Deco - nearly there

Last week, I finished the knitting of my Deco cardigan.  Because the bottom and top edges kept curling up, I decided to do a line of crocheted slip stitches to add a tiny bit of weight and to add a  bit to the edge of the neckband (I should have picked the first stitch up right at the very edge of the front bands).

After blocking (which I did properly, pinning it out on my foam mats - yay, go me!), it was all lying much flatter.

I'd bought some red grosgrain ribbon to line the front bands, but decided that I wanted the facings to be slightly more than the width of the bands, which the ribbon wasn't.  So.... I had a look in my fabric stash and found some cotton that I thought would do nicely.

This morning, I used hubby's spirit level-cum-metre measurer thingammy to cut out two rectangles.  Then, I turned the fabric in at each side and ironed it, carefully pinned the facings in place.  After I'd done the pinning, I checked that the front bands were still the same length as each other and then I hand sewed the facings in place.

I'm now waiting for some 13mm plastic press studs to be delivered so I can sew them down the bands before sewing on the buttons, which are obviously only for decoration because the fastening's done with the press studs.  I'd thought I might be able to get away with using some plastic press studs I bought from my local haberdashery/yarn store by sewing them on both sides of the bands, but decided that after all the hours I'd spent knitting the cardigan it was worth waiting a few extra days for fastenings that will do the job much better and give a neater overall appearance.  I bought them from Amazon, using the link that Kate Davies (I think it was her) gave on the Deco project page comments on Ravelry.

Anyway - here it is knitted, facings sewn in, but without fastenings:

And here's a pic of the facing on the right front:

And a closer up pic so you can see the fabric I chose:

As you can see, it needs another blocking/pressing now that the facings have been sewn in, but I'm really pleased with it so far.

It's definitely worth taking time over finishing off.  Compared to the number of hours spent knitting, an extra hour or two on the finishing touches really is worth it.

In the meantime, while I wait for the postman to deliver the press studs, I've got some finishing off of another couple of things to be getting on with and I've also got an idea in my head for a scarf which I'm hoping will work out once it's on the needles!