Back from the dead

and with the living now.  Apologies for the long absence.  I came out of my malaise a week ago, but have been extremely busy.  I have a few finished projects to show you…

I was able to complete Jack’s sweater in time for his Christmas card picture photo shoot.  And he looked super duper cute with the biggest smiles I have ever seen.  Unfortunately these photos aren’t available for me to post on the blog as they were taken by a professional photographer and I don’t have digital files of them.  But to satisfy (albeit somewhat unsatisfactorily) your curiosity, here’s the sweater without a little 2 yr old in it.

And I completed the commission.  I made my first successful pompom for the cute little hat and knitted a pair of mittens as well.  The mittens need some practice.  I loved the gusset for the thumb, but the actual thumb part itself, I found a little lacking in finesse.  Maybe it’s the scale for small child, I’m not sure.  Maybe it would be better for an adult.  Without further ado, the commission.  Both hat and mittens patterns are from Ann Budd’s book, “The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns.”

I have worked on the trench coat, but will post the progress on the trench sew along later today.  Check back after 5pm to see my progress.  I think I need about two more evenings of intensive work on it before it will be finished.  I never said I was fast. 

Also, in somewhat sewing related news, I did a major overhaul of my apt/sewing studio.  Story and pictures tomorrow…  I know, I’m such a tease. 

I’m happy to be back and have missed being connected to you all.  I just have been overwhelmed with projects and too little time to blog and comment on other people’s blogs.  But hopefully my time commitments will ease up. 

Ha, right!  *mired in delusions*

Happy sewing!

Hiding out

My apologies for being absent the last week.  I have been under the weather morale-wise.  Although my ennui has nothing to do with sewing, I haven’t sewn a thing since my last lesson with Thea where we figured out what was wrong with the raglan sleeves on my trench (more on that later). 

I have been knitting though.  I started the commission and my son’s yearly sweater.  I find knitting, especially patterns I’ve done before, very therapeutic.  It builds my confidence while keeping the feelings of accomplishment going. 

Hopefully I will snap out of this mental malaise soon. 

Happy knitting and sewing to you all.

Good times

I am smiling this morning.  Ear to ear. 

Yesterday, I had the good fortune to attend a small gathering of like-minded people to share our mutual love of sewing.   Carolyn hosted and she’s a great hostess (serving lasagna, garlic bread, salad, appetizers, the works!).  We shared our stories, talked about the pros and cons of blogging, shopped Carolyn’s fabric closet… 

We also all brought fabric to be donated to Carolyn’s local high school.  I brought some boucle I bought from Fabric.com when the Vera Wang Lavender collection went on sale a while back.  It just wasn’t what I thought it was going to be when I received it.  It was too electric blue.  But when Carolyn found out that I was going to donate it, she said no way and brought out some burgundy colored silk that paired with it and magically, the blue became more of a purple.  Weird.  So Carolyn insisted that I keep it.  I think I will give Carolyn some other fabric in my stash to donate to her local high school instead. 

Karen, Cidell and Wendy were there.  I have met each of them before and hope that I can now call them my friends.  There were three others whom I have not met before: Barbara, Cindy and Lindsay T.  

The highlight of the visit had to be seeing Carolyn’s mighty stash in person.  I was so envious, I had to avert my eyes.    She has some AMAZING fabrics in that closet.  Wow!

Here are some not to great pictures to memorialize the occasion.  I hope we can meet up again soon!

Lindsay T, Cidell, and Carolyn

 

Cindy and Barbara

 

Wendy and Karen

My first commission

A co-worker saw the hat and scarf  I knitted for Jack recently and requested a hat for her niece.  She bought the same yarn, Koigu merino wool, but in another colorway.  Isn’t this pretty?

Instead of payment we are bartering talents.  She’s a fantastic Italian cook and Jack’s favorite dish is pasta fagiole.  So she’s going to make him a big pot of it in exchange for the hat.  Perfect!

Happy knitting and sewing!

Screwing up my courage

Have you noticed the preponderance of late night sewing in my posts?  Well, I have and I know why too.  Most nights it takes me a good two hours of procrastinating before I finally screw up enough courage to sew.  It’s not that I think sewing is difficult, but that I want it to be perfect.  And I’m such a beginner that nothing is going to be perfect. 

So, then I just put it off until I realize that I have to get things done and start at 9:30pm or 10pm.  I do actually want to wear this trench coat before winter sets in.  But last night, my courage never showed up.  Tonight I have my lesson with Thea.  Hopefully, we’ll be able to conquer my fear of interfacing and get further along constructing my trench.

Happy sewing!

Creeping along…

I thought I’d post this on my own blog rather than the Trench Sew Along even though it’s about my trench coat.  I am just embarrassed at how slow things are going and I don’t want to post about each line of seaming at the sew along.  That would get old real fast.  My latest sewing phobia is “Fear of Interfacing”.  I have to interface the collar, the belt, etc.  and am procrastinating doing so.  I’ve never interfaced before (well, on a garment), so I am more than a bit nervous.

I did finish my pockets and pocket flaps last night though.  And I am a little meh about them.  What do you think?

