sew and so

Hmm....

2012-01-27T20:06:00.001-05:00

After last Saturday's thrift store run, my sis-in-law/friends and I did some paper crafting. One of the girls had the idea sometime last year to make some paper wreaths out of recycled books. I just got it hung up today, but I finished my wreath on Sunday.

Or so I thought.

This was the look I was going for...

And this is kind of what I ended up with. I didn't realize it was so lopsided until I hung it up....I'm trying to decide if it looks more like a demented bird or an aerial view of a hurricane.

Yeah, I think I'll need to go back and add some more leaves (or feathers, or whatever) on that one side. Good thing I got a thick book!

There has been sewing. And knitting. Just no visual updates on that yet.

Ok, I feel better now.

2012-01-23T20:30:00.001-05:00

This was the view outside today. How very monochromatic.

And I needed a break from the raincoat anyway, even though this would have been a really good day to have the finished product!

This was one of the tops I found on my thrift store run over the weekend. There were a lot of things I liked about it--the colorful embroidery, the funky hemline...

But I wasn't a huge fan of the shoulder ruffle. So I decided to take care of that today, now that the first step (washing and pre-shrinking the shirt) was done. Besides, the machine was already threaded with the right color anyway!

It was a pretty simple fix. I just picked it apart, and repinned it so all of the raw edges were on the inside, and then sewed it back up. And I ended up taking it in a couple of inches on each side of the top, too.

And I ended up with this much cuter tank top, which I am looking forward to wearing once the weather gets warm! (Or maybe sooner with my big chunky brown hoodie sweater, if I get really tired of winter clothes...)

So I'm feeling better now. I don't have to delegate this to the reconstruction pile, I got to make something cute and summery to throw in winter's face, and I actually finished a project. The latter being what was getting to me the most. So with that done, I was able to psych myself up to go back to the raincoat.

I sewed on the belt loops tonight, and worked on underlining the front. A complicated process, since I could neither pin nor baste one of the edges. I think topstitching will be in this coat's future.

But I did go ahead and baste it, well inside the seam allowance, on the raw edges. I was considering just leaving the front without it, but I think I need it to give the eventual buttons and buttonholes a little more stability. Especially since I've been using the leftovers of this as interfacing anyway, as well as underlining.

So this is kind of what the coat looks like now, sans sleeves and without the front properly finished. I have to figure out the lining issue before I can do that. And, well, probably iron this thing if I can. It's gotten kind of wrinkled from being folded up in a bag along with the rest of the pieces, unfortunately. (Also, please ignore my closet. Having the curtain drawn back was the only way I could hang it to try and let it unwrinkle some.)

And the raincoat saga continues...

2012-01-21T11:05:00.003-05:00

I think I'm going to be forced to take a break from it soon, though. I literally have nowhere to leave it to dry after I waterproof again, because the basement is entirely torn to pieces.

So this was my process yesterday:

1. Get the shoulder seams and one half of the sleeve seams sewed/finished, a process that took much longer than it should have due to my lack of ability to press this fabric/having to paperclip instead of pin and the paper clips keep falling off/getting rather distracted by catching up on Downton Abbey.

2. Spend the next hour or so cutting out scraps of flannel to interface the bands that go around the sleeves/stitching those together/trimming and attempting to flip the first one, only to find that I layered it wrong and the flannel would be completely on the outside. Oops.

3. Take a break to do some teaching and throw together some chili for dinner/crafty evening planned with my best friend.

4. Painstakingly rip out the trimmed band, only to think near the end, "Do I really want to put more holes for the belt loops in this fabric that I'm going to have to waterproof, just for a band that's probably going to be really uncomfortable when worn over bulky colder-weather clothes?"

5. Ditch the sewing altogether and go knit instead.

Yeah.....maybe a forced break will be good. Can't work on it today anyway, because I'm off to the thrift store with some friends!

Two things:

2012-01-18T12:58:00.000-05:00

#1: Figured I should update on the knitting. Here's where it's at, around 37/54 rows of the back. (I know the picture looks a little weird and ghostly, due to the white quilt back that I had it sitting on....but hey, you can see the details!) Aside from it being at the point where I can't knit this and watch tv or listen to music with lyrics that grab my attention because there's too much counting involved, I think it's going pretty well! (I'm really, really glad I had the Cadence sweater to practice those diamond-like patterns on.)

#2: In the interest of stashbusting, I went through my two bins of clothes that I had to reconstruct in some way or other, and ruthlessly culled out about half of it to take to the thrift store. So now I have it down to one bin. One very full, overstuffed bin that is still hard to fit on the shelf. But at least I was able to move it to a lower shelf, so I don't have to stand on a chair and potentially throw out my back every time I want to grab it. Yeah, I need to get on actually making some of those. And now if I see anything really cool that needs some tweaking when I visit Goodwill this week, I can justify it!

That''s all. For now. Back to sewing.

A little progress, at least...

2012-01-17T21:02:00.000-05:00

This was the first day I was able to work on the raincoat since the last post. Though I did get some knitting in, and one of those patterns traced out. (And I may have ordered a couple of patterns....Ahem.) So here's what's new:

I have buttonholes in the pocket flaps, and the yoke. (Decided to go diagonal on the yoke, just to mix it up. Also, I miss the automatic buttonhole sizing capability that my machine used to have before I broke the original foot....sigh.)

