Final 2019 knitting (& a little crochet)

Hello hello! It's been a little while since my last post, hasn't it?! Most of my creative time at the end of last year was spent making Christmas presents for my family that needed to be kept secret so I didn't have anything to share here. I'm back to making for myself again now, so expect normal blogging service to resume too! My first projects of the year are almost done, but for now I thought I'd pop in to share some of the things that I knitted in the last four months of 2019.

Having said that, this first project is actually crocheted! This is the first crochet that I've done for quite a while - I decided to give it a try again it give my hands something a bit different to do as a break from knitting. I do like crochet every now and then, but I don't enjoy it as much as knitting and also my tension is slightly crazy so everything turns out smaller than it's meant to be no matter what I do. That makes it a bit limiting because it means that I tend to stick to projects where final size isn't too critical.

Thankfully this shawl falls into that category, and was a nice way to put a pretty skein of yarn (from Woolly Mama Yarns) that had been in my stash for a while to good use. The pattern is the Movie Night Shawl by Purple Iguana Designs. It was easy to work up and it's nice light shawl to wear - what more could you want?!

Next up is a Blooming Bandana Cowl - a pattern by Molly Klein Design. This is a really great pattern for using up leftovers from sock projects as the pattern only calls for about 35 grams of each colourway (I think I may have used even less than that). I have plenty of yarn left over from my sock projects so I can definitely see myself making more of these.

It was another easy pattern to knit (that's a bit of a theme with most of these projects, partly because they have been my easy knitting that I've been working on alongside a more complicated sweater/jumper that's still a work in progress), and I've enjoyed wearing it. I always used to stay away from cowls because I didn't think they'd be as cosy as a shawl/scarf because you can't wrap them as snugly round your neck, but I've found that this is nice to wear when I'm at my desk and my shoulders/neck feel a bit chilly. Another winner!

Now we have some socks, specifically the Kia socks. This is a pattern by Dawn Henderson/dawn.landix, and deserves to be appreciated because it was inspired by the important conversations within the knitting community surrounding race, diversity, inclusion and representation.

It's a lovely relaxing pattern to knit. I used a slightly different toe (just my personal preference - I've found that the rounded toe from Helen Stewart's Magnolia Socks fits my feet really well so I tend to use that on all my socks now), but other than that followed the pattern and they knit up beautifully. This would be a good pattern to use for presents because it's speedy but more interesting than plain vanilla socks. The yarn I used is 'Taste the rainbow' by Glendale Fibres - it's lovely and colourful!

My next project was a Rayon de Soleil shawl. This is a pattern by Francoise Danoy/Aroha Knits. It's a simple shawlette made up of alternating sections of stocking stitch and garter eyelet rows - a simple but effective pattern that was enjoyable to knit.

I made this using more sock yarn leftovers - the variegated colour is 'Hendriks' by Vicki Brown Designs, and the pink is 'Orchid' by Lamington Lass. I love how these two yarns work together - pink and green is such a nice colour combination, which I didn't really appreciate until a couple of years ago.

Now we move on to a few presents that I knitted towards the end of the year. First, a super simple and speedy baby knit - a Tegan hat with top knot that I made for a friend who had a baby in early December. It's DK weight so knits up nice and quickly, and felt lovely and cosy in the yarn that I used - a mini skein of John Arbon Knit by Numbers DK in colourway 17. I'd happily knit more of these for future baby gifts!

There was a new addition to my family just before Christmas and I gained a new nephew, so obviously he needed an auntie-made present too! This time I chose to knit a little cardi - specifically 'The Gift' by kiddiwinksknits. This is a lovely pattern (and it's free!) -  the only change I made was to use normal  1x1 rib on the cuffs and waistband instead of the eyelet rib in the pattern - mainly because I knit most of it not knowing whether I'd be gaining a niece or a nephew and plain rib seemed a bit more unisex than the pretty eyelet rib.

