MMJ11 Day 12

Vest – Leftovers, February 2005

T-shirt – George

Jeans – Sainsburys

Pants/Knickers -April 2011

Socks – Bridgit Socks, April 2010

I finally got around to doing all my mending and fixing that had piled up in the sewing room.  This included putting buttonholes on the vintage dressing gown I made in October of last year.  It doesn’t look too bad even though it wasn’t designed to have buttonholes, and at least now it’s wearable!

I really shouldn’t put things off so long, especially when they only take about 15 minutes and mean that we all no longer have to look at this hanging on the back of the door in all my FO pictures!

Are There STILL Things Left On The List?!?

Man, one thing I have learnt over and over again about this list making is that if the list is too long it becomes harder and harder to stick to it and work on it.  In the future I will be making sure that I don’t put too many things on each list.  This one has just plodded and plodded on.  Each time I feel like I’m making progress I go back and look at it and realise just how far I still have to go.

Anyway, I will get there one day and to finish off May I have crossed 2 more things off.

Final pair of summer pajamas for Piggle, leaving me with 1 pair still left to do for Jim.

Piggle really liked the pajama bottoms I made for him (with an appliqued shop bought t-shirt) last summer and I seem to never run out of this fabric so I made him another pair for this summer.  This fabric was really odd to work with making these and I’m wondering if the issues I had with the mushroom shirt was because of the fabric too.  I have made god knows how many pairs of these pajamas from this pattern and for each of the sleeves on this pair I had to fight to get them eased in without creasing the fabric.  It also didn’t press very well which gave a less neat finish than I’m used to (and annoyed me a lot working on the neckband of the mushroom shirt too).  Anyway, Piggle loved these and wore them to bed the night I finished them so it was worth the fight.  Pattern is Kwik Sew 3126.  Seriously, I think this is the most used pattern in my entire huge collection!

Next up I decided to do the owl outfit for Piggle.  As I explained in the list post I dyed the fabric when he was little intending to make dungarees for him out of it.  By the time I got around to digging out the pattern I wanted to use there wasn’t enough fabric (I only had a yard) so I had to find something else to do with it.

This is Onion 20035 which I’ve used for Jim a few times (although I had to trace a smaller size for Piggle).  It’s not so clear in the picture but the neckband of the t-shirt (which has long sleeves) is green.  The ribbing I dyed with these fabrics came out a totally different shade from the cord and the knit and I didn’t have anything else in the right shade to hand.  Looking at the owls fabric I noticed that some of the owls were green and I had some green almost exactly the same shade in my basket of ribbing so on it went!

These are really easy patterns.  As I was making the t-shirt I began to wonder just how many kids t-shirts I have made in the last 8 years.  Off the top of my head I can think of about 15 in the boys’ drawers at the moment and they’ve worn out or grown out of many many more along the way.  Making t-shirts is something I do without thinking now, it’s very relaxing sewing as I just let my mind wander and get on with it.  Mind you, if I’m not in the mood for them it’s the most boring sewing ever and I put it off over and over again!

Close-up of the print.  This is my favourite PRR print ever.  It took me years to get my hands on some and then I only got this single yard of cord (and some offcuts of knit but not enough to really do anything with sadly).  I am really happy with the way these trousers turned out.  I made them a bit bigger than he needs them so he can wear them this winter.  He’s just grown into all the trousers I made for Jim when he was 4 so he doesn’t really need anything else at the moment, but come winter when he’s an inch taller he’s going to be short on trousers!

I cut out a few other projects and traced a couple of patterns to get ready for the next few things on the list.  I do have to admit though that I’m now about 10 items or more into making the next list which is something that is inspiring me to get done with this one (and, yes, to cheat)!  The boys are with their Dad for 3 nights this Half Term though so I will hopefully get a few more things crossed off the list.

Knitting has been going slowly.  I have stalled on the Flutter Sleeve Cardigan as I think I did something wrong on the front with the short rows and until I figure out what it was I can’t make the other side match.  Everything else is showing progress, I just have to try to stay focussed and not just cast on for something else because I’m bored!

Tomorrow is the start of Me Made June ’11.  I’m a little apprehensive.  It’s been years since I’ve put my photo on the internet and I’ve not actually figured out where I’m going to take the daily photo yet.  I don’t actually own a full length mirror so I’m sure I’m in for some surprises as to how I actually look in my clothes.  Maybe it will inspire me to keep going on the weight loss or maybe I will have some happy surprises about how some things look, we will see.  I am still hoping for some hot weather so I can break out the skirts and maybe a dress but there will definitely be a lot of jeans and cardigans along the way I’m sure.  It will give me a reason to dig out some of my older knits though that don’t see the light of day much and to see if they go with anything I own now!

