Apr 25 2010
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link round-up

[Adjective] Sunday

I seem to be on a sewing kick these past few weeks. The only knitting I’m allowed (or that I want to do) is Icarus, so that I can get it done in time for a friend’s May 1 wedding. That means that all other crafting is of the fabric variety.

My mom still likes to get us Easter clothes, but I convinced her this year that I would much rather have fabric to make a skirt or dress. So, I walked out of the store with fabric enough for two skirts or dresses (they take the same amount of yardage) and a new pair of Fiskars dressmaker scissors. I’m pretty excited.

  • Over at Casey’s Elegant Musings, there’s a really great post about how to get perfect patch pockets. Which is so very helpful to me, because I can never seem to get mine looking crisp and perfect. This technique will really help next time.
  • Having a travel document holder last time we went on vacation probably would have helped me not freak out about 10 times about where my passport and money had got off to. Luckily, there’s a tutorial over at Thimble for how to make one. Will have to make one before my next trip.
  • From my very own google search: How to sew a blind hem by hand, over at Craftzine. The by-hand part is important, because without it, you get results that require a sewing machine (which I have) and a special foot (which I do not). Very helpful when hemming up my A Plus A Line skirt last week.

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Apr 21 2010
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thoughts

Knitting and Sewing and Thinking

It may seem like I’m not making anything with the lack of posts going on. I found that when I started blogging over here, ideas were flowing like water. Besides, I had a large back-up of things I wanted to talk about, but were too crafty for my personal blog. So, for a few weeks, I managed to get a post up nearly every day.

I kept up hope that my crafty friends would join me. They all craft and blog, and seemed really excited about the idea of a group blog. But the days went on, and it turns out that they were petrified of posting something not interesting, and so it is still all me, all the time.

However, since it’s just me, the posts have been trailing off. I don’t really do too many in-process posts of my projects because either things are going well but slow, or don’t take me too long at all. Also, I try to be crafty every day, but that hasn’t yet translated to writing every day. (Trust me, I’m working on it.)

For the last few days, as I work exclusively on my Icarus shawl, I have been thinking about the differences between knitting and sewing.

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Apr 15 2010
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sewing

A-Plus A-Line Skirt from Burda Style Pattern

Mosaic image of the A+ A-Line skirt, sewn by Lisa.

1. Left side view, 2. Front view, hanger, 3. Right side view, 4. Right side view, hanger.

Last Tuesday, I had a job interview. Which of course means that Monday was spent creating a skirt to wear to the interview.

I had decided, even before I knew that there was an interview, that I wanted to make the A-Plus A-Line skirt available for free on the Burda Style website. I had printed it out over a month ago, and had been taking my own sweet time in taping the pattern together. And let me just say, taping the pattern together took way, way more time than the actual sewing of this skirt.

I started Monday afternoon, and probably worked on it for about 4-5 hours, which got everything done except for the hems on both the skirt an the lining. There was nothing terribly complicated about the pattern. If you’ve made any sort of skirt before, this one is just as easy, even if you’ve never done a lining before (and I hadn’t.)

The outer fabric is grey wool suiting that I bought ages ago when it was on sale. The idea was to make a skirt/jacket set with it. The skirt is out of the way, now I need to improve enough to feel like I can make a suit jacket. It was my first time sewing with this type of fabric, and it was relatively easy. The hard part was getting crisp lines with the iron. The lining is purple rayon bought specifically for the skirt. I think all linings should be in fun colors.

Over all, I’m really pleased with the skirt. It fits, which I wasn’t particularly expecting (I cut the 16, but have now moved on to thinking I’m larger than I am than that I’m smaller than I am). I had decided if it didn’t fit me, I’d send it off to a friend who is a little smaller than me, and who’s mom could take it in if it so needed.

Pattern Notes:

  • The pattern took about two yards of the wool fabric, and about 1.5 yards of the lining.
  • I hemmed it up to land above my knee, but now seeing the photos, I think I’ll let it down an inch or two. It just looks too short to me to be “professional.” This length would be perfect in a flirtier fabric.
  • I am not pleased with the puckering just under the waistband at my sides. This is obviously a fit issue. My solution would be to either lose weight or to try to figure out exactly why it’s puckering. (At this point, losing weight seems like an easier option).
  • I still need to work on my zipper insertion. If I could afford a pile of zippers, I’d start making little bags to practice on. Even though the zipper is red and I didn’t use an invisible zipper, I think I shouldn’t be able to see it as much as I do.
  • I would love a blind hem foot, but that would probably require a new machine as well. But I did not enjoy hand hemming the outer skirt.
  • The mister and I really need to work on our photograph skills. And perhaps learn how to actually use the little Nikon. And wait until daytime for photographs.
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Apr 04 2010
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link round-up

[Adjective] Sunday

Oh hi! Happy Easter! I totally remembered that I was supposed to share awesome stuff on Sunday!

