Tag: Green

Even More

I went skiing in February, fell after about an hour and hurt my shoulder. The vacation still was nice, skied for two and a half more days and enjoyed the sun and the snow. However, this meant that I needed to ban myself from knitting until my shoulder didn’t hurt any more. I had no intention of getting another over-worked arm and dealing with that for two years. So no yarn-stuff for me. I have been working on things though, almost finished a pant suit that I will wear for graduation in June. It only needs hemming and elastic shortening, so I hope to finish it way before June. I also started an enormous cover top, which even in size 32/34 did not fit me at all, so that’s going to my mother.

Green scarf

This post, however, is about even more infinity scarves. I got to work for an hour and a half and made two this morning. One was dotted green with white stripes on the other side, the other black with sunflowers and red plaid on the reverse. As usual, I failed the first time and sewed the first one up such that it didn’t turn out to be a scarf. Three seams, and I manage to mess up 33%…

Sunflower scarf

Still, one ripped seam and an hour later, I finished up my two scarves, just in time for summer. Although it’s still extremely cold in the mornings and decently warm in the afternoons. That’s why I continue to wear scarves every morning and at work. These should see some action in the future.

Convocation Dress

Another event just happened. We opened the academic year yet again. This time, I had a dress that barely had any back. But it was too cold so I wore the magic Shrug? over it to keep warm.

It all started when I was looking for a pattern that would make a nice dress and would be interesting. So I searched through all my stash and found Knipmode November 2015 which contained dresses 7 and 10. I combined the sleeves from 10 with the body from 7. This was possible since dresses 7 through 11 all had the same bodice, just different sleeves, skirts and neckline treatments.

I finally managed to use a fabric that I had bought for an event like this. It’s some form of slightly stretchy woven thing with large floral print. I’m not generally one for florals, but this one was not dainty, so it fit me better. However, there wasn’t very much of it, so I shortened the skirt and did not make a full lining for the bodice, but improvised a partial lining. I attempted to do an exposed zipper for the first time ever. It was also the first time I tried a horsehair braid hem.

The main alteration was that I had to take the back in by at least 5 cm, I don’t know why. Apart from that, I think that the darts were all in the right places and the pockets are very nice. There is a snap on the top closure thing, since I didn’t want to make a button hole.

Cutting the pattern probably took the longest. I had put all the pieces on my fabric and it was not fitting on at all, so I shortened the skirt, which helped, and then tried to find the configuration which would save the most fabric. Then after sewing most of the pieces together, I had to cut out the partial lining. For some reason I was afraid of this, so that took a few days of gathering courage. Eventually I did manage to get my act together and put the thing together. Then some minutes of watching horsehair braid being applied and I went for it, which took some time at the television to hand sew and voila, a dress!

Bras are in danger of showing a little, but I have decided that it shouldn’t be too big of a problem. With the shrug over it, no one would be able to tell anyway. So far, it does wear nice, but it needs an under skirt of some kind if I’m wearing a legging. Shouldn’t be a problem next summer.

Green Apron

What do you do when a colleague asks you to make an apron? You think about it and then sort of forget…

Then she brings in the apron that she is currently using and you suddenly find the spirit to get your butt into gear and get to making the apron. I used a trace from the original apron for the pattern, added some length and width and got to cutting. The fabric is the same as the one I used for the corset. The original apron had straps attached to the top, which came around, crossed and went out through two giant eyelets in the side of the apron. During construction, I discovered that I had nothing that would be suitable for straps (and was too lazy to make them out of the fabric because they needed to be 1.8 m long). So I decided to attach two loops to the top that a strap could be threaded through, and two smaller loops at the side. I also added some extra pockets and then called it a day.

My colleague will now need to find her own straps, so I hope that works out, but I was quite pleased with the thing.

Tiny Knits

I had to travel about 7 hours this weekend, so in preparation for such a trip, I downloaded a number of tiny animal knitting patterns. I figured it was more fun to bring a number of different balls of 5-10 grams in different colours, rather than one big ball in only one colour. In the end I managed to knit 5 little ones on the road and a pentapus before I left. The knit critters were  a crab, a whale, a crocodile, an alien and a pig.

All the instructions were followed completely, apart from eyes which were all made with a thick yarn knotted twice.

Teeny Crab by Amanda Berry and Teeny Whale by Amanda Berry.

Baby Gators by Anna Hrachovec

Mini Alien by Barbara Prime and Tiny Piggy by Amanda Berry

The whole gang together! I have some more patterns, so chances are that a mouse or a sheep or a chicken will join the flock…

Knit Bag

It was Mother’s Day yesterday, for the occasion I made a bag for my mum, I am not in any way shape or form expecting her to actually use it. It was a proof of concept experiment.

