When I first saw the Marlo Sweater from True Bias, I wanted to click “Buy” immediately. It was the very epitome of “lockdown working-from-home 2020-2021 dressing”.

Plus, it comes in an extended size range catering for a hip size up to 164cm.

Since I didn’t have the right fabric in my stash and everything I found that I liked was outrageously expensive, I convinced myself that the cost of making this would be almost the same as simply buying a Sezane cardigan RTW. Therefore, I just needed to let it go.

The power of reason worked for a grand total of a couple of days until the wave of exceptionally cute Marlo Sweaters started appearing everywhere. Then emotion and the creative sprit took over and I gave in to temptation.

So here’s my take on the Marlo Sweater.

Pretty good, right? I’m calling this one a win!

By the way, sweater is a word that doesn’t come naturally to me – we don’t use it much in Australia. But, ummm, is it just me or isn’t this actually a cardigan?

What am I missing?

But for the sake of SEO, I’ll avoid the temptation to call this the Marlo cardigan and tell you all about my new Marlo sweater by True Bias.

My Marlo Sweater

My Marlo Sweater is a size 16 from the 0-18 size range. This is view B. The pattern also comes with a more cropped view (which actually uses different pattern pieces, it’s not simply a different cut line).

My body measurements has me at a 14 at the bust, between a 14-16 at the waist and a 16 at the hips. After reviewing the finished garment measurements, I went with a size 16.

The finished bust, waist and hip measurements of the Marlo sweater are identical, so it has no “shape” to speak of. In retrospect, I think it is a tad too big for me at the bust/shoulders. Also, because my thighs are wider than my hips (pear problems), I can’t actually do it up at the very bottom across the thighs. So I actually wish that I had gone with a 14 at the top half and graded out to a 16 at the hip and then given myself a bit more space again around the thighs.

(On this last issue across the thighs, it is my own fault because I used the bottom band in the direction of least stretch for aesthetic reasons – I wanted the “lines” at the bottom to be horizontal. If I had used it in the direction of greatest stretch, it would probably fit around the thighs)

Fabric shopping in Europe post-Brexit

This lovely cotton sweater knit came from Stragier Tissus in Belgium – my first purchase from them. It’s so nice to wear – being thick and warm, but being cotton rather than wool it is also really smooth and lovely against the skin.

Between Brexit cutting me off from UK fabric stores and significant postage/delivery days in the Netherlands meaning that I’ve found some places I regularly purchase from temporarily not delivering to the Netherlands anymore (or packages disappearing into the world of PostNL for months at a time), I’ve definitely felt my fabric buying options narrow in 2021.

Stragier deliver to the Netherlands using UPS – these days I feel that I can almost only order from places using UPS, DHL or similar courier service – anything else is just to risky as to when or if it will eventually make its way through the Dutch postal service (at least where I am!).

I asked people on instagram to share with me where they are currently buying fabrics from within Europe. This was how I came across Stragier. I have shared a list of the fabric stores in Europe recommended to me as a permanent story on my instagram, so if your also looking for fabric stores in Europe, you can check it out.

Stragier’s website is a bit clunky and not user-friendly to navigate, but when you start digging through it, there are some real gems in there!

I purchased this sweater knit in two tones: Rose nude and Rose Zephyr. In the end, the difference in colour between the two is a little less pronounced than I had imagined but I think it still creates a nice subtle colour blocking effect.

Speaking of fabric for the Marlo sweater, I want to say that I found the indicated fabric requirements to be completely off and this is one thing that really annoys me because sweater knits can be so expensive!

The pattern indicates that for view B in a size 16 you need 2.7 metres of 1.35 wide fabric. My fabric was 1.5m, so I went for a little less – I bought 2.5 metres. I should have gone for way less. First of all, if your fabric is just a bit wider, you can fit both the back and side pieces side-by-side (depending on the size) which actually saves a significant amount of fabric. With a bit of further creative placement (including modifying direction of the lower band – careful about doing this yourself, it will depend on how much stretch your fabric has and in which direction as to whether or not you can do this), I cut my Marlo Sweater view B out of only 1.75 metres.

