I recently looked back over the things that I have blogged about in the past on my old blog (North Knittery), I had begun NK to talk about my new found obsession with knitting and thought it would be nice to include some things that I made on my sewing machine too.As it turned out I talked about sewing much more than I expected. I suppose this is natural as sewing something takes a fraction of the time it takes to knit something. But it didn't feel quite right putting so much sewing onto a blog dedicated to knitting.
I decided to make a fresh start and create a blog which was dedicated to anything I made, one I wouldn't feel guilty about filling with dress patterns and fabrics alongside the wool and mittens. So welcome to 'Making with needles', I have begun this blog by bringing over all of my makes of the past year and a half, all of he things which, just like in real life, I cannot bear to just let go of. But I also wanted to start with my plans for winter...
Which is basically repeating myself from the old blog... But here it goes...
Sewing...
Looking at the gaps in my wardrobe has fuelled me onto doing some proper winter sewing. I think I have been guilty before of falling into the trap of summer dresses and blouses, and when I came to winter, just add a cardigan. Add to this the fact that I have pretty much only just mastered linings in skirts and dresses, I now have no excuse to ignore the winter wardrobe.
First up is a Hollyburn from sewaholic. I spotted this version on 'Rue des Renardes' blog a while ago and I basically want to replicate it.
It is just perfect! The pattern is designed for those of a pear shaped persuasion, which I am! And has pockets, which I can't seem to live without these days. I have a wool/suiting type fabric hoarded away from this one which I bought at Regency Rags.
I of course plan to fully line it (because I can do that now), and am already wondering if I might need more than one of these little beauties... But I've had a word with myself and I shall restrain planning more until I have actually used this pattern!
Following on my success from summer of making my first ever shirt dress (and my first ever shirt collar!) I of course want another McCalls 6696!
This dress doesn't come with a lining, it has a pattern included for a slip dress instead, but I hate wearing layers like that. Instead I am going to line the skirt only and have the lining attached to the button band down the front of the dress. I'll be honest, I don't know if it will work, but I'm willing to give it a shot! I'll keep you posted on its success/failure... And how well it resists clinging to my tights as I walk.
This dress has a cotton poplin in very deep navy blue put aside for it (it's a surprisingly heavy fabric so I decided against the summer dress I had bought it for).
Last year I made the 'Lady Skater' dress in a lovely grey Jersey, it was only my third foray into Jersey sewing and it had limited success. While I loved the dress and wore it a hell of a lot, it didn't hold up to washing very well. It shrunk around the body making the waist rather high. I also wondered whether there was something more flattering for my aforementioned pear shaped hips. Then I spotted Monetta from Colette patterns. A jersey dress with a gathered waist?! It has variations of collars?! Long, short, and no sleeves?! Yes please!!
Once again I may be getting a bit carried away as I have never actually made this dress yet, but I have two of these planned. I have a cream ponte jersey and a black textured Jersey put aside for this pattern.
Because let's face it, Jersey dresses are secret pyjamas (I've learned that from Pinterest and other people's blogs and adore the description) and I must have enough to get through the winter in comfort.
Ok so that's it for the dresses and skirts, but I also have other plans... And other wardrobe gaps, and a new fixation with white blouses and shirts. So while I won't treat you to repeated photos of white cottons, the patterns which will be produced using these cottons will be...
Perhaps not as exciting as the skirt and dresses, but imagine crisp white blouses under hand knitted jumpers and you have a picture of why I am getting excited about them!
Finally I am planning on a little experimentation, some pattern hacking. I saw an adorable little sweater in the Seamwork magazine which I really really liked, but I thought it was a little too short for how I would want to wear it.
Picture from Colette 'Seamwork' magazine
I pondered getting it and adjusting the length, but then I thought, I've got a sweater pattern that I could adjust surely? So my tentative plan is to use the Plantain pattern from Deer and Doe, but to make it more fitted around the waist and add a waistband to it.
Left picture from Deer & Doe
I'm using some of the black textured Jersey from the Monetta stash to make a, hopefully, wearable muslin, and then we shall see if my experiment was a success!
Anyway I could sit here all day harping on about the things I am getting rather excited about making, but this has already been a very long post. Next stop... Knitting plans!
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