Butterick 4685: Disaster Toile!

After making my brilliant circle skirt, I decided that I really should make a couple of tops to go with them and Butterick 4685 really took my fancy, the tops looked so pretty and I could see myself making all views of it.

At the weekend, I traced out my pattern pieces, as I was sure I'd want to make this again and again in various sizes.  I did have to lengthen the front and back body sections by 2" which surprised me as I never thought I had a long body.

One Tuesday, I cut out the pieces to make the view photographed on the cover,  and pinned them together, which is when I got a bit worried.  The top looked totally shapeless.  Although it did have a slight shaping at the waist, it was essentially straight sided, with no darts or any shaping tools.  I had a bit of a panic, and asked the wonderful ladies on The Sewing Forum for advice.  Most came back to say that with my generous bra size, they probably wouldn't have gone for this design, as it would end up like a sack and not be flattering at all.

Last night I decided to see what I could do to save it.  I took the seams in by a quarter inch around the bust, and a half inch around the waist, which helped a bit, but did cause some creasing across the bust.  I could live with that, but then I looked at the back, which was gaping badly.  As this was just a toile, I hacked a centre seam into the back piece and took about an inch out of it which also helped, but there was just no getting away from the fact that it looked like a sack.

I have to admit that I gave up at that point.  I'd also sewn the sleeve in the wrong way round, though in my defence, it was the first sleeve I'd ever put in.

I'm not giving up on the pattern, but I think I will try the view in the yellow as it has elastic under the bust which should help my problem, and I'll choose a smaller size doing a full bust adjustment.

I've now discovered Lekala patterns, and have ordered this one, which I hope will be more flattering.  I have my knitting group tonight, but I'm aiming to make it up on Friday to wear at the weekend.

Wish me luck!! Have you made any Lekala patterns, and if so, any hints?

Crochet: my new toys

When I was at my knitting group last week, I noticed how quickly all the crochet girls were getting on with their projects.  I felt a little jealous as I tackled week 4 of what was meant to be a fast cowl for my mum's Christmas.  So what could I do, but buy myself a little set of crochet hooks and have a crack at it.

I watched a lot of tutorials and finally, today, I got round to trying it out.  I struggle with holding the yarn right, but I'm sure once I am a bit more confident with the stitches, I can sort that out.  I'm also certainly not fast, but again, I'm sure that will come.

One thing that intrigued me about crochet was the stitch names...double crochet, treble crochet, half treble...how can you have a half treble?  I also found it really interesting that there is such a difference between UK and USA terms.  I've never been good at languages, but it looks like I will need to become bilingual for crochet at least.  It means that it's important to know where your pattern is from, and what terms it is using, as if you used the wrong one, your project would turn out totally different which would be disheartening for a beginner.

I can't wait to share all my new crochet adventures with you, any advice for me?

Before I go, I thought I would give you a close up of my lunchtime efforts.  I used a 5.5mm hook, which is probably a bit big for my wool, but I found it was easier to see my stitches and get a feel for what I was doing with it.

This is a few rows of UK double crochet, messy at parts, but a good effort I think

The increadible kindness of others

It feels a bit like Christmas today, I have, sitting beside me, a huge bag of fabrics and I'm itching to get started working with them.

Before I do anything I thought I would blog about how this all came about.  A lovely lady used to do a lot of sewing and has since given up, but still had a ridiculous stash of fabric and habby.  She decided to clear out, and to donate all the fabrics to people she knew, people who would love them and use them.

What followed was an incredibly exciting day of facebook activity, a photo and description of the fabric would be posted, and the first person to say yes would be given it.  When it came to buttons, it was so fast paced it was a real race to see who was given what.

I can honestly say that this lady has really made my day/month/year.  Due to having to support two houses on 1.5 salaries, we have not had much spare money, so I have been buying cheaper fabrics, often polycottons and synthetics, unless there is a brilliant deal going.  I firmly believed that any luxurious fabrics would have to wait.

I am honoured that I was allowed so many of the fabrics (I may have got a bit over excited, but who can blame me!).

So, what do I have in my bag?

The top left is a navy houndstooth wool suiting, which I hope to turn in to a suit for work, I've not measured it, but there seems to be plenty.

Beside it I have a couple of yards of a fairly thick linen which will be fabulous as a summer top

Then come the silks, that's right, 100% silk charmeuse or chiffon.  The rose patterned one is the chiffon, I'm already imagining a skirt with the chiffon floating over the top, and as I have about 5 yards of it, I may even consider a top and a dress! As it is silk, I would have to find some good deal for a similar quality lining for it, but it is so pretty.  The cherry and banana prints are so much fun, I'm hoping that the Cherries will turn into a tea dress type thing, and the bananas I am considering for a top or skirt.  The bright abstract is hopefully going to be a Sorbetto top, if I can work out how to adjust the darts.

Under the abstract is a Calvin Klein wool, its a burgundy red with dark green through it.  Again, I'm hoping to make this into a suit, though pattern matching could be fun.

The final row has a really fun Buru Buru dog print, which I plan to make into a little dress and nappy covers for a friend who is expecting a little girl.  The baby is due in November, so I'm aiming for about a 6 month size, but I have no idea which pattern to use.  Finally I have yards and yards of silk crepe (I think it's silk) which will be at least a skirt if not also tops and dresses.

In a final act of kindness, another lady dropped off my fabric to me as my hip is playing up again and I couldn't make it to where the fabric handovers were happening.

Which is your favourite from my new stash, and any suggestions for patterns?

Finally Finished Skirt - New Look 6056

It's finally done, and to be fair, it is an easy pattern that took me far longer to do than it should.

