It was my husband Kofi’s birthday last month and I told him I’d sew him a cardigan. I confess I didn’t spend a whole lot of time searching for men’s cardigan sewing patterns. I wanted a more traditional v-neck cardigan rather than making another Thread Theory Newcastle Cardigan, which I made last year and blogged about here.
I found this cardigan pattern – Andrew 6030 – on the Burda website, which features ribbed knit on the bottom and wrists. The suggested fabrics are wool knit and cotton sweatshirt.
It seemed like a nice basic pattern and a PDF costs $5.99 so I bought it. But I didn’t pay attention to the size chart for this pattern until after I downloaded it. It only goes from 44 to 54. Burda’s men’s size chart goes from 44 to 60 (European), 34 to 50 (US). (Here’s a link to the page where you can download Burda size charts.)
My husband’s chest is 47 1/2 inches (nearly 121 cm) so so that means I would need to grade up 3 sizes – not to mention the many adjustments I’ll likely need to do – wide shoulder, bicep, full belly, etc. I had to make massive adjustments to the Newcastle Cardigan, which took three versions to get the fit right. So I decided to see if I could find another cardigan pattern.
The pickings are slim among the Big 4 (mostly pajamas and vests) but I did see Kwik Sew pattern K3724 – a men’s button-down cardigan on the Kwik Sew website, which has more variety for men – and it goes from size S to XXL. Perfect – except it was listed as out-of-print. Darn.
I tried adding it to my cart and it did appear there but I didn’t know if that was an error or if they really had one in stock. It was $11.99. So I went to eBay and found a seller who had three in stock and bought it for $10.25. Here’s a link to the eBay listing.
Here’s the line drawing of the cardigan. I like both versions. I bought two yards each of a black and a gray cotton knit fabric, which should be enough for this pattern. I bought black ribbed knit, too. So I think I’ll make version A in gray and version B in black.
I’m waiting for my Kwik Sew pattern to arrive. My goal is to finish one version by the end of the year. If you know of any other men’s cardigan sewing patterns, please let me know!
