Polka Dots and Cables

First of all, I wanted to show you all the finished baby sweater I posted last time. I finished it up a week or so ago and have since started a new one. This one is a newborn size, so it won't be very practical as it won't fit long enough to make it through the cold next winter, but since it was mostly a cabling experiment on my part I'm ok with that. Someone will be able to make use of it again at some point. 

The left shoulder buttons with three little buttons that I had in my stash. They came off one of the cuffs of an old sport coat. I only made a few alterations to the pattern, primarily choosing to knit the sleeves in the round in order to save myself one more seam. I really like this pattern and will probably make another one at some point, but in a larger size.

I've also started a second baby sweater (this one is a 6-9 month size) for next winter. It's a cabled jacket with hood, and also has matching socks. The yarn I'm using for this one is a burgundy superwash merino. It feels absolutely wonderful! The pattern I'm using is very poorly written, making it a bit difficult to interpret some of the instructions at certain points. I made the mistake of not reading them all thoroughly before I started and after knitting about 5 inches of the back had to rip everything but the ribbing and start over. Now that I've got the pattern figured out (after needing to make a few minor adjustments) it's turning out very well. I've got the back finished and have started the right front. I'll be taking this one on vacation with us next week and will hopefully be able to knock out the majority of it (if not all of it) before I have to go back to work on the seventh.

Now, this baby is not the only one who's got new clothes in the works. I am about half finished with a 1950s maternity top (that's been on the back burner since I started the sweaters and have been busy with holiday stuff). The pattern is one that I was given by a good friend. It's a 1950s maternity pattern (Simplicity 1174) with a top, skirt and shorts. I'm making the top in version 1 to wear once I get bigger and the weather warms up. 

Image from Vintage Patterns Wiki

The fabric I found for just a few dollars a yard from Denver Fabrics, and I think it's going to look cute with my jeans and the black knit pencil skirt I have also. 

I still have to attach the sleeves, hem the bottom and finish the closures on the front. It's a bit of a wrinkly mess on Tabitha right now, but I think it's going to be really cute once I've got it all together. The fabric has a woven dot pattern in white, yellow, red and pink. The black trim is a scrap from my black linen pants that I made last summer, and I have solid black buttons for the front of the blouse.

Once I get this second sweater finished I'll probably go back and finish up this top. I also have to finish trimming some pajamas I made and try and get our couch recovered before the baby gets here, but that's going to be kind of a tall order, so we'll see what happens. I hope that everyone is enjoying the holidays  and I hope to have some finished garments to show you all very soon! 

A couple of little projects and a big announcement

I've been working on several projects here lately, but haven't had the time to photograph them since things have been so busy. The end of the semester was hectic, then I was laid up with a cold for a week (from which I am just now recovering), and the holidays are always busier than expected. I finally managed to take a few pictures of a couple of little projects I have in the works in order to prove that I haven't been sitting around doing nothing for the last several weeks. Hopefully I'll have a few more projects up soon.

However, before I show you the projects, I've got a announcement. We're having a baby! I know of at least three other bloggers who are also pregnant (Casey, Nabby, and Quincy), and wouldn't be surprised if there are several more out there as well. I also have a cousin and several friends who are due early next spring and next summer. Mr. S and I are expecting our little peanut at the end of May (fortunately a month after the semester is over here, so I will easily be able to take time off this summer). Of course, a new baby (quite a big project in and of itself) means lots of new projects for me! I have a 1950s maternity top on the sewing table right now. I'm about half finished with it. However, what I have to share is for the baby.

I've just finished up the front and back of a baby sweater from this pattern on Ravelry.

So far so good. First of all, working on a sweater this tiny provides much more immediate gratification than all of the sweaters I've made for myself since the pieces are so small. It's the first time I've ever knit cables, and overall they turned out pretty well. There are a couple of minor mistakes in the pattern, but nothing too glaring, and I had gotten too far to care about ripping them out when I noticed them. I just finished blocking these pieces so that I can join the side seams and begin the sleeves, which are knit onto the body instead of as separate pieces. I have yarn for a couple of other baby sweaters that I will be starting once I get this one finished.

