Merino Wool Fingerless Gloves

 

Daughter has been looking for fingerless gloves for some months now, and everything she's found so far has had some deal breaking flaw.  So I offered to make her something if she could find a yarn in my stash that she approved of.  Turns out there was a single ball of this blue, green, purple variegated merino wool that she positively fell in love with at first sight.

It took me a couple of weeks, simply because I've been having a hard time finding project time. But persistence prevailed!  I finished these a couple of days ago to an astonishing amount of excitement over how beautiful they were.  I love making my girl happy!

These are done on a circular needle and if I'd had two balls of yarn I would have knitted them both at the same time. Alas, I had only the one and no idea where it came from.  I would guess a clearance bin somewhere, but honestly, I keep my supplies for years sometimes before I get around to using them.  I can almost always shop my stash and find something I didn't even know I had.

I've used the book Knitting Without Tears as my go to reference book for knitting techniques, so that's where the thumb design comes from.  I have made countless fingerless gloves over the years, so my technique has morphed into something kind of my own, but that book is definitely my origin.  I used it 30 years ago to teach myself how to knit.  Left-handed.  People tell me I knit backwards.  I have no doubt they're right.

The wristband is your standard k2,p2 as is the finishing at the thumb and finger ends.  The palms are a straight knit.  The backs are a popcorn stitch.  Alternating double rows of k2, p2.  It's my favorite knitting stitch, for mysterious reasons of irrational personal preference.

Youngest Son is now clamoring for a pair like his sister's. I can't really blame him.  Hers turned out really nice.

I will, however, have to fix my knitting needles first.  I thought it was cute when I saw my cat Gizmo carrying them around by the nylon part, with the bamboo needles hanging from either side of her mouth.  Needless to say, I took them from her and put them away with my knitting things.  Apparently, not away enough.  She found them overnight.  And chewed them.  

Cats. Like husbands, can't live with 'em and can't live without 'em.

Woo Hoo! New Jalie 3350 Swimsuit

Doggone it! This thing is so cute.  Even in the lousy picture with terrible lighting it looks cute.  Okay the hot pink flowers accented with the black probably contributes to its cuteness, but really, I give alot of credit to the pattern.

This is the View A front with the View B back.  That front sweetheart neckline is so prettily shaped and the construction method is easy and straightforward. 

I made this for Daughter using the size that corresponded to her girth measurement, so it turned out to be a little looser in the chest than ideal since she's pretty tall in proportion to her other measurements.  It's no where near a problem, but I'll probably slim down the next one just a tiny bit.  I thought the leg openings wouldn't fit since the elastic is only a teeny bit shorter than them, but that too was no problem.  Fit perfectly.

I used a swimsuit fabric that was covered in dusty pink flowers (that I never liked) for the lining and I lined the back as well as the front.

All in all, from tracing to final stitch was about 3 hours.  Awesome.

Mother/Daughter Swimsuit Set

I made this Jalie swimsuit pattern a couple of years ago and I found at the time that I had used the wrong size for both Daughter and myself.  Neither suit was unwearable, but both were just a little too short in the torso.  So I decided to revisit it to get the sizing right with a pattern that I'm already familiar with before I launched into the more (to me, anyway) complicated new swimsuit pattern. 

The flowered fabric I got from Fabric.com last year and the purple came from JoAnn's.  I ended up lining mine with what was left of the purple since I personally prefer my swimsuit to be on the heavier side and the cost of the lining fabric is the same as the cost of the fashion fabric.  I also hate sewing that slippery, slinky lining fabric.  Win, win.

At any rate, they both fit perfectly.  And I didn't really intend to make matching swimsuits, it just sort of turned out that way.  I have pink, purple, and orange fabrics for swimsuits.  Daughter chose the purple.  Okay.  I don't look good in pink, and I'm saving the orange for my swimsuit from the new Jalie pattern, which means I ended up with purple, too.  And as you can see, they're not exactly alike.  Well, except the backs are identical.

So, now it's time for the new Jalie swimsuit pattern.  Daughter wants one view and I want the other, so I've got my work cut out for me.  I think I'll make Daughter's first, since she probably needs a second suit more than I do

Summer Sewing Begun at Last!