See you tomorrow!

PS In case you’re wondering, there are 14 things still left on the current list I’m working from….

Wrapping Up April

April was by far the best sewing month I’ve had in a very long time.  It is reflected in my knitting though as I didn’t get through anywhere near as much as I’d hoped or usually do.  Apparently when I’m sewing I can’t also be knitting which is a little annoying.  One day I will learn to multi-task to the level where I can sew, knit, read, cook and use the computer all at the same time.

Being ill for a week also meant that I had to really push on with my April socks to get them done in the month.  You know I’m really ill when I can’t even knit!  Anyway, these are the April socks, using the pattern Java which is from Knitty.

I used Yarntopia Treasures Bamboo Cotton in the colourway Starbucks.  Being a little strange I really wanted to make a coffee pattern with the coffee yarn and when Java came along I finally had a match!  I used 2.5mm needles and the smaller size of the pattern as the yarn doesn’t have much stretch and it worked out just fine.  The stitch pattern is a really easy 4 row repeat, you just have to pay attention during the gusset and the toes and the rest is plain sailing.  I knit the second sock in less than a week.

The final sewing from the month is all small items, but nice to have them ticked off the list!  I *finally* made the Japanese Origami Bag using the kit I bought over 3 years ago.  It took about 45 minutes so it was incredibly silly to have put it off for so long!

The pattern says to sew both sides of the lining to the zip by hand but I sewed one by machine and the other by hand as I don’t like hand sewing.  I also didn’t cover the inside seam where the origami fold is with bias binding or ribbon but just overlocked it instead, the seams are tucked into the ends so it won’t stand out as an eyesore.  I used a layer of PUL rather than batting inside this bag to make it waterproof so I can use it to carry shampoo etc when I go away, the UK term is sponge bag but I can’t for the life of me think of the US term at the moment!

More pajamas for Piggle, just the 1 pair left to go now and I have cut those out so they should be done soon.

I adore a good pair of duck pajamas, I know they’re cliché but they’re cliché for a reason, so damn cute!  This is the usual Kwik Sew 3126 pattern in T4 again.  They’re a little bit big for him but that just means they’ll last a few months longer!

Last up were some quick and easy Kwik Sew Sewing for Children t-shirts for Piggle.  I discovered I had enough fabric to do long sleeves on these two so I did, the English ‘summer’ is just as liable to require long sleeves as short.

I have now finally reached the end of both these fabrics, I seem to have made a ton from the sports balls fabric in particular having just retired a pair of pajamas that Jim literally wore to shreds (the seams are gone in about 5 places, the neckband is shredded from his horrible habit of chewing his clothes and the fabric has actually worn thin in places, definitely well loved!) and there have been t-shirts for both of them from it several times over, can’t ask for more than that from a few yards of fabric!

So, I’m getting on well with the list, at least the easy things on it!  I really need to focus on the shirts etc that are on there and alternate them with the easier stuff or I’m going to end up facing more difficult projects one after another!  I have pulled out some fabric and patterns for other projects that I’d like to make but I’m trying to forget about them for a little while and try to keep focussed on the list.

Knitting/crochet wise I have done as much as I can on the sock yarn blanket, I’m actually adding the leftover yarn from the April socks to it at the moment!  It’s going to take a few more pairs of socks to get enough leftover yarn to finish it so it’s hibernating for now.  I have 2 short sleeve cardigans that I’m hoping to finish up this month along with the May socks that I’ve already cast on for, I’ll see if I can balance the sewing and the knitting a little bit more or if one calls louder than the other!

Back On My Feet Again

Well, I lost another week of my life to whatever virus it was that went round and round our house for over a month.  I actually had a day where I couldn’t get out of bed, that very very rarely happens to me.  I had to call my sister to come and feed the boys and put them to bed for me as I just couldn’t manage it.  I’m back up again and moving on with my sewing plans now though!  I’ve been updating the post here (which is also linked to on the sidebar to the left) in case you want to see how I’m progressing.

These are Jim’s pajama bottoms that I finished a few weeks back.  I finally found some t-shirts to go with them and appliqued the front of them.  He loves the turtle ones and wore them the night I finished them so that’s a score at least!  He’s not so sure about the musical ones but I’m sure he’ll wear them anyway, he’ll have to as I’m sneaking out a pair of old worn out pajamas and getting rid of them each time I do the laundry!

These are Piggle’s pajamas.  I straightened the legs on these forgetting that the Kwik Sew pattern isn’t as tapered as the Sewing for Toddlers book so they’re really really baggy, but they’re pirate pants so maybe baggy is a good thing!

