Tag: Free

Cardigan 2

I’ve also started working on my cardigan again, the black with white stripes one. I’ve finished to sleeves a while ago although they are not sewn yet. (I tried them on by tying all the ends of the white bits together in little bows)

See, those are my sleeves, I still need to futz with getting them sewn up and stuff, and getting rid of all the loose ends, but I’m happy with them so far.

I have also started the fronts now, I’m knitting them in tandem so I know for sure that they’ll be symmetrical. I’ve also knitted my first buttonholes, ever! Ok, it may have taken several viewing and reviewings of youtube clips and ripping out (frogging I think it’s called?) and starting over but I did it. Admittedly, the bottom one is crap, but the two others I have finished so far actually are not too shabby, if you ask me. So now I just need to finish it, preferably in time for like.. January or February, you know, Winter.

Anyways, here are the buttonholes and fronts. The green thing is my monsterbag in which I currently store the whole knitting business.

 

Projects; always nice to see some progress!

Medieval Dress

Whoops, it’s obviously been a while since I’ve been here. The last couple of months have been extremely busy and I’m still trying to get back on my feet. However, I have finally found the time (and motivation) to write about my new dress. A friend of mine celebrated her birthday the 10th of November with a party with a medieval dress code. The first deadline for this dress was September 6th (see here), I obviously failed at that, but I did finish it before the second one (the party)! I even have proof of me wearing it:

 

However, it takes a long time to put on thanks to this:

 

The back has a corset type closure, but there is no zipper and putting the cord through all those loops takes forever after. I have tried my best to match the pattern on the light coloured fabric. However, it was printed really off grain so that was not always possible. That’s why the browns are mostly matched up, although the centre back is a little off still. The same was true for the front, so although it doesn’t really show, the fabric is not sewn in symmetrically, in order to keep the pattern sort of similar.

 

Those sleeves are not very handy for.. anything, but they look really nice, and I’m very happy with them. I am really proud of myself for both thinking it all up (especially those sleeves) and for actually finishing it. I forgot to take pictures of the insides, but it’s fully lined and it looks really nice from the inside too. I’m so happy to have it finished!

On a random side note, tonight I have finally decided to eat the endive I’ve been growing in my garden. It was just enough to make me meal. I made “stamppot”, a Dutch recipe that’s really easy. Boil potatoes and mash them, add cut up endive and mash it all together, serve with bacon cubes. Done.

So now my patch is empty and I need to wait for spring again to start it all over. This year was not very productive, all in all I grew about 7 carrots and 1 plate worth of endive. I may have forgotten to fertilise last year. Anyways, I’m still busy, so I’m not very creatively productive nowadays. I’m trying though, I hope it will work, and good luck with your own creative outlets!

Refashion

I’ve been experimenting with refashioning clothing I don’t wear because of ‘issues’ I have with them. There was this skirt:

Before

Which was worn by my mother in the picture, as a costume. She’s just a bit taller, and has the elastic higher than I would have it. So when I was wearing the skirt, it would be over the knee really. The style, for me, didn’t look right when it was over the knee. So what I did was take of the elasticated waistband completely. Then I removed the elastic from its fabric wrapper. The fabric was 2 meters long, which I thought was a bit too long to stick in a waistband, so with 20 pleats I made the fabric 1 meter long.

The skirt is reversible with a red and a black fabric, so I did the same for the other bit of fabric. Sewed them together at the top and put the elastic in and sewed beneath that. The skirt is now still reversible, but has also lost about 10 cm in length. It looks more up to date now and I think it’s easier to wear when it warms up a little again. This is the final result, sorry for the crappy pictures. It’s been terrible weather on this bit of the planet.

 

Ring

I made a ring today! I was looking around the internet and I found the cutest little ring with a rabbit on it here. Sadly it was sold out! Otherwise I might really have bought it (since there are other cute items in the shop but the shipping is expensive so combining might have helped). I decided I could not make a better one, but I could be inspired by it. So I got out my fimo for the first time in a year or so, and made a little rabbit ring.

I made a metal wire base (basically an elongated U shape bent in an almost circle) and formed the paws on that, then I formed the head as a little squashed in bowling pin. The ears were two little ovals with rice grains pressed in and taken out to shape the indent. I just my pinky nail to smooth everything out and put more clay over the bottom of the U to form the back and end. I redid it about 4 times because I wasn’t happy with the results. With this final version I’d done enough and this was going to be it, so I popped it in the oven at 110 degrees C for 30 minutes and out came a cute little rabbit ring.

