Lockdown leisurewear - Noord Sweatshirt

Not getting out much (read: at all) and so I've been absolutely loving the latest addition to my comfy wardrobe. I am living, 24/7, in this long sleeved T-shirt.

This is the Noord Sweatshirt from Liesl + Co in the most lovely wool/cotton double knit from Fabric Deluxe.

It was a bit of a spur of the moment make. I'd just finished something else that was relatively complex, had an idea for the next thing that was even more complex and just hankered for a quick and easy bit of knit sewing in between.

The pattern was the perfect match for this fabric. the reason being that the fabric was a faulty remnant. I'd picked it up at Fabric Deluxe from their remnants section (one of the best!) thinking it might make a top for one of the kids.

It's a really soft, lovely double knit. I was never going to let the kids have it, was I? Chocolate, fine merino knit on one side and soft, cream cotton knit on the other. The piece was a good size but had a lot of fine holes running along one long edge.

After I'd given it a super gentle wash cycle there were lots of little holes running along both edges. I'd need a pattern with multiple small panels rather than a standard T-shirt pattern. Enter the Noord. Designed for colour blocking the pattern had interesting panels and seams and it fitted EXACTLY on my patchy, holey remnant with not an inch to spare.

The nice hi-low split hem is finished with a facing. Here you can see the fabric's underside. If I could buy more of this fabric and make a whole lockdown suit I would, trust me.

I made a straight size L with my measurements falling between the M and L sizes. I knew I wanted slouchy, full comfort and so happily erred on the larger side. For a T-shirt weight like this I could easily use the M and just follow the L sleeve and body length.

Verdict: Hate lockdowns. Love the leisurewear.

Jumping Dots Scarf: A big project for a big brother

 This time for my own big brother...

I started crocheting this scarf in lockdown number 2, around the beginning of July last year, and as soon as I saw the pattern emerging I knew it should be a gift for my brother. 

Jump forward 12 months: I finished it in lockdown number 4 and posted it off to him. We've just entered lockdown number 5 and it's his birthday and he has just received it, so I can share it here.

The pattern is called Jumping Dots by Jellina Verhoeff (weblink and Ravelry link). It looks much more complicated than it is as it's all just single crochet stitch.

The design comes from carrying one thread along while crocheting with another and then switching. There's a bit of counting involved, but that's about it.

The yarn is Scheepjes Whirl in Mid-Morning Mocharoo, which is the colour gradient yarn, along with Scheepjes Whirlette in Licorice (2 balls). I purchased the yarn online from Yarnish

The colour gradient yarn is a huge cake of 1000m and I was almost sad that the final colour, a dark brown was only just emerging as I ran out of the second ball of the black whirlettte. But with the scarf at about 2m long it was definitely time to stop. The pattern was written to stop about two "dot lengths" earlier with the option to keep going if you wanted to use up all the solid colour yarn.

I had a bit of fun trying to work out how to photograph it without a Dr Who type model. It looked really cool on our cork stairs, but also very moody and dark.

The cotton is pretty fine and there's a gazillion crochet stitches in making this.  Each evening I could add about a centimetre of progress. Once or twice I discovered I'd miscounted somewhere and all my circles were a bit oval shaped. there's no hiding mistakes, so I'd just rip back. At least with crochet there's only ever one stitch to hold onto.

To keep me from having to move the yarn balls every time I switched yarn, and prevent them getting tangles, I did commission P to build me a Lego, rotating, yarn holder. He didn't get around to it, but I'd recommend finding something like that before you start! A bit like a lazy Susan with yarn holding spikes sticking up.

I'm keen to try some more of these tapestry type patterns with carried yarn colours. Using simple old 8bit computer type graphics I could maybe even invent my own. Maybe my husband needs a Space Invaders Galactica facewasher :)

Ottobre impulse sewing

I had an idea for a dress for myself using three different linen checks from Fabric Deluxe. The idea wouldn't go away so I headed off to buy the fabric, but when I was there I found this pumpkin coloured stretch denim and I've ended up making some jeans for A.

(don't worry, I bought the linens for myself too)

The jeans pattern is from Ottobre Spring (1) 2014 and it's pattern 34 - Angel Wings

Why Angel Wings? Cause there's cute little butt wings on the back:

I had a bit of fun making those wings with my new sewing machine and its embroidery stitches. I could program it to sew circles of decreasing size, where the pattern suggesting iron on diamantes of varying sizes (surprisingly not in my huge notions stash!)

