Sweat suit alternative

I had been on a quest for a "sweat suit alternative" when I ran across this picture from BWOF 08/2002 on Cidell's blog. I was intrigued. Then, when I saw her finished pieces, I knew I really wanted to have it. I was so excited when she sent me a copy of the magazine in the mail so I could trace it off! I finally finished cutting it out this evening. I didn't buy enough fabric to begin with (I bought it before I had the magazine) but thought I could squeeze it all on. The wrap pieces are cut all as one, so they take up a lot of room. I tried to make it all fit by making the wrap short sleeves, but even that wasn't going to work. I checked at JoAnns, and they didn't have any more fabric, so I knew I had to squeeze it on. Well, after squeezing and turning off grain, and piecing one of the backs, I finally got it all to fit. Then, after I cut it out, I realized I had not turned over one of the pieces, so one of the fronts would be on the wrong side of the fabric!

I am making this out of a beautiful coffee-colored poly rayon ponte de roma knit so I thought I'd give it one more try to find more. I was disappointed to find that there was no more there, but I kept looking to see if I could find something else that would work. Lo and behold, I found the fabric and it had been misplaced in another section! I bought 2 yards and took it home. Our Jo Ann's has two kinds of ponte knits. One is called basic ponte and it is made of polyester. It looks nice, drapes nicely, but isn't that soft. They also have a couple of bolts of ponte de roma, which is a rayon/poly blend and it is much softer. I'm so glad I was able to find more of this fabric. Hopefully I'll have some time this weekend to sew. I did manage to make a quickie baby blanket to wrap a shower gift this evening.