 

The original rabbit looks a little desperate because it can’t reach its bottom, in my opinion. Mine doesn’t have eyes so that is less the case and his ears are not as far back. I’m really liking him, although I’m not sure how much use it will get, since I tend to not wear rings. I also found open ended rings like this in cat and mouse shape. Although, I think I like rabbits better.

 

Also, it’s dark and my pictures are really yellow, but I know me, if I don’t post soon, I don’t post at all, so I hope you’ll excuse that issue.

Present

I made a present for a friend of mine. It has just been his birthday, and I saw him the day after so I figured I’d make him a present. I have the feeling that he likes and/or needs hugs sometimes. So I decided to make him a little stuffed toy. It’s a very soft yellow fabric from my recent fabric market haul. I always figure that with present it is the idea that counts, and not necessarily the execution or the actual thing you give.

He knows I also sleep with one of those ‘poppy’s’, so I decided to give him one, so he knows that there’s someone thinking about him too. I forgot to take a picture, but it’s really similar to this one. The main differences are: it’s yellow, it’s got ~knuffel (this is the Dutch word for hug) and my name embroidered on it and it’s a bit over stuffed.

He seemed to quite like it, the idea anyways, and I got a text the other day with a picture of it, so that was nice. I’m still working on the dress for larp (it’s now been practically done for weeks, I need to add a lining to the skirt, hem them and possibly make a hook-eye closure for the top of the skirt), which, if I make the time, could be done in an afternoon. Wish me luck on that!

New Project

I’ve got holiday right now, a break from school, which means that until I find a summer job, I’ve got a lot of free time on my hands. So I decided, it’s time for a new project! I was looking around the internets and found this. Another vintage, uploaded, free knitting pattern by the wonderful Liz of zilredloh.com. I decided that, taking into account the time it took me to finish the last one, I should start another cardigan now so I could possibly wear it this winter.

So on to the window pane cardigan, although I’ve made some changes. I fail to knit at the correct gauge thingy so I’m just knitting at my normal gauge and hope it fits, the last one I made was with more stitches and way to big, so I hope that this one with less stitches but the same yarn will fit better. Also, I’ve omitted the vertical lines and made the contrast colour two rows instead of one. I’m not sure what to do with the collar, I might omit it or modify it, but I don’t particularly like the one on the picture.

I have finished the complete back panel and the ribbing and one pattern on the sleeves since I started 2 or 3 weeks ago. I found during my last cardigan that I hate knitting sleeves last because I think that the thing is already almost wearable. This time I opted to do the back and then the sleeves and wait with the fronts, because they are the most exiting (I think). Anyway, this is my progress:

What you see is the yarn in the left top and bottom corner (a white and a black one); to the right in the middle, the sleeves to be, at the top the printed pattern and the second black yarn and to the right the completed back panel. I know it’s long enough, I’ll have to wait to find out if it is wide enough too.

So the only thing to do now is finish it. I think I should set a deadline .. eh .. what would be reasonable. October. I think I’ll try to finish this thing before October, that should be attainable, right? Right?

Well I’m off to knit me some more sleeve!

Finalemente

I have.. finally finished the shirt I started making ages ago. It’s another blue one, made from the same fabric as this one, but now with a nice neck and hems. It of course took forever to finish it. I’ve had it serged and ready for final touches (attaching the binding strips to each other at the corners and an extra row of stitches to keep the serged ends under) for at least a month now. However, I never did find the time or willpower needed to actually finish it.

Tonight I finally did, this might be because I had started another project last week (some shorts) that were also in the last stages of finishing, but I’ll tell you about that tomorrow.

So now the blue shirt is up and ready to be worn! As of right now I’m still very happy with it, although I haven’t road tested it yet, due to it only being done a couple of hours ago.

This is the shirt, the front has a sort of U(?) shaped neckline, and the back a square one:

 

It should be nice for summer and I’m planning on wearing it frequently, just like I do the other blue top. I also hope to do some more sewing as I’ve got break from school now. Finished it all up and although one result was disappointing (and has now thrown away my chances for a cum laude distinction; gah, I hate policy!), the others were all good and the year has been successful. Up to a new year with new challenges, changes and people!

Happy crafting!

