Cherry Blossom cardigan

I love the look of this design, however as I was knitting it from stash with two colours I made a few changes.  The first was that I didn't shape the ribbing - I tried but it was too much of a faff - so the colour change is straight. 

I also lowered the neckline and did a knitted on button band and neckband.  Vintage mirrored buttons from Hammersmith vintage fair I think.

I didn't have enough yarn to do cabled sleeves so I did them top down in stocking stitch until the yarn ran out.

This was an easy pattern to knit and I'd like to make another one in a single colour at some point, possibly with long sleeves.

Hilary cardigan

This was my first knitted FO of 2016, finished at the beginning of February and it's taken me more than a year to blog about it - oops!

I became aware of this pattern when it popped up on my friends' activity feed on Ravelry, rather liked it and decided to knit it.

I made a few changes as I knitted it - different stitch count because my tension was different, as written it doesn't have a v-neck, bobbles knitted differently and I found it easier to use a cable needle than follow the instructions given in the pattern.  I also changed the armhole shaping and the pattern across the yoke - the front and back yoke patterns are different depths and I knitted it so that they were the same.

 

I like the pleated shoulders.

The button band in the pattern was knitted-as-you-go garter stitch but I picked it up and knitted in moss stitch.  I should probably have gone down a further needle size than I did, but I'm not going to redo it!  The buttons came from Textile Garden.

This was a cardigan that I was glad to finish knitting - the pattern was a bit of a fiddle - but I do like the way it looks and it has a definite vintage feel to it.

Forward look for (the rest of) 2017

Having just looked back on my knitting plans for 2016 post I thought I'd put some ideas down for what I'd like to knit and sew for the rest of this year.  I'm sure this will be over optimistic since we're more than a quarter of the way through the year already and I am very likely to change my mind about things as the year progresses, but I'll do it anyway!

For both knitting and sewing I'll only be making things from stash.  I'm nearly done with my wardrobe cull now, I started a few weeks ago with jumpers and coats that I no longer wear.  Now that I've got my summer clothes out it was time for phase 2 - getting rid of winter clothes that I'm not going to wear again rather than storing them away for next winter, and the same with summer clothes - pass them on rather than wash, air and iron them - and then not wear them.

I've also cleared out quite a few things from my mending / alterations box - I need to be realistic about the amount of time I have and the likelihood of me getting around to doing alterations.  So, I've kept about half a dozen items which I like enough to devote time to and the rest have gone.  I have a finite amount of storage space and if I keep on making then stuff just has to go.  I've found it quite therapeutic actually.

Dresses and skirts to be altered 

So.  Plans.

Knitting
A Kate Davies jumper.  I joined her Inspired by Islay club earlier this year when I kept seeing lovely designs pop up in my friends' activity feed on Ravelry.  I'm really not interested in joining 'mystery' KALs or clubs - I like to see what I'm going to be knitting, or buying, before I part with my time or cash.  However, as these lovely designs kept appearing I decided there were enough that I would like to knit to make joining worthwhile.  Whether I make the time to knit them only time will tell, but I definitely want to knit a Port Charlotte or Miss Rachel's Yoke (this is not part of the Islay collection but is available individually), for next winter, preferably both.

I also really think I must get on and knit the Icon dress (although this also featured in my knitting plans for 2015...).  I still love this pattern so I'm definitely going to aim to knit it this year.

I have two more items to  knit to complete my vintage KAL pledge but I'm not sure what they'll be yet, there are several possibilities.

I've also just done swatches for three cardigans and started knitting one of them, so yes, those too.

Sewing
To get me back into my sewing groove I think I need to start with a few quick wins with patterns I've used before, which I can make straight from the envelope and which I know I'll wear.   A couple of BHL Annas

Top fabric for a maxi, lower fabric for a knee-length

and Simplicity 3774s will get me back on track I think.

I'll make view D, without sleeves

Marie over at A Stitching Odyssey announced Vintage Pledge 2017 last month and that spurred me on to look through my vintage patterns to see what I would like to make.  There are a few options below.

 I know I won't get around to most of them but I would really like to turn some into dresses rather than just go all heart eyes over the envelope artwork.  I'm not going to make a definite pledge (although since knitting is included I could just use my Vintage Knit Along makes, although that seems to be defeating the object really), and probably won't get around to posting anything on Pinterest, but I will try and join in with #VPJuly on Instagram.

Blue begonia leaves Anna dress

So, this turned out to be the final dress of 2016 - I finished it in June.  It's a Kaffe Fassett print and I love the colours, although I've never seen begonia leaves in blue!  It's a By Hand London Anna dress with a V back neckline modification which I first did here.  Not really anything more to say about this... umm... it washes well... ;-)

BHL Anna

Me Made May (2016) dress no 3 - Art Gallery Birds

Right, as part of my Big Easter Weekend Spring Clean it is time to dust off this blog and catch up with everything I've made since I last wrote!  Which was May last year.  Eek.  I guess the fact that I'd rather spend my time making than writing about making, and, let's be honest here, Instagram making for a much quicker posting experience are responsible for the extended break.  However, I don't really want to give up on blogging so I'm going to make a concerted effort now to get this up to date and then try and add things as I make them.

