Knitwear

Project Highlight: Holly Oversized Sweater

The Concept

Create specifications for a One Size oversized knit sweater. After a few rounds of adjusting the sweater knit quality for this style, we finally landed on the perfect quality that was stretchy enough to be a One Size item and thin enough to be tied, tucked in, and styled in different ways. Mud Pie's One Size category is a crucial category for our Gift Boutique customers. Some of these wholesale merchandise boutiques do not have dressing rooms, so accessories and apparel items that are easy to throw on without a dressing room sell well for these customers. We created a few piece types each season that catered to these customers.

The Challenges

One Size Fits Most piece types are always a challenge to create the right silhouette with a fabric that forms and functions for a range of wearers. Through fittings with a size range of models and spec adjusting, I created these pieces season after season. Despite being catered to our Gift customers, these sweaters are the best selling each season, with multiple re-orders always in the works. Some process photos of how the Holly Sweater transformed over time are shown below.

Project highlight: Audrey Balloon Sleeve Sweater

Project Highlight: Willa Sweater

The concept

The Willa sweater is a slightly cropped sweater with dropped shoulders and wide sleeves. We developed a nubby knit that created a speckled look to the knit down. Each colorway needed to be adjusted to get the correct color of the contrasting speckled yarns.

The Challenges

One challenge is the pleat along the dropped shoulder seam. The factory had trouble shaping this pleat to keep it from bubbling up. They also pressed the sleeves incorrectly, which also attributed to the bubbling and warping of the knit. The factory also needed direction to achieve the correct neckline shape.

The Results

The bubbling issue is resolved and lays nicely on the wearer. The neckline shape is correct, and this style fits nicely across our size range. Final production pressing is accurate and packaged so that the sweater keeps its shape.