Here's my first bit of summer sewing: Daughter's new bathing suit. She's tried it on and is super happy with it.

The pattern is Jalie 3134 Racerback Swimsuit from the set of patterns that was put out in October 2011.  I've made it before for both myself and for Daughter, but since I wasn't quite satisfied with the fit either time, I wanted to try it again.  This one is absolutely perfect.  And went together from start to finish in about 3 hours.

Remember, it's important to choose the size from the girth measurement.  Anything else is kind of iffy.

Next up is a swimsuit for me.  I traced out the pattern for my size last night at the same time I traced out Daughter's, so it's just a matter of laying out the fabric, cutting the pieces, and stitching my little heart out.

After that, I have Jalie's new swimsuit pattern to try out.  Daughter wants the View A with the B back.  I want the View B with the A back.  And it'll be nice for us both to have a second suit to wear for a change.

 

What Do You Do...

...when you're frustrated?

I have a pretty piece of ivory colored poly/rayon burnout jersey.  Not much stretch but lots of drape, as you can imagine with a poly/rayon.  I had (notice the past tense) 3 yards of it.  Until I totally wasted a yard on a shirt that doesn't fit, will never fit, can't make it fit, etc, etc, boo hoo hoo.  I thought I'd make just a plain tee to wear over a white camisole top, but somehow I got my patterns mixed up or something, because what I just cut out and put together was a 100% fail.  *sigh*  I hate wasting pretty fabric. 

So what did I do?  You mean after I got done ranting, raving and shaking my fist at the sky? 

I made a dress for Daughter instead.  Isn't it pretty?  It's the same boring button down pattern I've been using for a while now.  I really need to get more creative with her dresses.

I have another one in the wings (ha! ha! that's a pun, there's birds all over that dress...my sense of humor is really hurting, isn't it?) but for some reason I decided it would be brilliant to put a gazillion buttons all the way down the front.  The buttonholes are sewn and cut, so there's no going back, but I've been procrastinating sewing on the buttons for over a week.  If I don't hurry up, she's going to grow out of the dress before she ever gets a chance to wear it.  And that would be a shame, because it really is very pretty.

I've got my new Jalie swimsuit pattern, I've got some old nylon/lycra and some new, so I've got everything I need to make new swimsuits for both me and Daughter.  I also got some microfiber to make board shorts for Youngest Son and I've had the Kwik Sew pattern for a couple of years now, so I've got everything I need for him, too.  I'm so looking forward to the swimming/kayaking season and I want to be ready for that first perfect day.

One of Last Year's Projects --Girls' Button Front Dress

Here's one of the dresses I made for Daughter last year but never got around to blogging about.  She picked this fabric from the quilting cottons at JoAnn's.  Okay, so taking a picture of it while she's standing in front of a door that is nearly the same color is probably not my best photography decision of the year.  Nobody's perfect.  I'm a dressmaker, not a photographer.

Anyway.  The buttons are a little too bright, with a little too much orange in them to quite match the red berries on the dress, but that is pretty much the only flaw and I think I can live with it.

When I was younger, I had a number of dresses made like this one.  This is one I call the Shamrock dress.  I made this one about 13-14 years ago (yes, it still fits) but hardly ever wear it.  Daughter absolutely loves the style, which is so much more appropriate for her than for me, so I set about making one for her.  I had to create my own pattern for her dress, as I couldn't find a button front pattern, though I confess I didn't try very hard.  The conversion is pretty fast and easy.

I start with my trusty Butterick 3360, which I have made many times.  This pattern has the front on a fold and a back zipper for a closure.  Remove the center back seam allowance and cut on the fold.  Add a self-fabric facing and interfacing to the center front, and Voila! you pretty much have a button front dress.

The only trouble is all those buttonholes to sew and cut and all those buttons to attach.  But the buttons on the front are alot easier to fasten than the zip at the back which is so hard to reach sometimes. 

All in all, it's a gorgeous dress.  Daughter is very happy with it and has put her order in for another.