Refashion

I found this pile of clothes that my mom was discarding a couple of weeks ago and I nicked some stuff from it (with permission of course). I was inspired by Marisa from New dress a day (here). She often picks up cheap and (relatively) ugly items for very little money (say $1), and makes them all nice and wearable again. Admittedly my items are the ones I actually liked without having to do much on it, and were for free.

They include a red/black/grey dress, a red sweater and some more which I haven’t done anything with yet. I forgot to take pictures of the red sweater before, but it’s not finished yet (I am snipping of the edges of the sleeves and the bottom, because they were all curly and creepy. Also, I’m removing some of the really ugly embellishments on the front). However, about a quarter of an hour ago I decided to make the red/black/grey dress suitable for my wardrobe.

At first I couldn’t spot anything wrong with it and assumed that it was just too small or something, but on closer inspection..

 

A hole! 1.5 inch or so from the centre front seam. Since I’m a little smaller than my mother, I thought it would be no problem to take in the front that bit as to hide the hole. So I did (actually, typing this up and taking the photo’s took longer than the actual sewing), and also did a little resewing of one of the ties. Since they were coming apart, see below.

This is the end result, the whole dress and the centre front without hole. I hope I’ll wear it more often.

 

 

Wardrobe

While I was looking through my cupboard the other day, I noticed a somewhat worrying trend. The types of clothing items that I make for myself, are not in proportion to the types of clothing items I wear regularly. I made myself quite some dresses and skirts, while I practically never wear those in ‘real life’. There’s specific etiquette when wearing skirts and dresses, and I have failed to master that.

So when I go to school, with the promise of wearing at least one item of clothing I made myself, I find myself reaching for pants, a t-shirt and a sweater or jacket. The issue with this combination is that I only have 3 pants, 1 t-shirt and 1 jacket I can employ like this, although I have worn a blouse and some of the dresses and skirts at some point to school. The pants now get the most wear (as expected), the t-shirt is a bit strange, so I don’t wear it often, only under sweaters, and the jacket is quite nice, so that gets some rotation too. I now also wear a vest on occasion, with a button down blouse (bought) under it. However, this lack of nice things has given me another objective. Sew more things you’ll actually wear. So that’s what I’m doing now.

I’ve made a nice blue t-shirt Friday night 2 weeks ago. It’s unfinished at the top, arms and bottom (basically only serged and sewed the side seams and I traced it from a nice fitting t-shirt). I’m quite happy with it really. I love the colour, and I still have quite a bit of the fabric I used left, so I think I’m going to have two blue shirts in the near future.

This is it:

 

It’s been in regular rotation since I made it. I really really like it, and I really want another one, so I can wear them more often.

 

Full Larp Costume

So here it is, in its entirety: my larp costume for the Ravenskeep event on May 17-20 2012. Prepare for a photo-heavy post, people.

First up: the full view (apart from the boots).

  

Left the top, in the middle the bottom half, including the usually very heavy brown bag and boots. To the right the side with a water sack and a ‘lock-picking set’.

And the pockets from close up, including content:

 

Thread left, pins and needles right.

 

Keys left, home-made pencil right (glue a graphite bit in a stick, really easy, really satisfying).

 

Salt left, and more pockets with more vials with herbs and an ink bottle (with a black cap)

 and even more pockets and vials!

I was really quite happy with the outfit although it did pose some technical difficulties. Sitting down on something low (for example: the ground or tree logs) is very difficult, because stuff might fall out. Running in the skirt is also not advised. However, it did hold up well, and the main issue I had, was with my overfull bag which hang on my hip bones (see also the picture up top), making the bones ache a bit. So I could probably improve the function of the skirt, snaps? perhaps. Overall, I’m happy about that though.

However, I have not made my mind up about the event itself yet. There was enormous chaos in the beginning (Friday night) and on the Saturday I had a scare which kept me out of it for most of the day. Sunday was really nice, because I got a task and figured out something I could do and felt really useful. I like feeling useful!

I’m going to have to see if I go again, of course also in combination with the always difficult part of figuring out the schedule at the university.
I think I might prefer not being the same person for 3 days straight, but that might change once I actually figure out the things I’m supposed to know in the game. (Pretending to have knowledge on the history of the country without knowing anything about the country is really difficult, that’s for sure.)

On to the next project! I’m thinking a t-shirt.
Happy crafting!