That leftover 75cm of this fabric isn’t really usable for anything else, so it does feel like quite a waste!

Sewing the Marlo Sweater

I found the Marlo sweater simple and straightforward to sew.

There was a lot that I liked about the pattern. I liked that it included two different sets of neckbands, depending on how much stretch your fabric has (one for 20-40% and one for 40% plus). I liked that the instructions included options for a simple and then a more complex method of attaching the bands, so you could decide whether you wanted to keep the seam allowance hidden on the inside of the bands or not.

I didn’t like that it includes individual “button/buttonhole placements” guides for each size (i.e. individually and not nested) so that when you pay to print your A0 sheet, almost half the sheet is simply these buttonhole guides, only one of which you can use. And which, in my humble opinion, aren’t really necessary.

Also if you are printing it off using a printing service and you only need one view (either A or B), there will be one sheet that you do not need, so pay attention to this when doing your printing order to save a bit of money.

All in all, I must confess that I didn’t pay a huge deal of attention to the instructions for the Marlo Sweater, as it’s such a basic make, but they seemed fine.

Playing with stretch requirements

Regular readers will know by now that I’m not at all beyond playing it a bit loose with recommended fabrics. Sometimes I feel like my sewing blog should come with a “don’t try this at home” warning!

The Marlo sweater is very clear that you need a fabric with at least 20% stretch for the bands.

My fabric did not have this much stretch – although it still had a little.

I addressed this by cutting both my bottom band and the neck band 20% longer than the pattern piece. I then checked against my sweater as I sewed to see how much of that excess I actually needed. For my bottom band, I was using the fabric in the direction in which it had basically no stretch, so I used the full 20% excess I had allocated.

For the neckband, I was using the fabric in its direction of greatest stretch, so I ended up using some but not all of this excess. I waited until I had pinned on the neckband and seen exactly how much I would need to use for this fabric. I then attached the interfacing for the buttons at this late stage in order to ensure that it was in the correct place for the modified size of my neckband.

With these modifications to the bands, I’m pleased to report that I’m very happy with how the Marlo sweater can turn out even if your fabric doesn’t have the necessary stretch percentage.

Fighting the fabric

I did have some difficulty sewing this Marlo Sweater but only owing to the thickness of my fabric.

The Stragier website, lists it as being 465-712 gr/m, which frankly I don’t understand how there could be such a range, but even at the lower end of that range, you’re looking at a pretty thick fabric.

It makes it cosy and lovely to wear but a bit of a pain to sew, especially when attaching bands or cuffs which are themselves doubled over.

Plus, I didn’t make my job any easier. After fighting my machines (neither my sewing machine or overlocker could handle more than two layers of this fabric well) and breaking three needles in the course of this project, I finally remembered, while sewing on the final cuff, that when sewing with thick fabrics you can adjust your tension settings.

I adjusted the tension for attaching the final cuff. At which point, after two days of cursing and literally pulling the fabric through the machine while mentally screaming at the needle “don’t you dare break on me you f@%kr”, it was suddenly like sewing butter.

Sewing butter! Haha, what a mental image.

So, don’t do a Beck. If you’re sewing very thick fabrics, adjust your tension at the beginning of the project!

Even with the belated discovery of the tension dial, I’m too scared to make buttonholes in this fabric, so I have not done so. I still added the buttons though because they’re so pretty and I feel that the oversized buttons is a big part of the aesthetic appeal of the Marlo sweater.

I was always intending to wear this open predominantly in any event. Plus, since the bottom button doesn’t fit around my thighs comfortably, functional buttonholes will serve little purpose.

So my Marlo sweater is firmly in the world of faux buttons.

It is also firmly in the world of comfortable loveliness and I can see myself happily wearing this for years to come. In my books, it’s a winner of a pattern.

I can also see it having unisex appeal – maybe I’ll make one for my husband one too. You know, after I’ve finished the 563 654 other items for me currently on my sewing wish list!

If you want to see more of my sewing adventures, you can find me on Instagram here.