I did a lot of internal seam finishing, because look how much this stuff frays! So between that and not being able to actually use pins for fear of poking more holes into it, this is taking a rather long time. The other reason it took a little longer than I thought it would was because I was having a little trouble with one of the pockets....first time I made it inside out and the second time I sewed it in upside down!

But this is what the outside looks like now (photo lightened quite a bit since it's the only way to see the details.) The front pieces are sewed together, the pockets are in, and the fronts and back are now sewed together at the sides. The waterproofing is drying now, at least as far as I could get it on....I kind of ran out, and since I'd already used and frozen twice, the brush wasn't working so well and I'm not sure the seams are sufficiently coated. So I ordered two more tubes tonight, to be on the safe side, and I'll probably re-coat those once it's in. In the meantime, I can at least sew one seam on each sleeve, and start working on the belt and loops and stuff. Maybe the lining, if I can figure out the best way to sew that together and still get it in the jacket well.... I'm still not sure if I should leave a gap in the back, or just do the hems by hand or what.

Thinking things through...

2012-01-14T09:11:00.000-05:00

Progress so far: I finished cutting out the lining, and got the flannel basted onto all of the lining pieces.

Cutting on the floor definitely has its hazards.

But look, I had enough of the blue left to cut out a shirt, too! (Hey, beats putting the fabric away and letting it sit for several more years, right?)

I knew going into this that the coat was going to take awhile. Mainly due to the seam sealer stuff. So, since the Burda magazine instructions are famously hard to follow anyway, I figured I'll just completely mix up the order to try and minimize the seam sealer applications. So here's what I've come up with so far:

1. Sew the pocket flaps, the front yoke pieces, the collar pieces, and the center back/pleat pieces together. Waterproof. (Done.)

2. Flip and topstitch said pocket flaps/front yoke/collar pieces; sew back to back yoke. Waterproof. (Done as far as I could, since I was having some difficulty with getting the waterproofing inside the pieces, mostly due to it getting all over my hands when trying to get it out of the bag. You're supposed to store it in the freezer between uses, and since I didn't know how to clean out the brush applicator, it got all over the tube instead. I'm also beginning to question whether one tube of the seam sealer is going to be enough...)

3. Make the buttonholes in the pocket flaps and front yoke; make belt carrier loops/tubes for belt and sleeve bits/sew sleeve pieces together. Waterproof.

4. Sew the pocket flaps to the front of the coat, follow their instructions as best as I can figure to get the front and side front/pocket pieces together. Also, side/shoulder seams. Turn and topstitch belt loops/ belt stuff. Waterproof.

5. Add in the sleeves. Sew on the belt loops. And possibly some other parts before waterproofing again.

Now this is where it gets a little tricky, because I'm not quite sure what the best way to work the lining/self-faced front opening is with the collar. Especially since the front is pretty much self-faced. (And interfaced, though what I may do with that is just chop up some of the flannel I used to test it. I mean, it's in the right shape anyway.... I just can't baste it or fuse it on, so I'll have to figure out the best way to hold it in place.) At this point, I'm thinking that I'll just leave the back pleat area open for turning purposes, so it'll be easier to do the hemming. And then just figure out what to do to deal with the pleat itself later. I can always hand-stitch something in if I need to.

No sewing for me today-- I'm going to take advantage of that table being somewhat cleaned off to trace some patterns out! I'm hoping to have time to get through two jackets. And that blouse pattern from the BurdaStyle book. I have plans...

Starting the raincoat!

2012-01-10T22:32:00.001-05:00

First off, just wanted to thank Helen, Kristin and Ginger for the suggestion of crocheting around the neckline of the sweater. I got the same suggestion from my mom, and since my best friend is a crocheter, I got her to do that for me over the weekend. (Figured it would be better from someone who knew what she was doing!) It definitely feels more stable now--I just need to weave the new yarn ends in and then test it out. Hopefully that will do the trick!

With January already a third over, I'm starting to get kind of antsy to actually make some sewing progress! Especially since I made the mistake of pondering my mental list of the next several projects I'd like to do there while I was driving around today, and they're all pretty much things that involve a lot of tailoring and fitting and whatnot. (I'm definitely going to have to throw in a random knit shirt or something, just to give me something relatively simple.) So, in hopes that I can actually do some sewing tomorrow, I spent pretty much the entire evening after work trying to get as much of the raincoat cut out as possible.

I've been kind of dreading this task...cutting out is pretty much my least favorite part of sewing anyway, and I don't currently have access to the table I usually cut stuff out on due to remodeling. So I'm having to awkwardly lay fabric out on the living room floor in a narrow space and hope that the family dog doesn't walk on it! Plus there's a lot of pieces, and two pieces of fabric. (You know me, gotta have the bright lining to offset the dark exterior....)

The good news: I'm pretty sure I got all of the outer pieces cut out, including all of the fiddly little rectangular bits that the magazine didn't give me pieces to trace. And I have large enough pieces left of the outer fabric that I can probably recut any of those that I messed up on, with the exception of the belt, which was rather difficult to cut a rectangle of that length on the very, very confined space allowed by my tiny little cutting board on the living room floor and caused me to unnecessarily waste a bunch of fabric that I wouldn't have otherwise because I had to attempt it 4 times. (And the end still went crooked that last time. Oh well. At least it wasn't in two pieces like the previous two attempts.)