I don't often knit garments seamlessly as the one time I tried it made my wrists really sore, but I want to give it another go and this was a nice way to experiment and see how it went. Thankfully no wrist pain this time, although it has to be said that obviously a baby cardi is a lot smaller and lighter than a garment for me would be!

I also knitted up a quick hat for my brother. It's the Violet Waffles hat by Halldora J - another freebie (I do pay for knitting patterns most of the time I assure you - I like to support knitting designers!) and another easy peasy project, and excellent gift knit. This project was mainly determined by the yarn (Blue Sky Alpacas Eco-Cashmere in the colour Black Rose), which I was lucky enough to win in a giveaway earlier in 2019. It's beautiful yarn and felt lovely, but it really isn't my colour so I knew all along that it would be used for a gift. Thankfully my brother wears much darker colours than I do so it suited him perfectly!

Once Christmas was over, I switched back to knitting for me - yay! My first completed project was a very practical one - dishcloths. I've been wanting to give knitted dishcloths a try for a while now, and knitting this super simple pattern (Gramma's Dishcloth by PJ Allen) was a good way to spend car journeys visiting family members over the Christmas period. I used Lily Sugar n Cream in the colour Psychedelic Ombre, which has given me possibly the most colourful dishcloths in the world! I've been using them for about a week now and they're doing well so far so I may be making some more so that I can have some in use while others are in the wash.

And last but not least, a hat for me! It's the Trellis Beret by Woolly Wormhead. I've had this pattern in my Ravelry queue for a while and chose to knit it now because I realised I already had the perfect yarn for it already waiting in my stash in the form of the leftovers from a top I made about two years ago (the yarn is Tivoli New Celtic Aran in shade 981). I really enjoyed knitting this pattern - it's well written, and I particularly like how the eyelet sections taper with the crown decreases.

Congratulations if you've made it through all of that! I think that's about all I have to share for now. I've got a sewing project almost finished though, so I'll hopefully be back again to share that soon - I definitely won't be leaving it as long between posts as I did last time anyway. See you soon!

Vogue 8772 Shirt

I've been enjoying wearing shirts recently, but only have two long-sleeved ones in my wardrobe so I decided it was time to add another to my collection. I fancied trying a new pattern, and after a bit of browsing I opted for Vogue 8772.

I've previously made the Sewaholic Granville shirt (my original version from a few years ago is here) and been pleased with it, but while the back princess seams and yoke give the shirt a nice shape I feel like they're not great if you want to make a shirt in a fabric with a large print because they break things up too much (or mean that you have to spend a lot of time on pattern matching!). If you've been reading this blog for a while, you may have noticed that I like a large print so I thought it would be worth giving another shirt pattern a go.

Vogue 8772 caught my eye because it has similar shaping to the Granville, but that shaping is provided by French darts rather than princess seams. OK, so darts break a print up too, but I don't mind that as much for some reason. The pattern is also pretty versatile as it comes with pointed collar and pussy bow options, as well as sleeve variations, a sleeveless option and two different hem lengths. It also helped that Vogue patterns were on sale when I bought it!

I made view D of the pattern - the pointed collar, long cuffed sleeves and the shorter hem length.

Having made a couple of shirts and shirt dresses now, I'm fairly familiar with the process of constructing a shirt so I didn't have any trouble with this pattern. The instructions were fairly brief but always clear as far as I was concerned.

That said, I did go a little off piste when it came to the finishing of the centre front. The pattern doesn't include a separate button placket, and instead the centre front is double-folded back on itself to create a facing. I added a strip of interfacing to one layer of the fold, as I always find my machine stitches buttonholes better on interfaced fabric. I also topstitched the facing down to make it look more like a button placket. Neither of these are particularly major changes from the instructions, but I'm glad I made them all the same.

In terms of sizing, according to the pattern I should have made a 16 at the bust, blending out to an 18 at the waist and hips. I consulted the finished garment measurements and decided that I'd actually be fine making a straight size 16. I'm pleased with the fit - it's nicely shaped without being so fitted that I'm risking gaping buttons!

