I subscribed to Seamwork from the first issue, so have a little collection of patterns building up ready to sew now, but the Astoria is the first one that I've actually made. The cropped style instantly appealed to me because it's a great length for wearing with my many fit and flare dresses (yes, I'm looking like a bit of a Colette fan girl in these photos and wearing it with my Moneta), and a little sweater is a very welcome addition to a pretty dress on spring days like the one in these photos which look lovely and sunny but still aren't exactly warm.
The other thing that drew me to the pattern was that the blue sample in the pattern photos reminded me of the warm jersey I used for my latest Bronte top, and I remembered that I still had a fairly sizeable chunk of it left. Thankfully for me, there was just enough there to make the shorter sleeved version of Astoria - yay for "free" fabric!
I made a medium at the bust, grading out to a large at the waist. I compared the length with the pattern pieces I altered from my second Enid sweater, and on the basis of that I also added an inch to the length for the Astoria. The length is now just right for me, and I'm pleased with the fit in general.
The Seamwork patterns are all designed to be fairly quick projects to create staple wardrobe pieces, and the Astoria definitely fits into that category for me. I think I might need a whole rainbow of them to go with various dresses and skirts.
The pattern is rated as taking one hour and, if you exclude the time taping together the PDF and cutting the fabric, that was fairly accurate I think. Everything goes together nicely and the instructions are thorough and clear so there's nothing to cause any problems here. Another reason to make more of them!
Have you sewn any Seamwork patterns? I'm definitely keen to make a Bristol skirt - it looks so comfy and, as an added bonus, it's named after my home town so it must be good!