Next up were these jogging bottoms using a 1978 English Simplicity pattern.  I couldn’t find any trim to go on the sides so I made my own using ribbon (I sewed the red onto the white using a twin needle) and it worked out just fine.  This was a very easy pattern, a single pattern piece.  I did have to go down a size, luckily I compared the pattern to the pajama pants that were waiting for a t-shirt and discovered that these were really long in the 4-year-old size.  The 3-year-old size fits him perfectly though and he seemed to like them, although he did refuse to wear them the next day, but he’s incredibly fussy about his clothes and also incredibly stubborn so I’m sure one day he’ll refuse to wear anything *but* these trousers!

Using the appliques on the knickers I made brought to my attention just how much stuff I have that I never use.  I am going to try to add trim and ribbon and labels to things to start using it up and along those lines I added a Lamington Lane label to the back of these trousers, it says ‘Squirt, Home Sewn Kid’.

It’s ok, if you’re frantically trying to remember me showing you the fabric or pattern for this shirt in my list don’t think you’re loosing your mind, it wasn’t there, in fact I didn’t add it to the list until after I’d made it!

This was one of those ‘need to make this now’ projects.  It all started when some Liberty fabric kept catching my eye, then I wore the version of this pattern, Simplicity 2594, that I made last year and it was really comfortable.  So I tried to match up the Liberty to this pattern but there wasn’t enough of it.  At that point I suddenly became devoted to using the pattern so I went trawling through the stash and found this cotton linen type fabric that I got at Abakhan years ago.  I have about another four yards of it after making this shirt, it’s a seriously long piece of fabric!

Anyway, this is a really simple pattern, although the directions for adding the yoke are wrong, it says to put right sides together but you actually need a right side and a wrong side to get the yoke to work out correctly, if you follow the pictures instead of the words it all works out fine!  I used the longer length pattern pieces from the other views as the only thing I didn’t like about the other version is that it’s a little bit short.  This will be a useful throw on summer shirt I am hoping, it would probably look nice with a brown belt around it, but I’m not a belty kind of girl so I won’t be wearing it that way!

I went on yesterday to make another pair of Piggle’s pajamas and I’ve cut out the final pair and all the t-shirts I want to make him so I will be spending the day in the sewing room again as I did yesterday (the boys are with their Dad until tomorrow so I get a full 2 days to myself which is incredibly rare).  I’m still loving that my sewing mojo is back and it seems to be here to stay.  Yesterday I pulled out 3 more pieces of fabric and matched them with patterns!  I’m going to try to finish up more of what I have on my list though before giving in to them though!

Zooming Along

Making that list really kicked me into gear it would seem.  I’ve been doing some sewing every day and am really enjoying it again and loving making so much progress with things!

I started off with the 3 pairs of pajama bottoms that will go with store-bought t-shirts.  I will show you those once I actually have the t-shirts and have put the appliques on them, but I’m happy with the way that they turned out.

Next I moved onto another t-shirt refashion using Onion 5022 again.  I moved the print to the front of my t-shirt and the logo to the back and it turned out as so.

I added a few inches to the length like the last version of this pattern that I made and I’m really happy with the way this turned out.  It’s a lot brighter than the t-shirts I would normally make but the lyrics are some of my favourite Ani DiFranco ones so I can deal with the brightness!

Next up was another Onion pattern, 5041.  On my planning list I had wanted to make this using some mushroom fabric but it turned out that I didn’t have enough so I dug through the stash and found another piece of fabric for it (from Abakhan).

I knew that this tunic would be baggy but I didn’t realise quite how huge it would come out.  I went down a size after measuring the pattern for ease but I could have easily gone down another one or two sizes and still had it fit me.  Should I make this again I will think twice about interfacing the yoke as well as I think it makes it a bit stiff, even with light interfacing.

This is a close up of the cuff and the fabric design, I think it’s a really pretty fabric, sort of a linen feel but quite light and airy.

This shirt will be really nice for hot days when I need to be outside as it will let the air through but also keep me covered without overheating.

I found another pattern for the mushroom fabric, a vintage one, so it will get used up soon!

Finally, for now at least, I made another pair of pyjamas.

These are from the much used Kwik Sew 3126, that pattern was such a great investment as I’ve used it and used it for both boys.  I’m now on the final size for Piggle but I should think that I will get to use it for his Winter pajamas this year too before it gets retired until I need to make small pajamas for someone else’s children!

This fabric is from my Co-op days many years back.  It’s a contrast fabric for some Clifford the Big Red Dog fabric that I used for pajamas for the boys a few years back now.  Piggle really loves it and was actually standing there waiting for me to take the picture so he could whip his new pajamas away to put on his bed ready to wear tonight, nothing like appreciation of your work!

