Loads of UFOs

I have not posted for over two weeks, now i feel kind of obliged not to let my blog stand idle; as i cant see my self posting a finished project for about a week.  I have not been lazy, its just that i have not quite finished a whole project, yet. Hence i have loads of UnFinished Objects. A lot of this was down to riding my bike with a fever. I cycled 13 miles on Friday morning and spent Friday afternoon being scarily dizzy and sick, trying to contact a doctor. However loads of rest over the weekend at my parents house and i am now fine.

So here is a project update. 

I have started a new Cable Knit Bag like my grey one. I was in B&M and they had this perfect chunky 100% wool yarn, that i just knew was put there for me to make this bag.  The first time i made this  i drew a diagram of the bag and knitted it from that and what was in my head. That was two years ago now so i have been thinking i need to make another one for a while and write the instructions down properly, before i completely forget how i did it. So this is what i have been doing, its harder than i thought. More on that later.

I have my first UFO. Its official. I can't see these short being finished in weeks, if not months. Maybe never. I am being brave and using this paisley fabric. I cut 121 view C from the May addition of Burda Magazine. I read the instructions and thought that they looked simple enough to make, so i cut out the fabric and then realized that i missed an invisible zipper in the recipe. I am going to buy an invisible zipper foot for my sewing machine, when i get around to it. But for now its been put away. There is nowhere in town that i can by invisible zippers let alone a sewing machine foot.

The May addition of Burda Magazine has loads of great stuff in it. So i picked it up to see what else i could reasonably make. There are quite a few things i might try. When i first saw this skirt i thought that would be perfect in an aubergine fabric i bought last year to make a dress. I had convinced myself that i had used rest of the fabric lining a skirt. So brilliant surprise for me when i found enough of it in my fabric stash to make the knee length version of this skirt. So this is cut out and is waiting next to my sewing machine for me to stitch it together.

Well i did finish something! Its Burda 119 from the March issue. I actually really like it on, but i will have to layer it, because it is made from that horrid fabric i used for the Peter Pan Tee that i swore i would never touch again.

P.S. I stole the pics from the Burda magazine straight from this blog: http://sewingandstyle.blogspot.co.uk/. I don't know where she got hers from.

Not Meant 2 Be - Peter Pan Tee NM2B

Feeling Grumpy..

I struggled from the outset with the fabric, it was just so thin and cheap. It took nearly two hours to lay it out flat, so i could cut it. I realized early on that the fabric was going to be too thin to wear with out a layer underneath, but did not really care, it was still quite pretty. It was going to be a plain cream tee, made in exactly the same way as the Yellow Flower Tee, with Newlook 6807. But had this flower print fabric in my stash, so decided to pretty it up with a collar and tied cuffs on the sleeves. 

I spent what seemed like ages making the sleeves, but it was not until i went to attach them that i realized that i had made two left sleeves. I cut another one, making sure that i had the pattern piece the right way up. But when i tried it on i realized that i had forgotten to lengthen the sleeve like i had in the first place. At this point i just gave up. I attached the collar, with out any care or attention, and i am not going to bother to finish the hem. 

The plan was to make another cap sleeve tee-shirt out of the fabric and then maybe Burda 119, issue 3/2012 out of the left overs. But for now i have grabbed the whats left and stuck it at the bottom of my fabric draw, probably forever. I never want to see it again.

Yellow Flower Tee with 1/2 Length Sleeves

I've had to abandon my usual spot for taking photos out side my flat, as the empty houses opposite are now occupied. Its hard enough trying to take picture of yourself, but just plain embarrassing when you have got a audience. More worryingly at least one of these new people work in the same building as me and i don't need any more rumors about my strange behavior at work. So today i went for a long walk to find somewhere realtively lonly to take photes, i eventualy found this pile of logs to hide behind. 

This top is almost identical to the Yellow Flower Top that i made last. I used my highly altered version of NewLook 6807.  I made the same alternations as last time, only this time i added 1/2 length sleeves. I did not use the 3/4 length sleeve in the pattern because i did not want overly baggy sleeves. Instead i traced the cap sleeve pattern piece. Then i cut it along the middle stopping towards the top of the paper and moved the two sides so they were parallel. I then extended it by drawing two lines straight down from the sides. I also then added tied cuffs at the bottom of the sleeve to make the top more interesting.  

and a more practical photo of the front....

and the detail on the sleeves.......

Yellow Flower Top - NewLook 6807

This is the first in a series of T-shirts i am making with NewLook 6807. I have used this pattern three times before to make the Grey New Years Top and two other which did not work out so well. I was worried when i started this project that the knit i chose would be too stretchy (it has 4 way stretch), but actually it turn out to be just right. This top is the perfect casual summer t-shirt, i shall be wearing this lots and lots.

Yellow Flower Top - NewLook 6807

I have deviated quite a bit from the original pattern this time. I raised the neck line at the front by cutting along the size 18 line instead of size 10 and got rid of the centre back seam and the neck tie. 

Yellow Flower Top - NewLook 6807

I also made a massive changes to the body by widening the front towards the bottom and narrowing the back towards the bottom, then putting elastic through the hem. I did this by copying a RTW top that i bought a few weeks ago which is constructed like that. I have had a few tops with this kind of construction and find it really flattering. I have no idea what this technique is called i have tried a Internet search but came up empty handed. Any ideas?

Yellow Flower Top - NewLook 6807. The front is wider than the back.

I don't own a serger/overlock machine, so i did this on a regular sewing machine, using zig zag stitch. The seams seam stable and strong so i don't really get what the whole fuss about doing knits on a serger/overlocker is all about. 

Summers Up Next - Variations on New Look 6807

This is what i am working on next. I am planning to make some blousey summer T-shirts, with the yellow flower knit fabric and the cream knit fabric, i bought in Birmingham a few weeks ago. I have two meters of each. So i am hoping to get three or four T-shirts out of this at least.

Cream knit fabric with yellow flowers.

I've been really inspired by the One Week One Pattern challenge on Tilly and the Buttons blog. However the time frame to get started was always too tight for me, but i plan something similar. I am going to use New Look 6807, as my basic pattern. I know that the pattern is a bit boring but i plan to play around with the neck line, sleeves and bodice. 

New Look 6807

A-Line Skirt

Well for £1 i have managed to squeeze out two half decent skirts, not bad as i am on a budget. First with my pencil skirt and now with this A-line skirt. I reused my skirt sloper; following the tutorial on the Burdastyle site to convert it to an A-line skirt.

A-line skirt

Cable bag.

I've really been on a learning drive recently, reading my Simplicity Sewing Book that i picked up last month, trying to learn how to sew properly and actually practice what i am learning. I really like the Simplicity book its easy enough to understand, but some times i wish it would go into more detail. The chapter 1 is awesome, is all about fashion and clothes to flatter your figure, it written in the 80's, so all the clothes are horrible and not flattering at all. But the sewing stuff is good. When i am knitting or crocheting, i have a tendency just to cast on 20 stitches and hope after a few rows i know what i am going to be making, and make the pattern up in may head there after. This method has produced some really awesome stuff like this bag. But mostly i just have just spent a lot of time knotting yarn into a big mess. I really need not to get into this habit with my sewing.

A-line skirt

Before making this skirt, i read up on seams and knit seams. And also tried out a blind hem, which worked great in my practice pieces, but failed on the skirt. So the skirt was unpicked and i just did a single turn up on the hem. It makes the skirt longer, which is an advantage because i forgot to add a hem allowance to my pattern pieces. Oops.

A-line skirt