This week we’re traveling, celebrating Easter + the mister’s birthday together. I like it because I’ll still get my very own Easter basket from his mom (my mom say’s we’re too old for them, but we still get a spring “outfit,” this year it was new gym shoes for me).

Anyways, I found some awesome stuff this week, and not all to do with Easter!

  • I don’t particularly like to eat Peeps, but they do make adorable decoration, especially when reproduced in felt for as bunting, via Dana-Made-It.
  • I love fabric, it’s true, and over at True Up, Kim has an interview with Jessica Levitt on her new fabric line, which I can’t stop thinking about. Also, leave a comment over there and be entered in to win a fat quarter pack of the fabrics talked about.
  • Have I mentioned my love of robots? Over at Stitch-Craft, Holly made a memory game with a robot dingbat font, cardstock, and fabric. I would love just the adorable bag she made to store the game.
  • Even though I don’t have my own dining table (still living at home, sigh), I adored this post by David Lebovitz on the French usage of cloth napkins. And of course am inspired to do something similar at my own table.

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Apr 03 2010
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knitting, WIP

Finally, the second chart on Icarus.

In progress, second chart.
I know iPhone photos are terrible quality, but I’m just not going to pull out the Nikon for an in-progress pic (well, not until I manage to get myself an Eye-Fi card, but that’s another matter.)

I am finally, FINALLY onto the second chart of my Icarus shawl. Where I thought I was never going to get. It’s pretty much the only thing I’ve worked on this week, other than the slight detour for the mister’s birthday present.

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Mar 28 2010
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link round-up

[Adjective] Sunday

I apparently suck at a “weekly” feature—I’m working on it! Last weekend was a last-minute trip to Redding to visit the mister’s family and help with the massive spring-cleaning effort out at his great-aunts. I’m sure our time is coming; the back yard here is calling out for help.

The last two days have been spent preparing for, and then executing a full-reboot of my computer. The mister had bought a copy of Snow Leopard about a month ago, and it took that long for me to muster up enough nerve to do a full back up, a Time Machine backup, and then hit the switch and delete everything to start over fresh with a OS upgrade.

Everything is running great, pulling out the libraries I needed for particular apps has been a breeze (like all of my half-written blog posts in Ecto, and my Delicious Library). I particularly think it was easy because the mister works for Apple in tech support, and thus actually supervised the whole deal.

Anyway. So this week is a bit short; I guess I didn’t see too much that floated my boat to the point that I wanted to share it with every one. Not sure if that is a product of the week, or just me personally. Or maybe my internets. It’s been horridly slow this week, so less web surfing was done.

  • Am seriously loving the pants over on Green Apples. I’ve never been a fan of the high-waisted look, but these pants look amazing. Next time I find Vogue patterns on sale for 99¢, I’m going to have to pick up this one.
  • There are can cozies, and then there are can cozies. You know you want your beers to be kept cold in a Star Trek uniform. Found at Knit Faster.
  • Check out these awesome egg crafts by Benita over at Chez Larsson. Each one starts with a blown egg shell cut into shape with a dremel tool, and she shows you not only the finished object, but how she put each one together, with a little story to boot!
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Mar 23 2010
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sewing

New blue polka dot skirt.


So, after two days of sewing, I managed to finish my first skirt of the year.

I used McCalls pattern M5631, which called for 3.5 yards of fabric. Before I opened up the instructions, I really couldn’t wrap my head around how a skirt could call for the same amount of yardage as a dress pattern I had bought. And then I started sewing. Having both pleats and gathers, this skirt is really full. And very likely to flip up in the wind (which totally happened when I wore it out on Monday.)

I let the Mister pick the version of the skirt to go with, and I really like the fake layers at the bottom. They’re harder to see in the polka dot, but they are a nice little detail. I like how I followed directions exactly and the skirt hits at exactly the right spot on my knee.

