Red cardi/ cover up

Again sorry for the incredibly poor photo quality, i'm using a mobile phone....enough said!

This is a cardi / cover up I made yesterday evening, took only a couple of hours which was amazingly quick! The pattern is actually the bodice of a dress taken from the July 2010 Prima magazine pattern. All I did was alter it slightly so that there was a front opening as opposed to a one piece bodice. The button in the centre is the only actual functioning button, the other two are for cuteness purposes only! I used fabric from a skirt, a linen and viscose blend, it frays quite badly when cut with the grain line which is the only problem really.

When I purchased the skirt from the cat shop I told the lady I was going to make a jacket from it. She laughed and said it would take some imagination! I laughed (inwardly) because I knew that with a little assistance from my good old friend Mr Seam ripper it really couldn't be easier and more unimaginative!
But anyway, yay for quick easy sewing projects, and boo for the fact that I made this way too small for me! So it had better sell or I'll be kicking myself and trying to duct tape down my boobs in a vain attempt to get it on!

Daisy circle skirt

Terrible pictures sorry! This is a double layered circle skirt I made at the beginning of the week and didn't get around to posting.
It's made from a duvet cover I got at the cat shop (Lincoln cat care charity shop), the pattern was so cute I just had to have it!
I didn't use a pattern, just some basic mathematics to determine the size of the 'hole' for the waistband and measuring outwards from that measurement to determine the length.

I went for a double layered skirt for extra puffiness and kept it short and sweet as a more traditional knee/mid calf length would be, quite honestly, a pain in the arse to fold/ cut! I couldn't figure out how to add an elasticated/ semi stretchy waistband without it looking uber rubbish so I made the cute little button up thingy (anyone know the correct term? It's late and I'm tired so forgive me!) to give a little extra room to get over someones bottom! I purposefully made this way too small to fit me therefore preventing me from keeping it for myself! Which is so tempting every time I make something that is to my own tastes! So everything for the next craft fair will probably be for skinny people, nothing fatist, just avoiding temptation!

Super quick cardi!

Well I made this yesterday evening when I eventually got down to my craft room/pigsty! I have never made anything with sleeves before, dismissing them as too difficult... how wrong was I?! I used a prima magazine pattern, kindly sent to me by my mum who saves them all for me, and it took all of an hour and a half to cut the pattern pieces out, cut the fabric (a fine fleecy type material, originally meant to be a throw/blanket...it cost less than £2.00 and i have over half of it left - awesome awesomeness!) and sew it all together!
I have a little bit of work left to do on it, need to turn under and sew the inside edge/neckline/other inside edge part, just a simple pin, press and sew in one big long line - easy peasy! Also would like to add some embellishment, thinking a deep chocolate brown ribbon round the sleeves / bottom? Will have to see how it looks.
And two things that really made my day at work, first my lovely fellow chef Mat told me he didn't believe I had really made the polka dot dress myself and that he had tried looking for some kind of imperfection to prove I had made it! Bless him! I could have shown him many if he had asked me hahaha!
Secondly, a lovely lady who works on the bar, Alex, said to me as I was leaving that I had inspired her to pick up some knitting again and also to alter/make some clothes - which she had already started with a jeans to shorts alteration that looked fantastic! Wish I had her long legs to pull off shorts like that!
Anyway, just thought I'd share that with everyone, it made me smile so much :) I wish everyone would get stuck in and make things for themselves, it's so rewarding!

Polka-dot dress.....and the reason why cardigans are my best friends!

Well here we have it! One retro/vintage inspired polka dot dress!
I am ever so pleased with how it turned out and the surprised reaction when it was revealed that I made it was very encouraging! The dress made it's debut at Tuesday night's staff meeting and I would like to thank everyone for their kind comments :) It still needs the tiniest bit of work, having tried poppers to prevent bust gapage I have decided that velcro is the way forwards - cheap and nasty, yes, but it will prevent the gaping at the bust without having to redesign the whole bust piece. Live and learn people!!

I basically had to construct a whole new bust piece anyway as my larger than average bosom will not be found on any normal pattern sizes. I love the way the dress looks and feels, when you run down the stairs the skirt flares out like a super hero cape <3
I dealt with a slight bagginess in the back with the ribbon tie which adds a little decoration to an otherwise plain back piece.

