Whole Wheat Cardigan - Finished!

I am incredibly behind in posting this cardigan. I actually finished knitting it in February, and bought the buttons for it when Social Sewing went on the Road. And then the cardigan hung in my wardrobe and the buttons in my desk drawer until a few weeks ago.

The pattern is the Whole Wheat pattern on ravelry, and you can see my previous posts about the cardigan here. I lengthened the sleeves to be 3/4 length for a bit more warmth though.

This cardigan was quite different from my first cardigan, as it was knit in pieces then seamed together. The pattern was written very differently as well, which was interesting. The miette pattern was written out line by line, but this one was written to things like 'knit until piece measures xx inches', which made me more worried about making it the right size.

I really love the lace and cables design that makes up the 'fabric'.

However the fit of the cardigan itself ended up a bit off, the shape of the sleeve head seemed wrong when I was knitting it, it seemed too flat at the time but I decided to be a good little knitter and follow the pattern. The sleeves ended up coming out a big baggy in the upper arms. I considered at one point taking the seam in to make it tighter, but after wearing it a few times I decided that I didn't care that  much.

Another issue was the shoulders being a bit wide, which I did end up fixing. As the neck band around the back was knit separately and then joined to the cardigan, I unpicked that join, unravelled an inch or so from the neck band and rejoined it, easing the top of the cardigan onto the shorter band. This narrowed the shoulders enough so it doesn't fall off my shoulders anymore.

 

It's not perfect (there are a few mistakes, that I'm not going to point out to you), but I'm pretty happy with it considering it's only my second knitted garment. 

PS: Have you seen Lizzy's beautiful version of this pattern? We started knitting these at about the same time, but she finished (and blogged) hers waaaay before me.

Wrap Cardigans

 

You may have noticed from my Me-Made-May posts that I've made myself a couple of new wrap cardigans.

 

My intention was to copy a black RTW cardigan that I have (pictured on day 9). The cardigan pattern seemed pretty simple, the front pieces were basically just big triangles that wrap around your back, so I had a go at making my own pattern.

 

I started with my basic t-shirt block, modifying the pieces as follows:
- Shortened the front and back to have the hem sit at my upper hip (in the picture below left I'm indicating my waist with my finger)
- Widened the sleeves so they had a straighter shape and are bigger so they can be worn with another layer underneath
- Made the cross over front by extending the v-neckline down to past the other side seam.

 

I am intending on putting together a little tutorial of exactly how I did these alterations (particularly the changes to the front piece) and the construction of the cardigan in another post.

 

I stitched up the pale blue cardigan first, with some jersey that I had lying around in my stash to test out my pattern before making it up in my fancy merino jersey, which is what the grey version is.

After making the blue version and wearing it for a day I was happy with the overall fit, but I decided to lengthen the ties slightly, because I could only just tie them behind my back as they were (see the teeny tiny knot in the above photo). Everything else was great though, and after extending out the tie a couple more inches I cut into my Merino Jersey.

    

I constructed the pale blue one entirely on my sewing machine, using a combination of the triple-stitch to sew the seams, and a zig-zag around the neck band to hold the layers together. The jersey wasn't going to fray so I didn't finish any of the other seams. I also added clear elastic to the shoulder seam like I do with all my t-shirts.

The grey version was sewn up on a combination of overlocker and sewing machine. I don't currently have an overlocker, I just don't have the space. However Helen very kindly let me use hers at the last social sewing day.

        

The seams were all stitched using the overlocker, with the sewing machine only being used for the hems around the bottom and on the sleeves.

I know that the sewing machine finish is perfectly strong and will last, but the overlocked one really does look neater inside doesn't it! *sigh* oh to have the space for an overlocker...

Anyway, I am really happy with my new wrap cardigans. Hopefully you like them too and will be interested in the tutorial for making one.

Me Made May - Days 10-22

Wow, two thirds of May is already gone! It's going waaaay to fast and has started getting rather chilly! Which means more layers, and a super productive social sewing day that led to a whole stack of new merino jersey t-shirts (to be blogged about soon). Anyway, onto the breakdown...

