Pom Pom Beanie and Thrummed Mittens

Once again I've been neglecting the other half of my maker obsession on this blog.  I never seem to remember to blog my knitted projects so I thought I'd better do something about that.

First up is a new beanie.  A while ago I took a trip to a yarn shop about an hours drive from my place - the Yarn Garden at Mendon.  I went out there specifically because I'd heard that they sold the really cool shawl pins that I was looking for, but of course I couldn't resist buying other stuff whilst I was there.

After much browsing I decided on a skein of Malabrigo yarn.  Of course I managed to throw out the tag before writing down all the pertinent details, but I believe it was from the Rios range of super washable wool.

I knew that I wanted to make a new beanie out of it and decided on the Kulshan Hat pattern that I downloaded from Ravelry.  I really love the honeycomb detail on the band of this hat, however I didn't feel like I needed my band to split, so once the band got to the circumference of my head I joined it together and used the three needle bind off to finish.

I then started on the fisherman's knit as detailed in the pattern, however I realised that with all this detail work, the colours in the yarn were really getting lost so after about 3 or 4 rows I switched to a straight knit pattern.  This yarn really shows each stitch beautifully and each stitch is its own separate colour so it looks really lovely close up.

I knit it to the length specified in the pattern (10") and tried it on - I don't know, slouchy beanies look so good in the picture, but on me it just looks stupid, so after much ummin and ahhing I ripped it right back to just 4" of knit.  two rows of decreases later and I finished off the hat but pulling all the stitches in to gather it all together.

Now this sort of hat need a pom pom.  I wanted a contrasting colour for the pom pom and found in my stash a deep purple in Caron Simply Soft yarn.  I made a simple cardboard template and started winding the pom pom.  It turned out a lot bigger than I expected but I really do like it!

I had a small amount of the Malabrigo wool left so I decided I would use to to start a pair of mittens to go with my hat.  I used the same honeycomb pattern to create two cuffs for a pair of mittens.  I knew I wouldn't have enough yarn to finish the mittens so I split my remaining ball into two and worked a basic mitten pattern until I ran out of wool.  At this point I switched back to the same purple Caron yarn that I used for the pom pom and finished off my mittens.

The resulting mittens ended up being a bit wider than I had intended, and also since the fingers are made from an acrylic yarn they're not that warm.  This is where I got lucky.  During one of my knitting groups recently, one of the other knitters had mentioned thrummed mittens I had never heard of this technique before however now that I had a pair of large, not warm mittens I decided it was time to do some research.

Technically thrumming is a method by which you knit small pieces of roving (called thrums) into the inside of a mitten (Or sock or whatever else you want to make warm) at intermittent intervals.  Now my mittens were already made, but I figured why couldn't I just add the thrums in later, they won't be as securely anchored, but it's not like these mittens are going to have to withstand much.

So I pulled out some dark green roving that I had lying around and started threading pieces through the inside stitches of my mittens.

I quite like the way you get to see spots of the green thrums showing through the purple.

These mittens are now heavenly to wear, so warm and snuggly and cozy - not very practical mind you - you can't really do anything with them on, but they're great if you're going to be standing outside in the cold.

Yet Another Bra!

And the never ending quest for the perfect bra continues.....

I've been trying to make my own bras for a while now as detailed here and right down the end of this post here.  I've got two that I'm really happy with - the last black one and the teal lace one.  But I figured it wouldn't hurt to have another one (or maybe even two?)

I only had enough notions for one more so I decided to go for a red plaid bra.

This material is one that I saw in the fabric shop a couple of times and was drawn too, but I usually left it on the shelf unsure what I could make out of it.  On my last trip I decided to go ahead and just buy it anyway.  Its a knit fabric, probably some sort of poly lycra, but its slightly thicker than the usual stuff I see around and feels beautifully soft against your skin.  I started trying to make a shirt out of it, but got the shirt half way done and couldn't bring myself to keep going - something is just not right, the combination of pattern and design isn't working for me.

So for the time being it's been thrown into the corner to sit and think about what it's done whist I go to work making some of the scraps into a bra.

Once again I made a few minor changes to the pattern - still working on getting it just perfect.  This time I took the bridge pattern piece and cut it in half so that there is no seam down the middle of the bra - instead you have a much smaller seam directly under each breast - I like this much better.

No center front seam

I went back to the original placement of the straps at the back - my modification last time didn't work very well.  The only other real change I made was to the way I made the straps - I'll elaborate on that later.

The outside of the bra is cut entirely from the red plaid fabric, the inside of the cups from nylon tricot and the inside of the band from power mesh.  I've finally got the constructions of the cups down pat and managed to make the entire thing without once having to unpick a seam - that's a first for me and bras....

I didn't have any of the 1.5" wide push elastic left for the bottom band so I had to use 5/8" plush elastic instead - I definitely prefer at least 1" wide bottom band, but it's not too bad.

I also didn't have any black 3/8" elastic for around the top of the bra, but I did have a whole bunch of old bras that I had previously cannibalised for parts and I realised that I could use all the black plush strap elastic from those bras to finish off this one.