The bad news: I'm not entirely done cutting out the lining yet. Mostly because the fabric got horribly wrinkled and I had to iron it, but also since I'm using the flannel pieces I tested it with to back it for warmth, and am cutting the lining out single-layer and pinned onto those so I can match them up better. I finally gave up for the night just before I started writing this. Three hours was enough cutting for one day!

I think this is going to be fun inside the jacket, though. Don't you?

The back is going to prove a little tricky due to the pleat, I think I'm trying to figure out how to make that work with a lining, since the pattern calls for a lining that basically stops right above that--it only lines the sleeves and the upper back. Since I'm fully lining it, I'll have to rethink that. I was thinking about just sewing the lining and back pieces together in such a way that all of the bulk is in that one seam that attaches the yoke, but then that will most certainly throw things off at the side seams. At the same time, I don't think I want to eliminate the pleat in the lining entirely, because that kind of defeats the whole purpose of having a pleat for ease of movement! I'll have to think about it, I guess...any suggestions?

the wearability factor

2012-01-05T14:47:00.000-05:00

I think I was on the right track with my Cadence, in purposely making it longer. It's rather loose up top, and the belt is quite necessary for this to work on me! I like the styling of this--though you can't quite see the whole outfit, I'm wearing it with my skinny jeans and my taller brown boots and it's just very comfortable, but still nice enough for flute teaching later. For what ended up being such an open knit, it's surprisingly warm--hurrah for being able to wear alpaca!

My main concern with this is the neckline. It's stretching like crazy as I wear it--it was about 2" higher when I put it on this morning, and if not for letting it dip lower in the back, it would quite easily be falling off my shoulders by this point! So I'm trying to figure out what I can do about that--whether it would be better to weave some of the leftover yarn into the neckline to try and tighten it up, or attempt a row of crochet around the top to cinch it in, or what. Because that's the sort of thing that could take away the wearability factor in what is already a much looser sweater than I would have preferred.

But aside from that, the knitalong is complete. So I wanted to publicly thank Kristin for her expertise and patience with us newbies, and Sarah for coming up with the idea! Despite the frustrations, I did have fun and learned a lot!

So, moving on. I did a bit of swatching and then cast on my next major knitting project last night. This is the Camellia Shrug from the Winter/Spring '11 KnitScene, and I'm making it in a nice-feeling (and washable!) cotton/acrylic blend that I picked up at the yarn store on Tuesday. I'm 14 rows into it so far, and other than the annoyance of trying to cast 4 stitches onto 3 double-pointed needles without them sliding off and making me start over a couple of times, once I got it going, it's been a fun knit so far. But I'm really glad that I had the Cadence to work on first so I could get used to reading a chart! The diamond pattern actually isn't all that dissimilar, either. It's just a lot more increases, since it starts in the middle and goes out from there in the round.

I've also got my raincoat "muslin" done! This is the sleeveless version of it. And it looks a bit big, but I'm actually going to leave this as is with no adjustments. For one thing, this is being made to wear over bulkier winter clothes. For another thing, it has a belt anyway. So all I need to do is take this apart, trim the seams back down to normal from the 1" that I allowed for test purposes, and I can get started on the actual cutting out! (And then figure out what to do with that main front piece, since I'm not sure if I'll need to line or underline that or not.)

One final comment on the next several posts in general... I know there's occasionally a debate amongst sewing bloggers about whether it's better to show all finished projects, or in-progress things. And I know there are people out there who have no interest in seeing unfinished projects. I'm one who tends to show more of the process. And I'm ok with that. For me, the process of putting a garment together is as significant a part of the enjoyment as wearing the finished product. I had a nice reminder of that recently when talking about my sewing with a newer friend. (Well, boyfriend, actually. I seem to have stumbled into one of those relationship things over the last month--thus my quasi-resolution to just keep things as pressure-free as I can this year!) So I'm unapologetically going to keep writing about things like how this raincoat comes together. And my barely-started Anthropologie-esque refashion. And this shrug that may not look much different than it does now the next time I take a picture of it. And whatever other sewing or knitting projects I end up doing this year. Because most of us who sew aren't solely about the destination most of the time, are we? It's about the journey and the learning process, too. And that's something that should be celebrated.

back in the saddle...

2012-01-03T13:53:00.000-05:00

My holiday seems to have been filled with surprisingly little crafting! Though most of it is due to necessarily putting things on hold. I'm going to have to go pictureless for this post since my desktop monitor seems to have gone into a coma, and that's where I store my photos. (On my laptop now.) But I'm starting a few new projects now, so here's what I'm kicking off 2012 with...

1. The winter raincoat. This is still very much in the muslin stage. I'm making a mock-up out of the flannel that I'll eventually be underlining the lining with to check the fit, and I wasn't able to finish cutting it out until today because I somewhat underestimated how much I would actually need (I think the flannel was more narrow than I'd anticipated after washing/drying) and was just short enough that I couldn't squeeze in one sleeve piece. So I had to go back for one more yard, and wash/dry that. I won't actually be sewing on it this afternoon since we've been having some power flickering issues. It's pretty windy here today. (Thus the monitor coma.) So I'm leaving my machine off for now, but maybe I'll start actually basting that together tonight.

