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Showing posts from March, 2010

Easter Dress: Butterick 5211

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I was looking for a quick and easy dress to make for Easter this year, so I thought I'd give Butterick 5211 a go. The pattern description says that this is a "1 hour dress", which is the construction time after cutting out the pattern, but it took me 3 hours. Maybe I just work slow! This fabric is a fuchsia poly double knit from Fabric.com, and sewed up like a dream! I liked the sleeve detail, and since the puffiness falls off of the shoulder I thought it would be okay and not look too young and fussy. You be the judge: It helps that I have this fabulous necklace to wear with it: I'm not sure yet if I'll wear this belt, or a purchased one, but without the belt this more stable knit makes the dress just hang. Maybe a more drapey fabric would work without the belt. No zipper means easy- peasy ! The thread chain wrapping the button was made with embroidery floss: It's been years since I've made myself a new dress for Easter. This one is cute and comfortabl

Ugly Duckling: New Look 6570

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Although I may not have been posting on this blog over the last few weeks, I have been busy both at my sewing machine and with my knitting needles! I'll save the knitting post for a later date, but first off you can see the jacket I made from New Look 6570. I'm calling it the Ugly Duckling because in my opinion this is pretty ugly fabric. This is an online fabric purchase of unknown date, but I think it may have come from Denver Fabrics by the sticker still on it, and I'm sure the 99 cents/yard promo pulled me in. Trying to sew up my stash, I decided to make this jacket as a 'wearable muslin' while I look for a simple jacket pattern to use as a TNT. Lined, with simple design lines with seaming and darts for fitting are what I'm looking for. This is a nice pattern, but it's not the one. I believe I am actually using the 'wrong' side of the fabric as the public side, since the fabric description is for a beige fabric and I used the gray side. I wanted

Men's Basic Knitted Hat

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My college-age son Kenny requested "a light gray hat with dark gray stripes" to get him through the cold Michigan winter, so I decided to use Ellen's Basic Hat pattern which is about as straight-forward a hat pattern as you can get! Berrocco's Ultra Alpaca worsted has become my go-to yarn when I need a basic wool worsted. Knit on size 8 needles, I think the fit will be perfect, but I'll know more when he comes home this weekend for spring break! I'm planning on casting on this afternoon for a scarf to go with this hat, using the ScWiNoWa (Ravelry link) pattern, since I think I have enough yarn left over to use up.

Knitting Olympics 2010: Tie One On

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Whew!! After lots and lots of knitting this weekend, I was able to finish my 2010 Knitting Olympics challenge by the end of closing ceremonies! I was helped a lot by the modifications that I had to make due to a shortage of yarn to complete this wrap. Since this yarn was rather expensive, I really did not want to purchase any additional ( I used 2 skeins of ArtYarns Mohair Splash, 246S), so I left off the last pattern repeat and had to make the ties shorter than indicated by the pattern. I'm fine with the size of this wrap, but I do wish the ties were longer. But that's okay, I can still make it work as long as I have a pin/brooch to secure the front. Knitting with this yarn was easier than I expected, for some reason I thought that the sequins would be an issue. I really like the random placement of the bling! All in all, I am pleased with my first Olympic knitting project, and now I have this lovely wrap to show for it!