The second baby project I've been working on is a baby quilt. I'm actually recovering the quilt that my maternal grandmother made for me when I was born. I'm just going to remove the binding and use the whole quilt as batting. I'm making a bunch of tiny nine-patch squares for the quilt top, and all of the fabric for them is from scraps left from dresses I've made for myself. There are even a few little pieces from squares I used for a family quilt I made several years ago as an art project. I'm planning on alternating nine-patch squares and solid squares for the quilt top, using the white polka-dots as the contrast squares. The green dot will be with quilt back, and I'm going to being it in yellow.

I've been thinking about doing a little bit of embroidery perhaps on the white squares of the quilt top, but we'll see. I really like what Bessie did with the quilt top that she finished recently. I don't know if I have that much time and patience though. I may be lucky to get the squares finished. I found the green and white dot fabrics, along with the yellow for the binding the other day. I'm really pleased with how they look with the nine-patch squares. It was lucky that so many of my dress scraps were baby friendly, gender neutral fabrics. We're not planning on finding out the gender so I wanted to make sure it didn't look too girly, but still wanted it to be a little bit cutesy.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season so far!

Very Inspiring Blogger Award

I was just recently nominated for a Very Inspiring Blogger Award by Sara at The Pretty Pickle. First of all, I have to say I am flattered. I really enjoy sharing projects with all of you, in order to get your opinions on things, share things I've come up with, and I particularly enjoy seeing what you all have created. I have a couple of local sewing friends, but it's nice to be a part of such a wide community of like-minded (and helpful) people. 

The rules of this lovely award are as follows:

1. Thank the person who nominated you

2. Add The One Lovely Blog Award / The Very Inspiring Blogger
Award to your post.

3. Share 7 things about yourself.

4. Pass the award on to 10 nominees.

5. Include this set of rules.

6. Inform your nominees by posting a comment on their blogs.

So, without further ado, I guess I should share 7 things about myself. 

1. I play the viola (or at least I used to). I took lessons for seven years, and I still have my viola, but it's hard to find time to play ever. I'm really shy about playing in front of people so I won't play if anyone else is home. Silly, I know, but what are you going to do. 

2. This is just totally weird, but unique I guess. I can pop my left shoulder in and out of socket. It has freaked out even die hard yoga practitioners who can do all kinds of strange things with their bodies. 

3. When I was ten years old I spent an entire summer trying to memorize all of Puck's lines from A Midsummer Night's Dream. I saw it at a local University and became a little obsessed. I still know most of his monologue from the scene in the fairy realm, before Oberon and Titania enter. 

4. I love to dance. I dance all of the time. Even while I'm teaching. My students tease me about it. I took tap, jazz and ballet as a little kid, took irish dance lessons for a couple of years when I was about 10. I have dabbled in belly dance, swing dancing, burlesque, pole, salsa, ballroom and have been taking flamenco lessons for the last couple of years. Flamenco is a beautiful art form, lots of fun to do, ties in with my love of Spanish culture, and is also just totally cool. One word. Ruffles. 

5. I hate bananas. Hate is a very strong word, and in this case it is entirely appropriate. I can't stand anything about them. I can even smell it if someone is eating a banana in the next room. 

6. The Land Before Time is one of my favorite movies of all time. It has great sentimental value to me, since my brothers and I used to watch it at our grandmother's house all the time. I cannot watch it without crying through three-quarters of the movie, though (and by crying I mean bawling uncontrollably). Full blown waterworks. 

7. My eyes change color. Sometimes blue, sometimes green, sometimes grey. For the past couple of years they have been much greener than they have ever been in the past. 

Now to pass this award on to ten other bloggers. I'm going to try and stick to people whose blogs I have found recently and really enjoyed reading back through, but I may have to toss in a couple of my old favorites. 

1. Jo at Bridges on the Body - I am very impressed with the projects she has completed working her way through Corsets and Crinolines. There are a few things in there I would really like to make, but haven't had the time. 

2. Jane at Handmade Jane - She does a lovely job tailoring to her body, and I particularly love her new polka-dot wiggle dress!

