Sewing – Page 6 – Knitting Box

Just pretty pictures

Knitting has been slow going here. Here and there cables scarf is growing a little longer, and the swing coat is growing a little more, but they still look the same. I’m dying to start a sock with the STR, or maybe something from the Victorian Lace Today, but I keep thinking that I should make more progress on the current WIPs first. I don’t know how long this will last, though. So in the mean time, how about I distract you with some pretty pictures instead?

Got these on a recent trip to Spotlight. The yarn is called ‘Dashing’, which makes me chuckle. They must be new, as I had never seen them before. For a cheapo yarn it’s surprisingly soft, although the colour range is not that great. This one is pastel green. It also comes in pastel blue, pastel pink, and peach.

I’m also in the middle of making this baby hat for a friend who just had a baby boy. I’m going to see her next week, so this one is taking priority. I’m not using any pattern, just making it up as I go. I actually started with a pattern, and got up to the crown decreases, before I had to admit that it would be far too big for a newborn baby. I really do have a bad denial problem. So off to the frog pond it went. Anyway, this one looks ok for size now. I’m using Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino for this one. Mmm… Cashmerino…

There have been some sewing as well. Here’s a peek on what I’m working on 🙂

And another eye candy: A new fabric line to gawk at, Chocolate Lollipop by Anna Maria Horner.

23 February 2007

Holiday crafting

I’m back! Well, I didn’t actually go anywhere, I’m still here, just relaxing and enjoying time with the family. Hubby is taking some time off work, and it’s been good having him around. We’re not traveling anywhere though, most of the time is spent at home, although we’re also trying to do the be a tourist in your own city thing. So far we’ve taken Annette to see the Sydney Opera House and the Coathanger (a.k.a. the Sydney Harbour Bridge). Very touristy.

And there have been some crafting too. First, I finished these hats for my nephews before Christmas.

On the left, is a Cupcake Hat for my 8 month old nephew.
Pattern: Cupcake Hat
Yarn: A mix of woolen yarns

On the right, is for my almost 3 year old nephew.
Pattern: My own fair isle pattern, and following the basic hat recipe from Knitting Rules!
Yarn: Cleckheaton Country Silk in white and green

And here’s a summer dress I made for Annette.

The material is from a ladies skirt that I found at the local op shop. The pattern is my adaptation of Burda 3026. It’s an ‘adaptation’ because the original pattern has a hem ruffle (click the link to see what I mean), but I decided to raise the ruffle to make a high waist instead. This is the first sewn garment that I’ve ever made, and I’m very pleased with it! 🙂

After making this dress, it became clear to me that I need to get a proper sewing book. One that’s a good how-to book, and tells me what things are — so that I don’t have to keep referring to “that gathered bit” or “that thingy over there” etc. At the moment I’m thinking Sew U would be a good candidate for clothes making, judging by Amy at Angry Chicken‘s review. (Gosh, as I was writing this, I discovered that Amy had just announced her new book! It looks great and probably just what I need…) But that aside, does anyone have any good sewing how-to books to recommend? Ones that you’ve found useful?

In other news, I have also joined Project Spectrum 2.0, finished the Endpaper Mitts (sneak peek on the Opera House pic above 🙂 ), and started the Pomatomus socks. Pictures soon!

9 January 2007

Toting Around

The library tote is done! The pattern is by Fiona Dalton from the Crafter’s Companion book, and is very well written and easy to follow. I love how it turns out, and have been carrying it with me on my walks with Annette, whether it’s to the library or not.

4 December 2006

Purchases

Yarn purchases!

Went to Tapestry Craft yesterday to get these yarns… That’s Debbie Bliss Cashmerino in olive colour for making another pair of Fetching, this time for me, and the black ones are Grinasco Bambi, for making Serrano from Knitty. I’ve been wanting a lacy cardigan for a long time, and Serrano looks very appealing to me.

I must say that the colour, black, is a rather unadventurous choice for me. I tend to wear dark colours a lot, even though I actually like just about any colour in the spectrum. I had considered other colours, just to have something different. I spent ages and ages in front of the Grinasco Bambi shelf, trying to decide on a colour. But in the end I settled on black. Oh well, hopefully that will mean that I’ll get to wear it a lot. Black is still the new black, right??

On the way home, I popped in to Dymocks to check out their crafts books section. And oh my do they have a lot of great books there! I could spend hours there just browsing through them. I bought this book:

It’s Toys to Sew by Claire Garland, the author of Knitted Babes. It has patterns for dolls along similar vein to Knitted Babes — basic doll patterns (two boys and two girls) with sets of clothing items to mix and match, except that in this book the dolls are sewn as opposed to knitted. Which is great as I’ve been wanting to sew more. There are also many other adorable toys in the book — patchwork crocodile, turtle, spotty pull-along elephant, and even a tea set! The toys are sooo cute and I want to make so many of them! (Interestingly, when I got home and looked at Amazon US’s page for this book, the book is not released yet in the US. And I got it here for less than fifteen bucks! I love it when I get a good bargain…) I have pictures of some pages from the book here, if anyone’s interested.

1 October 2006

knit? i sew!

Much of my week last week was taken up with sewing instead of knitting. Now, I only have very basic sewing skills, as in, I can make a straight seam. My mum bought me a sewing machine as a wedding present, and I’ve always wanted to learn to sew “someday”. So after much procrastination I joined sew? I knit! with their quilted item theme and whipped this up last week:

It’s a quilted drawstring bag for Annette to bring her lunch, snacks, etc. I couldn’t find a pattern for the type of quilted bag that I was after, so I followed bits of this tutorial for a drawstring backpack (the “Mama Backpack”), with some modifications. It’s a good tutorial, has good pictures to illustrate the steps, and good cear instructions. My modifications were that I didn’t make it into a backpack and added a strap instead, and I added a batting between the outer fabric and the lining. I also made the bag smaller, to be more “Annette-sized”, rather than “Mama-sized”.

As for the outside of the bag, the inspiration came from this and this. I’m very much inspired by the beautiful crafted things in Japanese craft books and magazines that I’ve seen around the Internet. I love how their designs are so clean and simple and so charming at the same time.

After seeing this bag, Belinda pointed me to this pic. How cute is that!! A coordinated set of bags!

Well, one thing I learned while working on this bag, was that, while sewing might be faster than knitting, there’s so much planning time that goes into it. Drafting the pattern (if you don’t have one already), transfering the pattern to fabrics, cutting the fabric, pinning fabric together, basting, etc — before you get to actually make things. But I guess the good thing is, after you’ve done it once or twice, they start to fall into place. I’ve always held much respect and admiration for those who can sew to make things, whether it be clothes, softies, bags, quilts, etc. After this experience I think my respect and admiration for them go a little bit higher.

Other quilted things that I’d like to try: Quilted water bottle carrier by Pink Chalk Studio, and the Log Cabin pillow (inspired by Belinda’s one).

4 September 2006