My $5 Cardigan & Tank Set

I love fabric stores but there aren't many left in these parts. Most of my purchases these days are online. I heard that even Wal-Mart is discontinuing sewing departments in its stores. No matter whether I'm online or in a store, I am compelled to browse the clearance section and every now and then I find something worth buying. Recently, I found some interesting fabrics at Wal-Mart on clearance for $1.00 per yard.

The price of patterns has gotten ridiculous so I only buy them when they're on sale for 99 cents each, then I usually get about 10 at a time. If I don't ever use the pattern I can sell it on Ebay and recoup my cost.

Here are a couple of pics of my cardigan & tank top set that only cost $5 including the cost of the pattern, made from my $1/yard clearance fabric. The fabric is a knit with several different colors and has a slightly nubby texture, very lightweight and comfortable.



I've been sewing on and off for 30 years and recently came across something that I'd never heard of before and now wonder how I ever lived without it - double needles. I always thought you had to have a special sewing machine to use double needles. Now that I know I can use them on my sewing machine I've bought every one I could find, including one for stretch knits. You can see the topstitching on the closeup of the tank top done with the double needle. There's no way I could ever top stitch so precisely without it.