Twinkle Toes and Tshirts

Here's the wool socks and the fleece slippers, elegant aren't they?  They both have gotten a workout already.  Daughter wears the slippers every single day.  She's definitely going to need one or two new pair before this New England winter is over.

And Youngest Son's long sleeved tshirts are finally finished, too.  It's so hard to make interesting clothes for boys.  There just isn't that much variation in boys' clothing.  The pattern for all of these is Jalie 2918 Men's Tshirts.  A very nice, well-drafted pattern.  I used a size slightly bigger than his measurements, so a little room to grow.  I like the length on these.  Kid's shirts always seem to be too short for Youngest Son, but this pattern fits fantastic.

All the seams are serged, and the hems, sleeve hems, and necklines have all been coverstitched.  This is the technique I've been using to make t-shirts from time immemorial and I rarely have any trouble with it.  Occasionally one of the children will pull too hard on the hems or neck opening and pop the coverstitching.  It's pretty rare, so I haven't bothered to change the way I do things.  I guess if I really wanted to make them last, I'd put wooly nylon in the loopers.

This one on the left is a chocolate cotton/lycra -- probably from Fabric.com -- with organic cotton ribbing -- definitely from Fabric.com -- for the neckline.









The one on the right is brown organic cotton jersey with conventional organic green cotton jersey for the stripe and organic cotton rib knit for the neckline.




Here we have brown organic cotton ribbing and charcoal conventional cotton ribbing.  The color block seams really wanted to ripple on this one, but a session with my iron settled that rebellion.

The one on the left is a plain gray cotton ribbing.








This one on the right is camel and brown organic cotton jersey with brown organic cotton ribbing.








Not very exciting, I know, but sometimes the sewing just isn't that exciting.  I want to make a few Christmas gifts next, so those should be a little more interesting.

More Toasty Toes -- Ballet Slippers

So apparently footwear is the name of the game these past couple of weeks.  First socks, now slippers.  These are pretty awesome slippers, though, and once your pattern is all set they take less than an hour to make. What could be better than that?

The pattern I got from the Burda Style website -- the Dorothy Ballerina slippers.  And it's free.  Unfortunately, they only come in one size so unless you're making a women's 8, you'll have to do some adjusting -- which isn't really that hard.  Especially if you use fleece, like I did.  The pattern is supposed to be for wovens, but since I never follow the rules, I didn't do that.

I made these for Daughter, so they're a girls size 1 1/2 or thereabouts.

To adjust the pattern, I printed out the pdf and had her stand on the sole pattern piece with her toes about 3/8" (for seam allowance) away from the front.  Then I traced around her heel to get the proper size for the sole.

For the upper, I cut out the pattern piece, laid it across the top of her foot (again leaving about 3/8" for seam allowance), and brought the ends around to the back of her foot and estimated how much to cut off so that it would fit snugly at the back but not be too tight.

All very unscientific, but it worked beautifully.  I made one quick muslin that fit perfectly from front to back, but I found that the sole piece was a bit too wide, so I narrowed that up a bit and cut out the pieces for the real version.

I made the soles in two layers: the inside is the fleece, for fuzzy warm coziness, and the outside is leather deerskin suede for non-slippiness and durability.  I got to break out my treadle machine for the leather sewing, Yippeee!!  I keep a leather needle in the treadle machine, as that is pretty much all I use it for these days.  I don't really have the space to keep it out all the time -- my regular machine sits on top of the closed treadle cabinet.

After stitching the center back seams of the uppers right sides together, I used the treadle to stitch the soles to the uppers.  Then, going back to my regular machine, I zigzagged a piece of 1/4" elastic to the foot opening stretching ever so slightly.  Then I folded over to the inside and zigzagged again, for a nice clean finish around the foot opening.  Voila!  All done.  That's why it takes less than an hour.  There's just not much to it.

The first pair I made of these was done in a brown fleece with these ugly flowers embroidered on in wool yarn.  Not sure why I bought that piece, except that maybe it was really cheap.  The funny thing is, Daughter really liked the slippers, so she didn't mind the ugly flowers until I could make her a better pair.  Preferably in pink.  I didn't have any pink fleece, so we compromised with blue for the time being.  So here's the blue pair.  I'm sure she'll be happy to model them later.