3. The knitting fiend MCONIECZKI at Tres Bien Ensemble (she's also on Ravelry) - Her sewing projects are lovely. Check out her new pjs! However, what really floors me are her knitting projects. She's prolific and very skilled. Everything she makes seems to turn out beautifully. 

4. Technicolor Cutie - Her outfits are adorable, but I really admire her commitment to fixing her hair with a new baby on hand. 

5. Cynthia at Dapper Duds - Because let's face it, she's precious. I really love that she makes clothes for her husband though. She always does a great job. 

6. The sisters of Brentwood Lane - great outfits and wonderful taste in film ;)

7. Jennifer Lauren at Jennifer Lauren Vintage - Her dresses are adorable and I love reading about her other crafty escapades. 

8. Nabby at This Old Life - Her clothes and hair make me drool. 

9. Milenushka of The Home Blues - Her new version of Gertie's wiggle dress pattern is killer! I love seeing all the photos from her travels as well. 

10. Jeanne at Sew Vera Venus - One word: Exquisite. 

Pinstripe trousers

Well, I still haven't taken pictures of the finished wool dress, but I just came upon the pictures of these pants that I made over the summer and never got around to posting. These are another pair of pants made from the ever popular Simplicity 3688. I've used the pattern before for a pair of suit pants (which have recently been passed on to a friend). I've worn these a couple of times. I really like them, and they are very comfortable, but I wish I had added about half or three-quarters of an inch to the crotch length so the waist would sit just a tad higher. I have an ever so slightly higher natural waist, and these don't quite hit me at the smallest point. 

I didn't photograph this, but they also have some bright purple hem tape finishing the inside of the legs. They are very comfortable and great for work. I can't remember what the exact fabric content is, but it's some polyester-rayon-lycra something or other I think. Anyway, because of that they don't need pressing. I'll have to touch up the creases now and again, but that's not much work. It's easy to reset them with the stripes as a guide.

As usual, I hand picked my zipper. I have a zipper foot, but I've just really come to love hand inserting zippers. They just look so much more polished and neat, and it's much easier to work on curves like this hip seam in particular.

Due to the fabric content there is a bit of puckering that happens at the point of the darts that I couldn't eliminate completely no matter what I did to them. They flatten out a bit when on the body, but either way they're not so noticeable as to be distracting. I have a tan fabric with dark brown pinstripes in my stash that is destined for another pair of these. I may go ahead and raise the waistline a teeny bit on those so that they sit where I'd prefer. However, those have gone on the back burner for a while, since I've got some much more time and labor intensive projects in the works right now, but more on those later. Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving week!

1960s dress for fall

I haven't been feeling great and therefore haven't been very productive for the last several weeks, but I've finally gotten back into some sewing and am nearly finished with the 1960s dress I started ages ago. I have gotten a bit farther than is shown in the pictures, but it gives you an idea at least. I hope to have the dress finished by tomorrow so I can wear it for a brunch and movie date with my wonderful Mr. S. He's got the day off and we haven't gotten to go out in a month so we're going to make a day of it tomorrow. We are planning on going to see Lincoln and from what I've heard it should be a good film. It's hard to lose with Daniel Day-Lewis. Anyway, back to the dress. 

Just a reminder, this is the pattern I'm using. 

I'm making the full skirted version (as you can see), but will be using the three-quarter jacket sleeves instead of the short sleeves, to make it more winter appropriate. I have also dropped the back neckline into a shallow "v". I like the look of the high front neckline with a lower back neckline (in case you haven't noticed). The fabric came from a friend's mother's stash. She passed away and they gifted us with a lot of her fabric when they were cleaning out her house a few years ago. It was all very nice wool, much of it vintage pendleton. She also left notes on a lot of the fabric telling how much she paid, what year, etc. This particular yardage is a lovely, lightweight wool with a beautiful hand. It was 54 inches wide and I had about 3.5 yards of it. She bought it in 1994. It was originally priced at $40/yard, but she got it for 60% off (and I got it for free!). The colors are a bit different than much of what I have in my wardrobe, which is nice, but they work well enough that it will still coordinate with my sweaters and jackets. 

