The leather sleeved cardigan

This is a key piece in my classier (but still me!) wardrobe. It is based on an Eileen Fisher piece Currently on sale at Neiman Marcus for $278. I don't doubt that it is beautifully made but that is still a little rich for my blood.

Here are the pictures of the front and back:

It wasn't till I pulled these images that I realized the sleeves aren't entirely in leather. That could be a cost saving measure or/and make the sweater easier to fit. It totally solves my "Yikes, I don't know if I have enough lambskin to make the sleeves" problem. I have a Jan Bones T-shirt pattern that has a side panel that continues up the underarm and becomes the bottom part of the sleeve arm. If you HATE fitting sleeves into the armscye this is a great pattern. I've used it a bunch and like it, don't know why I didn't think of doing that with this.

It even has a jacket pattern that I could do with a crew neck. I really need to pull this out and look it over! What I was thinking I would use was Amy Barickman's cardigan pattern from her Magic Pattern book. This shows all the different iterations of that basic pattern. I was thinking the one second from the left would work well.

I like the length, though for someone so short I am incredibly long waisted (with shorter legs than a Hobbit!) so as much as I might like the length it may look awful on me. In my dreams, I have that model's legs, in reality, not even close! She made it up in a woven here and there is no closure. I am thinking to use a piece of merino wool knit for the body but I am undecided on the closure issue.

I am tired of never being able to close my sweaters and have tons of fly away front sweaters, but... I never see me wearing it closed, I just want to know I can which is stupid really. I know I don't want buttons and button holes but a zip? Maybe? Okay I am off to look at that Jan Bones pattern again!