2. In the meantime, I'm playing around with the beginnings of my first Anthropologie-inspired recon of the year. I've been eyeing this one for the last couple of weeks....
This is the Attapeu Jacket. There's a crazy amount of detail in this one, and so I'm not planning on doing a literal copy of this one like I more or less did with the pants from last summer. But the idea of something bright and colorful is really appealing to me now that we're firmly in the clutches of the blahness that is Mid-Atlantic winter, and I have a couple of pieces in my reconstruction pile that could make a really fun shirt version of this. I'm planning to post this one more step-by-step than I've gotten in the habit of doing, so you'll probably be seeing a lot more of that soon!

3. The Cadence is currently sitting on a bunch of towels in a bathroom, blocking. So hopefully that will be dry in a couple of days and I can actually wear it! In the meantime, I'm going to go to the local yarn store this afternoon before I start teaching and (hopefully) pick something up for that shrug I mentioned in a recent post.

So that's me....what are you doing for your first project(s) of the year?

The obligatory end-of-2011 roundup post!

2011-12-29T22:49:00.000-05:00

But first....ooh, look, a finished sweater! (Minus the blocking.)

It's certainly not perfect. The sleeves are a bit too batwing for my taste-- I guess I measured wrong when checking the pattern to see if that was a good place to split off the sleeve, or it got too stretched out in waiting. I definitely need to work on my binding off--the sleeves are ok, but despite my googling to find a stretchier bind-off that I could understand, I initially couldn't get the sweater over my hips at all. I actually had to unbind it and get my mom to do it for me, and it's still not stretchy, but at least I can get it on now. I wish it was more fitted. But it's a sweater, and I made it, and I learned some valuable things that I can take to the next time I attempt this sort of thing. (Like try it on a lot more often.) On the plus side, it's cheery, it'll work with those skinny jeans, and from the little bit I tried it on to test the bindoff today, it'll be nice and toasty. I wasn't sure I'd make my goal of finishing it by the end of the year, but since my day job is currently done, basically all of my students cancelled this week, and I've been trying to fight off a cold, I was able to knock out the rest of the knitting in a marathon session yesterday (along with watching Downton Abbey in its entirety.) So it's done. Yay!

On with the year-in-review: 2011 turned out to be a pretty big year for me and crafting! Well, they're usually big years. But I made some pretty cool stuff, if I may say so myself.

Revisiting last year's post, this is what I was hoping to do this year:

Continue working on fitting. Considering that I made a pair of pants that fit, and a perfectly-fitting sheath dress, I'd say this is a win.
Learn some more couture techniques. Little Black Dress, anyone?
Get my fabric and pattern stashes organized. Not so much on the patterns, but the fabric was a win!
Do some more reconstructions. I got 15 for the year, so I averaged about 1 a month. Not too bad!
Figure out whether the Etsy shop thing would work for me. I did. It didn't. Moving on.
Rethink my scrapbooking. I haven't posted much about that, but I haven't totally neglected it this year-- I reorganized my albums to a way that makes a little more sense for my current lifestyle, and I did actually finish a couple of pages. (They'd been in progress for a long time, but I'm still counting them.)

What I was not expecting this year: Knitting. Especially actually sticking with it for an entire year. And I got to the point where I made a sweater. Whoa.

I've been thinking about my goals for this year. And I've come to the conclusion that I want to keep it simple. My personal life has gotten a bit interesting lately, and I don't want to put pressure on myself. So here's what I'm hoping for 2012 in my crafty life:

Continue chipping away at the fabric stash. And whatever other stashes.
I have a handful of specific projects I'd like to sew. #1, the jeans. It WILL happen this time. #2, a jacket or two. #3, the Lonsdale dress I've been envisioning for at least six months. Aside from that, I want to leave things flexible for seasonal sewalongs and the like.
On the reconstruction end of things, I've had an idea simmering in my mind for a couple of months now. Since I'm already an Anthropologie fan, I'm setting a little mini-challenge for myself. Once a season, I'd like to choose a garment from the current catalog, and make a recycled piece inspired by it. Perhaps even with a tutorial, if the interest is there. (I was originally thinking once a month, but again, I'm trying to avoid over-committing myself. And once every 3 months sounds reasonable.) Also, I'd like to reconstruct often enough to stay a part of the Refashion Co-Op.
Continue working on my knitting. Specifically, I'd like to make something with a cable that actually looks like a cable, something with multiple colors in the same project, and at least start that afghan that will take me years to finish.
Keep chipping away at the scrapbooks as I feel inspired to.
Get better at picking projects that will help me make complete outfits. (I have a couple of orphan pieces that I still love and I want to wear them.)
Make some more things for others. I can be a terribly selfish crafter.

The other stats:
What I made or reconstructed this year: 3 items of jewelry, 7 dresses, 1 jacket, 6 skirts, 5 wraps/scarves, 13 shirts, 6 bags/pouches, 3 hats, 2 pairs of handwarmers, 1 pair slippers, 1 pajamas, 2 pairs of pants/shorts, 12 "general household" items, which is kind of the catch-all for everything else (3 of which are ornaments that didn't get photographed), a few random scrapbook pages that I didn't count, and, of course, my first sweater!

Favorite project this year: Hands-down, the Anthropologie pants.

Thing I'm proudest of: Actually sticking with the knitting this time. Especially through that rough patch on the sweater. This says much about the improvement of my patience levels.

So that pretty much sums it up--happy rest of 2011 to all of you, and see you in the new year!

Year-end crafting

2011-12-26T09:30:00.000-05:00

Now that Christmas is over and all gifts have been given, I can show the rest of what I've been up to this month.

