cut going the direction of the length of the fabric. I was lucky that my fabric's stretch was going in that direction, or else this wouldn't have worked. So, be careful of this. I've been tripped up more than once with tricky stretch issues. However, the toughest part of this is narrow hemming the perimeter. But the whole thing- cutting to finish takes less than 2 hours, which makes me a very happy customer.

Do you have a pattern that is so simple it is genius? If so, please let me know!   I want it, preferably on sale, and now, thank you!

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