I am so excited to have been a part of the pattern testing group for Blueprints For Sewing's newest pattern, the Geodesic Sweatshirt.
there is even a dome house near where I live in Colorado!
I'm not much of a sweatshirt wearer, but this is definitely a design I can get behind. I studied architecture when I lived in Paris, so when I first saw that Blueprints had sent out a call for pattern testers I eagerly applied because I knew that all of her patterns are inspired by architectural designs. When I received the pattern, my heart nearly skipped a beat when I saw that the pattern is based on the geodesic domes made famous by Buckminster Fuller, who's main aim was to bring efficiency to housing so that we could reduce our footprint on the earth.
If you don't know what a geodesic dome is, it is "an alternative housing structure that could be produced from readily available industrial materials and could be assembled very quickly." Mr. Fuller wrote about these domes that "These new homes are structured after the natural system of humans and trees with a central stem or backbone, from which all else is independently hung, utilizing gravity instead of opposing it. This results in a construction similar to an airplane, light, taught, and profoundly strong." There are people who really get behind the dome idea and those who think there are better ways to achieve efficient and sustainable housing, but I think everyone agrees that the domes are not only interesting to look at, but also still somehow seem futuristic which is pretty cool since they were first conceived in the 1920's.
As a pattern tester, I received the pattern for free but I got to pick out the fabrics I was going to use since it was up to me to purchase everything else. I went with an electric blue with an electric orange for the pockets, and I think it turned out really well! The pattern itself wasn't necessarily hard, but it wasn't beginner-level either. I found myself making sure I wasn't tired when working on it because making sure all the triangles were facing the right way was a little tricky for my brian. Other than that, the pattern was really fun to make, and it feels so good to wear a sweatshirt that I made when I am out and about!
The pattern also includes some helpful hints like how to sew with knits, and how to do a full-bust adjustment. If you would like to learn more about the pattern, you can head over to the blog post on Blueprints site, and you can purchase the PDF pattern here. Let me know if you make a geodesic sweatshirt of your own!