1. Herbal eye pillows. They're filled with flaxseed, lavender, and peppermint. I got the idea and the basic instructions from this blog that I found while Google-searching how to do it. The pillows themselves are bits of muslin from testing out that little black dress at the beginning of the year, and I was able to use some 100% cotton scraps from several projects over the last couple of years. I made one for myself, one for my mom, one for the cousin that I got in the family drawing on my mom's side (as part of an after-work relaxation kit--she's a nurse, so she has to put in some long days), and one that I'm not sure what to do with yet.

I usually make a necklace or two for my mom's stocking every year as well. So here's this year's--she mentioned she didn't have much gold-toned jewelry. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the chain is broken up here and there by some antique gold-colored freshwater pearl beads.

I also got some lovely sewing and knitting (mostly)-related gifts this year from my family...

New fabric! From left to right, 3 yards of a lightweight charcoal denim that absolutely has to become pants, a black/white/grey silky print (I think about 2 yards), and a yard each of 3 cotton prints for me to make a new bag, of this style. It's kind of cool that I basically have an entire outfit here! I'll just have to make sure to choose a pants and top pattern that will work well together.

And I got new yarn! 2 skeins each of this really thin bamboo yarn (I'm guessing for socks)...

....and 2 of this lovely colorway of the Serenity yarn I like. For acrylic, it's super-soft and I love their color palettes!

A few other miscellaneous things: 3 knitting books (2 with some really lovely patterns, and one that's a pocket-sized tips book), a tiny circular needle which I'm guessing is also for attempting socks, 2 pairs of scissors (a badly-needed pair of new fabric scissors, since mine are rather dull, and some pinking scissors so I can stop stealing Mom's all the time), and a little pendant from my sis-in-law.

Here's the close-up-- we both love Van Gogh, and I already had the "Starry Night" pendant. So this is the "Sunflowers", of course. I love that it came with two little sunflower charms so I can make some earrings, too! (Sunflowers are my favorite flower, as you've probably figured out by this point.)

So that pretty much wraps up the holidays. My seasonal retail job is basically done for the year, so unless my job hunt proves more fruitful over the next couple of months than it's been so far, I've basically got no work other than my flute teaching until March. So I think a lot of my non-job-hunting/non-work time will probably be spent playing around with some of these things. I'm hoping to get that mock-up of the raincoat cut out this week. And I have one more holiday-related project up my sleeve, which must get done this week. I'm also planning on doing the traditional year-end wrap-up post at some point this week. But first, I need to figure out where to put all of this stuff...

Dear sewing, I miss you....

2011-12-21T10:16:00.003-05:00

I literally have not done a thing related to sewing since last Wednesday, when I traced out the pattern for my raincoat. Between work, multiple eye doctor appointments for a minor emergency, practices and performances for a concert at my church, a cookie bakefest with my sis-in-law, and trying to get things ready for a family gathering of most of my female cousins today, I just haven't had time to. And it's starting to make me a bit twitchy.

I did manage to get in some knitting time, at least, during those later-night hours when trying to figure out sewing directions is a bad idea but I can do nothing-but-knit-stitch just fine and brainlessly. So the Cadence sweater now has one sleeve done, and the second sleeve started. I tried it on the other night, and learned that I probably should have done more decreases in the body. It's going to be pretty big. But at this point, rather than re-knit it, I think I'm just going to run with it, knit it longer, and wear it with my one pair of skinny jeans. I was commenting the other day that I needed some longer warmer stuff to wear with those anyway. And even though it's alpaca and acrylic, maybe the blocking will help.

So at least I haven't been entirely uncreative. And I'm glad that I took up knitting this year for that very reason. But I still miss sewing.

Maybe once Christmas is over...

Reconstructing a reconstruction

2011-12-14T11:50:00.000-05:00

About 3 years ago, I took a velvety dress from Goodwill and chopped it off to make a quick top to wear for Christmas Eve services. I've barely worn it since--I was never fully satisfied with the look of it. So I finished re-reconstructing it last night--I've been slowly poking at it in between sewing Christmas gifts, painting ornaments, and knitting away on my Cadence sweater.

I accidentally deleted most of my in-progress photos before a party, so this will have to do. Basically, I took off the black ribbon, and then cut the shirt around the same point because of course there was a mark from the stitching. I had to take in those princess seams a bit too on both the top and bottom, because it was still a bit on the overly loose side.

I cut some strips from the remaining portion of the original dress, used the newly-taken-in top portion as a guideline for how wide to make each segment, and did some gathering where I joined them to add some interest/conceal the oddness of having a princess-seamed waistband. (Incidentally, don't look inside the shirt here--it's not finished well at ALL, but I'm not going to let it bother me for this one.)

I think it's an improvement over that black band. And done just in time for when I need a solid green shirt for Sunday. No pictures of it on me right now--I've been condemned to glasses for the week, since I somehow managed to scratch my eye or something from sitting at the computer with my contacts in and blinking funny. And I'm ridiculously nearsighted, so either I'd be squinting funny, or just look funny period. (I hate the way I look in my glasses, honestly.)

Next up on the sewing agenda: the raincoat! My plan is to trace it out today, since I'm having one of those off-from-the-part-time days and only have a couple of lessons to teach later on. And I'll be test-fitting it with the fabric that I'm actually planning on underlining the lining with. It's less wasteful that way, and I don't feel bad about marking up or piecing together bits of flannel that won't be seen.

I'd also like to work some more on the sweater, since I'm about 3-4 rows away from finishing the decrease section. I think I'm going to try it on after that, and then start working on the sleeves so I can make sure I can get those long enough to fully cover my arms before I determine how long to make the torso. I'm hoping to knock it off quickly, ideally by the end of the year, because I'm thinking ahead to yet another cousin's wedding that will be coming up at the end of March. I don't have to sew a dress this time, thankfully, because I think this one will fit the occasion and season just fine. But I would like to knit a shrug to go with it, since the end of March is still kind of cold for sleeveless. I'm thinking this one, which I've been eyeing ever since I bought that magazine just after I started knitting, in black. I just need to figure out what sort of yarn to use, since the called-for yarn is way too expensive and not in black anyway. I'm kind of eyeing this--I've had to handle 100% cashmere before and it was ok, though not great, so I think I can take a chance on 5%. And the silk will make it a bit warmer too. And I know I'm good with cotton. The price is still a bit higher than I'd like, but at least black is a very versatile color for my wardrobe, so it's not like it would just get worn once. But I'm going to sit on that for a little bit, and see if I can find some time to run to the local yarn store and see what they have. After all, I still need to finish Cadence first.

Don't open till Christmas....

2011-12-09T17:31:00.001-05:00

I did some sewing this week.

But I can't show you yet, because it was either a refashion that I accidentally deleted the in-progress pics for, and need to re-take those before I can go any further, or Christmas presents.

So here's something shiny instead.

Every year since we finished college, one of my friends and her husband have hosted an ornament exchange party. This year, for the first time, she decided to do a theme, which is "Winter Wonderland."

I had this ornament on my Pinterest board, and decided it would be perfect. And I found a box of these blue ornaments for half-price at Joann's when I was there to pick up a few last-minute notions for the Licorice dress. I didn't want to add those red streaks that were supposed to be cardinals, because it would be way too easy for them to just look like red streaks instead. And when I was talking to my mom about it, she suggested I do little crystals instead of the dots for snowflakes. (My mom is pretty brilliant as a craft sounding board.)

I'm pleased with how they turned out overall. Though these were actually much harder to make than I'd anticipated. I had some acrylic enamel paint, which specifically said it could be used on glass, so I went for that. It took 3 coats of that, then 2 coats of regular acrylic craft paint, then one more coat of the enamel paint to get the paint to stop looking streaky! And I'm pretty sure there may be a crystal or two glued to my PJ pants from when I was finishing them last night, because they kept dropping out of the tweezers after I toothpicked the glue onto the back. And they're so tiny, I know I didn't find them all.

I did 3 altogether-- one for the party, one to keep, and one to give to my mom as a thank-you for the idea. I was going to do a fourth one to give to my brother and sis-in-law, but the fourth of the frosted-looking ornaments in the box has this huge flaw in the blue coating that leaves this dark, black-hole-like spot. So I'm going to have to figure out what to do with that, and the four shinier balls.

Speaking of that party, I should probably be getting ready to go.

One last Licorice post, and a FESA roundup

2011-12-04T08:47:00.001-05:00

Here we go...Licorice in real life! This was the only picture I ended up with from the party where you can actually see most of the dress, including the belt. In every other picture, my arm was conveniently hiding the belt.

The verdict: Overall, I'm happy with how it wore, although it needs a little tweaking. Since I had to take in the darts more than what the pattern originally specified after my fitting muslin, the fabric was straining a bit at the center of each dart by the time I took it off. So I'm going to have to round those out a bit before I wear it again, and hope that the fabric isn't already obviously damaged. I also need to add another eyelet to the belt, because despite having measured, it's too big! Fortunately, extras came with the kit, so I can do that easily enough. I think I'd also like to add some kind of loop to the belt to hold the end in.

Anyway, I got a lot of compliments on the dress, and people were surprised when Nicole told them I'd made it!

The next day, along with some Anthropologie window-shopping, Nicole and I went to Gaffney Fabrics, which is pretty close to her apartment.
And, well, after months of not buying anything without a specific purpose, I couldn't resist picking up a few things. It's the corduroy's fault--the lovely shade of blue, and the velvety feel of the thin wales were screaming, "You think I'm gorgeous, you want to buy me, you want to make a cute jacket out of me...." (If you've ever seen Miss Congeniality, just picture Sandra Bullock doing her little routine in there at the end and you'll get the general tone.) Anyway, the corduroy was already cut into a 2 5/8 yard piece, which I figured would be plenty for a cute little jacket. Maybe something like this? Or this? Or maybe go all Sgt. Pepper's and make that Hikaru jacket that I've had saved on my hard drive since back when BurdaStyle patterns were free? The floral print is to be the lining of whatever I settle on--we found a roll of this satiny stuff in the basement, and the blue matched perfectly! I didn't have to feel guilty about splurging, either, because they were having a post-Thanksgiving sale still going on and this stuff was rather inexpensive-- only $2.99/yd for the lining, and only $1.99/yd for the corduroy itself!

I'm not going to get to this one right away, of course-- I'm in the middle of a reconstruction and I want to fix those darts while I still have the machine threaded with the right color, I've got a little Christmas present I need to make once the rest of my supplies arrive, and then the next priority is going to be starting the tracing and fitting process for my winter raincoat. It's actually been fairly unseasonably warm around here for most of the fall, but the cold is finally starting to dig its claws in, and I've already missed having this on a couple of the colder rainy days so far this season.

I'm looking at my initial Fall Essentials Sew-Along list, and I think that overall, I did pretty well! I didn't get to the jeans yet, of course, and I still have the two coats on my list that are high priority. My Cadence is still in the works, too. But I did finish the teal skirt from the "Fashionable Foundations" category, the knit top from the "Chic Chemises" (and I'd say I'm at least a third of the way done the Cadence), my one "Fashionable Frock" is in the bag (and the Licorice gave me an extra one to boot), the slippers from the "Tender Tootsies", and the knitted hat from the "Baby It's Cold Outside", as well as a nice dent in a matching scarf. Plus Jolene' bag, and finishing Shantelle's scarf, and making a nice dent on my mending pile. Not bad for three months-- especially since I had to re-knit the Cadence thrice!

So, aside from the Christmas present, I think I'll do the raincoat first, then the jeans, then the brown corduroy jacket that I've been meaning to do since last year. Though I'll probably break these up with some reconstructing, since these are all pretty involved sewing projects. It'll probably take me until February to finish all of these, but that's ok. This new blue jacket idea that's percolating will be better for an early spring jacket, I think, since the corduroy is definitely on the lightweight side. I'm hearing rumors of a spring sew-along, and I'm hoping it's in the same spirit as the summer and fall essentials one, so we'll see...

Stashbusting update, and answering some comments

2011-11-30T17:17:00.001-05:00

See this?

This, my friends, is almost 33 yards of fabric. Most of it was given to me for free-- people from my church have this habit of donating fabric to my mom, and then she passes on the stuff that wouldn't make good quilts to me. In fact, I think I only purchased two pieces of fabric in this pile. One is a rather large remnant of leftovers from covering my ottoman, and I purchased some basketweave polyester stuff with the intention of making some throw pillows during the bedroom renovation, but ended up not doing that. And now I don't need to, because I have the much nicer silk velvet pillows instead. I realized that, realistically, I'm not going to use this fabric. I mean, why do I need 4+ yards of sweatshirt knit when I hardly ever wear sweatshirts (minus the occasional hoodie, and I'd rather sew those out of regular knits so they'd look nicer)? Or weird scratchy twills in ugly shades of brownish taupe that are good for nothing except a pants muslin (and possibly not even that)? So I'm going to post it on Freecycle, and hope that someone out there can find a good use for it. Except for that palm tree batik on top, because my mom has already claimed it. For all I know, it originally came from her own stash, anyway... I'm honestly not sure how it got there.

What this means for my stashbusting efforts is that I'm down to about 210 yards. I started off this year with about 275-- so, even though I've had to add a few things in for projects like the Anthropologie pants and the upcoming raincoat, that means I've gone down 65 yards in 11 months! (Granted, half of it is in that pile there, but still. A net of 32 yards in 11 months sewn up isn't too shabby either.) I've also managed to consolidate from 7 bins to 6 now. Almost 5. That last bin may fill up a bit more if I get any fabric for Christmas (a likely scenario), but that's still pretty good.

And none too soon on that empty bin.... I may have ordered a crapload of yarn to make that afghan I posted the other day. (I did go for that Red Heart Eco-cotton, in the Denim colorway. Not very tree-like, but I do like blue, and denim goes with almost everything, right? I wanted something that would be a versatile color long-term and still show all of the cable goodness. And I have to admit that the whole recycled fiber thing appealed to me.

And now, I wanted to go ahead and reply to a few of the comments from the last couple of posts, since I don't have the option to reply directly. (Oh Blogger powers-that-be, if you're listening, that would be a wonderful feature to add!)

Cheesepirate- Testing some things on cheap acrylic first is definitely the plan! I'm actually thinking of changing up the middle segment to this tree pattern-- that was my first thought when I saw it anyway, using a different tree pattern in the middle, and then I saw a gorgeous afghan on Ravelry where someone had done basically exactly that. I think this might actually make it easier, since that entire center portion is knit in the round and the sweater is just a rectangle that I don't have to remember to do 4 times. I just have to figure out the math on how to get a 130-ish row pattern to work when the center portion of the original ends up with something like 92 stitches per side. Ugh. Hopefully I can just do an extra border repeat or two and be done with it.

Alessa- I'd thought of the dyelot thing too, but it might be a moot point anyway....I had to get something like 28 skeins of the yarn, and I'm not sure they'd have that quantity in the same dyelot to begin with. Especially given the recycled nature of the fiber. So I figure if I get a few different ones, I'll just mix it up and chalk it up to "natural variations." Plus then I get extra insurance if I underestimated how much yarn I'd need. At least the yarn was pretty inexpensive. Also, good luck on finding the Bemberg! It really is yummy. I'm surprised Joann's had it, to be honest. They tend to favor polyester in a big way for apparel fabric.

Karin- it's actually more of a forest/hunter green. Though emerald would be gorgeous too, wouldn't it?

Christina- I'm going to have to go with my standard Mary-Jane black heels. (Which I just realized I never actually posted the shoe clips I made for them on here-- I forgot after posting them on Refashion Co-Op.) Given my big, extra-wide feet, vintage shoes are definitely not an option! But I think these will be ok.

Mary & Gail- thanks for the lovely comments! And Gail, I think you'll enjoy the book. After sewing this up, I think all of the Colette love around the sewing blogosphere is fully justified. Even the fitting alterations were made easy!

The Licorice dress!

2011-11-29T15:22:00.000-05:00

A little later than I wanted to post it....but I got the belt kit in earlier this week, and since my retail job is currently so slow that I got sent home early, I made that this afternoon. So now I can post the whole thing at once.

The dress came together really quickly. I altered the pattern and cut it out on Wednesday, and basically sewed it together over the course of the next three days between bouts of having to work and family gatherings. By mid-afternoon on Saturday, all I had left to do was the outer hem (which I decided to handsew since it would look nicer) and adding that hook and eye that I always procrastinate on, so I took some time off for knitting instead. (Well, that and Thanksgiving Dinner #2 with my mom's family.) And this was even with me adding some extra steps, like making sure that I finished all of the seams and underlining the sleeves. So I did the hem on Sunday, and as already stated, I just finished the belt. I wasn't sure how it would work with the satin, because it seemed to be a bit heavier than what the Colette book recommended, but I think it turned out well!

A few details....

Here's a closeup of the neckline and collar. Since I'm generally not a solids girl (if you've been reading this for any length of time, you probably figured that out on your own!) I'm really glad it has the contrast of texture to break up the monochromaticism.

Incidentally, I wish I'd had this pattern a few years ago when I was making that horrible dress to wear to my brother's wedding. Because if you take the collar and sleeves off, this is essentially the dress I was trying to make! And this one was soooooooo much easier to fit!

Since the lining was the one thing I had to buy, and I knew I wanted to use the nicer Bemberg rayon lining so I could also underline the sleeves to soften them up, I had to improvise a bit. Joann's didn't have anything remotely close to the green, so I went with the ivory and added the lace at the bottom to make it look kind of like a slip. I also used the lace hem tape on this, so I could avoid folding the satin over for the hem and having the extra bulk showing outside when I pressed it. I may have to spring for the nice lining every time I make a dress now--I definitely saw a difference between this and the polyester stuff!

And here's this afternoon's work. I'm glad this is a purely decorative and not so much a functional belt. Though the instructions on the package were very clear, my execution wasn't so great. It probably doesn't help that the brocade has a tendency to fray like crazy. And I didn't have quite the right tools to set the eyelets, so I winged it as best as I could with what I have, and I just hope the eyelets stay in and don't snag on the dress. I am proud of how I lined the brocade pattern up on the belt, though. And I'm also glad I had the opportunity to practice this before I attempt the one I want to make for the raincoat that will be coming up.

I'll see what I can do about getting an action shot at the party--it'll be more effective that way anyway. Hopefully I can figure out how to get my late 60s-70s-esque straight, long hair into something more late 50s-early 60s style! This pretty much confirms to me that the Colette Handbook was a good buy. To be honest, this was the style I figured I'd be least likely to sew when I got it. Oh, the irony.

And on a completely different note, here's the progress on my Cadence sweater. The sleeves are separated now, I've knit a few rows down from that, and it's actually starting to look like something resembling a garment!

I must be nuts.

2011-11-27T22:59:00.001-05:00

Because I stumbled across this recently, and I really, really want to make it. It's easily the coolest afghan I've ever seen in my entire life.

This is the Yggdrasil Afghan, which is a shockingly free pattern from Knitting Daily. If those Celtic knot and leafy borders weren't amazing enough, look at the center...

I mean, seriously! How cool is that? I like this one even better than the tree of life afghan I've been obsessing over since I first discovered Ravelry. So much so that I actually spent a rather significant chunk of the evening trying to figure out good options for a yarn which would allow me to make this in an affordable fashion, preferably without having to resort to those huge balls of super-cheap acrylic. (So far, the front-runner is this.) Surprisingly, I can actually use the called-for yarn, which is the same stuff I used for that wrap I made over the summer. But in order to make the size I want (which of course is the biggest one so I can have as much epic Celtic knotting as possible), I'd have to buy nearly $300 worth of yarn! I've never even spent close to that much on fabric for formalwear! Or pretty much all of the fabric I bought for my last bedroom makeover, including the curtains and the quilt!

But, of course, this is labeled specifically as a difficult pattern. I've only been knitting for 11 months now. And I've done maybe two projects involving cable needles so far, and they were both something like 1-2 stitch cables. Plus the finished product is huge. So this thing would probably take me at least 5 years to finish, especially since I'd most certainly be working on other projects in the meantime on both the knitting and the sewing fronts. That, and I have to learn how to do at least half of the various techniques involved. So am I completely insane for even considering this?

The good news is, I've finally managed to get my Cadence sweater to the point where the sleeves are separated off and I'm actually working on the body by itself. So progress! Also, I finished my dress for the Mad Men party about 45 minutes ago, save the belt (for which the kit has not yet arrived) and pressing the hem. I'll take some pictures of both of those things tomorrow when I have a better shot at decent lighting.

On a random note, have any of you other Blogger users been having trouble with the front page of your blog? For the last couple of weeks, I've only been able to see the most recent post, and have to click on the "Older Posts" to see anything further. Other than sidebar-type stuff, which is still working fine. I know it's not my settings, because I've checked that and I should be able to see at least 5 posts here...odd. (Edit: And of course as soon as I post this, I can see the first two most recent posts...)