Workin' On It

 Sarah is trying to show more works in progress this year and I thought that sounded like a great idea, especially since I plan on sewing slower over the next few months. (Also I have four projects I'm working on and another dozen or so that are in the active planning phase.) So here they go.

1. The not so much to look at yet jacket

Oh, I finally decided what to do with my blackberry cord. The Simplicity 3688 1940s retro jacket won out. Jackets are great wardrobe staples. I do already have a corduroy Beignet (which I actually wore today) and I think if I do want to make the cape, I'll go the whole nine yards and make the entire matching set.

I lined it with this lovely plaid quilting cotton from my stash. I was going really good on this project until I realized that I didn't have any good lining for the sleeves. Actual garment lining instead of the quilting cotton will make it much easier to take on and off. So I had to go to Jo-Ann's and get some lining. (I choose green to match the little green stripe and because I like green.) Hopefully, I can make another dent in this project tomorrow.

I did bound button holes. It's been a while since I've done them but they came out pretty good. I'm using some pretty silver buttons to go in the holes.

#2 The Ceylon Shirt Muslin

 

I have a particular version of Colette Pattern's Ceylon that I want to make but I was worried about the fit of the bodice as it's kind of complicated and it's an empire waist. (Empire waist + having a large chest = underbust seam not under the bust!) So I decided to whip up a blouse wearable (hopefully) muslin in some more quilting cotton from the sash. I picked up some nice red buttons to go with it. This will not be getting bound button holes if my new machine decides to play nice.

#3 A Stitch in Time 30s mustard sweater

I decided not to do the 3 hour sweater and to switch over to this lovely 30s sweater from A Stitch in Time Vol. 2. I did a lot of knitting during the holidays as you can see. I just hope I have enough yarn! I have exactly the number of balls as the pattern calls for so I should be ok, but I am a bit nervous as I would have picked up one more if I had purchased this yarn for this project from the get go.

 

I also picked up this book from a used book store after realizing that I'd spent two hours knitting part of this sweater (and my entire Cadence) wrong. Apparently, I've been knitting Ktbl instead of K. Whoops! I did rip out the part of this sweater, though I think my Cadence looks fine. So, I thought I could use a an actual knitting book. I'm not too thrilled about the B word on the cover but I have heard good things about this book and it was cheap.

#4 Gettin' Snoody

Almost all of the knitting projects in A Stitch in Time Vol 2 use tiny needle and tiny thread so I thought I could use a practice project (or two) to get used to them before I commit to a big project. The first of these practice projects is a lovely snood I'm making up in a red wool blend.

What have you been working on this new year?

P.S. Edith's black floral blouse should be coming your way tomorrow. Yay for nice weather for outside pictures!

The Big Stash Organization

In an effort to actively reduce my stash, I thought an organization and cataloging process was a good idea and that's what I did today. I used Mena's cute fabric swatch pages to cataloge all of my fabrics. I also rolled all of them instead of folding as suggested by the Coletterie. It was a pretty long process but I'm so happy it's done! I know all of the fabrics (minus muslin, lining and interfacing) that I have as well as how much of each I own. Woohoo!

I also made a snazy Excel spreadsheet to do all of stat calculations for me and here's what I've found.

Garment: 43.3 yds (54%)
Quilting: 29.3 yds (37%)
Home Dec: 6.9 yds (9%)
Total: 79.5 yds

******edit******
(Thought you all might like to know that 53 yds of my stash are pieces I've never used and 26.5 yds are remnants from previous projects.)

Oh, why did I buy so much quilting cotton?!?! *sigh*

I was able to let go of a lot of small pieces. I got rid of a huge garbage bag full of mid sized scraps that were <1/3 yd or just oddly shaped. I also used enough of my small scraps making ties for my fabric bundles to go from 2 shoe boxes full to 1. I still have gobs of pieces that are less than one yard.

Garment: 9.4 yds under 1 yd pieces
Quilting: 4.4 yds under 1 yd pieces
Total: ~15 yds under 1 yd pieces

How small is too small to keep? I'm not a quilter and can't really see myself using many pieces that are less than one yard. Some of the pieces have millinery or purse potential but a lot don't. Are these keepers or is it time to let go? I'm sure many of you are more thrifty and crafty and would have loads of ideas of how to use these bits. I'm not that crafty nor do I have extra time to do said crafty things.

There are also a lot of leftovers from other projects that I don't see myself using again. There are a few pieces that are 1-2 yds that someone else would be able to use to make something, especially if they are smaller than me. Would any of you be interested in a giveaway for these? I'm still digesting a lot of this though so I'm not sure I'm ready to part with all of them.

Now to relax with a bit of knitting.

Newbie and the Knitter Knit Along: Finished!

 Here is my finished Cadence sweater!

Tada!

And the back.

The lace came out really nice too.