One point to note is that the arms come up quite long - they're just about OK on me and I'm 5'9" with relatively long arms, so if you're shorter or have proportionately small arms then you may need to shorten them.

The fabric I used is some pretty cotton (or I assume it's cotton anyway!) that was part of a large bag of fabrics that my auntie gave me when she was clearing out her parents' house. As soon as I saw it, I thought it would make a lovely shirt and I think I've proved myself right (even if I do say so myself!).

I briefly considered pattern matching across the centre front, but then I realised that the pattern repeat on the fabric was fairly huge so matching the flowers exactly would have meant wasting a fair bit of fabric. Instead, I just made sure that the stripes continued evenly on either side of the front. I also made sure that I had a stripe running around the collar and across the middle of each cuff, just because I like how that looks.

I'd originally intended to have a stripe running down the centre front, but if I'd done that then the print placement would have meant that the stripes to either side of the centre would have disappeared because they'd have been eaten up by the front darts, which would have looked weird. As it turns out, I think having to change my original plan was a blessing in disguise because the purple buttons that I found perfectly match the stripes and look great running down the centre front through the flowers.

I'm really pleased with the shirt and have already treated myself to some more fabric to make a second version. My mum has also requested one for her Christmas present, so I'll be making that in the not-too-distant future too. All in all, I'm very glad I gave Vogue 8772 a try, and I think I'll definitely be getting my money's worth out of this pattern!

McCalls 7475 culottes sewing pattern review & a bonus Freya

Regular readers of this blog will not be surprised to hear that I generally think life is better in pretty dresses (or occasionally skirts) and I'm not going to entirely abandon that philosophy any time soon, but in the last couple of years since moving to a rather windy coastal town I have been forced to admit that trousers can be very useful too! The latest addition to that area of my wardrobe is today's project - culottes using the McCalls 7475 pattern.

McCalls 7475 is a pattern for semi-fitted skirts, shorts and culottes with a mock fly front, back yoke, two different front pocket styles, the option of back pockets and length variations. I got the pattern when it was included with issue 72 of Love Sewing magazine.

I basically made view F - the longer culottes, but I omitted the back pockets and used the front pockets from view E.

My measurements put me in an 18 for this pattern, but based on the finished garment measurements I was pretty sure that an 18 would be too big. I made a toile of a 16 and they did fit, but were just a little too fitted to be comfortable around the waist. I let out the side seams just a touch (literally just a couple of millimetres at each seam) and that was all it took to make sure I'll be able to wear the culottes happily.

The culottes are a fairly simple project to sew and I was surprised by how quickly they came together. The mock fly front is really easy (I've never actually sewn a proper fly front, but the way people talk about them, I assume they're more complicated than this was!) but still looks nice and neat. The instructions were what you'd expect from a commercial pattern - they're fairly succinct, but I found them completely clear and didn't have any problems.

Part of me was tempted to get a patterned fabric because I'm always naturally drawn to prints rather than solid colours, but in the end the sensible side of me won out and I decided to opt for some navy needlecord from Textile Express. It's a lovely fabric and while patterned culottes would have been fun, these will go with pretty much any top that I own so will get much more wear. The needlecord that I used has some slight stretch to it as well, which makes them super comfy, so I'm more likely to want to wear them!

I decided to give these culottes pretty insides and used some prized scraps of possibly my favourite ever fabric (it's a Liberty tana lawn - the print's called Suzy Elizabeth) as the waistband facing and to line the pockets. The pattern doesn't call for you to line the pockets and just has you turn the seam allowances under before stitching them down (they're patch pockets), but I prefer to line pockets if I've got some suitable fabric. In this case both the waistband and the pockets would have been a bit bulky if I'd faced/lined them with the needlecord, but the cotton lawn works nicely.