Another Girls' Butterick Dress

Are you guys tired of this pattern yet? It's Butterick 3350 and now that I've sewn all three necklines, I believe that I am finally tired of it.  Also, this is the largest size in the envelope, so once Daughter grows out of this, we'll need to find a new pattern anyway.

This is made in a pretty  quilting cotton that I bought at JoAnn's earlier this year.  Very nice and soft and easy to sew.  I love this fabric print, a little old fashioned and antique-y but still perfect for a little girl. The back tie is a double sided ribbon, also from JoAnn's but I'm not happy with it.  I thought for the added expense, a double sided ribbon would be a little more substantial than the single sided or the grosgrain.  It's not.  They made it thin and cheap and I really don't like it.  I'm looking for a source for decent ribbons.  Any suggestions?

I put an invisible zipper in the back of this version, too.  So much easier and nicer looking than regular zippers.  And as I get older and (I hope) wiser, I'm more inclined to enjoy the hand sewing aspects of making clothing.  I say this because I sewed the center back seam allowances of the lining to the zipper and the entire lining waist seam entirely by hand -- and I enjoyed it.  That would not have been true just six months ago.

Anyway, like I said, I've sewn all three necklines:
The plain rounded neckline

The sweetheart neckline

 And, of course, this latest one, which I'm no sure what to call. Which do you like best?

Summer in Review -- Projects #1 & #2 of Not Very Many

It's been a busy summer for me, and while I didn't get much sewing done, I managed to get a little in here and there. I totally failed when it came to the blogging part, though, so I'll try and show you some things in the next week or two. 

First up is Daughter's handkerchief dress. She does so love these and it's a neat way to use a horizontal stripe.  I got this print from Fabric.com of course.  It's a cotton jersey that probably has about 25% stretch.  Sleeveless for the summer and she should be able to wear it through the Fall as well with a sweater. I have some pretty pink acrylic sweater knit that ought to make a warm a cozy sweater for her.

I also made this mauve jacket for Daughter this summer.  It's a very basic round-necked jacket -- I don't recall which pattern I used, though I suppose I could fish it out if anybody really needs to know.  It wasn't a very impressive pattern -- it was an unlined, faced jacket meant to worn over formal wear, like a flower girl dress or something.  I added a lining (which was so easy I don't know why they didn't design the pattern with one) which turned it into a classy little jacket instead of some cheesy little thing that looks like you made it yourself.  I added the pockets as well, since Daughter was adamant that it HAD to have pockets.  The fabric is a bottom weight stretch cotton sateen with a woven vertical stripe, originally bought to make pants for myself (until I realized that pink pants and myself are not a good combination, what was I thinking?). And since it was a pretty plain fabric, it absolutely had to have trim of some kind.  I've had this heart ribbon for a while, and it fit the bill perfectly, especially since the color matched so well.  And Daughter picked out the heart buttons during a visit to Joann's last year.  They've been languishing in the button box, waiting for just the right project.

That's two of the projects and I'm pretty pleased with both of them.

A Gallery of Girls' Projects

Last post was for the boys. This one's for the girls. Okay, girl. Since I only have one daughter.

I made Daughter a couple more of her signature knit wrap dresses. This one is made from interlock from JoAnn's.  My girl is growing up, though, so this will probably be the last of the juvenile prints for her.  She has a classic taste.  When she picks fabric for herself, she tends to choose tiny flowered prints, but she still leans towards pinks every chance she gets.

The stripes are a jersey that I bought from Miss Fairchild over at Pattern Review.  Daughter made all the design decisions, including the length of the skirt and sleeves, and the ruffle trimming the hems.

I also made her a bathing suit, using Jalie's newest pattern.  I bought nylon/lycra fabrics last year, on clearance after the summer season was over, so I had several for her to choose from.  She liked both the pink (naturally!) and the purple, so the Jalie, with it's color blocking, was the perfect choice.  I still can't get over how easy these are to make.  And to think I used to spend $25 every year for Daughter's bathing suits.