	Day 10 (Friday) Me Mades: - 1Pattern7Bloggers Dress RTW: - Tights - Black Jumper - Bra, Undies - Suit Jacket (at work)
	Day 11 (Saturday) Me Mades: - Thurlow Shorts - Striped T-Shirt RTW: - Singlet - Bra, Undies - Black Tights - Black Asymmetrical Jacket
	Day 12 (Sunday) - Part 1 (runnning 8km for the Mother's Day Classic, my first ever race) Me-Mades: - Purple T-Shirt RTW: - Running Leggings - Sports Bra, Undies, Socks
	Day 12 (Sunday) - Part 2  Me Mades: - Rooibos Dress - Whole Wheat Cardigan RTW: - Leggings - Undies, Bra
	Day 13 (Monday) Me Mades: - High-Waisted Jenny Skirt - Black T-shirt - Wrap-Cardigan - Undies! (- Pink Minoru) RTW: - Bra, Tights
	Day 14 (Tuesday) Me Mades: - Brown Dress - Black Long Sleeved Merino T-shirt (- Pink Minoru) RTW: - Green Jumper - Tights, Undies, Bra
	Day 15 (Wednesday) Me Mades: - Black Hollyburn Skirt - Portrait Blouse - Pink Minoru - Neck Warmer RTW: - Black and White Jumper - Singlet - Tights, undies, bra
	Day 16 (Thursday) Me Mades: - Grey Hollyburn - Turquoise Merino t-shirt - Blue Wrap Cardigan (- Pink Minoru) (-Neck Warmer) RTW: - Singlet - Tights, bra, undies
	Day 17 (Friday) Me Mades: - Ralph Skirt - Turquoise Merino t-shirt (- Pink Minoru) (- Neck Warmer) RTW: - Black Jumper - Down Jacket (At work) - Singlet - Tights, Bra, Undies
	Day 18 (Saturday) Me Mades: - Black and White 'Favourite' Skirt - Purple T-Shirt - Undies (- Pink Minoru) RTW: - Black Jumper - Tights, Bra
	Day 19 (Sunday) Me Mades: - Green Merino singlet - Grey wrap cardigan RTW: - Running Leggings - Bra, Undies, Socks (Also not pictured, me-made red t-shirt and crescent skirt)
	Day 20 (Monday) Me Mades: - Mad-Meh dress - Long sleeved black merino t-shirt (- Pink Minoru) (- Neck Warmer) RTW: - tights, undies, bra (Also not pictured, me-made grey t-shirt and non-me-made jeans for moving boxes in the evening)
	Day 21 (Tuesday) Me Mades: - 'Esprit' Dress - Green merino t-shirt (- Pink Minoru) (- Neck Warmer) RTW: - Purple Cardigan - Tights, Bra, Undies
	Day 22 (Wednesday) Me Mades: - Cambie Dress - Long sleeved black merino t-shirt (- Pink Minoru) (- Neck Warmer) RTW: - Black Jumper - Tights, Bra, Undies

And so, 9 days of the month left!

Rooibos - now with added trim

Last October I showed you this Roobios dress and expressed my unenthusiasm at the finished thing and that I was considering adding some trim so that the style lines of the dress were more visible. Well, I did that shortly after the post and it transformed the dress!

 

Since then the dress has become a staple of both my summer and autumn wardrobes, and has even received some unsolicitations from strangers when I've been wearing it out and about.

 

However, one thing that has been incredibly disappointing about this dress is that the underlining that I used has shrunk in the wash since I made it, despite having pre-washed it before I made the dress. This means that all the seams (the pocket bags in particular) are all 'crinkly' and the neckline is a bit distorted. It's still wearable but not as good as it was when freshly made.

 

In future projects I want to remember how adding some simple trim transformed this dress. I've not really used much trim before, but I think I need to try incorporating it into more projects. (Also piping! Must try piping!) 

Sewing Dare: Complete

You may remember that waaaaaaay back in February I signed up for a #sewingdare. The dare I received was:

"Make something to wear under a dress"

Of course, I have since made (and blogged) something to wear under a dress; my crinoline. However as I'd already decided to make the crinoline prior to being issued the dare (and at that point had a date/time scheduled to make it), I declared that the crinoline wouldn't count.

I am pleased to now announce that I have completed my sewing dare by sewing some undies! I have infact sewn two pairs of undies, that can be worn under all sorts of things, including a dress. (Actually I completed them a while ago, I just suck at promptly posting about things at the moment).

The first pair that I made was a fairly boring pair of black undies, using some left over jersey I'd used to make a t-shirt. To make the pattern I cut up an old pair of RTW undies that should long earlier have been thrown in the bin to trace around and get a basic pattern.

I then cut out my fabric, adding lingerie elastic to the top of the undies (above), and stretch lace around the leg holes (below), both stitched on with a zig-zag stitch.

Now, there was a GINORMOUS flaw in my plan, and I am telling you this because I want you to learn from my mistake; I didn't take into account that the undies I traced had 4-way stretch, and the fabric I used only had 2-way stretch. I'm sure you can see where this is going... the undies fit perfectly horizontally, but vertically they were, ummm, a bit lacking! So, I went back to my pattern pieces and added some length to the centre front and centre back (from memory it was about 1" to the front and 2.5" to the back).

Then I whipped up a second pair, and this time they were great! Hurrah!!! Pair of undies number 1 = complete!

Now, onto the second pair... for a while now I've wanted to try making some woven undies. I mean, how awesome would it be to have undies made from the fabric left-over from making pretty dresses! (I'm not joking!)

However, I'd never even worn woven undies to know if they'd be comfortable or not, so when I was in a bind and needed to buy some over Christmas I got the above pictured woven ones. It turned out that they're actually quite comfortable, so I proceeded with having a go at making some.

First I had to make a pattern. Now I didn't want to cut up this pair as I enjoy wearing them, so I used a cork board to stretch them out to trace out the pattern (shown mid-process above). I then added a little extra height in the centre back so as to more comfortably cover my derrière, and cut a pair out of some left over fabric from my Portrait Dress.

I did similar finishes to the bought pair, using various notions I've gathered or had in my stash. Top at the front has some lace trim stitched to it, through which I weaved some elastic:

The top of the back has lingerie elastic stitched to it with a zig-zag:

And the leg holes were finished with a narrow zig-zag over the edge of the fabric (this needs more work) and some elastic stitched about 1cm in from the edge of the fabric (again with a narrow zig-zag).

Overall I'm very happy with the outcome, and hope to make a stack more (including some Liberty ones to match a very special dress).