For the straps I cut a piece of the nylon tricot  fabric 1.25" wide x 8" long and sewed that on to the cup.  I then extended the side back and front elastic pieces up along this strap piece  - without stretching the elastic,  Once all the elastic has been turned this resulted in a very sturdy 5/8" wide strap.  To cover all the elastic I cut a piece of the plaid fabric 8" long and sewed it into a tube.  Whilst it was still inside out I threaded the bra strap through the tube until the farthest end of the tube was in line with where the strap attaches to the cup.  I then sewed the tube on inside out and the turned the tube back the right way completely covering the strap - this creates a beautifully neat seam at the strap attachment line.

I had just enough underwire casing and one hook and eye catch left.  As the underwire that I bought with my bra making notions were too small I took another trip to Walmart and pick up another $3 bra.  This time I bought a 38D and the underwire fits pretty nicely.  I might go up to a 38DD next time if they have one or maybe a 40D, but this one works pretty well.

I did plan on using salvaged rings to join the straps to the elastic at the back, but it ended up being rather uncomfortable so I unpicked it and just sewed the two parts of the straps together instead.

I think I may have put on a bit of weight since the last time I made this bra - the cups are just a smidge small meaning there is a little bit of extra flesh at the top of the cups - not too much, and nothing that's going to stop me from wearing it, its just something I have to be aware of for next time.

Of course I had to make a couple of pairs of underpants to go with the bra. I think I finally have my underpants pattern down pat, though on my first pair I may have made the leg elastic a bit too tight.

The second pair of pants was squeezed out of some of the left over bits of fabric so I ended up having to put a seam down the center front and there is no pattern matching but hey - who's going to see it except me!

And whilst I had the fabric out I figured I'd make up a second pair of underpants to match the black bra I made as well.   Pretty soon I'll have a fully handmade wardrobe of underthings.

Feathery Jumpsuit

After my last attempt at a jumpsuit failed I decided to try again.   I had a piece of fabric that I found last time I took a trip to my local fabric store.  Its a black poly lycra fabric with a border design of purple and turquoise feathers along the two long edges of the fabric.

Again there was a definite direction of the design to this pattern, and once again the direction of the pattern didn't correspond to the stretch of the fabric.  But this time I knew about it and could adjust accordingly.

I used the same shirt pattern as last time but I added 1/8" to the centerline front and back, as well as adding about 1/2" to each side seam for a total of 2.5" total ease.  It's not much, but combined with cutting the V neckline front and back 1"wider, allows me to get this shirt on over my hips.

Once I had the top of the shirt cut out and basted together I started on the shorts.  I used the pants pattern for the Closet Case Files Sallie Jumpsuit but cut off to the length of my normal shorts pattern.  I ended up taking a bit of width off at the side seams but otherwise used them as is.  To combine the two pieces I just cut two rectangles about the length of the top of my shorts, then used my new dress form to figure out just how wide I wanted the band.  Whilst the top and shorts pattern pieces had been cut out of the patterned parts of my fabric, I cut the center band out of the plain black section to create some visual interest.

I basted the center bands to the top and shirts sections then tried on the resulting outfit and pinned it all together down to sides to get a good fit.  I then took everything apart and put it all back together again properly.  I serged each seam, added a facing to the neckline and added the pockets from the Sallie Jumpsuit into the shorts.  The bottom of the shorts I left as is as I cut them with the lower edge on the selvedge, if I find that they are too long after wearing them a time or two i'll take them up then.

I'm really happy with the way these turned out, I think they look great and they are very comfortable to wear.  They can be a bit difficult to get on, but its not too bad, and I think worth the effort.  I like the way these fit a lot better than the straight Sallie jumpsuit.  The fact that its more fitted under my bust gives my shape much more definition and therefore flatters my figure better.

Two piece Maxi

                     


I've had this piece of material sitting in my stash for quite a while now. I had earmarked it for a summer shorts jumpsuit and I thought it was about time I made it up.

I decided that I wanted to use the pattern that I created for this black slit long sleeve top since it fits so beautifully so I went ahead and cut that out of my fabric - leaving off the sleeves to get a kimono T look.  I got it all sewed together and then went to try it on my dress form.

(Just as an aside I have to say I finally got a dress form for Christmas and I love it - it's a Drizt My Double Dress form and I've been able to pad it out so it's a very good replica of me).

And here's where we ran into trouble.  I could only just get it on over the top of the dress form.  Since the pattern on this fabric had to go in a certain direction I never even thought about whether the stretch was in that direction too - turns out it isn't.   Now don't get me wrong, the top fits nicely - beautifully in fact - its just a bit of a wiggle to get into it and there is no way that I'll be able to make it into a jumpsuit.  So there goes that idea out the window.

I toyed around with the idea of just making the top and leaving it at that.  I finished off the neckline with a facing and top stitched it down about 1" from the edge.  The sleeves I just turned under and top stitched using a stretchy fancy stitch from my machine.

