I’ve been meaning to sew myself a corduroy jumper for a while but finally have gotten around to it. When I’m thinking about a project, I keep buying fabric for it—I have four lengths of featherweight corduroy in my stash thanks to this bit of procrastination. At least they’re different colours!

I chose the teal and McCalls 8365. I had been thinking of using the Smock E pattern from the Stylish Dress book, but went for this old McCalls pattern instead. I thought Smock E might look too much like a maternity dress in the corduroy. It’s really a generous cut and I like it better in the rayon woven than the cotton for that reason.

You can see that I paid the princely sum of 49 cents for it at a thrift store—it was uncut. I did make quite a few changes though and included the instruction sheet in the image so you could see what I mean. There are four views, all of which have the same back: there are two variations of the neckline and two lengths. The deeper neck has box pleats and the straighter neck has tucks.

The back view shows that the jumper has a zipper, which I decided was unnecessary. The cut is wide enough that it can be just pulled over my head. You can also see that the neck and armholes have facings, and that they’ve been combined into a single facing for the front and backs. I know this is going to curl etc. when washed, so I eliminated those pieces—I’ll finish the openings with bias binding.

The design is described as semi-fitted, which means up to 4″ of ease in the bust. I cut for the full 4″, since I want to wear a cotton turtleneck underneath. If I was using the pattern for a sundress, I’d cut closer to 2″ ease. I checked the length and one option was too short (38″ from back neck) and the other too long (51″ from back neck). I cut one in between (44″ – don’t forget the hem allowance!) that will be just right.

In the end, I cut the front and backs from the corduroy as well as the ties. I then found a coordinating cotton print in my stash and cut some 1.5″ wide bias strips. The fiber is the same as the corduroy (100% cotton) so both fabrics should behave the same way when washed.

I don’t want to fuss with these pleats each time the jumper is washed, so I used an old trick: once the pleats were sewn and ironed, I secured them, by sewing through all layers in the ditch of the pleat. I’m counting on this stitching line disappearing in the wales of the corduroy. With another fabric, I might have done two lines of topstitching, one on each side of the pleat, and made it a more decorative element.

I felled the seams to finish the edges. I also topstitched down one edge of each tie, to keep them from becoming tubes. I pressed a 3.5″ hem, then turned under the raw edge so that the hem was 2″. Then I finished the neck and armholes with my bias binding, topstitching it in place.

And there we go. A new jumper in an afternoon!

The photo doesn’t show the colour well. It’s actually teal.

What would I do differently? Well, I sewed the bias binding to the neck and armholes at the original seam line, which had a 5/8″ seam allowance. I didn’t trim that at the neck because I thought a wider bias facing would look nice. It doesn’t lie as flat on the curve at the front as would be ideal, because of the bulk of the corduroy. (Even featherweight.) I trimmed the seam allowance back to 3/8″ on the sleeves and it’s better. If I sewed this again, I’d trim it back to a scant 1/4″ and cut the bias binding narrower. I also would use a darker print for the binding so there wouldn’t be little glimpses of white at the edges.

If I wanted to use this as a sundress pattern – i.e. without wearing anything under it – I’d cut a smaller bodice and maybe raise the armholes. This gapes too much to wear alone, but I plan to wear a blouse or turtleneck under it, so the extra ease is a good thing.

I really like the weight of the hem and the way the jumper hangs so overall, this one is a win.