We are in the dead of winter here on the prairies. We’ve had a solid week of extreme cold warnings, windchills and wondering why I live in a climate that can freeze your face when you walk out the door… which all means I want to be wearing ALL the cozy things ALL the time!

Enter the squishy, cozy snuggliness of Minerva’s own core line of waffle knits. I had a hard time deciding what to make with it to be honest. I legitimately considered making a boring old serviceable thermal undershirt for a while, but who wants to hide away such pretty fabric? Then I thought maybe a sweatshirt style would be kind of neat to have. One of the teachers at school was wearing just such a top the other day and I’m seriously thinking I need to order me some more waffle and some ribbing and make a waffle Grainline Studio’s Linden sweatshirt for myself. This waffle feels so warm it’s the perfect cold weather fabric!

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s get back to this particular waffle project at hand. Since I’d abandoned thought of the thermal undershirt and wasn’t fully committed to the sweatshirt idea because I wasn’t sure if a thermal sweatshirt would even work – too bad Tabitha hadn’t worn that sweatshirt of hers a few weeks earlier because now I know it would have been amazing – so I took to Pinterest for some inspo.

I found quite quickly it in a great looking v-neck, gathered long sleeve top. Instantly I fell in love with it and better yet, instantly had a pattern in mind. In fact the pattern in mind was sitting on my computer waiting to be printed. Talk about fate, right?

The pattern is from a new to me company, Forget Me Not Patterns, from New Zealand. The Vera Top is a free pattern in sizes 28-48. It has the v-neck and bishop sleeves that can be left as is without the cuff for a wide look or you can choose from a narrow or a wide cuff. (I chose to do the wide cuff for a cozy long sleeve look.)

I was quite impressed by the pattern. It printed off and lined up nicely. (I hate when PDF patterns are wonky when you put them together). The instructions were straight forward and the top very quick to sew. I did add 1 ½” to the length of the top and to be honest I could have added more. On the flip side, I could have probably shortened the sleeves a touch. The cuff holds everything in place, but with the waffle the voluminous sleeve seems a bit much draping over the cuff as it does on me, so I find that I roll the cuff up when I’m wearing it and the sleeves are still the right length. I made absolutely no other changes to the pattern other than the length.

I think it will be a pattern that I will definitely revisit and make again. I want to try it in some other types of fabrics too, but I’m so happy with how it turned out in my waffle fabric.

I really like that I can wear it with a pair of joggers when I’m hanging out at home or can pair it with jeans for out and about. I love that it has the ease of a tee shirt but elevated up with the v-neck and the bishop sleeves.

I’m still sitting here dreaming of that waffle sweatshirt though…

#minervabrandambassador #minervamaker #minervamakes #sewing #sewover50 #waffleknit #cotton #knits #tee #tshirt #bishopsleeves #vneck #ForgetMeNotPatterns #indiepatterns #pdfpatterns #freepattern #VeraKnitTop #pinspiration