My knitting has been taking a bit of a back seat with all this sewing but I am still making progress on things.  I need to get a move on with my April socks so I can get them both done this month.  I’m on the foot of the first one with a few inches to go before the toe so I’m not off schedule yet, just need to make sure that I keep going!  The Sock Yarn Blanket is coming along well too, I am almost at the end of the yarn I had and am hoping that it will be long enough once I get through it all.  I have decided on the yarn for the border, some bright pink yarn that I have had in the stash for years but have never felt would hold up to being socks so I need to decide on a border pattern so I can get on with it.  I’m looking forward to getting back to the other banket once this one is done, it’s been put on hold sitting there sadly while my obsession with the Sock Yarn Blanket has run its course!

Next up for sewing will be the jogging bottoms for Piggle.  I found a vintage pattern in his size and am looking forward to making them as I’m going to add some trim to them which should make them a little more interesting, although it will make them take longer than a plain pair would!

See you soon!

Last of the 2010 FO’s

I found the picture of the blouse I made from a vintage pattern but wanted to add more buttons too.  Just as a reminder this is what it looked like made with the number of buttons the pattern called for.

And this is what it looked like after I went back and added two more buttons.

I think it looks a lot better this way and it fits so when it’s warmer I will be wearing it!

November was a pretty crappy month, we were all ill one after another and then we were basically snowed in for 2 weeks.  In those 2 weeks Jim did 2 full days of school and the rest of the time we spent at home.  I did get a lot of knitting done but nothing finished except this pair of socks

Another plain pair using Sock Pixie Vegan sock yarn.

It was also a crappy month for sewing with only one FO coming out of the sewing room, but they were much needed so that’s ok!

Kwik Sew 3126 as per usual but this time using size T4 as Piggle is getting tall and needs the extra length.

December was much better in terms of finishing things off.  As I planned to last year, but didn’t manage due to family matters, I wanted to get as much off the needles as possible so I could start the new year with a clean(ish) slate.

First up were these Sweetpea Socks which had been on the needles since August for some unknown reason…

The pattern is from Knitty and I used Panda Cotton in Tulips (although the label said Telips for some reason!).  I could have done an extra repeat on each leg but as usual I erred on the side of caution as the yardage of Panda Cotton isn’t all that great.  I’m really happy with these, it wasn’t a hard pattern at all but it looks really nice.

These fingerless mitts only took me a month to make, they shouldn’t have taken that but as I have so much on the go at one time things can get lost in the shuffle.

The yarn is some random acrylic that I found in my sewing room and there is no pattern for these, I just made them exactly the same as the last pair I made.  I was picking them up to put them away when I realised that they would get much more use if I gave them to my sister who has a small holding.  I already have a pair in pink and didn’t really need a second pair so these became part of her Christmas present and she was really happy with them.

When I got the box of Christmas decorations out I remembered that I had been meaning to make Piggle a stocking since last year when I had to borrow one from my parents for him!  The pattern for this is called Drifting Snowflake Stocking and it’s available to buy through Ravelry.

I used some acrylic from Boyes and used Aran on 4mm needles as I wanted it to be quite solid and to last a while.  It was my first go at colourwork and I’m pleased with the way it came out.  I do know though that when I’ve done more colourwork and sorted out my gauge issues I will think it looks terrible!  It served its purpose though and I think I will make one for Jim reversing the colours for next year (if I remember before the start of December that is!), I have the yarn I just need to get on with it.

I really want to try and use up some of the yarn in my stash that I have had for ages but don’t have plans for.  Whilst looking through Ravelry I found a Drops pattern which called for the same amount of yarn that I had owned for quite a few years so I cast on hoping that it would turn out ok.

This was an odd garment to make as the whole time I was worried that I wouldn’t have enough yarn (I ended with about a quarter of a ball) and I wasn’t sure that I would like it when it was done.  However, when I put it on I really liked it a lot and I’m looking forward to warmer weather so I can wear it!

The yarn is Adriafil Swing and the pattern is imaginatively called 113-22.  I’m not a fan of the way the pattern was written, it had you measure for every decrease and increase rather than giving a number of rows to work and it was slightly vague in places.  The buttons are from the button box, I seem to have a ton of them so they’ll pop up again somewhere in the future.

Next up was Sirdar 9094.  The main knitting on this was actually finished before the previous cardigan but I was having issues with the sleeve bands.  The pattern called for a number of stitches I was sure was too many, but of course I knit it the way it said to and then ripped it out when it turned out I was right.  I then cast on a much smaller number, knit the whole band and then ripped it out again when I found that it was far too small.  Third time around I used the number for the smallest size and it came out fine.