This is absolutely my favorite, and am pretty sure I can wear nearly any color top with it; it’s all a matter of finding the right shade. One really good thing about making my own skirts is that I can take a swatch of fabric with me when I go shopping for tops to be sure that the colors will match.

Pattern Notes:

  • I made the size 20. For serious. Had I made my waist size, the skirt would be sitting about five inches higher. I am ridiculously high-waisted. As it is, it sits about an inch below my belly button, which is exactly where I like skirts of this type to sit.
  • The pattern was really straight forward. Sizing comes completely from the waistband, the pleats and the gathers. All the sizes (14-20 in my pattern envelope) used the exact same skirt piece at the same dimentions; the smaller the size, the larger the pleats and the more the gathers. Will make it really easy to pull apart and downsize if I lose the weight I’m trying to.
  • Did the “C” view, but omitted the waist sash because I don’t really need to emphasize that.
  • Ended up inserting a regular zipper; tried to do an invisible one and failed horribly, so I went back to what I know I’m good at. I’ll try again on the next skirt.
  • The hem and fake tiers were really easy to do, as the skirt body is actually square. Thus I didn’t have to try to ease in anything on a curve.
  • I am most definitely planning on making this skirt again, as soon as I can afford some more fabric.
  • I used a light-weight cotton (no idea what, bought it at Hancock’s); but can see this in a voile with a lining, a linen, or any other light-weight fabric.
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Mar 17 2010
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knitting

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Hope everyone remembered to wear green today! Our family is a little bit Irish, and it’s my aunt’s birthday today, so we always celebrate by wearing a bit of green.

My pin knit up  from the shamrock pattern link that I shared with you all on Sunday. It was very quick to knit up; I did one for me and another for the Mister in about an hour total. I ended up using worsted weight yarn with 2.75mm needles (US 1).

I love little pins like this. Now I’m up to two: one for valentines day, and one for today. Maybe I can figure out a little flag next to do multiple holidays.

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Mar 15 2010
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thoughts

Brainstorming presents for the Mister’s birthday.

Not much craft related going on today; I actually get to do some (real) office work and I’m on a break right now.

I’m thinking about hitting up the local Hancock fabrics tonight or tomorrow; the Mister’s birthday is at the end of the month, and there’s a few things I’m thinking of making him. I’ve got a 10% off coupon as well, and I’m not afraid to use it.

Since the Mister loves the outdoors (Eagle Scout and all that), I’m thinking I’ll make him a kite from One Yard Wonders, and perhaps the placemats for camping. I’m trying to come up with inexpensive stuff I can craft that he would like.

If I was super handy with a block of wood and a drill, I’d make him a cribbage board; we love to play when we’re camping, but we don’t have a board of our own. Sure, I know you can keep score with paper, but there is something nice about a self-contained unit that stores a deck of cards as well.

We’ve been dating a little short of a year and a half, and friends for about a year more, and it’s hard to come up with creative ideas for him. I don’t want to start giving him gifts that his mom is more than willing to take care of (socks, shorts, etc.); I want him to be genuinely surprised and thrilled with what he unwraps.

It’s a darn good thing he’s an even bigger geeky dork than me, since usually it means if it tickles my funny bone, it will his as well.

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Mar 14 2010
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link round-up

[Adjective] Sunday

In a hopefully new and recurring feature around here, I’ve rounded up some ideas—be they craft related, or just plain interesting— that tickled my fancy and inspired a round of adjectives to describe them. This weeks happens to be light because I didn’t have a lot of free time this week between food prep and video prep for my grandma’s birthday.

  • Tiffany whipped up some pajama bags for her boys, and then some: “Along with the pajamas, I slip a book or two in there each night and the kids get so excited to see what I’ve selected for them.”
  • I love gnomes, and over at mama*made, Gracie Mae made an adorable one for Easter, along with sharing her source for wool felt (for which I am always on the lookout for.).
  • Knitty’s loss is our gain: Knits & Wovens has released Precipitous, a new  pattern for “removable sleeves. Don’t take up too much room in the bag, pull out when needed.” The best part? It’s in worksheet form, so you can plug in the numbers from your favorite yarn/needle combo and come up with something awesome. Totally worth the low, low price of $3!
  • I love magnetic bookmarks, and …is five shares an awesome tutorial on how to make them yourself. Don’t be surprised if you see these pop up here sometime in the future!
  • And finally, found just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, Vickie Howell has a tutorial up for a quick knitted shamrock, perfect for making into a lapel pin, or anything else you might want to attach it to.
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