New Computer, New (consistent!!) Posting

Well, hopefully consistent. But definitely more than has been going on-my old Lenovo x120e got a whole glass full of water spilled into it, and refused to even power on. I tried to hold out until my birthday/tax rebate time, but not having a computer at all was pretty awful, and I gave in and treated myself to the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro, which is a big upgrade from my old one. The screen on my x120e was admittedly pretty awful, which made editing photos for this blog a pain. On this one, however, the screen is gorgeous, and having a touch screen has been surprisingly handy.

But enough computer chat. What have I been up to since the death of my old laptop? Quite a bit, although I was not taking photos very consistently, since I had nothing to upload them to. So the picture coverage is a bit spotty.

Like I apparently have no picture of the making of this shirt? And I made this quite a while back, since there's no weight bench in the background of these pictures. In any case-just using my basic longsleeve shirt pattern, with contrast cuffs, collar and placket. Next time around I may slim down the arms on this pattern a tiny bit, but then again, my arms keep growing, so maybe not.

 I found some plastic canvas at the thrift store right before Christmas, so I decided to make some little needlepoint ornaments. I have plenty of crewel yarn hanging around for it. I charted out some portraits of my two cats. I think they came out pretty well, I just wish there was more contrast in the eye area on Barry (the orange and white cat)

And here's the finished ornaments. I must have used different dark green on Wharton's and not noticed. But they came out pretty cute! And went right on my tree.

I've been really interest in combining sports and athletic wear with traditional 'craft' processes lately. I've also been learning crochet a little more fully, so I got it into my head to make crochet shorts. I started sketching, and decided to stick to a simple granny square pattern at first so I could figure out how to shape it into shorts. I still want to do something with more shaped squares eventually.

So I needed a variety of yarns, as cheap as possible, since this is just a test. The cheapest way seemed to be to just buy an old afghan for a few dollars and pull it apart. I don't really need to buy full skeins of worsted acrylic, it's not very nice for much else. Unfortunately, the only before picture of the afghan I took was this crummy instagram. So apologies for that. Take my word for it, it was very ugly. 

 

 And a few days later, it became these! The making was pretty simple. Four granny squares to start, then join the front and back halfway down, then made a crotch gusset (may not be necessary if you don't have thick legs/butt like me) then join on the sides.

 Then round and around each leg, and around the waist.

 The is the back view, in the middle back I used treble instead of double crochet, to sort of create a 'yoke' also to accommodate my butt. Honestly, though, it's still a little short in the back, next time I might also add a short row of double crochet just there as well.

And the front. It's lined with a pair of old bike shorts. I carefully tacked it in by hand with lots of separate small tacks so the stretchiness is preserved. There is probably an easier/better way to do this though I imagine a machine zig zag or serger stitch would not look very good.

 I also wondered, "Is it possible to cross stitch on spandex, or would it constrict the four-way stretch too much?" Then I figured, if the cross stitching was done with the fabric stretched the same amount as it would be on the body, it should work. I picked out a simple pattern from an old book I have.

 I had found at the thrift store a while back a cross stitch kit with 'waste canvas.' The idea is you stitch through the canvas and fabric, then 'pull' or unravel the canvas out from underneath. No picture, but I stretched the shorts over some cardboard, and basted the waste canvas onto it. Then stitched through both and pulled the canvas away. 

 When the shorts are unstretched, the stitching does look a little puckered and odd.

 But, once they are on, it looks much more normal. We'll have to wait and see what happens when I wash them though.

I tried to find a bigger piece of waste canvas, and was having a hard time finding any. It turns out that the world has moved on to water soluble canvas! And thank goodness because pulling the waste canvas was a giant pain. No plans for this yet, but I sure I'll think of something.

Last thing for now, I've been making up a neat shirt with some medallion/border print material I found. I was planning on making it long sleeve, but I lost the fussy-cut cuffs, and don't have enough to cut more, so I think it's doomed to short sleeves.

In a Groove

Sometimes I'm just feeling one process more than another. This week, I was really into the tiny hand piecing of my Dear Jane blocks and knocked out a whole bunch of them. I'm finally feeling like the end is in sight--I've got 5 rows left of blocks, and then it's on to sashing, borders, and triangles. Debating whether to hand sew all the sashings, or take the easy way out and use a machine. I'm leaning towards machine, if only because I know I'll have to hand quilt it, and doing both by hand is the way to madness.

Can't quite remember where I left off last time, so here's most of Row H. Circle-and-bowties was a tremendous pain, but most of the others were pretty okay. I don't think I'll ever want to applique another tiny melon/diamond shape though. My corners are pretty much the worst. 

End of Row H, I-1 and I-2.  Felt like a break, such an easy bunch! Even the applique one was not as bad, at least the pieces were bigger. Peeking ahead there's some multi-piece monsters coming up. 

Also got back on a quick knitting trip since it's getting cold. The scarf I finished last year, but just never got around to blocking. It look so much better now that it lies flat. It feels softer too! I also knocked out a quick hat, but like all hats I make, I get impatient like an inch too soon and start doing decreases, so it's a little small on my head. I swear next time around I'm going to make the biggest, floppiest hat to try and avoid it. 

