How to make a maternity cardigan

I love cardigans, but when you’re pregnant your options are either to wear them open constantly, or wear a cropped version. This cardigan however, is roomy enough to wear closed over your baby bump, (even at 40 wks pregnant – like these pictures of me), and when you’re no longer pregnant, it works wonderfully as a grandpa style oversized cardigan. I’ve based this tutorial on a size medium – so if you’re significantly smaller or larger than that you’ll need to adjust the dimensions.

What you’ll need:

• 1 1/2 yards of 60″ wide jersey fabric
  

What to do:

1. Cut out your cardigan pieces:
   In the below pictures you would cut out the pink sections. If you have a French curve, then use it for the curved sections, otherwise you can just ‘eyeball’ it, knit fabric is very forgiving!
   a. Front (x2)
   b. Back, cut on the fold
   c. Sleeve, cut on the fold
   d. Neckline bindings, 2x small rectangle, 1 x large rectangle with triangle ends (ordinarily I would say to cut   your bindings on the bias, but since we are using stretchy fabric, you can get away with cutting them across grain

   

2. Place the front & back pieces together, seams lined up & right sides together. Sew the side & shoulder seams together
3. Fold the sleeves in half (right sides together) and sew the seam up
4. Attach the sleeves to the cardigan. I find the easiest way is to turn the sleeves right way round and put them inside the cardigan, so that the raw edges are free to sew, and the cardigan body & sleeves are right sides together
5. With the sleeve still inside out, fold 3 inches over, then fold that section inwards, so that you have a folded edge and a raw edge. Sew along the edge
6. Do the same with the bottom of the body pieces. Fold 3 inches over onto the wrong side, then fold the doubled over section onto the right side, so that you have a raw edge and a folded edge to sew. Sew along that edge.
7. Sew the 3 neck binding pieces together. Take on 6” strip & place it right sides together on the 38” strip. Note, the 6” strip has a flat edge and the 38” strip has a triangular edge, so you will need to sew half of the 6” strip edge to one side of the triangle, and half to the other side of the triangle, as so:
8. Now fold the neckline binding in half with wrong sides together
   It should look a little like this…
9. Then place the binding on the cardi right sides together, matching the neckline edge with the 2 raw edges of the binding & sew. Note: match up the seamlines of the binding with the corner edge of the neckline. Also you will need to stretch the binding a little near the top as you sew to get it to match up with the neckline, this is okay as it ensures that the binding won’t be baggy and will conform to the right shape.
10. Now it’s time for closures! I did buttons with button holes, for one version, but you could of course use snaps, or if you are planning to wear it open all the time, I guess you could really skip the closures (like I did in the version pictured at the beginning and end of the post).

And now you’re done!! Happy sewing!