Silky Cashmere Bolero

This is silky cashmere yarn from Lotus. What I have in mind for this yarn at the moment is a lacy bolero made up of motifs joined together in the free-form way. I completed five motifs following charted patterns in Duplet 112 and Duplet Swimsuit 3. The motifs are then arranged on the table in the order that I intend to join them. I thought of the largest motif going on the upper back of the bolero and the smaller motifs on the shoulder/upper arm and the smallest motifs for the sleeves. The motifs are all different.

Before joining the motifs together, I made a ch-mesh outline around the motifs. I prefer to work the mesh of the type “dc, ch 3, dc.” Then I started joining them beginning along the upper portion of the bolero (the shoulder line). I decided to keep ths line fairly straight so the bottom portion may be irregularly shaped and could be more visually interesting.

The motifs selected for the bolero have strong edges reinforced by sc’s. I need good sturdy motifs and not light ones. I selected flat motifs for the back and shoulders and the last two motifs at the cuffs have 3-dimensional flowers. I wanted to keep the main body of the bolero fairly flat while the ends of sleeves can have a more 3-dimensional design.

I didn’t use any needle joining for the motifs. This time, I used wholly crocheted joins. Work is much faster this way and teaches me to join irregular shaped motifs.

I decided to add a few more finishing touches to it – in particular, some flowers along the neckline. This experiment has proven to be very useful but I now also realise that some adjustments need to be made, in particular, how the garment drapes when it has an open neckline.

There is a tendency to drape towards the back given the weight of the fabric in that area, thus there being less coverage a the front. My typical “solution” to this “problem” is joining the front sections of the garment, as in this case, and in the case of the cotton cashmere bolero which I completed a few weeks ago, also with the aid of the paper pattern.

If I were to make a bolero that has an open front and with the front side sections just over the shoulders and the armpits, then I must consider the weight of the garment – more weight in the front section and less at the back will make sure that the bolero stays in place and not drape backwards.

Another way is the shape of the garment itself. Recently, I saw a construction shape that is rather fit around the armpits and shoulders, resembling a shrug more than a bolero. I am generally uncomfortable with tops that are tight at the armpits but there might be a way of using a similar construction that feels more comfortable.