Sew Over It dressmaking escapades

With knitting, I am completely self-taught (books, youtube!), which was mostly fine although I am sure some things may have been easier if I had had some hands-on  help. I had been debating whether a sewing class might be a good idea (for example, to actually find out the best way to do zips as opposed to the many of ways I discovered online...). And after some deliberation I decided to try out the Intro to dressmaking weekend at Sew Over It, a sewing shop/cafe in London.

I have to note here that I took this course in October, so this is a very very belated review. I kept meaning to take nice pictures of me wearing my makes and absolutely failed, so I decided to just take photos of the clothes - you will just have to imagine me wearing them (I've worn the skirt twice already so you may even remember it).

The shop in Clapham is a lovely space spread over two floors (we were in the basement but there was another course going on upstairs), with very friendly staff and lots of beautiful fabrics to choose from. Wasn't the best location for me, but they have recently opened a second shop which I may need to visit in the future.

The course was spread over a weekend, with the Saturday involving sewing a circle skirt and the Sunday a shift dress. There were only three of us on the Saturday and four on the Sunday, which was great because we had more space to work and more personal attention from the teacher, Laurel Waldron.

I arrived bright and early on the Saturday (so early in fact that I had to wait 20 minutes until they actually opened the shop), with my bunny fabric purchased from the Knitting and Stitching Show, eager to learn. I had been a little paranoid the day before and practiced by making yet another cushion, just to make sure I remembered how to use the sewing machine!

Everything was going smoothly at first: we cut the pattern to our size, learned how to place the pieces on the fabric, and sewed the pieces together. I even had time for a giant slice of chocolate cake!

Now, my memory is a little fuzzy, but I think it went a bit wrong for me after we installed the zipper (which fingers crossed I have now established in my head and will no longer have trouble with in the future). The pattern for this skirt involves hand-stitching the waistband for a more professional finish, at which point I discovered that, like with knitting, black is a terrible colour because you just can't see anything - which is annoying because I love black. So here I fell a little behind everyone else, and the competitive side of me got a bit stressed about being last.

This continued when we were doing the hem, which was sewn with the machine but was a right pain because it took ages of ironing and pinning, this being a giant circle skirt. (Note: I sort of messed it up and so decided to rip it when I got home and hem it again. And did a terrible job of it again. But as Laurel kept saying to me, practice, practice).

Don't the bunnies look a bit like pineapples??

Full circle!

On day 2, dress day, I was determined to do better. Once again, measure, pin, cut, sew pieces together (and useful tips on how to modify pattern to fit my measurements). Then came the overlocker, and things went a bit downhill once again. Using the overlocker on a straight seam was easy and quite fun actually, but when it came to more curved lines it was really hard to control (practice, practice!). I started falling behind once again, and kept getting flustered when things like my bobbin run out (twice...).

Aaaanyway, with Laurel's help I mostly finished it, with just the hem to do at home. Which was a good thing because when I got home the dress was too tight (despite correct measurements and expanding to accommodate the big hips). I attempted to fix this by opening up the seam, which made it marginally better but still did not look particularly flattering (perhaps not the best dress shape for me). 

But all is not wasted, the pattern is drafted to also make a top or tunic, so I decided to cut the dress and make it into a cute little smart top. 

All in all, a great weekend with some useful tips and two semi-wearable garments. I had concluded that I probably wouldn't make the skirt again, but its actually quite fun to wear so it may have a little sibling in the future.

Fairy tale knitting: snakes and foxes

I love knitting for my nephews, as I can go crazy and pick really fun patterns for them. This year I went for scarves to keep their little necks warm (for when it actually gets cold in Greece), focusing on an animal theme.

The first one is the Wiggly Worm scarf, which can be modified to make a snake instead (and let's face it, a snake scarf is way cooler than a worm scarf). This is a very simple thin scarf, intentionally knit in stockinette to make it curl in itself, and with some increases and decreases for shaping. I had to improvise the tongue, and there is no way I can remember exactly what I did other than I used crochet.

 

I'd like to think of this as a psychedelic snake (I do realise that blue is not exactly the most snake-like colour) that is either rather startled or wears glasses - must be the clear buttons! Either way, I think he is rather cute, surprisingly for a snake.

The second is one that I have wanted to make for ages but couldn't justify to make for myself: Mr Fox, by tiny owl knits (from the same book as my lovely fingerless gloves, catching butterflies). This little guy is more of a neck warmer I guess than a long scarf, with the body and tail knit in one piece, the legs added directly to the main body, and the head knit separately, stuffed and then sewn onto the main body.

It was pretty straightforward as a pattern until right at the end, when I couldn't really understand how to attach the head to main body, and I'm still not entirely sure I did it right (a bit more explanation would have been helpful, unless my cold is also making me a bit stupid). I think I could have done a better job, as he looks a bit of a hunchback now.