The yarn is Sirdar Wash and Wear Crepe in Rosehip and the button is from my Great Aunt’s collection.  I’m really happy with this one as well and it fit me nicely.  I seem to have a thing for short sleeved garments at the moment, I can’t figure out if it’s because I’m too lazy to knit sleeves or if I’m just wishing that the weather was nice enough for me to actually wear them!

Here’s a close-up of the pattern in it, very simple to work but very effective.

The yarn was really nice to work with.  I have some stashed for a long cardigan in a tan sort of colour as the two shades were on sale very cheaply at Kemps!

The final garment I finished last year was something I’ve wanted to knit for ages but just hadn’t gotten around to.  The well known Owls pattern.

I knit this sweater in a month and I have to say that I actually don’t remember knitting anything but the yoke of it which I did this last week while the boys were with their Dad.  It knit up really quickly on 6.5mm needles and the owls were very simple.  I used Rowan Cotton Rope which I got from Kemps for about 99p a ball so it was quite cheap to make too which is always nice!

Sewing the buttons on was a complete labour of love, there are 42 of them in total and I did it over about 3 days.  I think they really make the sweater though so I’m glad that I sewed them on.  This sweater is a bit tighter than I like to wear my garments so it won’t be worn immediately (which is annoying as it actually has long sleeves and is a sweater, something lacking in my wardrobe!).  It shouldn’t be long until I can wear it though and I’m looking forward to it.

On a side note before I get into the sewing I haven’t been following my eating plan since near the end of October.  With the illness and being freezing cold as the snow coincided with us almost running out of heating oil and made it impossible for the tanker to actually get to us and then Christmas eating healthily has kind of fallen by the wayside.  However, I haven’t actually gained any weight back which is pretty amazing, in fact when I weighed myself yesterday I was actually half a pound down!  I’m going to get back on the eating plan again later this week (i.e. when all the non-eating plan food is finally gone!) and hopefully the weightloss will get going again.

So, the sewing.  December was all about putting things off and then madly sewing them so they would reach the right people at the right time!

I made my younger sister two aprons.

Butterick 4945 using a linen type fabric from Ikea.

McCalls 5825 using scraps left over from a skirt I made in the summer.

I also made her and her husband a sandwich wrap each as they had admired the boy’s wraps when we visited in the summer.

They got them on time and they seemed to like everything (apparently my Brother In Law looks very fetching in the ruffled apron!).

Next up was gifts for my Aunt.  My Mother had helped me pick out a pattern and fabric from the stash and all was going swimmingly until I got to trying to put the handles on the knitting bag I was making her.  The pattern instructions said ‘attach circular handles’ and I couldn’t find a tutorial of any kind online that didn’t involve sewing them on by hand which is something I wanted to avoid.  I broke 2 sewing machine needles and swore an awful lot before giving up for a while and making her the needle roll that was also part of her present.

I still can’t cut an even rectangle to save my life but it doesn’t look too bad so I am quite pleased with how it turned out.  The fabric is from Ikea and has been in the stash for years so I was glad to use some of it up.

In the end my Aunt and Grandma didn’t come up for Christmas due to the snow so I had a bit of a reprieve and time to think about what to do with the bag.  I managed to buy some different handles and get them attached in a way that didn’t offend every sewing bone in my body.  This bag is nowhere near perfect, it’s a bit of a struggle to get your hand in it as it doesn’t open as wide as it should do but we’re pretending that was on purpose so things don’t fall out of it.

The pattern is Simplicity 4338 and I added the zipped pocket using a piece from a different bag from the same pattern (what is the point of a knitting bag without a zipped pocket?!?).  I hate it when I give a gift that isn’t my best work, especially when it was all going so well and looked great until I got to that final step.  However, I was just wrapping it up in the Christmas paper when my parents arrived to collect it to take with them so there wasn’t anything else I could have done besides not give her a present and apparently she was very pleased with it and loaded it right up so I’ll just let it go and make sure if I make her something else in the future that it does show how well I really can sew!

That’s it for last year, my Ravelry WIP’s are down to 3 now which is probably the lowest they’ve ever been. I’ve got plenty of projects lined up and ready to go though and have done some swatching so it won’t stay that low for long!  Hopefully I will get back to sewing soon and have some new things to share.  I’m halfway through a dress and have a lot of nice things planned to make so if I can find my mojo in the Christmas holiday detritus I have plenty to be getting on with…

October Has Blown By

Not sure at all where this month has gone, I feel like I’ve been busy busy busy but I don’t seem to have much to show for it, although I do have a build-up of FO’s to show you so I must have been up to something!

