A tale of two sweatshirts

Part of my winter sewing planning included making a snugly sweatshirt. I had planned to hack one of my pre used patterns, but then I spotted the Fraser sweatshirt from Sewaholic patterns.

This is exactly what I had in mind for my sweater, I doubt I could have effectively hacked this, and I definately couldn't have hacked that gorgeous built in collar. So I promptly bought it (and their Renfrew t shirt pattern too... I couldn't resist) and set too making it. I had a red quilted jersey set aside for this sweatshirt, but I spontaneously decided to make the sleeves from view A with the body from view B.. Just to be awkward.

The pattern is super easy, I'd say it sews up from cutting to finishing in about 4 hours, it might be quicker if you have a serger... But I don't, so I zig zag stitched away at the size 8, and came out with...

Now, first things first... I really don't like this fabric... When I had it on the clothes horse after washing it I thought it would be perfect, but wearing it.... It's slinky!! This fabric would be awesome for sportswear, but I am not sporty, I like cosy things, with naturally feeling fabrics. This is just wrong.

Now let's move on to what I have been talking about regarding fitting, this jumper doesn't quite fit properly. I may have mentioned my narrow shoulders, the sleeves here are hanging off them.

Although I kinda like the shoulder patches. Also I have a small top half which morphs into quite wide hips... This sweatshirt is squeezed really tightly over my curvy hips.

Just look at that left shoulder... Urgh! So after trying it on I can absolutely say I will never be wearing this sweatshirt, which is a shame because it is quite nice to look at, it's just not what I wanted.

Ah well, I shall put it in a bag for a charity shop, maybe someone else will wear it and love it.

So back to the drawing board, I used my newly acquired fitting skills to take in the shoulders, and scaled out the pattern an extra size to cover my hips. I also went back to search for a better (for me) jersey, and I found an awesome fleece backed grey number (I did say I wanted cosy). I also decided to try the cute little collar version, but I hacked the sleeves to make them full length but without the shoulder patch...

Now THIS jumper is what I was looking for. The shoulders, while only having a minor adjustment, feel much better, and the waistband sits comfortably. 

The collar is made with the jersey that I dyed a little while ago, I love it with the grey. And because the neckband would have been soooooo bulky with the fleece backed jersey, I used a grey ribbing instead

I found a tutorial on the Sewaholic blog to give a bit more guidance for getting those points nice and sharp, I highly recommend you check it out! The ribbing is slightly darker than the rest of the sweatshirt, but having the red in between really helps.

One day I will also learn how to make a sway-back adjustment, but on this jumper I think it's just fine having the extra bagginess there.

I have already worn this sweatshirt loads, it is super warm and snug thanks to the fleece. I am in love with it. I have a feeling that this 'winter' pattern will sneak it's way into my summer sewing plans too, because summer up in the North East can still be pretty chilly!

Maybe I should hold onto that red one, it might come in handy over summer.

Making clothes that fit

I have a confession to make. When people ask me if I have made something I am wearing I usually say yes, then point out the mistake, the flaw, the thing that I am least happy about with it. I'm not sure if this is a bit of a British thing to do, or whether I just do it because I know I make mistakes, and I'm almost apologising for making something less that perfect.

One of the major issues I have had with almost everything I have made is that it just doesn't quite fit right! I have blouses which are too baggy, I have dresses that are too short, I have tops that pull tight over my chest. Well this year I dcided that enough was enough!! And I bought a book on how to adjust a sewing pattern to fit your body's little quirks. I found this book on Amazon which had some good reviews so I thought I would give it a shot...

It has chapters dedicated to particular body types and how to fix the sewing pattern to accommodate them. Because of this book I also discovered that I really needed to invest in a French curve, which makes the adjusting a piece of cake.

I will confess that I haven't taken measurements of my body properly, but I know which bits of a pattern need to be fixed (narrow shoulders I'm looking at you!!). So I just dove straight in with a pattern I have used before, but always feel very dissatisfied with the finished result. One of my earlier makes.. The Lady Skater Dress...

In this version there is a chunk of fabric under the arms due to the fact the armscythe doesn't sit right, and the waist is just faaaaaaar too high... So I set to the pattern with my French curve and my tape measure, and I came out with the new improved lady skater dress...

As you can see... No bulky underarm! And a waist that sits where a waist should sit! I am really happy with this second attempt, but I am not happy with those winter knees... Put some tights on girl!!

Much better.. Although I don't look too happy about it, oh dear. What has really stood out for me making this version of the dress is how much more flattering it feels. I don't feel like I have monster hips anymore! Which is really all a girl can ask for. 

Having the waist in the right place also means I'm not constantly tugging the skirt down so I'm much more comfortable too. 

Maybe the different sleeve length also contributes to just feeling more in proportion, though I just made them short because I thought the print would look too busy on longer sleeves.

In a nutshell, because I know it fits me properly, this is my new favourite dress. And when people ask if I made it I simply say 'yes, thank you'

Mittens for Mum

 If Mother's Day isn't a perfect opportunity for a handmade gift then when the hell is... Ok maybe Father's Day... But that's not for aaages. 