Overall the sewing machine handled all the topstitching, and the jeans button hole and the thick belt loops, and just everything, really really well.

I didn't have her on hand to measure as the kids were away for some of the school holidays (granny camp!) and so I just guessed at the 158cm size. The rigid jeans of P's that she'd been trying to squeeze into were 152cm Ottobre, so I figured one size up and some stretch and I should be safe.

I'd only bought 1m of the denim as it was quite wide, and that meant I couldn't cut the full pattern length. These are 11cm shorter in the leg than the pattern intends. I guessed that should be OK as she hasn't got the spidery limbs of her older brother. The other guess I made was to slash and spread the rear crotch curve to add about 1cm to 1.5cm of extra rise length, and also to add about 0.5cm to the lower aspect of the rear yoke pieces for a bit more length again. That all worked perfectly and they aren't high waisted but they also aren't falling down too low when she sits.

As I was finishing them the waist looked a little large, so I just slipped some 1" elastic into the rear half of the waistband and anchored it under where the side belt loops folded up. It's not gathered a lot but just enough to keep it close at the lower back. She loves them. But then how could she not? they have butt wings!

At the last minute I decided to add a T-shirt. From the same Ottobre magazine, this is pattern 28 - Neon Stripes. The pattern is just two pieces; front and back with ribbing binding. the front is cut on the bias so I needed a striped fabric to show that off. I made a straight size 1546cm (the largest this particular pattern goes to)

One thing I'm good at is buying and stashing striped knit fabrics. I'd forgotten all about this one which was a Spotlight $2/m special from ages ago. I needed to zoom back to Fabric Deluxe for some rockmelon coloured ribbing to match the denim to finish the whole look.

The T-shirt took no time at all to assemble on the overlocker, but when it came time to turn the ribbing and stitch it down with the sewing machine I found the hurdle at which to fall. My new machine and I are yet to sort each other out when it comes to the walking foot and twin needle combination. It seems to have a twin needle setting but not when the walking foot is engaged. Or a walking foot setting but you can't then select the twin needle option. I was almost longing for the old basic model that I could trick into doing anything... I've sewn it down with the twin needle and no walking foot, but the ribbing has become very stretched out in doing so. 

My knit finishes are going to take some practice. But I will prevail.

She loves the T-shirt too. Even though she was wearing it backwards for most of the first photoshoot and we didn't realise. Here's how it looks back to front!

Birthday T-shirt - the stick stencil

 I couldn't let June go by without a t-shirt for the freshly teenaged kiddo. (oh my)

As always I asked what he wanted, what's the "thing" this year. No more Pokemon or fidget spinners.. this year he wanted a lacrosse stick on his birthday t-shirt. Not as easy as it sounds.

Obviously the stick part is easy, but the whole mesh basket bit definitely wasn't. I figured the only way to distinguish a women's from a men's lacrosse stick was the pocket, so I turned it to be side on. 

The stick, lettering (yes, I've outed his name, shhh) and head were all part of a freezer paper stencil. Then I just freehand painted the mesh.

On the back, a big number 7. His playing number.

Once I'd finished the painting (Setacolour opaque fabric paints) then it was a simple matter of sewing up the t-shirt. 

The pattern is Jalie Nico (Jalie 3669) is size Q with no alterations. The grey cotton lycra was out of the stash and came from RubyJam. It's a lovely quality, and I'd had other plans for it but c'est la vie. The sleeves were meant to be black, but amazingly I had no black cotton lycra left. A quick trip to Spotlight didn't yield any black but I phoned home and checked that the club colour of dark green would be even better.

I also zoomed out to buy a second bobbin casing for my new sewing machine (I really need to introduce it, it's amazing!). I'd had twin needle hemming down to a fine art with the old machine and needed to set it up nicely for this one. There is a factory bobbin holder (blue mark) that is looser tension so I bought that. It's not loose enough to use with woolly nylon and a twin needle so my hems are a bit tight. I'll take to it with the screw driver and tinker until I get the sweet up as sweet as it should be.

Meanwhile, unless the hems pop, he's a happy teenager and he's confused all the other kids in the team who suddenly thought personalised lacrosse t-shirts were an available thing. Nope!

Little crop tops and a failed leotard

Quite some time ago, I made a leotard for my daughter for the end of gymnastics term costume day. The theme was rainbow (again?) and so I used some of the leftover rainbow flame lycra seen here.

I thought I could be clever and mash the top half of one Jalie pattern with the shorts part of another, forgetting that the only way into a leotard is through the neck opening. With quite a bit of shoving we got a kid into the leotard but it was a disaster, worn once and then chucked.