First up is Ms Pinkjeans, made using the Knitty pattern Mr Greenjeans, this should make my name change make sense

I used Patons Vintage yarn in the colourway Scorched and I’m really happy with the way it turned out, plus it fits!  It could probably do with a little bit of blocking but I think wearing it will block it out as much as it needs.  The yarn is acrylic with different colour cotton threads wound around it which gives it the variegated shades.  I enjoyed working with the yarn so much that I bought another colourway of it to use for something else, of course it’s been discontinued, the ones I like always are!

Here’s a close-up of the button which I thought reflected the cables a little bit

It is a little smaller than the pattern called for so I did a 2 stitch buttonhole rather than 3 and it seems as if it will stay closed.

Next up knitting wise I knocked out a dishcloth in 2 days using some Coats Magicline yarn in a colourway that my Mother would refer to as being ‘fun’!

It’s a free pattern that you can find here on Ravelry.  I did more repeats than the pattern called for to use up the yarn as there’s really not a lot you can do with leftover dishcloth cotton is there?

I am making huge progress on the American Safari Hoodie, I cast on for it back in August and then put it down after knitting about 4 inches of it.  I couldn’t do the cast on for the hood with the yarn I’m using so I did a crochet cast on, and it turned out that I hadn’t done it right as I had to pull out the yarn one stitch at a time so I could graft the hood together!  It took forever but luckily it looks ok and once I knew that I wouldn’t have to rip it out and start again I kept on going.  It’s knit in the round and I’ve done the sleeves and the ribbing around the hood so I know how much yarn I have left for length, now it’s just a case of going round and round and round until it’s how long I’m happy with or I run out of yarn.

I’m almost done with a plain pair of socks too, didn’t achieve as much as I wanted during Socktober, I was hoping to get 2 pairs of socks off the needles, but I may still get one of the second pair done which will hopefully inspire me to get the other one going and off the needles.

I frogged the A Good Bias shrug that I was working on, I realised that my lack of interest in working on it came from the fact that I was never actually going to wear it.  I just don’t do shrugs, they’re not comfortable and they don’t suit my figure at all.  I immediately went onto Ravelry and managed to find another pattern to use the yarn for so it’s not going to sit there forever projectless and it will be much better use for it!

Sewing has been done here and there, usually at the weekends now and never for long enough to make me happy but I have other things that I’m trying to concentrate on now so it has had to move to the back burner.  It’s much easier to fit knitting into my daily routine as I can sit and knit on something after the boys come home from school before I need to make dinner and then once they’re asleep I’m usually too tired to sew anything so I sit and knit with some tv or a movie or just some music until I’m ready for bed.

I did make this dressing gown using Simplicity 7363 which is from 1967.

I used killington flannel which I dyed in the washing machine.  Unfortunately the closures don’t actually work very well so I think I’m going to go back and do some buttonholes as it’s incredibly annoying having it come undone all the time.  I love the details of vintage patterns, modern ones wouldn’t have you do darts at the front or at the top of the sleeves!  This fits me just fine and will get worn a lot this winter once I sort out the button issues.

I followed one vintage pattern with another to make this shirt.

The fabric is a lovely delicate cotton with faded flowers on it.  The pattern is from a company called Sue Burnett and I have no idea when it dates from but I’m guessing it was during or after a World War judging by the fact that it called for so few buttons.  At present this shirt is hanging in my sewing room as I’m going to add another 2 buttons to the front.  Unfortunately I don’t have enough of one kind of button style to do the whole shirt, they are vintage too from my Great Aunt’s never ending stash, so I will use a different one of the same colour at the top which I think will look ok.  I’ll try and remember to take a picture once I get around to adding them.

This shirt does fit me too which was a bit of a surprise as all the pattern said was ‘Large’ and it didn’t give any measurements!  It was one of those projects that I just really wanted to try whatever the outcome, sometimes it’s nice to make for the sake of making, but it is an added bonus if it’s wearable at the end!

I wanted to do something quick and simple next so I pulled out this jacket from Butterick 5225 which only has 2 pattern pieces.  I still managed to cut it out wrongly though through not paying attention and had to re-cut the back!

Sorry that second one of the back is sideways, WordPress wouldn’t let me save it the right way up for some reason.  As you can see from the bottom picture this is a pretty interesting fabric, it’s threads on top of a natural linen background.  The collar of the jacket is the wrong side of the fabric.  I’m not entirely happy with the way the hem is turned onto the outside of the collar but I can’t see how else it would work, if it was turned the other way it would look odd at the bottom where the wrong side would show.  Anyway, I like the way it’s come out and it will be nice to layer with a long sleeve t-shirt.  I have the same fabric with an orange thread on it to use at some point in the future too.  And yes, it does fit me now, I’m on a streak at the moment it would seem!

The pajama factory continues with these two pairs I made for Jim yesterday (the boys have been with their Dad since Friday, they come home tomorrow).  He has had pajama envy over the ones I’ve made Piggle and has been asking for weeks when it will be time for his new pajamas!