My mother has indicated in the past that she has an interest in getting a bag that can be converted from a normal carry bag to a backpack. So I googled, visited internet shopping sites and pinterested for a while and found some interesting things (my board). I tried to make one from fabric but got distracted and it’s still in the corner of shame at the moment. However, after I’d finished another knit project, a grey-shades sweater, I wanted to start something else. I still had some very thick yarn in the hoard that I would not know how to use, so I decided, quick stitches = quick project and cast on 22 stitches on size 7 mm needles for the bottom (the yarn indicated 9-10 mm needles).

Knit the bottom in garter and when it was square, (and my green yarn was finished, no more than 50 cm left) picked up stitches on all sides. Those were put onto 10 mm needles and the stitch count was quickly decreased to 16 on all sides. Worked my way up, eventually decreasing two stitches on the two sides to create a pyramid shape. Switched over to the blue yarn when the green/white ran out.

 

 

A zipper was sewn in the top to close the bag and two handles were knitted on. The handles allow one to carry the bag like a shopping bag. Lastly, a long zipper was sewn on as the (backpack)strap. If the zip is closed, you can use it as a messenger bag, if it is open, it is a backpack. Imagine the chair below is a person to visualise the system. The zip is attached at the opposite side of the back, which means that it automatically closes when carried.

So I gave it to my mother yesterday and she thinks it is quite fun in theory, and in practice it may turn out that the holes from the knitting are too large. We will see!

Gear Baaahg

I used to have all kinds of useful things floating around willy-nilly in my bag. It would take hours to find the pen, or the nail clippers or the charger for my phone in the depths of my bag. Then one day, I put all those little things in a zippered bag. I did not learn from this experience, since I have been having the same problem in my sports bag. For derby, I have a number of tools, pens and whistles floating around that I could never find when I needed them.

Then I got the luminous idea to make a bag for that gear. I still had some of the sheep fabric left from which I cut the black sheep. So I pinterested around the place and found this tutorial for a zippered pouch from Peggy Sew. My printer doesn’t work, so I measured the dimensions from the screen and drew it out. Two bits of fabric and a zipper, a bit of sewing and done!

It even has a handle so I can quickly pull it out of my gear bag.

After finishing the sheep one, I also made another one, a little smaller, for things like plasters and painkillers. This one is in green, and doesn’t have a bottom seam and was a quick fix. We will see if it holds up.

Tighten the Tape

The plan to make a well fitting corset has been there for a long time. Collecting different items has been going on for a long time, buying a busk here, some closures there, a box of grommets etc. However, to get the whole thing together, I also needed a lot more things.. Of to the shops & the internet for:

  • Spring steel boning
  • Spiral steel boning
  • Boning end caps
  • Bolt cutter
  • Large ruler
  • More grommets

And probably more, but I may have forgotten the other things. I wanted to draft the thing, so again, on the internet I went. Two tutorials from Katafalk were in the final product: the pattern and the sewing method. It involved a lot of measuring, a lot of line drawing and quite some cutting out. However, I think it worked in the end.

Since I didn’t know whether it would actually fit, I first made a sort of muslin from an old tablecloth. I cut out the pieces and sewed them together. Then I pinned in the boning channels (I don’t know why I didn’t sew them) and added plastic ties. I also used the Bridges on the Body tutorial for lacing strips, so I could try it out semi properly.

I only pinned in the boning on the left side of the corset (right on the first picture), and the difference is clear, to me at least. I decided it fit and cut my pattern out in a green stiff fabric. I cut two layers of that and sewed the thing together. Most of the bones were flat steel, only the ones next to the side were spiral steel. I finished it with black bias tape and black ribbon.

The grommets were the hardest. I had to hit them very hard with the hammer, and I don’t think my neighbours liked me very much at 23:30… The grommets are spaced about 2 cm apart. It’s also quite hard to evenly lace something by yourself, so I was quite happy to get as far as I got. I think it may be a little to long as I need to sit up quite differently from normal, but it does seem to fit.

I’ve also drafted an overbust using a different method, but I need to figure out how to get the bust to actually fit, because it is a little spiky now, bullet bra like. However, so many more projects to start and finish, so I don’t know when I will get to it.

