A Star Sweatshirt for my little star

The latest issue of Love Sewing Magazine arrived last week and I was really impressed with the free pattern and the projects in the mag. I'll definitely be making the dress soon - I have some fabric that will be perfect for it. As I had loads of sweatshirt fabric left after making the Linden Sweatshirt, I decided to start off with the boy's star sweatshirt to use up some of the offcuts. 

They have started making the patterns (except the free gift) available as downloads only. I don't really mind, but it does mean that everything takes longer, as you have to print, cut and stick before you can get going. Annoyingly, there was a mistake in the PDF and I had to draft one of the pieces myself, based on the layplan and surrounding pieces. I didn't have enough plain fabric to do the star on the back, so I only cut one of each of the star pieces and self-drafted a back body piece using the back neckline pattern piece and the constructed front piece as a guide. 

 Attaching the front pieces together to make the star design was the most challenging part of the project. I used my overlocker to attach everything together, then topstitched with my coverstitch machine. I'm still getting used to using the coverstitch machine, and ended up having to unpick sections and re-thread the machine a few times. I'm still pleased with the finish it gives and will be practising lots over the next few months. 

The rest of the project was straightforward and the end result met with Thomas's approval (although he wanted me to finish in one evening and it took longer!). I like the star being plain and the rest of the sweatshirt being striped. I'd like to claim it was a deliberate design decision, but the truth is that I was dictated to by the amount of each type of fabric I had. The pattern goes up to age 11-12, so I imagine I will be making versions again for both kids as it is a good stash buster. 

Here is the finished result, and Thomas modelling it below: