So I’ve had an ironing board with an attached sleeve board for a long time already. The main body has been redone with a new cover several times already. Mostly once so much water spilled on it that it’s so stained that I don’t want to look at it anymore… I’ve also had a loose sleeve board in my cupboard for some time now. In both of these, the foam underneath the cover was quite dead and the fabric itself exhibited some holes.
So I redid them. I put the sleeve board upside down and generously cut some quilting batting out for them. Then I located some cotton canvas that I used for the book dress and cut out the rough patterns. I sewed some tape along the edges and folded those over and stitched them down to create a channel. Then I grabbed some ribbon and threaded that through. I tightened them over the batting and board et voila, a fresh sleeve board or two!
For the last big work event of the year, I made a dress with a statement zipper. I found some teal-ish? slightly stretchy fabric on the market last year, and thought it would work well. I chose a pattern for a mandarin collar dress with bishop sleeves from Etsy. I’m currently thinking that it was possibly an AI pattern and not necessarily tested by real people. The image didn’t match the line drawing, very weird fonts, no particular instructions, stuff like that.
I cut out the pattern and put it all together. It was supposed to have buttons down the front, but that didn’t really work as it would become too tight, so I took the leap and made it a zip front dress. I’ve had this letter zipper in the hoard for several years, and have wanted to use it for a work thing forever. I originally put on the bishop sleeves and it didn’t look great. Way too big in this particular fabric. So I cut off the bottom and hemmed them a lot shorter. I also had to take in the center front from about bust up and I shortened the whole dress.
The last change I made was to do a completely different style of pocket: Loom & Stars, an Ingenious Pocket. I followed the same principle but made my pocket closer to the front and with a more rounded shape at the top. I really like this pocket. It feels very secure and like you know where your stuff is going to be on you. I also added a little loop in the top of the right pocket to hang my keys.
This dress was very nice to wear, so I’m very happy with the results. It will also be a great dress to throw on when I’m still in bed but the doorbell goes, zip front is quick!
A couple of months ago, I was walking one of the ‘Kunstroutes’ or Art routes organized near me. Throughout the town, there were expositions of people displaying their art. From paintings and sculpture to clothing and quilts, so many interesting things to see. It was great! One of the things I went to were two people displaying their knitted items and there was a lady spinning yarn. We had a chat and she told me that there was a spinning group nearby. So I got added to the mailinglist.
It took a couple of months for me to find the courage to join, but I’ve been a few times now and it’s great. I’m learning to spin yarn! I started with some white stuff that I’ve made into very lumpy thread. After that I went on to spin some of the fleece I have from 2010. I had washed a portion of it at that time and attempted to card it. Then met with a colleague recently to use her carding machine to card all of the washed stuff. I seem to be unable to do it with the hand carders that I have, so this saved a lot of frustration.
I’ve now produced about 100 grams of brown yarn. I’m so proud! Next step: knitting it into something…
Nice and cool culottes for the warm summer weather.
I wanted some more of these culottes but this time non-stretch, so that they wouldn’t almost fall down when I stick too much in the pockets. So I looked in the hoard and found a bit of the blue fabric I also used for these pants and for a mock-up of another pair of pants. I found the original pattern, cut it out with a bit more crotch depth, freehanded some pockets and pocket openings on the front and set out to sew it together.
This fabric frays fairly easily, so I attempted to French seam it together. This worked remarkably well. I even managed to French seam the side from the zipper down. The zipper was an invisible zip and went in pretty smoothly. I cut the waistband just a little bit too short, which is why there’s a little extra tab on that side. I also added a little snap to keep the overlap to sit flat.
When all but the hem was done, I let it hang overnight so that it could get all the bias stretch out. When I pulled it back on to see if the hem was level enough to sew, I found out that it wasn’t. This wasn’t really surprising, I always have to cut the front down to match the back. It was hemmed with bias tape, which was so much easier than trying to double fold it. The final detail was to add a little d-ring on a ribbon so I can hang my keys. All in all, pretty nice for not too much work!
Nine non-functional kiwi buttons on a fun yellow and white gingham top.
After working on the Ochre Overalls and using the yellow and white gingham fabric as a lining for the straps, it seemed like a great idea to make a coordinating top. So I looked around and found the Kleinia Blouse by Mood Fabrics. As usual with Mood patterns, there are some sparse instructions and the decisions that are made are very strange.
In this one for example, they want you to sew the yoke and bottom together but there is no shaping whatsoever along that seam, so I just cut it in one piece and sewed a fake seam. It was ridiculously big too. I worn it for an afternoon and then cut it down by several centimeters on each side. It was also extremely long.
I do not understand how they wanted me to add buttons along the back when they barely included enough space to do so. Since the top neckline is very wide, I luckily didn’t need a working button placket. So I sewed it all down and added the buttons. There are little kiwi birds on them, and I love them very much. Even if they dig in to my back if I wear a backpack for a full day. I might make it again, but then reduce the height of the yoke and make it a lot smaller from the get go.
I saw the pattern ages ago somewhere on a blog probably and sort of secretly fell in love with it. The Ophelia Overalls from Decades of Style have been hanging out in my mind for a while now. There’s an ochre/white version on the pattern envelope and their sew-along version is ochre. When I found some ochre diagonal corduroy on the fabric market for a very reasonable price, I needed it. So I bought some amount of fabric and that then languished in the hoard for a lot longer still.
But I finally convinced myself to purchase the pattern and I got to work. I tried to follow the instructions but I did end up deviating here and there. For example, they want you to topstitch the big pockets on, but it’s just as easy to sew them on flat and fold them back up and then topstitch. My topstitching is also a different width than indicated, the straps are lined, there’s some extra d-rings on loops added to the side and the front pocket and I put snaps in the side seam and on the straps.
The are some interesting choices made in the instructions, such as indicating that certain parts don’t need to be serged, when they will be serged half-way through. Also, for my size, it’s absolutely not necessary to have both side seams open up. There’s plenty of space to wiggle myself in without even opening any of those snaps. They also wanted to me to just fold over the edges of the straps. Luckily, I’d read a review and followed their hints to line the straps and attachment point. It makes me feel a lot better.
The length of these is also weird. I’m not sure if my fabric just shrunk, but it’s single fold hemmed at 1.5 cm and it fits. I’ve never been able to use a full length pants pattern without shortening it. Now, the straps are a bit too long, so maybe my waist is in the wrong place or something? Nobody knows. However, since I’ve finished it, I’ve worn it plenty, even if it’s probably a little hot for summer. It’s extremely comfortable and I really like the colour and the feel of it. So I’m strongly considering making this in pants without bib and no (or maybe one) side opening too!
Sometimes you see a dress and decide that you want something like it too. At least, that’s what happened to me when I saw this pin (original link). The original maker used a fabric printed with their favorite quotes and book spines. I wasn’t willing to spend that amount of money on fabric, so I searched high and low and settled on a quilting cotton fabric called Library Books and an off-white linnen look cotton with Letters (in French, I have no idea what they say).
Then for the pattern, the original was based in part on the walkaway dress, and I liked that idea. However, I didn’t want to have my book shelves go all crooked with a circle skirt. So I decided on a pleated design for the skirt part. For the top, I did want something to wrap, so I tested a vintage pattern reproduction from one of my sewing pattern magazines, but I wasn’t satisfied. So I went back to my tried and true, absolutely butchered Garden Party Dress by Honig Patterns (which no longer exists apparently).
Pocket!
I made some changes to the darts in the back, so that my shelves would stay straightish and extended the side seams for the wrap portions. The skirts were both hemmed before being pleated and the off-white section is a little shorter than the book cover layer. Then I decided that I wanted some sleeves because they always make me feel more comfortable. This was a fiddly business because the ones I put in were too tight, so I did some surgery to add a pleat. I think this worked out quite well.
The off-white layer closes in the back with a skirt hook and eye but is left open along the back seam. There are also pockets in the side seam, because a dress without pockets is just pure evil. For the shelve layer, I added buttonholes so I could button them onto the front along the waistline. I think it worked out pretty well. The overlap isn’t perfect on the sides, but it does enough of the job. It’s pretty comfortable to run around in, so I’m happy. My book dress dreams have finally been realized!
Knitted cover for my teapot in the shape of a highland cow.
At some point, I found a bunch of knitted tea cosies on Ravelry and thought “I need one of those”. However, it wasn’t urgent enough to actually get myself into any sort of gear until around April this year. That’s when I set out to choose one of the tea cosies that I had favorited before. In the end, I settled on the Highland Cow Tea Cosy by K.M. Bedigan.
The first step was to dye some yarn. I chose to use a sock yarn, Krypton 4ply. I would need approximately one skein according to the instructions. That would then be split up into two colours, a lighter and a darker orange. So I threw in somewhat random amounts of yarn dye and liked the result. The light one came out a bit lighter than expected but it still looks nice with the darker one.
First noseSecond nose
I did deviate from the instructions a few times. First was when it called for loop stitches (to create the little loops that make him look so hairy) to be along the same column. I chose to do staggered to create a fuller look, it also meant that I had to recount some of the shaping here and there. I think I added more rounds to the top of his head to make it fit. I also think my gauge was off the entire time so his proportions are a little different. I misread the instructions and made the details (ears and nose) out of the darker colour and not the lighter one, but this is more a happy accident and not a mistake.
I made the nose in several iterations and eventually gave up on the instructions entirely. The first one was too small and made him look like a pig. The second one was the right size, but I’d angled the nostrils in the wrong direction. So after fixing that, nose three is what ended up on his face. I think the designer missed a pun when they named it ‘Highland Cow Tea Cosy’, so I’ve named mine Angus the Highland Tea Cowsy. We’ll see if he manages to keep tea at a nice warm temperature. Even if he doesn’t, it’s great to just see this little cutie sitting on the table!
This May had a lot better weather than last year. I didn’t feel like I was freezing for most of it, so that was really nice. Below are terrible pictures of all the me-made stuff I’ve worn over May.
Conclusions from this year’s experiment were that it’s fairly easy to wear me-mades all May. I do indeed have too many clothes, since I still have some left over. I also have no plans in stopping my adventures in knitting and sewing because I do really enjoy them.
There are a few items that are going to be discarded. Two sweaters that just aren’t very nice anymore (or too brown) and a wrap dress that feels too exposing.
May is the one month where most of my dresses get worn and thereby it’s the single most influential time that reduces the cost-per-wear of any special occasion outfit. So I’ll probably do it again next year!
After finishing the Silver Elephant in the pre-final class of the year, I had to think of a quick project that I could do in 1+2.5 hours. Luckily, when I was trying to decide on the elephant, I’d also found a pin of a somewhat abstract bass guitar that really struck my fancy. My mother plays bass guitar and wears earrings so I figured I might try to make a bass guitar earring for funsies.
To make it, I flattened a piece of silver in that first hour and did the shaping and finishing in the final class. The plan was to bend it into shape, then solder the one pointy bit, drill holes for strings and finish it with sanding and polishing. I knew that it wasn’t going to hold the correct amount of strings for a bass, so I just drilled two holes in top and bottom. At home, I found some metal wire, made those strings and attached the earring hook. It turned out pretty well and so far, she’s enjoying it.
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