This sews up in about 3 hours and as far as I can tell, the elastic lengths listed in the pattern instructions are perfect.  I made a swimsuit like this for myself last year and I found it a little short in the torso.  I made Daughter's using the size that matched her height and the fit seems pretty good.  If the weather would just get nice, we could field test it and know for sure whether or not the fit is perfect.

I also made her a cute little collarless jacket out of pink stretch cotton.  I show you that one next time.  And I realize I never took a picture of my wool melton coat that I finished in March.  I'll take a picture of that one, too.  Just as soon I sew on the button I managed to pull off.

A New Dress For Daughter

I feel a bit as though all the dresses I sewed for myself last month used up all my sewing energy for January and February.  But here at the tail end of the month, I seem to be getting a little of my own back.

 The pattern is Butterick 3350 which I reviewed on PatternReview.com last year.  Read the review

The fabric, ribbon, thread, and zipper all come from JoAnn fabrics.  The fabric is a plain old quilting cotton, but I liked this pretty calico print and the thread is Gutermann.

 Since I've used this pattern already, fabric cutting to final hem only took a couple of hours a day for a couple of days.  Daughter likes this Sweetheart neckline very much -- this is the second dress I've made for her with this neckline.  Both sides aren't perfectly matched, but I'm really thinking that no one is going to notice that.

The back tie is grosgrain ribbon, which Daughter has always preferred to a self fabric tie.

This time I used an invisible zipper for the back closure.  They take a little practice, but are well worth learning how to do well.

I used steam-a-seam to get the lining to hold still at the waist seam, and then top stitched on the right side to attach the lining at the waist.  And I hand sewed the lining to the zipper.

Knit Dress Baby Gift

So what have I been doing lately?  I have completed a couple of projects, but the cutest one is this one.  A knit dress for the baby of a new mother I know.  She's just under two months old and cute as a button.

I love to make baby clothes.  And collect baby clothes patterns.  And buy baby fabrics.  So it's no surprise that I had everything that I needed on hand and ready to go.

The pattern is McCall's 8574 and includes an entire layette for babies preemie to 21 pounds.  It includes a t-shirt, onesie, sleeper, gown, dress and diaper cover patterns as well as the ever present hat and booties, which if they fit, never stay on a baby anyway.

I made the View E dress with the long sleeves.  I thought about making the booties, but measuring the baby's ankle just now is impractical and besides, like I said, they never stay on.

The fabric is a heavy weight interlock from JoAnn's.  The print was so cute that I picked it up last year even though I don't have any babies in the family and didn't even know anyone who was pregnant.  But, hey! I figured an opportunity was sure to come along some time.

The pattern is intended to either be hemmed at the neckline or use decorative elastic.  I did neither.  Instead, I trimmed 5/8 inch from the front and back necklines and added self binding.  I cut binding strips from the interlock 1 1/2 inches wide and, uh, long enough that I wouldn't have to worry about running out.  Then I folded it in half lengthwise and serged it to the right side of the front and back necklines.  Finger pressed flat and used a 7mm coverstich to finish.  Voila! Nice neckline edge.

I also stitched in a size tag and a 100% cotton tag so that mama could tell which was front and back.  It's not super obvious and new moms don't have time to play guessing games with the baby's wardrobe.

This is my second entry in the Pattern Review Sewing for Children contest.  Though that's just an added bonus.  If I had more time, I'd make more baby clothes.

Girls' Burda Coat -- Long Review and Lots of Pictures!

Whew!  So it's finally finished.  After two weeks of working very carefully on this thing, I think I can finally call it finished.  I have so many things to be pleased about.

First, I got it finished and it looks beautiful, inside and out.  Second, it fits.  A little too well perhaps, for there is very little room for Daughter to grow.  On the other hand, that means I get to make another one next year.  Third, I finished it in time to enter it into the Pattern Review Sewing for Children contest.  After missing the deadline for the LBD contest, this is a big deal to me.  And fourth and most important, Daughter loves it.  I say again.  I am pleased.