Last year I made Mum a shawlette, and she was still wearing it when I visited at Christmas. But I remember a comment she had made a long while ago about wanting some fingerless mittens for driving... So guess what I made her.... Yep, another scarf... Just kidding, of course it was mittens!!

I used a free pattern on Ravelry which doesn't seem to have a name as such. The title is 'Womens hand/wrist warmers' which is taken from the book 'Last-Minute Knitted Gifts'. Which is a pretty good description of them actually.

Photo taken from Ravelry pattern page

The pattern asks for Aran weight yarn, and because of the step-rib pattern they're pretty much a one size fits all mitt.

I went on a search for a luxury yarn for these mitts, after feeling dissapointed about the quality of yarn I used for last years shawlette I wanted to make sure these were just perfect. I decided on some super soft Sirdar Sublime in a worsted weight.

I am in love with this wool, I have taken a huge shine to merino, and this one is sooooo smooth and soft. It's a Mum colour too. She has blue/green eyes which look lovely when she wears light blue. This is 'Clipper' which is a ridiculously difficult colour to photograph apparently.

Because this is closer to a DK than an Aran I needed to do some maths (yay maths, I love maths... Enter sarcastic voice here). And I decided to modify the pattern somewhat too to include thumbs.

Photo from my Pinterest page

What I failed to do was put the thumb in properly, rather than creating a gusset as I went I left a gap so I could pick up stitches later... Which turned out to be a right royal pain in the arse! 

I changed the wrist ribbing to a K1P1 which I just prefer, and finished up with a K1P1 and a super stretchy bind off. The stitch pattern is really easy to follow and I love that it creates a sort of cable effect too.

They do make my little fingers look ridiculously small!

The thumb came into existence by picking up 27sts and at the base of thumb decreasing 2 each round, then a smidge of K1P1 as there's no such thing as too much ribbing aaaand voila... Thumb!

Not too shabby if I do say so

I really really love these mittens, and am really excited as I have just enough wool left to make a shorter, cuff length pair (aww matching mother daughter mittens, am I really that twee... Yeah probably)

And off they went in the post to the Deep South... Of Wiltshire, just in time for Mother's Day 

Hope she likes them

Jurassic Sunderland

I know this is a bit of a local thing, and it is mostly football related, but it also appears in non football stuff too... But there is a big Newcastle/Sunderland divide. I live in Newcastle where the opinion is (generally) that Sunderland is rubbish! And university aside (I am a Sunderland graduate), I largely agree (I think it's the seagulls the size of dogs! Terrifying!!). But today I found myself in Sunderland with my sister on wedding business of hers, and we decided to visit a place that I'm ashamed to say I've never visited before...

Jurassic World...

Or the Sunderland Winter Gardens as it is locally known. It's free to get in (bonus!) and it has dinosaurs (awesome!) so I became a kid watching Jurassic Park all over again.

There were dinosaurs hidden away everywhere amongst the foliage..

Including the Velociraptor which my sister found hilarious as I am still pretty scared of them after watching the first film... Those buggers can open doors people!!

The building is pretty impressive and there are walkways so you can get a birds eye (pterodactyls eye) view of everything..

It really reminded me of the real Jurassic Park

See, even the sister looks slightly concerned!

But what I wasn't expecting, and was really impressed with, was the little museum that was in there too, there was even a display of fabrics and clothes...

Which I dragged the poor sister into.... Not sorry

And in one little corner a history of the Jarrow March (northerners protesting the closure of the ship yards and the loss of one of the biggest northern industries until Nissan turned up, causing mass poverty in the area), which included a reconstructed kitchen...

I love seeing reconstructions of homes, this one reminded be a bit of my Grans kitchen when I was younger, with the scales, old kettle, and rickety clothes horse.

Culture, botanics, dinosaurs, and history.... Well played Sunderland, well played

Rescuing an online fabric purchase

I live in an area with very few fabric shops, there are in fact only three! I have a choice of the haberdasheries in Fenwicks or John Lewis, or convince my sister (who has a car while I currently don't) to drive me out to Dainty Supplies. This would really limit my options for clothes making if it weren't for the joy that is online fabric shopping. Here I am opened up to a world (literally) of options! I buy probably 90% of my fabric online, and 80% of the time this is very succesful, and I end up getting what I expected and loving what I got. But there are exceptions to this.

Colour! Getting the right colour can be very hit and miss!! And recently I fell fowl of this. I would like to say that all of the shops do say colour may not be exact, resolution of computer screen bla bla bla... But this time it was a bit bum. The colour on the screen was grey with some pink in it, although I should have really known from the name 'capuccino' what I was going to get...

Yep... Brown!! Not an unpleasant colour, and my God is this fabric soft and lovely quality... But I knew as soon as I opened the packet that I'd never wear something that colour (see previous note on brown jersey dress). So I figured, to rescue the fabric... Dye it!

So I got me some Dylon (in Burlesque Red don't you know), a bucket, some rubber gloves, and off I went..

Dying fabric by hand is really super easy, you just need the above mentioned ingredients and some table salt (you can use ground sea salt if you want... But I'm not rich so..). The dye packet simply asks to pre mix the dye in 500mls of hot water (doesn't even need to be boiling), then fill your bucket up with warm water and add the salt first...