Stretching Out

Ohhhh boy did I wait too long to update. Get ready for a lot of pictures! I think getting a smartphone has been detrimental to the blog's updating schedule because I get too focused on twitter/tumblr/instagram and forget that I'm not also posting updates here. Hopefully now that the novelty is wearing off I'll do better. 

So, when last we left the pile of old bathing suits, I had made a few nine-patches. A bunch more followed--in fact way too many, I have a lot left over now! Here I'm lying them out and taking a look at sashing. I wasn't sure about the sashing initially, but I'm glad I went with it. Now I needed a pattern!

These ridiculous shorts came from the thrift store, and I've loved them for working out and running, Tracing them out was a pain with the elastic waist, but I managed to stretch them out and tape them to the floor to do it. 

My latest thrift store run netted me this thick cotton plaid and this leopard spandex. I decided to use the leopard as a test run for my shorts pattern before messing around with my ninepatches. 

It came out quite well! I used another scrap of Hawaiian print bathing suit for the waist band, because why not? It was, like the original shorts, a little high-waisted, so I cut the waist down a bit on the pattern. 

Ok, ok, I know they look a little weird and wrinkled like this, just wait, they stretch out and look much better down the page when I put them on! But can I just say I'm tickled pink that the patterns match up pretty nicely? I wasn't even really hoping for that, but the patches were just about the perfect size to meet in sashing in the center seams.

Back. Next time around though, I will make them slightly longer so I get a full block on top, and the sashing forms the waist band. 

And they are actually reversible! There are so many seams from the patchwork, they definitely needed to be lined, or else they'd be really uncomfortable. I don't have access to a coverstitcher (on my short list of things to save up for) so I had to improvise with finishing techniques, and  full lining worked out well. 

See? Once on, all (well, most) of the weird wrinkling/rippling goes away! Hoping with more practice on a serger I'll get smoother seams.  And they are actually quite comfortable, a little thicker than normal shorts, but they still stretch just as well, and feel very sturdy. 

For laughs I decided to use the rest of the floral material to see if I could work out a singlet pattern. I just sort of stuck a tank top shape on top of the shorts pattern, I think next time around I'll add a side seam so I can get some more coverage around the arm/neck hole. I didn't really bother finishing this, it was a just a tester, so ignore all the nasty edges. 

Ridiculous. 

In non-spandex news:

Took a regular XL thrift store sweatshirt, re-cut it to my size. 

Then, I traced a quilted pattern onto tracing paper, and basted it onto the sweatshirt, with a backing fabric behind it. I then quilted it directly through the tracing paper. The tracing paper then gets torn away as I finished. 

Finished quilting on the inside, you can see the back fabric here. Sadly, I didn't take an pictures of this process, but I then ran thick yarn through the 'channels' I'd quilted to create a raised quilting. This, if I'm remembering correctly is sometimes called Italian or Corded Quilting. 

Closeup on the quilting. 

Then, of course, I sewed the sleeves and body back together! One of my favorite 'wearable' pieces I've made lately. I've already worn it a few time this week, it's perfect weather for it right now. 

And this is just in it's beginning stages, but a new shirt is coming together! Finally cutting into this paisley/plaid fabric. 

Finishing Touches!

Where have I been?! My computer's been very on-the-fritz, I think the battery is starting to go--so I've been using my shiny new smartphone more, and I think it distracted me a bit from posting on here. The computer's still broken, but the novelty has begun to wear off on the phone, so hopefully I keep up here more.

As the seasons are changing over I've been going through my shelves and realizing there were a lot of projects that were almost-but-not-quite finished, so I went through and  hemmed all the bottoms, bought snaps and jean post-buttons and attached them.

Added buttons to a bunch of things! I had just been wearing the shorts with a belt. So far I've also done the button hole on the floral shorts. 

Finally got pearl snap on my floral western shirt. I was stuck between seafoam green and purple, I think I made the right pick. 

And I did actually wear this today--finally!

Also used up some fabric that had been lying around--you saw a bit of this vest in the first picture:

Playing around with patterns to make a shawl collar. I think the collar actually came out well, but I'm not as pleased about the fit around the armholes/shoulder. Still wearable and comfy though. 

Also did my first welt pockets, not as scary as I thought. Much more confident to try them in the future. Used a really lovely, but smallish piece of wool crepe I had lying around to line it. This guy still needs buttonholes though. 

Also made another pair of pants to follow up my camo ones. No picture of them on yet, I need to iron them. I *did* however put a button and buttonhole on these! I didn't have quiteeee enough of the plaid to make a full pair of pants, so I supplemented with some denim. 

I like the effect visually, but as you can probably see here, there was some rippling going on, I think because of the difference in weight between the two fabrics. 

Did a few more Dear Jane Blocks. I accidentally skipped a page, so my Row G hasn't gone in order. That top one was a pain with all those curves. 

Begun sketching out some ideas for a varsity-style jacket to use up some wools. I wanted to do a reverse applique motif on the chest and back, not sure exactly what the imagery will be yet. 

Testing out the reverse applique, I think I like the backstitched style better than the basted-than-buttonhole stitched. It also saves me a step. These are the fabrics for the finished jacket, a thick, felted/boiled wool in dark teal, and a very fuzzy, brushed wool that might be mohair? I need to find a lining fabric for this, as well as figure out what I want to use for the cuffs, waistband and collar.