Let's start with the pattern.  This is a Burda magazine pattern, 12/2012 #156.  I downloaded it from the BurdaStyle site, taped all the pages together, and ended up with the awesomest little girl coat pattern ever.  Never mind that I had to add seam allowances.  It's a great pattern.

Burda suggests wool tweed with velvet collar and piping.  I did mine in a wool plain weave flannel that I bought from Miss Fairchild of Pattern Review either earlier this year or last year.  I used three different fabrics: a rose, a gray, and a plaid.  All pretty much the same weight, though the plaid is a touch lighter than the other two.  It's lined with a spruce green polyester silky fabric bought from JoAnn's as stash lining fabric God-only-knows when.


The instructions, like all Burda instructions, were vaguely incomprehensible.  After reading through them once, I decided logic would have to serve me well on this project.  Having never made a coat quite like this before, it's a good thing I learned logic while learning how to write in Java and C++.  Because I had to logic my way through the Whole. Darn. Thing.

The first thing I love about this pattern is the pockets, complete with pocket flaps.  No fake pockets for my Daughter, these are the real deal.  Set into the waist seam, the pockets should have been easy.  I had to make three tries, though, to get them in just right.  I'm glad I kept working at it because in the end they turned out beautifully.


Getting the piping (it's not actually real piping because it has no cord but I'm gong to call it piping anyway) to curve around the edges of the pocket flaps was a real challenge, but add some steam and heat to wool fabric and it's putty in your hands, so to speak.

And I think the idea of two-piece sleeves in a little girl's coat is just plain cool.  So grown up and everything.  I doubt Daughter cares that her coat has two-piece sleeves, but I positively adore it.  The sleeves gave me a bit of trouble, too, as I didn't realize until I had fought to line up the sleeve cap, decided it was a lost cause, and bound the whole thing  that the side seam was not supposed to match up with the sleeve seam.  Duh.

Did I mention that I bound all the seam allowances.  Every last one, excepting the pockets (which on second thought maybe I should have) and the seam joining the fabric to the lining.  I simply cut some pretty quilting cotton I had lying around, folded and pressed it into binding and sewed it on all the seam allowances.  It's not even bias cut, just straight grain.  Didn't matter, since I didn't need any stretch anyway.



Binding the waist seam did give me a bit of trouble with all that bulk when I tried to put the bottom buttonhole in.  I ended up having to scrunch it out of the way while still keeping the facing in place to sew the buttonhole.  That was tense, but I got it in the end.

I also bound the facing edges.  I always like to see bound facings whenever it's practical.

And the back has this nice pleat which increases the bottom width for active girls who like to run around on the playground.

I got these really cool buttons at JoAnn's last year. I love metal buttons, so I grab the classy ones whenever I see them.  Daughter picked these out of many to choose from.

And the hems got a semi-decorative stitch for the binding, but I hand sewed the hem in place.  I used Steam-a-Seam first to keep the darn thing in place before I stitched.  Marvelous stuff, that Steam-a-Seam.  I've got to remember to use it more often.

So I had this thing all finished a couple of days ago when Daughter mentioned she'd like to wear her purple leopard print jacket with the hood underneath it.  Um, leopard print and plaid?  I don't think so.  Turns out she just wanted to have the hood.  So I sorted through my trusty pattern collection until I found a hood that I thought would work.  New Look 6853 has long been out of print, I think, but I used this pattern for Youngest Son's pants for a long time.  There is a jacket pattern in there too, and whaddayaknow, it has a hood.

So I used this pattern to create a hood in the plaid fabric that sits under the collar.












The hood buttons on and off.  The only problem is the buttons catch on her braid.   I'm thinking I can make another hood in the gray fabric I used for the piping.   Maybe I could make a placket that covers the buttons.  And then Daughter could change her hood to suit her mood.  I wonder if she'd like that idea?

So there it is.    This is a great pattern.  Everything goes together beautifully and even the sleeve cap wasn't hard to ease into the armscye.  It was alot of work.  And worth every minute.  I look forward to doing it again next year.