Ooooh cloudy.... At this point I would recommend finding a nice old rug you don't mind getting a splash of dye on... Just in case.

Then you mix in your jug of dye...

Being VERY careful not to ruin your old rug. And pop in your fabric!

The next bit is very important, and very simple, and I never seem to get it right.... Smush your fabric up in the water so the dye gets to all of it evenly. The instructions say to agitate your fabric, which I find hilarious.

Leave your fabric to sit for 45 minutes.. Agitating it regularly (he he)...

Then rinse it in cold water before popping it into the washing machine for a cool wash.

I mean, what's easier than that?! I didn't leave mine the full 45 minutes as I just wanted a red tint rather than the deep red promised, though I love the colour it was when it was wet!!

Once dried I now have...

And if you look closely you can see variations in the shade... I'm not a very good agitator apparently, it gives it a subtle tie dyed effect, which luckily I really like. This fabric is still wonderfully soft, and is now in the pile of jerseys destined to become cosy t shirts. Crisis averted.

Ex libris

I've had a recent shopping spree which saw me buying a couple of crafting books. I blame watching the last series of Foyles War entirely for this! When I saw Sam wearing this lovely grey zig zag striped jumper I decided I was going to copy it and have one of my own (because it's winter and I obviously need a million jumpers).

So having tracked down a very similar one on Ravelry I found I had a book to buy (well the pattern wasn't being sold separately, and the rest of the book was so pretty), so off I went to Amazon to find one second hand. Turns out this book is pretty much only available in America, unless you want to pay three times what the Americans are selling it for. So I ordered it to arrive on the slow boat from the USA.

It's not in AMAZING shape I thought, but is is second hand... But then I noticed this...

This is ex library stock, anyone who is fond of a good read will recognise that sticker anywhere!! Then in the back I spot...

I got quite excited about this, is this the name of the actual library that it once belonged to?! Well possibly not, after some googling it looks like this is a library computer system that is used over there... But PLEASE PLEASE correct me if I am wrong about that! Upon closer inspection of the packing envelope it shows that this little book was sent from Toledo from a company called 'Let the Stories Live On'. Now I know I need to really care for this slightly battered book, it's had quite the career as a library book, and now it has reached its retirement as my own personal library stock.

It was this pattern that I really wanted from the book, the only thing I would need to do is to lengthen the sleeves for my Sam jumper...

When I have looked through it, it turns out that this book has much more to offer than I had thought. I have now managed to identify another couple of jumpers, plus socks, plus gloves, and maybe a hat, that I want to try out.

Some of the patterns are accompanied by a photo of the original inspiration like this beauty...

Some of them even have a little artists sketch of how the writer re-imagined the jumper, which is a lovely personal touch...

But they all have a little word about the style of jumper and when it was popular. And to top it off the instructions come as. Written pattern and as a chart, so you can pick whichever you find easier to follow.

Right, I'm off to find me some grey wool to get cracking on that Sam jumper...

Work in progress

Today has been a mixed day, after traipsing around town to hand documents in and then building myself up for a dentists appointment which turned out to be on a completely different day, I'm not feeling as relaxed as I could be on my day off. On the flip side of all this, today has also been the day of the great jersey wash of 2016!

What am I going on about? I imagine you must be asking. Well, since New Year I have been gradually collecting various different weights, patterns, and colours of jersey fabric. I also bought a couple of new patterns so that I can build up my basic wardrobe (a la wardrobe architect).

Meet the Fraser sweater and the Renfrew t shirt, both from Sewaholic. With a couple of each of these I plan to own Me Made May this year! The plans here are that I intend to use the heavier jerseys for some nice sweatshirts...

Like the quilted red and the Ponte Roma just behind it. The lighter jerseys I plan to make into some t shirts...

And apparently my winter colour palate of grey with colour splashes has heavily influenced my shopping choices (you can't really see it but the one at the back has bright splashes of green and red on a navy background).

So today they were all bundled into my washing machine and are now sitting happily on the clothes horse drying out for the weekend ready to be used.

In the meantime I am curled up watching DVDs and continuing work on my Andi Satterlund Cropped Sweater.

And my word is this the most ripped back jumper I have ever made! I wanted to make the body longer, to start the second colour at my hips before continuing to the ribbing, so I started one sleeve (which I also want wrist length) to check I would have enough wool for it all. Well sleeve version 1 was just far too tight... Rrrriped! So I picked up more stitches and didn't start decreases until I got to the elbow... This one fitted as per the pattern, so I continued to the wrist cuff (using up near exactly 1 ball). This resulted in my very first bit of stranded colour work...

Not too shabby!!

But after trying on the full sleeve and half body I decided that I really wanted a looser sleeve... Rrrrriped!! 

So for now I am finishing up the body, and I've nearly finished the ribbing again so I'm nearly back to sleeve version 3.

I think I'm getting the hang of this stranded colour business. I really love this merino wool too, it's really soft and easy to work with. I'm using this again... Just a few times.

So today hasn't been all that bad.