Category Archives: Sewing

Work in Progress Wednesday – 21st May

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This Work in Progress Wednesday it’s back to normal. You may have noticed that I only got up to Thursday on Knitting and Crochet Blog Week. I ran out of ideas and then got busy, so I didn’t finish it. I hope you found the posts I did write interesting and something a bit different.

I haven’t done a great deal of knitting this week. I don’t think I’ve written about my new Sock Madness socks though. These are Shakertown Fences. They’re way too small for me so they may be a gift for my mum, if she likes them. The next round isn’t out yet. Only seven people from each team can get through that one though so I’m not holding out much hope of getting through unless the pattern happens to be released when I have nothing to do, which is highly unlikely as we’re moving in a month and currently don’t actually have a house to move to.Shakertown Fences

I may have not done much knitting, but I did do some sewing over the weekend. I’m on a mission to create the perfect knitting storage set (large bag, small project bag, notions pouch(es), needle cases etc.) and decided that a weekend to myself was the perfect time to begin. Once I’ve done one for me and ironed out all the problems I hope to make more.

A couple of weekends ago we were in Winchester and C&H Fabrics were having a 20% off everything sale. This was my opportunity to buy some fabric I liked. There was still a little of my birthday present from Nick left (go to craft shop, buy some things I really wanted) so this was the perfect time to spend it. Seeing as I love knitting socks so much, for my storage set I chose a fabric with socks all over it!Sock Fabric

And Nick pointed out this lovely fabric for a dress for me, which I’ll make when I’ve found the perfect pattern.Dress Fabric

I got a third fabric, but that one’s a secret.

Nick mentioned the other day that I had stored up a lot of old jeans to re-purpose but have never touched them. Turns out the various colours of the denim went brilliantly with my sock fabric. As did a pale blue fabric I bought a while ago for something I never got around to. The only thick denim-suitable thread I have is bright red, but that goes fantastically too.

So I started planning, cutting, ironing and finally sewing a little notions case to start with. All went well for a while, until I broke a needle. Typical. I gave up for the day and went back to it the next, finishing it off. I need to sew on the buttons though. (I have some bright ones that are perfect that I had in my Christmas stocking). It doesn’t look like it because of the angles in the image, but the buttonholes are the same length.Notions Case

I continued on to the DPN case. All went well for quite a while. Surprisingly so actually, as usually something goes wrong quite often when I’m sewing. Then I broke another needle trying to top stitch around the edge. My machine just doesn’t like thick fabric, even though I was being really careful. It’s almost finished though and I think with a little more careful sewing I’ll be done.DPN Case InsideDPN Case Outside

Obviously there are some things I could improve, but I’m pretty happy so far.

To see more from Work in Progress Wednesday visit Tami’s Amis

Work in Progress Wednesday 26th March

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The round 2 pattern for Sock Madness over at Ravelry was released on Friday evening, so that’s all I’ve been working on for the last week. It is taking a very long time to knit because it’s quite a small gauge, and there are 80 stitches per round! They’re looking really nice though. I’m using the John Arbon Exmoor Sock that I bought at Unravel, and because it’s slightly thinner than usual 4ply  it’s working really well for the small gauge. This is just a peek at what they look like. I’ll show them fully once I’ve finished.

Sock Madness 8 Round 2

I’ve finished one sock and am half way through the other, and I hope to be finished tomorrow. That may not happen though. Once I’ve entered them into the challenge I will rip back some of the toe and make them slightly shorter, but apart from that they fit well.

I also did something non-knitting related! I made a case for my tablet. It’s pretty simple, and I need to add buttons, but it does the job. Some of the top-stitching isn’t straight because my sewing machine understandably wasn’t too keen on sewing through eight layers of cotton and two layers of fleece! I’m happy with the result though.

Tablet Case

 

Tutorial – Simple Dressmaking Board

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I realised that if I want to do proper dressmaking, especially when I’ll probably have to alter patterns, I’d need a board to do it on. I looked at the cardboard ones like this, then realised that for around £15 – £20, a bit of cardboard with some markings wasn’t very good value. I also knew that I’d probably break it pretty quickly.

I had a think, and realised the answer. I visited a hardware shop, and found a nice big (160cm x 120cm) piece of 3mm thick MDF for just under £5. Perfect. I got out my really long ‘joke’ Christmas present (a steel metre rule), my set square, my pencil and my sharpies.

I measured every 5cm along the top and sides of the board with a pencil, then drew on a grid with a black sharpie. I then drew the lines in with a black sharpie, making everything was straight and lined up. I then numbered each line.

I’m currently debating if this is enough, or whether I should also add 1cm lines in a different colour. Then, if I felt like it, I could add various useful angle lines such as 45 degrees. For now I’m going to leave it with the 5cm grid, then I can add things as I find them useful.

It was really easy, if a little time consuming to draw everything on accurately, but it was definitely worth it as I now have a nice, sturdy dressmaking board to use both for tracing/altering patterns, and cutting fabric so I don’t destroy the floor.Dressmaking Board

Sorry about the picture. It’s really hard to take good pictures of big things when there isn’t a great deal of natural light! Also, it’s my fault it looks slanted. It isn’t really.