 

Of course, there was a lot of late night sewing, so the flaps could be better sewn and the top stitching could match a little better.  I was trading emails with my sewing teacher last night about the flaps and think we had a miscommunication somewhere along the way, so she didn’t understand what I was asking vis a vis the topstitching and I didn’t understand what she answered because it didn’t answer my question at all.  ARGH! 

At this point though, I am not going to do them over.  It’s a small detail (the lack of one extra line of topstitching on the flap) that could look on purpose as a design element.  Also, I just don’t know how you would avoid getting that “box” of stitches in the corners of the flap.

Anyway, that’s all I have to show since my last lesson, pockets and flaps.  That’s it.  Did I mention I am slow sewist and that I make things more complicated than they are? 

Happy sewing!

Trench disaster

Ok, it’s not on the scale of the Titanic, but I had a mini-disaster with my trench last night.  Click through to the Trench Sew Along to read all about it.  If you have any advice, let me know!

Also, I’ve turned to cannibalism.  I explain that too.

Happy sewing!

Hat’s off to you!

Haha.  I finished Jack’s winter hat last night.  It’s pretty cute.  I thought it might be a little big and tried it on Jack this morning.  And…

I was right.    Not by much.  And not enough to do over, but a little big.  I did something new this year.  For the topper, I made a six stitch I-cord about 3 inches long and then tied it into a knot.  I think it looks pretty cute (if I do say so myself).  Again, the pattern was from Ann Budd’s book, “The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns.”

Now without further ado… the finished project…

The mittens are next on the list, but I may not get to them until next week.  I have to keep working on my trench coat at the Trench Sew Along.

Happy knitting and sewing!

And now for something completely different

It’s almost October.  And that means it’s time for me to start knitting Jack’s winter scarf, hat and mittens, not to mention his yearly sweater.  I dragged Jack to Purl yesterday to buy some yarn for these endeavors.  He was pretty good natured about it, especially in light of the fact that he woke up at 4:30am and didn’t take a nap at all yesterday.  So as reward for a completely sleepless day, I decided to walk to Soho and fondle buy some yarn. 

Here’s what I picked up…

 

For Jack’s scarf, I am using a pattern I found on Liesl’s blog, Disdressed.  I made it last year and it was great!  I love how you thread one end of the scarf through the other end so it doesn’t come undone and kids can’t pull them off.  Ingenious!  I started the scarf last night and should be done tonight.  I am using the multi-colored yarn for the scarf, hat and mittens.  Here’s the progress thus far…

 

The burgundy and blue yarn is for Jack’s sweater.  I am going to use the same sweater vest pattern as last year as it was really easy and fast.  I bought a book called The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patternsby Ann Budd and it’s very clever.  You can use whatever yarn you want, whatever size needles to get the guage of any of the projects in the book.  Very cool. 

Here are some shots of Jack’s last two Christmas sweaters:

 

 

While I do have a picture of the scarf I made last year, I don’t have any of the hat or mittens though. 

 

Ok, it was a marathon day and I finished the scarf before I finished this post, if you can believe it?!?!  Because I scarcely can.   Here’s the finished scarf in all it’s glory.   The second picture shows my finger inside the hole made by splitting the 22 stitches onto two different needles (dpn’s) and knitting them separately (you have to cut the yarn after knitting one side to pick up the stitches on the second needle).  Then when both sides are equal in length, you knit them onto a single needle again and thereby closing off the hole or slit.  Ingenious!  The third photo shows one scarf end threaded through the hole or slit of the second end.

 

I have already cast on for the hat now.  Using Ann Budd’s book (referenced above).  Just a simple hat knit in the round.  The yarn will give the interest.

Happy knitting and sewing everyone!

Trench update and new skill

I had another lesson with Thea last night…  We completed the muslin for my trench coat (Burda 03/09 #115) and I learned a new skill.  Click on over to the Trench Sew Along for my post on the trench muslin. 

My new skill?  Hemming pants.  Sounds simple right?  Well it is.  But I wanted to be sure I was doing it correctly.  So before I butchered my suit pants on my own, I waited until Thea came over and we went through the process together.  

Here’s what I learned:

1. Measure both legs:  One hip can be higher than the other, so just measuring one leg might give you uneven results even if you are exacting in your measurements.   Mine had different measurements, so I’m glad that I waited to do this with Thea. 
2.  Not all thread is created equally:  On the RTW pants I was altering, the overlocked (serged) hem allowance was thin in thickness, meaning the threads didn’t create a bulky edge.  The thread I bought for my serger, Maxilock, was thick thread and was definitely bulky when I finished trimming down the hem allowance.  Now I will have to be careful when I press these pants so that the ridge from the overlocked edge won’t show through the pant leg.
3. I don’t like my blind hem stitch on my Emerald 183:  Well at least for fine garments like suits.  I can see the tiny stitches on the outside pant and it bothers me.  No one else would probably notice, but it would bother me to the point of never wearing the pants.  Solution: hand sew the hems.  Which is fine with me, since I enjoy hand sewing.
4. That there’s always something to learn or a little trick of the trade with even the simplest sewing task: I’m so glad I waited for Thea to hem these pants.

 For the next couple of weeks, I will be working on my trench coat pretty exclusively.  There are a lot of great projects to watch unfold on the Trench Sew Along, so please check in on us.

Happy sewing everyone!