Double Duty

An old friend of mine notified us that she was getting married earlier this year. I knew that this would call for a brand new outfit. At some point in time I received the cutest wedding invitation card (it had bunnies!) which had a dress code on it: Tenue de Ville. I’d just bought a nice piece of fabric that could sort of fill that dress code. So I started work making a dress with a waterfall top and a skirt that could make use of the border print. At some point I put it on, and it just felt wrong. So, very, wrong – frumpy, not me, just terrible. So I chucked it in the corner (it’s still there) and set out on a plan B.

Plan B involved getting new fabric, since nothing I own is light-coloured or pastel or suitable to fit in Tenue de Ville. Of to the market on the next Thursday, and miraculously I found something that was relatively close to the mark. Light coloured, with green leaves and blue/purple flowers. It was some weird sort of stuff, almost like thin scuba. It didn’t fray at all, which made it really easy to work with.

As a tribute to the bride, I wanted a circle skirt, as she always wore them back when I met her. The fabric had some lettering, but the print wasn’t super directional, which allowed for that circle skirt. Then I needed to determine what to use for the top. I figured on the garden party top, as I know it fits without much hassle. But it needed something special, so I pinterested (is that a verb?) and found this pin. I liked the idea of the keyhole and the pointed waistband. In contrast to the inspiration I also incorporated binding and modified tulip sleeves.

This make felt so much better right out of the gates. It was super comfortable, it twirled so nicely and pockets. It was easy to dance in (queen of horrible dancing on the dance floor) and not too hot or cold. I was a fan.

It did have a test drive before the wedding. Two days before was convocation, a work event. I had this one finished in time (!), and I didn’t have the time or inclination to also make a dress for convocation so I wore this one instead. Therefore, this dress served double duty and will be put into regular rotation in my closet. It has been a super success!

Graduation – Again

Friday it was time for the last lot of students to graduate again. This clearly called for a new dress! I’d started quite early by asking a friend of mine what fabric (see the options below) and what pattern to use in November. The pattern that was picked was honigdesign Garden Dress. As for fabrics, unfortunately, I was a fool and added a fabric that I didn’t want to use. Of course that was the one he picked. I overruled and decided to choose the green on the left.

january-1-fabrics

So I started on the dress, taking really good care to match the stripes within the fabric. Both vertical and horizontal stripe matching can be found in places. I also chose to use it in a different direction as I wanted as little emphasis on the pink stripes as possible. The fabric was originally a gift from a co-worker, and part of the same lot was some mustard coloured fabric. The mustard coordinated beautifully with the mustard stripes in the fabric, score!

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After cutting out the bodice, I wasn’t left with a whole lot of fabric. The project was cornered until I could figure out a solution. I plaid around with some fabric from an old table cloth to see what I could do. In the end I settled on making a high low dress top with an attached skirt underneath. The plan was to make it look sort of like a riding jacket. For the skirt, I used fabric from my old winter coat – winter graduation and all. I also added the short sleeves because I was afraid of fabric shortage.

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There were only a few changes to the bodice pattern. I added an additional cm of length at the waist and rotated the shoulder seam so that it was almost horizontal across. I only did that after finishing the front slit in the bodice, so that was raised by a lot too in the process. This did (in my opinion) improve the fit tremendously. The skirts were completely self drafted and I added some invisible pockets to store my phone and other stuff.

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The hems of the green dress, the blue skirt and the sleeves were hand sewn with yellow topstitching thread. I like that element as it brings it all together and gives a nod to the lining. The dress is quite tight fitting at the top, but it feels really nice when it is on. I managed to survive graduation and the dress did too! Mission accomplished.

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And below some details of the hand stitched hem and the (dare I say so) quite decent plaid matching!

matching hems

Stripes Everywhere

To combat underwear views in the last graduation dress, I made some shorts. I found this leggings pattern on the internet (Into the woods from Grosgrain Fab.com, here) and cut out the shorts from some striped stretch fabric I still had available. I wanted to have the shorts end on a blue stripe as that would match the dress better. However, when I put on the finished product, it was too long, and was clearly visible when wearing the skirt. Oh noes!

Front long Front short

So… I made another one that was shorter. Why not cut of some length of the first one? Well two reasons, 1. I didn’t want a green stripe at the bottom and 2. I needed some short leggings to wear under my butt-protector shorts during roller derby, and the first pair were just long enough to serve that purpose. I still managed to get the blue stripe at the bottom in the second version, so that was nice. You can see the difference in length between these two.  There are a couple of extra stripes on the right one.

Back long Back short

I have no idea why the left one pulls more than the right one in the back, especially since they are the same pattern. I’ve still got to try the full length version at some point. Not in summer though. First I need to finish a shirt from the remainders of this fabric…