I'm wearing the culottes here with a Tilly & The Buttons Freya cowl neck top that I made recently. The fabric is a lovely jersey from Loubodu Fabrics - sadly it doesn't seem to be available any more though. I have a steadily growing collection of Freya tops, and find them really useful at this time of year so I'm going to be using them to take part in this year's One Week One Pattern challenge hosted by Sewisfaction. Is anyone else planning to join in?

Anyway, back to the culottes! I was fairly sure before making them that they'd be useful, but I'm actually quite surprised by just how much I like them. I've worn them quite a few times already, and I'm sure I'll be wearing them much more this autumn/winter. I'd still quite like a patterned pair though; I just need to find some suitable fabric - any suggestions?!

Empty Hanger Patterns Strasbourg Bag

I'm going to go ahead and say right from the start of this post that the project I have to share with you today may be one of the most practical things I've ever made. Don't worry though, in this case practical doesn't mean boring! Let me introduce you to my Strasbourg bag...

The Strasbourg bag is a pattern from Empty Hanger Patterns. I came across this company when Zoe of "So Zo" fame included them in a list of companies offering discounts at the end of Me Made May this year. They have some interesting looking garment patterns, but it was the Strasbourg bag that really appealed to me. 'Why's that?', I hear you ask. It's a convertible bag, so you can use the one bag as two different styles of backpack, a shoulder bag or a crossbody bag. How useful is that?!

In addition to having multiple strap options, the bag also has a plethora of handy pockets. There's a large pocket on the outer front, and inside there's a large zip pocket that also acts as a divider to provide a section for a small laptop/tablet, an elasticated pocket, small side zip pocket, pen pocket and a key chain. The bag is also a good size - I can easily fit in my DSLR camera in its case, and all the other essentials I need for a day out.

As with lots of bag projects, it always seems like the hard work starts with trying to source all of the hardware in the right sizes! Is it just me that can never seem to get everything I need from one place?! In this case, the best option seemed to be to order some of it from WeaverDee and the rest from Sew Essential (sorry, I can't quite remember what I got from which shop!).

The fabric was an easier matter! After seeing this backpack in M&S, I decided that jumbo cord would be a nice option to use - the texture makes it a bit more interesting than other plain fabrics, whilst the solid colour makes it easier to wear with lots of things than a print might be (which is good for a bag I think). Dark denim was the obvious choice to use for the contrast base and straps for me. I got both of my outer fabrics from Fabric Godmother - the denim's here, and this is the cord. The lining fabric was a lucky charity shop find a while ago.

While I'm really happy with my finished bag, I don't think the instructions for this pattern were quite as good as other bag patterns I've used. There weren't any major errors, but there were a couple of places where I felt the pattern could have been better. For example, the pattern just gives you dimensions of rectangles to cut out (relatively standard - that doesn't bother me), but at one point you need to create a curve on a pattern piece and it tells you to draw around a glass whereas other patterns I've used provide pattern pieces for non-rectangular pieces.

It's also not very helpful about interfacing (FYI - I used a medium/heavy weight interfacing on my base fabric), which can really affect the final outcome of a bag project and can be a bit confusing if you haven't made bags before. It also suddenly mentions the option of using a button or a snap on the outer front pocket when you're in the middle of sewing the bag - it would be more helpful if this were included and marked as optional in the supplies list. I also felt like some of the interior pockets weren't constructed in the best way and did my own thing on a couple of occasions.

As I said, they weren't major problems - just little niggles here and there. I basically got the impression that the pattern was written by someone who knows what they're talking about in terms of sewing but is possibly more used to making garments, in comparison with other bag patterns that I've used which were written by people who specialise in bags. All that said, I didn't struggle with making the bag myself - I'm just not sure I'd recommend the pattern to a beginner.

Having used the bag a fair few times already, I can confirm that it's definitely very useful. It's pretty quick to switch between the different bag styles - you just have to unclip the swivel clasps and reattach them to different D-rings. Easy peasy!