The bottoms for both are killington flannel and the tops are from PRR jersey, I dyed all the fabric myself.  The bottoms of the space ones were supposed to be the same light blue but I had one of those difficult dyeing experiences where because the killington was natural rather than white they came out green, so I threw them back in with some grey dye instead.

I have 3 more pairs of pajamas to do for this winter, I’m going to go up and cut out 2 pairs now so I can get them crossed off my never ending list!

I have continued to loose weight and am now down under 200 lbs for the first time in 2 years, I can’t tell you how happy I was when I got on the scales last week and saw 198.8, it feels like it’s been a long time coming!  I’ve now lost about 1/3 of the total weight I’d like to lose and it’s coming off at about a pound a week which I think is pretty healthy.  Things that didn’t fit me to start with are now too loose, the jeans I hadn’t fit in for years now need a belt, it’s pretty crazy but also very exciting and encouraging.  I need to make sure I don’t fall into the trap I have done so many times before of slacking off because I feel thinner.  I am thinner but I have a long way to go before I’m truly at a healthy weight for my 5’5″ frame.

And finally, I pulled out this Picovoli which I knit way back in 2006.  I was intending to frog it and use the yarn for something else but decided on a whim to throw it on and see what I thought of it now.  It fits me so much better now than it did in the photograph in the link and I wore it over a long sleeve black t-shirt the next day and am really liking it!  So, that’s another knitted garment added to my list of things I can now wear and it can live in the bedroom instead of stuffed into the back of a drawer with my yarn stash!

Hopefully I’ll be back sooner next time so show you some more FO’s.

Mariko FO, An Almost Shirt and Some Pyjamas

So I finally finished up Mariko, I finished the knitting and seaming in August but it took another 2 weeks or so for me to sew in the final 2 ends from the bottom border and to put the buttons on for some reason.

This was a really easy knit once I’d gotten over the yarn dyelot issues (the dyelots in this yarn are dramatically different and I’d been sent 2, luckily I swapped with a friend at the knitting night I go to!).  I also had some issues with the Rowan pattern saying things like ‘knit to 10 rows less than on the back’ when I was knitting the fronts first…  There’s also no picture of the back of it on the pattern so doing the back neckline was interesting as I had no idea what I was supposed to make it look like, apparently it looks like this…

I had read on Ravelry that the closure as given in the pattern doesn’t actually work to keep it shut so I decided to try something different.  I stuck a longish piece of yarn through the front where it was supposed to go and then crocheted a chain with both ends until I ran out of yarn, I tied a knot in the end.  To keep it closed I hook it around and then tie it in a knot around one of the buttons as so.

It does make the button a little bit tilted but it works.  The buttons are shell and from my Great Aunt’s button tin once again.  I would never buy shell nowadays being vegan but they do look good on the cardigan.

I tried it on after I finished taking the pictures and ended up not taking it off!  It’s very comfortable and I love the drape of it, I think I will get a lot of wear out of it!

The shirt that Mariko is over is Onion 5036.

It’s made from a textured cotton that I found in Boyes.  I had a fabric in mind when I traced off this pattern but didn’t have enough of it in the end.  I pulled out a different fabric but wasn’t sold totally on it so I hadn’t cut it out, then I came across this fabric and knew right away that I wanted to make the shirt out of it, love it when that happens!

The buttons are once again shell from the button tin!

There’s a yoke on the back as well as on the front giving it a bit of interest.

I also love the little stand up collar.  This version of the pattern was supposed to have darts but I decided that I didn’t want it that fitted, it was also supposed to have elastic around the bottom of the sleeves but I just hemmed them regularly as I didn’t want them gathered.

I love this shirt, however, despite the fact that I made my size, it is a bit too tight around the belly for me to feel comfortable in it just yet.  I am still loosing weight though and I know that in a few weeks it should fit me, I lost a bit off my waist last week and each week before so if I can keep up the steady loss this shirt will be getting a lot of wear in the near future, I’ll let you know when I get into it!  When I do get into it you can bet I’m pulling this pattern out again to make another one!

The pyjama factory is open once again, I started off with two pairs for Piggle as Jim can still fit into his from last winter but Piggle has grown quite a bit.

I think this is the third paid of pyjamas I’ve made out of that flannel, it’s all gone now finally!  The yellow is the same yellow cotton/poly knit that I’ve been using for years for the boys, still plenty of that to get through.

This pair are PRR cowboy jersey and killington flannel.  I have an absolute ton of killington, last time there was a co-op I got 15 yards of it and I still had some left from the previous 15 yards I had bought.  I dyed them green with Dylon hand dye in the machine as I usually do.  There’s plenty of the jersey left so you’ll be seeing a t-shirt sometime in the future from it, I don’t think I did enough ribbing though so that will have a contrasting neckband.

