Even though it feels like summertime in Texas, we keep the AC in our house cold. Cold enough for me to wear sweats all through the summer. So I was delighted to find this tutorial on thumbholes from Melly Sews.

I picked a heavy rayon jersey knit in “solid plum” for this edition of the Linden Sweatshirt. The fabric was from fabric.com. The material is thin and heavy. This combination meant that it stretched easily. When serging, the fabric stretched over the blade and would spring back under the needle. This meant there was a gap between the edge of the fabric and the final piece of thread. It proved to be the trickiest fabric yet for catching all three pieces of fabric when sewing on hems.

On to the thumbholes! I watched the tutorial a week before attempting this. Winging it on memory for the first attempt, I ended up with a tangled wad of fabric. Carefully following the video on the second attempt, I sewed two seams on the wrong side. On the third attempt, I used the serger and was successful! That became my left cuff. You can see a bit of thread in the corners, but it turned out great overall.

On the fourth attempt, I used a zigzag stitch on the sewing machine instead of the serger. Thinking about it now… I probably should have serged the edges; I left them unfinished and am hoping they don’t unravel in the cuff. Oh well. The pink stitches are a bit more evident on what became the right sleeve.

Overall, I’m delighted with how this shirt turned out! I added two inches to the torso for a slightly longer shirt. The sleeves fold up easily when I need my hands and are the most cozy when I use the thumbholes.