I would say that when I've used the bag as the "simple" backpack (in the top left photo below), the straps seem a bit long and have a tendency to slip off my shoulders. I wouldn't want to shorten the straps much though (the pattern does give you instructions on finding the right strap length for you), because they're just the right length for the other bag styles. I think that the gathered top backpack style and the shoulder bag (the two bottom photos below) are probably the styles that I'll use most often - partly because you can switch between them without altering the swivel clasps, and partly because I find them the comfiest styles to wear.

I've made a few bags before, and I always enjoy it as something a bit different in between garment sewing projects. Making the Strasbourg bag was no exception! I'll be getting a lot of use out of this bag, and it looks like I'll be making the pattern again because my sister told me that she would happily receive one as a Christmas or birthday present. Requests from other people are always a good sign that a project has been successful, don't you think?

Nina Lee Kew Dress: Sewing Pattern Review

It's been a busy couple of weeks around these parts and blogging has fallen slightly by the wayside. I've still been finding time for sewing though so I'm developing a little backlog of projects to talk about. Most of them are still waiting to be photographed, so I've just got one to share today. It is a good one though, so I hope you won't be too disappointed! Here's my Nina Lee Kew dress...

The Kew dress is a pattern that's been in my stash waiting to be made for a while, but for some reason it kept getting neglected and not quite making it to my sewing table. When Nina Lee released the expansion pack for the pattern recently, the gathered skirt option really appealed to me and gave me the push that I needed to finally sew up the pattern.

For this first one, I combined the gathered skirt from the expansion pack with version one of the bodice from the original Kew pattern. This bodice has a touch of the 1940s tea dress about it with the front bodice gathered into a yoke at the shoulders and ruched sleeves (more on those later!).

The instructions for the pattern are really detailed and easy to follow. There's nothing too tricky about sewing the Kew dress, and if you're a little uncertain about anything then I'm sure the instructions would explain everything. The pattern is recommended for confident beginners, and I'd say that's an appropriate rating, and it's a nice straightforward-but-not-boring project if you have a bit more sewing experience.

In terms of sizing, my measurements put me between a 12 and 14 at the bust and between a 14 and 16 at the waist and hips. I looked at the finished garment measurements and decided to make a toile in a 14 at the bust blending out to a 16 at the waist. For button-up dresses, I prefer to have just a little more ease so that the dress is nicely fitted but without the danger of having inter-button gaping issues.

While I was making the toile I decided to test out the sleeves as I was a bit concerned that they might be awkward to wear under cardigans. On my toile, I added the ruching on one sleeve and left the other one plain. My suspicions proved to be correct and, while I think the ruching is really pretty, that sleeve did seem a bit bulky under a cardi and I also found that the ruching restricted my arm movement a bit. That made it easy to decide to just leave the sleeves plain.

The only other alteration that I made to the pattern was to lengthen the bodice by 2 inches. Lengthening a bodice is standard for me, but 2 inches is a bit more than I'd usually have to add.

The fabric that I used for this one is a spotty chambray from Minerva Crafts - I can't see it on their website at the moment, but they do have lots of other chambray options. It was a lovely fabric to work with - as it's a cotton it behaves nicely, but it has enough drape to handle the gathers on the bodice and the skirt of this dress.

As blue and white spots are pretty much a neutral in my book, I decided to use this dress as the opportunity to try out something I've been wanting to do for a while - rainbow buttons! I got these from ebay (again the ones I bought don't seem to be available, sorry!). I love how the buttons look - I think they're the perfect finishing touch for this dress.

All in all, I'm really glad that I finally got around to making a Kew dress. This one is the perfect everyday dress for me, and the combination of the blue and white spots and rainbow buttons will make it very wearable I think. I'm planning to make the strappy bodice of the Kew dress as a pinafore at some point, and I'd like to try out the other skirt options some time too. Have you made a Kew dress? What options did you use?