The skirt is a circle skirt, made from two panels cut on the bias and sewn together, with a waistband and zip.  There are no real complex steps to this, however the sheer volume of fabric can be daunting.

My biggest issue was with the lining I decided to add.  The fabric, a lovely blue satin lining fabric from Pennine Fabrics (£1 per meter!) was a bit of a nightmare to work with, being very slippy. The hem that I did is dreadful, but I can live with it for a first real project.

For the skirt, I opted to follow this tutorial from Colletterie, which worked brilliantly and I have a lovely even hem.

I forgot to take a photo of the skirt close up, and will add one when I remember, but I chose to wear it to go to the Graduate Show for the Art School in Aberdeen, where a few of my friends were showing their work.  A few drinks may have been provided, and I found myself having great fun spinning around in my new skirt...

The skirt cost me around £25 to make once all postage is taken into consideration.  The main material was £2.50 a meter from Greens of Blackburn, who unfortunately appear to have stopped trading online.  As I said before, the lining was a steal at £1 per meter, and I really can't rate Pennine Fabrics highly enough.  I needed 200m of Gutermann thread and one zipper.

I got lots of compliments about the skirt, which felt great, there really is something about being able to say that you made it when asked what shop it is from.  What have you made that gets the most comments?

So, next project is a top to go with the skirt, I have some issues with the pattern, so I'll be addressing them as I go along.

My Grandmother's Sewing Box

I had a wonderful relationship with my maternal (and parternal) grandparents, with so many memories of being with them when I was younger.  My grandma playing the piano and baking with us, my grandad joining in my sister and my make believe games and fort building, not to mention being allowed to make things out of real clay.

When the time came for them to move, and it was necessary to dispose of a huge number of items, my eye fell on something.  It was my grandma's sewing box, nothing fancy, but I had many memories of opening and closing it, as I loved the way it expanded, and of looking in all the tins to see what they had in them.  It's been in my posession ever since, but it is only in the last few months that I have been actively involved with it again.

I still have her old tins for my needles, and some of her very vintage thread.  I am not sure if it is useable for machine stitiching given it's age, but it will never be thrown out.  When I opened the box and had a rummage, I found a half finished pom pom from the 1980's, no doubt made by me.  Remember the days when you had two doughnuts of cardboard and you wrapped wool around them until you couldn't fit any more on, well my grandma had kept one of mine.

I feel that I should keep her notions, threads and buttons, but also know that she would have hated the waste, and loved that I had developed a love of sewing and knitting.  So, when finishing my circle skirt, I took the plunge and used possibly the most vintage hook and eye...what do you think?

Do you have any inherited items for your crafting?

Attaching my waistband to New Look 6056

So last night I finally got round to progressing my New Look 6056 skirt, which is from their Project Runway collection.

I had already done most of the work, it just needed the waistband attached and hemmed, but as it is a circle skirt, the hem is a little daunting.

The instructions to attach the waistband were clear, although I think I went a bit wrong on sewing the ends which form an overlap tab for a hook and eye, as they look a bit odd and are a bit too narrow.  Still, they will work and for a first attempt I'm happy with it.

The most difficult part involved stitching in the ditch.  This is where you sew in the stitch line of a previous step so that the new stitching is invisible.  This scared me a bit, and I decided to hand crank my machine rath than use the foot pedal so that I would have a little more control.  This was laborious, but worth it for the result.

The first step was to fold over the waistband and press it, making sure that the inside edge was slightly below the original stitching line.  This is very important and I got is wrong in a couple of places so had to rest itch it as the waistband hadn't caught the stitching.

Next, line up your needle with the 'ditch'.

 

I then hand cranked the machine all along the stitch line, noticing when the needle felt like it was going through too much and checking my alignment.

I'm really pleased with the end result, it looks pretty professional

This is the inside

The outside looks really neat too

Now I just need to hem it and I will have a finished skirt, hopefully by the end of the weekend.

What sewing do you have planned?

Knit Camp 2014 Bobble Hat

I have been busy studying recently, having just had another batch of my accountancy exams, so my sewing machine has unfortunately been relegated to it's bag so that I could use the table.

Still, you can't study all the time, and so I have used this last couple of weeks to get on with the projects included in the Knit Camp 2014 kit I got at Christmas.

My latest project was a two toned hat which was worked flat.  I have never worked with more than one colour, and have also never had to join in another ball of yearn, so this did scare me quite a lot.  Thankfully, the tutorial provided here gave me the method to add in my bright pink yarn easily.

I also needed to add in another ball of yarn as I had just carried on with the ball I started for some mittens, and found a method on YouTube which suggested that in an inconspicuous area, you hold the new and old yarns together and knit (or purl) three stitches with both yarns.  Then you just drop the old yarn and carry on with the new ball.  Once I worked out which way to hold the yarn so that it came from the ball rather than going in the other direction (far more confusing than it should have been) the result was great and very hard to see.

The pattern was designed by Joanne Scrace Aka Not So Granny and gave a great product using easy techniques.  In fact, all that was needed was knit and purl stitches, knit2tog and SSK (a new one for me, but easy once you get the hang of it.) I will be looking out for more of her designs in future.

So, the finished result...

My next knitting project is a big one, a summery shawl in a bamboo tape.  I have never tried lace knitting, and now realise this is much harder than I expected.  Fortunately I'm heading to the Aberdeen S 'n' B group this week, so someone will be able to get me started.

This is my pattern

I have the same colour of yarn as in the picture, can't wait to team it with some of my summer outfits.

Hopefully my next blog will have my finished circle skirt, I just need to join the lining in and add the waistband.  If this weather keeps up, I'll be needing it.

What summer projects do you have planned?