I have taken a lot more care with finishing on this dress than I tend to usually. Partially because I felt the fabric deserved it, but it also tends to be a bit ravely and I wanted to be sure that all of my seams were enclosed. I made french seams in the bodice and skirt, and bound the waist seam and the back skirt closure with self bias binding and was very careful in tacking down my facings and so forth.

I had just enough of this peachy-orange lace hem tape in my stash to finish the hem as well. Not only did it save me a little extra pressing, but I also like having it as a fun, hidden accent on my dressier garments.

The skirt wasn't attached yet here, but I now have that attached, the zipper, hooks, thread loops and snaps installed in the center back closure, and have finished the waist seam as well. All I have left to do is make and attach the sleeves and it's all set!

Hope everyone is having a nice weekend!

Cold weather projects in the offing

I still have a few projects from earlier this summer that I haven't taken pictures of yet in order to share with you all, but now that I have a tad more free time I've been working on a couple of things for the colder weather. It's officially fall here, and so many of my dresses are just completely summery I have a goal of trying to fill out my cold weather wardrobe a bit more in the next few weeks. I'm also doing a little stash busting in the process. Again, no pictures of the projects themselves yet, but I will try and get those taken care of soon. For now, I will leave you with a bit of a teaser, just the patterns and fabric descriptions. I have several small yardages of vintage wool, some of which is real Pendleton purchased in October of 1976 by the original fabric owner (according to the tags left on her yard goods).

Anyway, the first project I've managed to get finished is a wool swing coat from a heavy blue and green plaid that mom gave me a couple of years ago. 

Obviously it's the plaid on the right. Incidentally I've also recently made a pencil skirt from the purplish wool in the front, but that's something I haven't managed to photograph yet. The jacket pattern I used was Simplicity 4027. 

It turned out really well and it's very differently stylistically from any of my other jackets, which is nice. 

The next project I'm working on is a dress from some of the lighter weight wool that was in the stash my mom and I received from an acquaintance who's mother passed away. This one is a bit newer. The note said she bought it in 1994 I think, but it is 100% wool and the colors are perfect for a fall dress. No pictures of it yet, unfortunately, but soon I promise. The pattern I'm using is a vintage original from the early sixties that I found at an antique shop for a dollar or two. 

Image from Vintage Patterns Wiki

I cut the back neckline into a slightly lower V-back instead of the full boatneck. I also wanted longer sleeves, since it is for winter, so I'm using the jacket sleeves instead of the shorter dress sleeves. I just used the sleeve cap for the short sleeve and extended the sides along the seam lines of the longer sleeve piece. I have to dig through my buckle stash to see if I can find one that works with the fabric I'm using, but I should have something. I have just enough of a few other pieces to make myself a few more pencil skirts for wearing to work, and would like to get those done in the next couple of weeks, but we will see how that goes. I have a bit more free time now, but not that much. 

Bread Baking

Alright, so this is going to be short and sweet, but I thought I'd share since, while it is not sewing, it is still a creative outlet of sorts. I just baked my very first loaf of bread. I am happy to say, I can now call myself a successful bread baker. Nothing fancy, just a white sandwich loaf, but this is only the beginning. I can feel it now.......

(Not an amazing photo, but the bread is delicious and that's the really important thing.)

In an effort to not only maintain a healthy lifestyle and good eating habits (along with minimizing the carbon footprint) I have been trying to make sure that most if not all of what we eat is homemade, locally sourced, preservative and creepy chemical free, and helps support our small local economy. I try to buy all of our produce, meat and dairy (as much as possible) from local farmers, I make my own yogurt from local, organic milk, and now I will be making our own bread as well. Everyone is always very impressed when I tell them I make yogurt, but it's really one of the easiest things in the world to do, and requires only a minimum of effort. This wasn't that much harder. Now Mr. S can eat his sandwiches on fresh bread made with only four, very easily pronounced ingredients. 

The crust turned out beautifully! Nice and crispy, like a good french loaf, with a soft, moist crumb (middle of the bread). Nice and fluffy as well. It's really delicious and it's going to be very nice being able to make loaves in a size that we can actually go through before it goes bad, so it will also be less wasteful, not to mention significantly cheaper. Now I just have to try and restrain myself so it's not all gone by the time Mr. S gets off work tonight.