But... the Jalie crop top pattern looked promising and so I made one in a scrap of cotton lycra. She loves it.

The lining is swimsuit lining and the neck and armholes finished with fold over elastic. The pattern is Jalie 3247, View A (I forget the size, but am pretty sure it's the only tracing in the package)

One wasn't enough, so I whipped up another two in the very last remnants of some lovely cotton knit.

They're in constant rotation and I think I hit the jackpot with these - at least compared to the impossible to get into, ill fitting, poorly laundered, not so bright rainbow leotard. Easy to succeed when you're following after such a trainwreck!

Irma Hat for my dad

 A few weeks ago I found myself in the city on a day off (now we're home-schooling and home office-ing and in lockdown v4 it feels like a lifetime ago and a real treat)…

For the first time I wandered into Morris & Sons and found the loveliest, squishiest wool. I decided to knit my dad a beanie.

I was interested to try a pattern with some texture or design to it, but I'm not yet feeling ready for cables. I found the Irma Hat - a free pattern on Ravelry and then read a lot of the reviews. 

It appeared it might need some sizing tweaks, and I know my dad would rate his head size as larger than average. So I upped the needle size from 3.5 (rib brim) and 4.5 (main body) to 4.0 and 5.0 respectively. I also cast on 108 stitches instead of 92

The other change I made in sizing was to knit 3&1/2 rounds of the hat body pattern rather than 2&1/2 before beginning the crown shaping. I'm happy to say the sizing worked out perfectly. I tried it on after I'd finished and before blocking it and it made for a pretty slouchy beanie on me, but when I'd tried it with only the 2&1/2 rounds it had too much of a skull cap vibe.

I found it much easier to get the right leaning stripes (K2tog) to look tight compared to the left leaning stripes (SSK). With a fluffy, multi-coloured yarn it doesn't look too gappy or unbalanced but it could get messy if I tried with a flatter yarn or a solid colour.

As a design change, and a chance to try something new I also altered the rib brim. I did a provisional cast on (waxed macrame thread worked really nicely as the waste yarn) with a crochet chain. Then knit double the number of 1x1 rib rows before folding the brim up and joining the cast  on row into the main knitting.

The double rib brim is so nice and extra squishy I think I'd always do this for a beanie from now on.

If I sound like I suddenly know what I'm doing, I don't. But I have this book (The Knitter's Book of Knowledge - Debbie Bliss) and it's brilliant!

I used two balls (2x50g) of the Morris & Sons Peru - wool/alpaca blend (green graphite colour). They came as shanks and I wound them into balls. Without really thinking about it I used the first ball pulling from the centre, and then the second ball winding from the outside. It means the colour stripes are mirrored which looks kinda cool and I wish I could say I'd thought to do it.

With the doubled brim, the greater number of cast on stitches, bigger needles and extra pattern repeat it turned out the 100g (approx 200m) was exactly the right amount of yarn. There's barely a ping pong ball sized leftover.

I posted it off to my dad on Monday and heard it had arrived on Thursday and he's happy. Perfect for pottering about in the garage in the middle of winter.

Cartwheel Wrap Dress

 And with this pattern it's a wrap*. I have now sewn every Oliver + S children's pattern at least once (and many of them many, many times)

*Cartwheel Wrap Dress

The modelled photos are from quite some time ago. Late March perhaps? We'd gone into the city to see a show for the Melbourne Comedy Festival. 

By the end of the night the city was looking beautiful, as it often does...

The fabric was an impulse buy from the remnant bins at Rathdowne Fabrics. It's a cotton poplin with slightly diagonal stripes of elephants. I figured A would like the colours and who doesn't like elephants? I confess I sewed it because I wanted to. I have no ambitions for it being worn much and expect it may get handed down after only a few wears. Some patterns make you just want to sew them.

I'm going to be a bad blogger and not even try and remember what size I made. It will be written on the tracing interfacing as it's the only copy of this pattern. I suspect it's a straight size 12 which sees her outgrowing these beautiful patterns.

Of course it was a joy to sew with some clever details and finishing that I would not have figured out had I been trying to make an overlapping wrap skirt with lined bodice dress on my own!

I'm going to have make one of these patterns every few months for someone else's small child, just to keep my love of sewing from growing stale. They were the patterns that first made it all make sense to me, and they're the ones I always turn to for a the sewing equivalent of an amuse-bouche.

If you haven't sewn one yet, then dive in. Bon appetit!