I learned a lot knitting this sweater and it came out really nice! I love the color too. It's pretty baggy on me but still wearable. I know the pattern is meant to be loose but there's a bit much ease for me. Reblocking helped but it streatched out again after just a few wears. If I knitted this pattern again, I'd probably knit the ribbing on the collar on smaller needles to make it tighter. I'd also knit the back a size smaller. I've read that that's kind of how you do a knitting FBA and the back is pretty baggy.

Ok, so now on to the good bits of the sweater. I learned how to knit with circular needles, read a lace chart, use double pointed needles, modify a knitting pattern, blocking, starting a new skein of yarn mid-project, and finishing techniques. The body of the sweater is very even and pretty. I didn't have to rip out hardly any of the sweater and it didn't become a UFO. Yay!

Hopefully there will be more lovely knits in my future!

2011: A Year of Sewing

I know I already did a bit of a year end review, but I also decided that I wanted to do a recap of all of my sewing projects from last year. And boy have I done a lot! My other expensive hobby is scrapbooking so I thought I'd share some of the pages I've made in my sewing scrapbook as a way to look back on last year's projects. And I just stuck all the projects I haven't gotten around to scrapbooking yet in a collage at the end. These are in approximate chronological order.

So that's 33 (if I counted correctly) plus two I haven't blogged about yet. Wow! I'm not quite up there with some of the sewers over at Sew Weekly, but it's a lot more than I had remembered!

Think Pink!

I wished 2011 goodbye in a fabulous stripped pink dress! (I also welcomed 2012 in with pink but a ridiculous amount of wind prevented any outfit photos today so you'll just have to take my word for it.) We had a few friends over (because that's all that fit in our tiny place!) last night for a bit of end of year festivities so I had an excuse to wear my new dress from Fab Gabs! (I also got a new pink hat!)

I've also been thinking about resolutions for this year. So here they are:

1) More (and better) outfit posts.

I love looking great and I love sharing with you. I had some seasonal depression last winter because I lived in jeans and hoodies. I refuse to do that this year and hopefully there will be many outfit posts for you to see. I also want to have better pictures and more interesting locations for you guys to see.

2) Knit stuff

I've loved learning how to knit and my goal is to knit 4 big projects this year (ie sweaters) as well as some small bits like hats and scarves. I also want to not start a yarn stash!

3) De-stash my stash!

I've accumulated a growing fabric stash and I really want to cut down on it this year. This means more sewing and less shopping. I also want to focus on quality fabrics for my stash because I have a lot of pieces that are pretty but not really useful for what I need them to do.

4) Create a quick everyday hair and makeup routine.

It is sad for me to admit that there are a lot of days where I go out of the house with no makeup on and boring hair. Bad style blogger. I'm not a morning person so I need a plan to help me get up and going in the morning. I want a 5 minute make-up routine and a 5-10 minute hair do (or two) that I can whip up in the morning and still look great.

5) Sew more blouses and other work appropriate clothing.

I'm starting my thesis research next semester which means I'll be in the lab (and pants) five days a week for the next year and a half or so. I need to have more me made stuff that I can wear in the lab and for work (which is also in a lab). I also want more blouses that I can wear with my Freddies of Pinewood jeans. I think if I can get myself to wear them more than 50% of the time I'm in pants I'll reward myself with another pair. They have some great 50s styles too!

6) Get off the caffeine!

This last one isn't terribly blog related, but that's ok. I got hooked on having chai tea every morning last winter and then switched to soda over the summer and I'm now up to 2 cans a day from drinking almost none. My goal is to get back to having soda only for special occasions. My dad introduced me to some really great apple cinnamon tea over Christmas and hopefully that will help! I'm so picky-no tea, no coffee-and I don't want to go back to chai because I like it with milk and I'm on a low carb diet (yay for losing 10 lbs so far!) and I would rather spend my carbs on something other than milk. So if any of you have a good morning beverage to suggest, I'd love to hear it. I don't like tea that tastes like tea and I'm not really into floral flavors but I know there has to be more kinds out there I'd like.

Hope you all have had a great start to 2012!

Dressing Downton: Making Muslins

 A lot of the pieces I want to make for Dressing Downton are just not going to have a pattern out there, so I got drafting! Here is my first muslin for Edith's floral blouse.

Starting with Colette Pattern's free Sorbetto top and a spare sleeve pattern, I drafted in raglan sleeves, adjusted the neck line, and changed the darts to gathers along the seam where the sleeves attached.

The back was a bit big by the neck so I added gathers. The collar would hide them.

There was also extra fabric in the upper chest. I removed it from the sleeve piece and added the excess on the blouse front to the gathers. This worked out great since the gathers were a bit pathetic.

Muslin #2 was much better and I also added the collar. No more awkward excess fabric on the front.

The gathers worked out nicely on the back. Now it fits much better on the back of the neck.

I knot the design lines are a bit hard to see on the patterned fabric I used for my muslin but they are all there. And this is the fabric I'm making this blouse from.