First up is this dress which I made during Me Made May 2016.  It's a Simplicity 2444 and I've worn it a lot since I made it.  The fabric was lovely to sew with, and I'm definitely going to make more dresses with this pattern.

I'm not sure why the armhole facings are described as such - they're not - which is why it took me a while to find the relevant pattern piece - I was looking for a curved facing and what this actually is is a strip of bias binding.  Not sure I'd do this way again, although I like how it's turned out I think I'd prefer to cut a bodice lining than neckline facing and armhole bias binding.  I also think it would make the armholes quite bulky to follow the pattern if using a thicker (e.g. quilting) fabric.  Since this cotton is a lighter weight than that it didn't matter.

Simplicity 2444 Art Gallery Birds dress

I'm very pleased with how this turned out and it's another dress to add to my collection of bird print dresses.

Me Made May dress number 2 - Anna La Paloma

This was another dress that I saw on someone else and wanted to make my own version - Deborah, one of the contestants on last year's Great British Sewing Bee.

Google image search is really handy when it comes to tracking down fabrics which have been around for a little while and are therefore not the latest newest thing - and an etsy seller came up trumps.  I absolutely love the colours in it, I love the print and think it's a really happy fabric that just makes me smile!

Anna la paloma

It took a while to cut out though since I did try to vaguely pattern match along the skirt side seams.  There was a point at which I thought I'd cut out two skirt side back panels the same (rather than as mirror images), but they both looked OK and on-grain so I decided to chance it and sew them up rather than cut another panel.  I think they're fine - I was writing on each skirt panel as I cut them - I've found this helps when I'm not following the cutting layout for this pattern (which is not for one-way-print fabrics) and I suspect I just wrote the wrong thing.

Back view

Since this is not the first time I've sewn this pattern (others are here, here, here and here) this came together pretty quickly once it had been cut out and marked up.  I used the v-back alteration which I'd done for my Tropicanna, but with the bateau neckline at the front.  My Tropicanna dress is fine if I'm standing up, but has a tendency to slip off my shoulders if I sit down - not helpful!  Fortunately I have some spare fabric leftover from this dress and have now cut out a bateau neck front bodice, unpicked the original v-necked one and will be putting it back together again in the next few days.  The back bodice pattern piece which comes with the pattern gapes at the centre back on me (it could do with some shoulder darts to fit it properly), but the v-neck eliminates this, which is handy.

v-back neckline

This is cut as a size 12, except the front skirt which is a size 14 so that it lines up with the bust pleats - I've found the size 12 pleats come up too high and the size 14 ones are just right.

And now I have another Anna to sew up, and one more to alter.  Toodlepip.

Me Made May 2016 - dress no 1

Well... long time no see!  I can't believe it's nearly the end of May - this year seems to be flying by.

Inspired by Me Made May (the brainchild of Zoe Edwards), and the latest series of the Great British Sewing Bee, I've dusted off my sewing machine and started making dresses again.  I hadn't really lost my sewing mojo, it's more that the knitting mojo had been in overdrive since, hmm... September last year probably.  That and the fact that we haven't really had much warm weather yet this year (and it's nearly June for heaven's sake).  Also, knitting is much more portable and I've done a fair bit of travelling so far this year and it's much easier to pack a bag of knitting than sewing.

When I looked back through my sewing notebook I realised that I hadn't sewn a single garment since August last year.  I have done a fair bit of mending and alterations in that time though, mostly for other people, and also knitted three jumpers and seven cardigans for myself and three baby / toddler items.  It's not as if I haven't been making things, they've just been from sticks and string rather than fabric.  So I have a fair few blog posts to write - I'll catch up soon I hope.

Enough with the waffle, here is my first dress of the year.  When Roisin posted about her Rural Juror dress I knew I had to track down the fabric and make a dress from it for myself - I think it's an absolutely gorgeous print.  I'm sure I've seen other versions online too, but I can't remember where now.  I bought the fabric some time last year and have only this month got around to making it up.  Because it's a border print I cut the bodice slightly larger at the side seams to allow for the total lack of widthways stretch.  And as I had enough fabric to add sleeves, I did.

Version 1, with sleeves

However... I got as far as tacking the bodice lining in to place to take the photo above before I tried it on.  I've made two Emery dresses with sleeves which fit fine, so I wasn't concerned to try it on before this - I thought increasing the side seam allowance on the bodice would be enough to allow for ease of movement.  But it wasn't.  I could hardly move my arms in it at all because it had no give.  So I unpicked the armhole seam and took the sleeves out.  When it came to sewing the bodice and lining back together at the armholes I figured I'd do the turning it inside out on itself thing.  But that didn't work because I'd already attached the skirt and there was no way I was going to unpick that.  So instead the armholes are topstitched and I now have a dress which I can wave comfortably in.  Or remove things from high shelves.  Or anything else that requires arm movement.

Final version - sleeveless

I didn't have enough fabric to pattern match the back, but since I can't see it I'm not worried about it.

The back view

Now that it's finished I'm happy with it, but I do wish there hadn't been as much unpicking involved!