I absolutely plan to always wear this with a cardigan, as the photos blatantly show my arms are not my finest point (there is muscle in with the fat too - promise!). But it is an excuse to indulge in cute knitwear. So it isn't all bad hahaha!

Yay for dresses!!!!!

Algebra and the knitting headache!

Well, I truly gave myself brain ache this evening! 8 years on from GCSE maths and I had to do a bit of algebra....all to enable me to start on the knitted shrug to go with my polka dot dress.

There is probably a really easy method of doing what I did but I really couldn't think of a more logical method - it's late ok!
Basically the wool recommended 6mm needles and said that it would make up a 10cm x 10cm square by using 14 stitches and 20 rows. I want a chunkier knit than that so I'm using 10mm needles. Since I am making up a pattern in my head ( I can't follow normal patterns so I look at something I want to knit and just break it down and work it out like that! I'll get the hang of patterns eventually.) I needed to know roughly how many stitches to cast on. Cue brain ache! I had to work out how many of the stitches from a 10mm needle would make 10cm in length.
So i started off with - 100 stitches 6mm = 60 stitches 10mm.
So far so good...
140st x 6mm = 100cm.
Which is 1.4 st/cm.
We'll call 6mm st A and 10mm st B.
So (100 A) = (60 B) and (140 A) = ???
I got there with it though and concluded that (140 A) = (84 B)
WOOHOO!!
Easy from there as 84 B = 100cm, 8.4 st = 10cm and I wanted to have roughly 46 cm so that was 39 st, plus a little extra for a sort of seam allowance.
Hallelujah! I cast on 45 stitches, did a few rows, measured 10cm and it was pretty much halfway between stitches 8 and 9!
So after all that effort I hope it turns out ok! Will post up when it's done :)

Almost done!

Well in record timing I have actually managed to sew all corresponding pieces of the dress together, trim all seams, hem up the bottom, iron it, sew buttons and button holes, create a custom bust piece and add a tie to the back to deal with the slight bagginess!

It was the first time I have ever made button holes with a sewing machine, thankfully I practised on a scrap first rather than diving headfirst into it! The instructions that came with my lovely Janome were really well explained and the diagrams were clear too. Bit nervous about using the seam ripper to open them up in case I cut the stitching by accident but it was fine, I managed to keep inside the gap. I also have a crafty tip for everyone that came around whilst making this dress......
**If you use the insides of cushions for stuffing things you make then keep hold of the outside part, it will save you money on buying interfacing stuff and result in one less thing thrown in the bin!**

I love a little way to use up unexpected items and save a few pennies on materials too :)

Well anyway, back to the dress, all that is left is to sew on a popper to stop a little boob flashing and a few stitches to bring the bust part in a little tighter then I'm done!
It looks really cool, kind of a rockabilly/pin up look meets pirate wench.... which equals cool to me, sod what anybody else thinks!
I'll go into more detail about adjustments/ problems etc when I post a picture up of the finished product.

New Project!

Two nights ago I started on this pattern, a 1994 McCalls picked up from a charity shop. I'm making dress C but without the capped sleeves, just sleeveless like the blue version. I've used a white with black polka dot polycotton, very light-weight for all the sun I hope we get this year! By the time summer comes around I'd like to have a decent selection of pretty dresses that I've made myself.....if I manage to do a good enough job!
I'm still learning so I will stick to the cheaper fabrics until I'm confident I won't do too much of a bad job! When I've mastered the arts of dressmaking I'll invest in some lovely fabrics and maybe even splurge on some vintage ones.

Anyway, the pattern is all cut out with no help from the cat (who did her best to ruin the pattern pieces whilst I was cutting them out, thankfully she didn't destroy any of them, just a few holes in the middle of the tissue paper!), I bought the buttons for the front today - 6 gorgeous twinkly black ones - and will start assembling the pieces tomorrow. I'm nervous and excited!
I also thought about it practically, I.E. what am I going to wear with it to cover up my wobbly arms? Answer....with a red knitted shrug! Which I bought the wool for today aswell as I was in town. Fingers crossed it goes ok!