SEWmuchKNITting

My daughter, Kristen, asked for a maxi dress.......LAST year! And I have to admit, I had the dress sewn, she had tried it on for a fitting, and it just needed a couple of easy alterations and it would have been finished. But...the Autumn weather came up fast, and I bundled up the project to finish for this summer. I was so happy to finish it for her to take home after she was in for the 4th of July weekend :-) Butterick 5491 was a fun and easy pattern, and I love this ITY knit for this project. I believe that it came off of the red-tag table at JoAnn Fabrics, which was a lucky find. Dresses like this can take a lot of yardage, so finding the fabric where I did made it a bargain. I lined the bodice with a beige-colored knit, and the belt/sash at the empire waist is ruched. I needed to tack the ruching down by hand so the folds wouldn't collapse on themselves. The only real challenge with this project concerned the casings at the neckline, of all things! When...

Flower Fireworks - Nov/2010

It's official....it has been over a month since my last blog post...my life is as busy as ever! Not too much actual sewing has been accomplished, tho I am working on a T-shirt quilt for my niece and have a Burda pants pattern cut out of muslin. I hope to perfect the fit with this pattern and add a few pairs of work slacks to my wardrobe. On the knitting front, I have several blocks of the Great American Afghan completed....working on this with a few of my knitting buddies has kept me on task. Oh, and the Christmas Knitting has commenced!  And tho I briefly considered participating in MeMadeMay , I'm so glad I didn't....I would have fallen short of my commitment on that one. The month of May has been full of family time: lots of fun, proud moments! Our youngest son, Matthew, graduated from the University of Michigan with a BA in Philosophy: The commencement ceremony in the " Big House " is really something special! So nice to have the whole...

Since it seems that I need a wardrobe "re-boot" for Spring, I've been taking a look at my stash of both patterns and fabric. I purchased 2 yards of this striped knit from Fabric.com a while back, and thought it would look good paired with  Vogue 8880 . The fabric recommendations from Vogue were "eyelet, crepe and jersey", so I thought I might be able to get away with using this stretchy knit. It worked out great!    This pattern uses a neckline facing for the front, and bias binding at the back neck. Huh?  I just made binding cut almost on the bias from the striped fabric for both the front and back neckline, and top-stitched it in place.  I did raise the front neckline V....it's pretty low on the pattern piece! The lower front and back are separate pieces attached at the waist, which forms the elastic casing. I did add 1 inch to the length of the top/back at the waist. And tho I made View C, I eliminated the lower sleeve piece to ...

I'm calling this one the "Better Late than Never" peplum :-)! Faye is hosting the 2013 Essential Top Sew-A-Long, and I had the best of intentions to boost my wardrobe with some new tops. Well....... The deadline is April 10th....wait...that's TODAY! I've been wanting to jump on the peplum bandwagon, especially with  Vogue 8815 , as it has become such a popular pattern with great results. I had some cobalt blue ponte knit from JoAnn Fabrics that I thought would work good,  but this first attempt turned out to be too small through the back and unwearable.  Below you can see my "Frankenstein" pattern: FBA Lengthened bodice Scooped out front neckline Widened back Sway-back adjustment The finished piece now fits great! I used a mystery fabric, a stable polyester knit that feels great on and was a pleasure to sew. The binding at the neckline made good use of the stripes. I think this top will see a...

My daughter asked for a lacy scarf, and wasn't particular about the yarn or the color. As a true knitter's daughter, she said "Mom, I'm sure you having something in your stash to use"! But of course I did :-)! I found this wound cake of hand-dyed fingering weight yarn, in a muted dusty purple with flecks of cream and a light golden yellow. Don't know too much about this yarn since there was no longer a ball band attached, but it is a wool base. It knit up beautifully, blocked out so nice, and is very soft and drapey. I used a free pattern found on Ravelry called Swell, which has a very easily memorized lace pattern. One last winter accessory......I'm a bit tired of the SNOW!