Hey June Handmade Sheridan Sweater Sewing Pattern Review

For my first sewing project of 2020, I felt like making something nice and simple to get me back into the swing of things after Christmas. I also fancied trying a new pattern, and wanted to go for something that will be comfy and cosy to wear for the rest of the winter. Thankfully, the Hey June Handmade Sheridan sweater ticks all of those boxes!

On the face of it the Sheridan sweater is a simple pattern, but it comes with a number of interesting options. There are two necklines (the crew neck that I used and a built-up bateau neckline), three sleeve options (my cuffed bishop sleeves, an elasticated bishop sleeve or wide bell sleeve) and also three hem variations (a cropped hem, regular banded hem or the cropped banded hem that I chose). As you can interchange the various options, that means you could get quite a few different sweaters out of this one sewing pattern so it's fairly good value for money!

The Sheridan sweater pattern was released towards the end of last year and I was instantly drawn to the cuffed bishop sleeves. They're a bit different from anything in patterns I already own, and I thought they looked like a good sleeve style for me. I'm always drawn to the drama of bishop sleeves, but then the practical side of my mind kicks in and I think that they'd just get in my way when I was wearing them or I'd end up accidentally dipping them in my food! The deep cuffs of the Sheridan sweater seemed like a great way of getting sleeve volume but keeping all the extra fabric away from my hands and therefore hopefully out of trouble.

The sweater was fairly easy to sew as you'd expect from a relatively simple knit garment. The instructions were detailed and seemed to be easy to follow - although I have to admit that I only really skimmed through them to check what order to sew everything in as I've made similar tops before so it's not an unfamiliar process for me.

The only slightly tricky part was gathering the bottom of the sleeve into the cuff - there's quite a lot of fabric there that has to fit into a relatively small space. It wasn't difficult exactly, just a bit fiddly.

I top stitched around the neckline, which wasn't mentioned in the instructions but I thought it was worth doing to stop the neckline seam allowance flipping up, which would have annoyed me. If I make the cropped Sheridan with the hem band again, I'd possibly use gathering stitches around the hem of the sweater body to gather it into the hem band rather than stretching the band to fit. Stretching the band worked OK this time, but I did have to stretch it quite a lot and I think with some fabrics you might end up stretching them out accidentally.

In terms of sizing, I cut a size 12 at the bust and blended out to a 14 at the waist and hips. Those are the sizes recommended for my measurements, and they worked out nicely. The sweater seems true to size - it's not a tight fitting sweater, but is fitted enough to give it a good shape (if that makes any sense?).

The fabric that I used is a gorgeous French terry from Loubodu Fabrics - it's such a pretty print and a lovely quality fabric. As I type, it's sold out unfortunately, but Loubodu have lots of other beauties and have 30% off this week if you fancy picking up a bargain.

I think the Sheridan sweater has been an excellent start to my sewing in 2020. It was a fun pattern to sew, there are lots more options that I could use in future projects, I love the fabric that I used and I know I'll wear this sweater a lot. What more could you want?! How's your sewing year started off?