Both of these are Kwik Sew Sewing for Toddlers.  I added an inch and a half to the length of everything and straightened the legs a bit.  Piggle loves both pairs so we’re both happy!

Kwik Sew Vintage T-shirt and Pyjamas for Piggle

I’ve had this old Kwik Sew pattern for a while yet so decided to give it a whirl and see how it came out.

I don’t know what the date is of this but the fact it has a 3 digit pattern number suggests it’s not that modern!  The tracings that the original owner made from brown grocery bags was in the envelope, unfortunately we weren’t the same size though so I had to trace it for myself.  I made the view with the lady with her arms in the air which has ribbing around the armholes.

This is the finished t-shirt made using some PRR striped jersey.

As you can see it’s not as fitted as the pattern images make out, in fact it’s a pretty bog standard straight mans type t-shirt.

I actually worked at trying to get the stripes to match, usually I’m a little lax with my pattern placement when I’m cutting but this time I decided that as it would be noticeable that the stripes were off that I’d do my best to get them to work.

This is the front raglan seam.

This is one of the side seams.

Where it doesn’t match at all is on the back raglan seams.  I have no idea how I managed to get 4 out of 6 seams to match, obviously I wasn’t paying as much attention as I thought I was!  I did have to unpick a few times as the placement was just that teeny annoying bit off, but when it was close enough I let it be and moved on, afterall it was only a simple t-shirt that I will probably wear under a sweater or cardigan anyway!

Next up was a pair of Summer pyjamas for Piggle using the leftover Clown PRR jersey from the pair I made for Jim.

Very simple and quick using Kwik Sew Sewing for Toddlers in size T3.  He loved these, unfortunately I think he’s only had the chance to wear them twice due to the cold nights since I finished them, but they should still fit him at at least the start of next summer so he’ll get some wear out of them!

Shirt and Pyjamas

So, it’s time to catch up with some of my sewing projects!  I don’t want to make this a mammoth post so I will update a few things at a time until I’m caught up rather than dumping it all into one post!

First up is perhaps on of my favourite things that I’ve made in ages.

This is New Look 6962, view B.  I used some cotton lawn that I bought from Boyes for a very reasonable price.  Before I started sewing I was worried that the print was perhaps a bit too much for this type of shirt but I am extremely happy with the way that it came out and only wish we’d had better weather this summer so I could have worn it more, I think it only saw the outside world twice.

It was pretty simple to make, the changes I made to the pattern were using the length for view A (view B is supposed to have contrast fabric at the bottom), adding 2″ to the bodice front and back to allow for my large bust, using a double turned small hem on the sleeve rather than bias binding (bias binding in the UK is really stiff for some reason and doesn’t work so well for armhole in my opinion) and I also made a self fabric tie rather than using ribbon or cord.

I also used some of the pretty tie ends that I got from the Sew Onion competition.  I actually already had a few of these in my stash so it was nice to find something to put some on finally!

I didn’t take any length off the bottom to compensate for the length added at the top so this shirt is pretty long but I really like it that way.  I will use this pattern again next summer I’m sure!

Next up was another pair of pyjama bottoms.  I had a bit of a stash tidy as everything was a mess from pulling pieces out and replacing them and I couldn’t see a lot of what I had anymore.  Whilst re-folding I came across this piece of fabric and decided that you can never have enough bright fun pyjama bottoms so I quickly whipped up another cropped pair using Ottobre 4/05 #36.

I didn’t make any changes at all to the pattern this time, it’s an incredibly simple one with just 2 pieces and some elastic and a hem.

The print is a Michael Miller one I picked up in Abakhan years back, here’s a close-up in case you can’t see it well in the finished photo.

Kind of fitting for the summer we’ve had!  It was nice to get another piece of fabric into a useable garment, I’m still trying to sew more than I buy and I was doing really well until I went to Brighton and came home with 18 more metres!  However, as I very rarely visit fabric shops anymore I don’t think that was too bad and I should be able to sew more than I buy by the end of the year.

Whilst tidying up the sewing room I made a list of everything that I had fabric out for, for me and the boys, and put it all in neat piles with the pattern, fabric and any notions I need.  I had 43 things on my list in total when I started and I’ve managed to get about 6 or so done already which I’m happy about.  I’ve got a mixture of easy stuff (t-shirts and pyjamas for the boys which don’t take much time) and harder things (like the winter coat I never got around to making last year) along with a quilt that just needs some batting and the backing put on so hopefully I will manage to get it all done before I start adding to the list like I usually do!