 

And then I started playing around with ideas for the bottom half.  Do I want to make it into a dress? - should it have a gathered waist? or darts?.  Do I want the skirt long or short?.  In the end I decided to make a separate long skirt that I could wear with the top to make a maxi dress look, but I could also wear the top by itself if the pattern gets a bit too much.

To make the skirt I cut two rectangles as wide as I could from my remaining fabric, then measured the top so that it just fits over the hips with a small amount of ease and tapered the side seams of the skirt from that dimension out to the full width at the bottom.    To finish the top of the skirt I used a zig zag stitch to sew a piece of 3/4" elastic around the top edge, then turned it over and stitched again.  As the length was only just long enough, to finish the bottom I just turned it under once and stitched with a stretchy stitch - I finished the shirt off in the same way and we have a compete outfit.

Refashioned Jeans Shorts

After all the effort I went to to try and create a top just to match a pair of shorts I realised that what my wardrobe needs is some more basics.  More basic tops to go with my patterned shorts, but also more basic shorts to go with my patterned tops.

I was thinking about making a new pair of black shorts when I remembered all the pieces of jeans fabric that I still had lying around after entering the Refashions Contest on Makery.uk last year.  Why don't I use some of that to make a pair of jeans shorts.

So I went through and pulled out all the bits and pieces that I still had left over - there were two untouched pairs of jeans, two pairs of pants that had had their waistbands removed and legs cut off, plus a whole bunch of scraps.

I tried on the two untouched pairs, but they were both very large and I didn't love the colour of them enough to want to start playing around with them.

One pair of shorts that had the waistband cut off I had started trying to fit to me when I was thinking of making a jumpsuit - all they really needed was to have the waistband put back on, so I did that and tried them on - and was severely underwhelmed.  They looked like Mum Jeans.  I even tried cutting them off shorter but they still were not doing it for me.  I almost gave up at that point thinking jeans shorts just aren't for me.

But then I decided to go ahead and try on the other pair that had had the legs cut off and had the waistband removed.  These were obviously a much smaller pair of jeans with quite a bit of stretch.  They were quite a bit too small for me...however even squished into them I much preferred the way they looked to anything else I had tried on so far.  So since all the prep work was already done I decided to just try a quick fix and see if they were salvageable.

I cut the jeans about 1/4"  behind the flat fell side seams from top the bottom.  I then found a couple of scrap bits of my favourite jeans fabric that I could use to extend the jeans.

This fabric is from a light blue pair of jeans that has been embossed with gold designs.  The only pieces of this fabric that I had left were quite faded but I decided to go ahead and use them anyway.  I sewed them into the shorts down each of the cut edges and tried them on again - perfect.  They are still a but tight, but a nice "snug" tight rather than a "sausage being squished casing" tight.  Now I just needed a new waistband.  I though about taking the waistband off the the other pair of shorts that I just sewed it onto and putting that on but I wasn't enthused about the idea.  I figured that would just give me a big muffin top, so instead I used a piece of black knit rib and sewed that on, encasing a piece of 3" wide elastic in it.

Because the elastic was so wide I had to angle it in at the top so that is followed the shape of my body but that wasn't a problem it just created a bit of a V shape to the elastic, which I then used at the front of the pants to give a nice shape around the front.

I have at least discovered one thing that I like about having very little difference in size between my waist and my hips I can make elastic waist pants that don't need much if any gathering to fit so they end up looking like real pants but are much more comfortable....got to have a silver lining for everything!

 The final piece of the puzzle was how to finish off the legs.  I had to cut them pretty short as a lot of the leg material had already been used for other projects, I thought about leaving the cut edge free to fray, but decided in the end that I liked the look of them hemmed better so just did a quick serge about the bottom to stop and fraying and turned he edge under about 3/8".

I love the way these shorts turned out.  For a quick mornings work they're a great addition to my wardrobe.

Purple Twist Knit Top

As detailed in my last post I've been trying to make a shirt to go with the shorts that I made for round one of the Pattern Review Sewing Bee  last year.  After finishing my purple linen shirt I just wasn't convinced that I was going to wear it so I started thinking of other options.  I didn't really want to go out and buy new fabric, but them I had a brain wave.  

A while ago, I had a very thin purple knit fabric that I tried to make a long sleeve wrap top out of .  Unfortunately the wrap part of the pattern never worked and I never ended up finishing it.

 The solution - why don't I reuse that fabric to make a little summer tank top.

The first thing I did was to cut off the sleeves about 2cm away from the seam line.  I then turned the seam under and top stitched it in place - instant facing on a sleeveless top.  

 The top was very long so my second order of business was to turn the bottom edge up about 9cm  and then serge along that line effectively creating a band around the bottom of the shirt.  

That just left the bottom band at the front that I could play around with to create a little visual interest.  My final solution was to twist the two sections of the band around each other and then sew them back into the opposite side seam creating a nice little twist and some ruching along the bottom band at the front.  

Not too bad for an couple of hours work (and most of that time was spent playing around with different options.)  It's not the most greatest shirt around, mainly due to the cheap crappy material that it's made out of, but it's functional and much more wearable now than it was before.