He is still insanely cute, though, despite his defects (I especially love his white paws and edge of tail).


Both scarves were made using Red Heart Solid, the aran weight for Mr Snake and the 4-ply for Mr Fox. The pattern for Mr Fox offers two options, one for a bigger and chunkier scarf and one knit in 4-ply that is meant to be worn as a stole. I decided to go somewhere in between and use the 4-ply held double (which apparently would give a DK weight yarn) and 5mm needles. If I were to make it again (for myself perhaps?) I would probably go for the bigger fox and hope that I don't look like a crazy lady!

Barter economy with an old favourite, Fetching

I got a knitting commission! Well, actually this is not my first, but it's the first that I actually completed in exchange for something. I call this 'barter economy' because the exchange was with my yoga teacher, and she is paying me in classes :).

Her request was simple: fingerless gloves, in bright pink (thankfully still have lots of the pink Manos yarn), with minimum finger coverage. I personally am not a big fan of the non-thumbed fingerless gloves, so I wasn't really aware of any nice ones that were constructed in the round and did not have a thumb (and as you know, I tend to avoid seams in knitting, so did not want to knit them flat). By browsing trusty Ravelry, I came a cross a few patterns that constructed a thumbhole by including a few rows of knitting back and forth, and so I decided to use that logic to modify an old favourite, Fetching.

At the time of writing, Fetching had 20,314 projects on Ravelry! There's a reason it's so popular: the pattern is well-written, the gloves are simple and fast to knit, yet still look impressive because of the cables, and unless modified to be longer, they use very little yarn. I myself have made them twice already, and have also knitted the popular Fetching-inspired Owlings a couple of times. The benefit of this is that I know that 45 stitches it far too many (especially because they stretch a lot - although now I realise that in the past I cast on 40 stitches but this time I did 35... they still fit though).

Here is what I did to omit the thumb:

- On row 12, start working straight, knitting back and forth. This means that on WS rows you need to purl the knits and knit the purls (ie purl 4, knit 1).
- Continue like this up to the row where the thumb opening is made.
- Knit 1 more row straight in rib pattern, then join back in the round and continue as in original pattern.

One other modification was to omit the first cable in the pattern, but this was mainly because I had started making a different pair of gloves which I didn't like, and didn't want to rip all the way to the start.

A new life, and the Lush Lacy Mitts to go with it

Its been a while, again - I would have thought that being a student again would mean having lots of spare time to do my knitting and sewing projects, but with post-work travels, freelance work and getting to grips with philosophy, I have been pretty busy. However, there is always time for knitting, and with temperatures dropping I decided I needed a new pair of fingerless gloves (a girl can never have enough pairs, clearly my favourite thing to knit!).

These are the Lush Lace Mitts, which I saw on craftsy's facebook feed and immediately had to have. I was drawn to the lace (as usual), as well as the aran-weight yarn, which together make for a pretty and fast knit. The buttons make them look quite dainty as well, they remind me of my Veyla gloves, which have been my favourites for quite some time now but sadly are starting to pile.

I was a little sceptical of knitting them with 5.5mm needles, as most of my fingerless gloves are made with 4mm needles, but I couldn't quite get the gauge so I settled on my 5mm ones and hoped for the best (winging it as usual). In fact I read somewhere that this yarn is quite stretchy after blocking (will come to this in a moment) so I figured it would all even out eventually.

Aside from that, I pretty much followed the pattern, but made them slightly longer at the top by adding 4 rows of stockinette before binding off.

On to the yarn, Drops Big Merino, which I bought from the Nest stall at the Alexandra Palace Knitting and Stitching show; I had in fact planned to take lots of pretty pictures and write a blog post about the show, but as usual I got completely overwhelmed with yarn and fabric joy that I didn't. What can I say, I'm weak! Anyway, the yarn is very soft and and has a lovely springy quality to it which I absolutely love (I suppose this is why others have complained about it getting too stretchy?). And its a bargain at £3.10! (why are Drops yarns so cheap??). I think it did stretch a bit after blocking but they were a little tight initially so I was sort of counting on it. The only issue might be that they might stretch out with wear (I have a hat made with a similar yarn which is so enormous now, its unwearable).

The buttons I had completely forgotten I had, and found them in my sewing box when I was looking for thread, I think I bought them at the knitting show last year? They are bigger than what I had planned to use, but the tiny buttons I used in Veyla keep coming undone so I figured bigger ones might stay put more easily. I should mention that the gloves don't have buttonholes, I just squeezed the buttons through the lace stitch.

So, overall, I love them and I am sure we will be very happy together! (I am wearing them right now in fact) I don't think they will be very useful when it gets very cold (lace, and fingers quite exposed), but they will be an excellent friend for cold-ish weather.

Link to Ravelry project