Fried Egg Tote Bag

I knit this tank top in 2010. When I finished it and put it on I saw that the variegated yarn had pooled color into "nice" uneven fried egg splotches in the most awkward place. It was the same on the back so I could not wear it backwards.

A friend suggested I convert it into a bag. Once I refolded the tank, the armholes became handles!

The tank languished for many years. However, yesterday, I decided to dig into the sewing UFO (Un-Finished Objects) stack and work my way through it. I finished 6 things including the bag!

This is the lining, fully interfaced. I laid the knit tank on top of the fabric and rough cut the shape.

I also added a pocket with some fabric that reminded me of the first garment I made for myself back in 9th grade. Yes, I made a wrap skirt with fabric in shades of brown with clusters of mushrooms all over. For kicks I searched for "1980's wrap skirt patterns" and found the exact same one on Etsy here. My teacher asked me twice if I was sure about the fabric choice. Of course I was! I wish I still had the skirt because it must have been most hilarious.

Once I had the body sewn and the corners tucked to make a flat bottom I had to clip and fold the lining into the handles one edge at a time.

Then sew each one after pinning before moving onto the next edge.

I did have to patch the top of the handle as I didn't cut the lining long enough to go over the shoulder/handle. You can barely see it.

Corner button that I think adds a nice detail to the bag.

Finished bag. I love it!

Sometimes its good not to think to much or measure to much about a project. Just wacking out fabric shapes is not my normal way of sewing. This on-the-go method is freeing and a UFO got crossed off the list.

Little Mermaid 2018

For the third year in a row I am making costumes for the school play. My son is again NOT involved in any way except as a spectator. You can find my costume sewing adventure from last year here.

This year the show is Little Mermaid. I am making Ariel and her six sisters. That equals 7. Seven!

Seven little mermaid costumes have been on my plate for awhile. You know the usual...shoulda...woulda...coulda...started earlier...etc. Anyway, I've had the skirt mocked up for some time and finally got a fitting last week.

I cut all the skirts on Monday. I cut all the tulle today for the ruffles. And started sewing.

Here are the seven combinations. These four pictures are from the director.

The main skirt fabric is a 4 way stretch metallic nylon with overall semi circle cutouts.

I used a knit interfacing on the sewing edges to stabilize the edges.

Because...look what this fabric does with just the weight of the tulle ruffle on the hem!

Looks like fish scales, eh?!? I love the fabric. I can't imagine what it was designed for or who would wear it except as a costume. But it's pretty fun.

Gathering the tulle onto the hem.

 Tulle ruffle on the right side. I still have to edge stitch and sew up the back and waistband.

This is the skirt mockup. The tulle ruffle represents the flippers. It's so cute.

More costume adventures to come. After the skirts are done I have little bandeau tops to cut and sew.

The end of the story can be found here.

Gala Outfit

I haven't sewn a garment for myself in a long time. My son's annual fundraising gala for his Mandarin Immersion Program was coming up. I thought it was a perfect event to make something special. The theme was Oscar's Red Carpet.

I have a pair of shiny silver sequin skinny pants a friend gave me as a gag gift a couple of Christmas's ago. I kept them because they were funny to me and really...who doesn't need a pair of shiny pants?!?

Well, I thought the shiny pants would be a perfect base for me to build a dress-up outfit around for the gala. I poked around for Chinese vests on Amazon and Etsy and didn't see anything I really liked. I had this idea to make a structured vest with a peplum.

I found this awesome embossed and quilted black faux leather fabric  at Joann's (of all places). The burgundy and black iridescent taffeta I had in my stash.

I pulled out a bodice sloper from a few years ago. When I say "a few years ago"... I mean, like, at least 20 years ago! After that length of time plus having a baby, I should have known that I would need to draft a new one. While my measurements had not changed that much, my proportions are TOTALLY different. The sloper did not fit in any way. The picture below shows what I cut hoping it would fit. What a laugh. It was too tight and too short. I ended up using a basic commercial vest pattern to start my canvas mock up.

Then I pulled out my book, Pattern Making for Fashion Design, for the peplum circle. It has this wonderful measurement chart for full, half, and quarter circle skirts. It's so easy to use.

This is the mock up front view after the first fitting. A friend of mine is making herself a Victorian ball gown and we traded fitting time. I love asymmetrical hems.

Back view of vest. Lots of pins.

The chalk line below is one side of my new waistline for the peplum.

This is the full peplum skirt pattern. The angle of the image makes the two sides look the same size. However, the far side is twice as long as the foreground side. My bed served as cutting table. The paper pattern just barely fit on the cutting board. I had to add a big pleat at center back to keep the fullness of the skirt while allowing the center front points to hang vertical. Function becomes design.

My intention was to make the inside look as nice as the outside. I had to get creative in how I sewed the pieces together. With piping and lining and fabric that did not want to be turned inside out I had to sew half seams, partial linings and pieced piping to put it all together.

I ended up having to hand stitch the bodice lining to the vest top. The lining was also a wee bit tighter than planned. I fixed that by taking out the tiny back darts to let the lining be more fluid. The inside is not as pretty as intended but it is fully lined.

My mother made these awesome Chinese knot buttons.

The zipper was a special piece I had purchased years ago. Separating zipper with rainbow metal teeth. It needed a special garment to be placed in and this vest was it.

Finished front. There is handmade piping at the armscye, around the collar and down the center front.

Finished back.

Me in the full outfit with really big hair.

It's a little Star Trek, a little disco, a little Jetsons. All in all, a super fun design and construction project.

Studio 49 Retreat 2017 Challenge part 5 Finale

The final end to this Polwarth fiber challenge. Lots of pictures below...

Two scarf ends that needed sewing together to make a loop.

I wanted to have a flat seamless invisible join instead of an overlapped hem. I chose to cross opposite ends and loop back to the same side.

Detail of crossed warp end with needle weaving end into fabric.

 Almost done.

Ends all crossed and ready to pull each loop closed flush against the fabric.

The join turned out a little more wonky than I thought it would. It's not as invisible as intended. Instead of pulling two ends in opposite directions at the same time, I should have pulled one side flush then the other side separately. Ah well, lesson learned.

I wasn't confident the crossed ends would be secure, so very lightly, I needle felted the seam.

Then I got to the fun part...beading the fringe.

I chose three tubes of the larger glass beads, put 3 little beads on each strand and started twisting. A bigger glass bead finished off the ends.

After hand washing and air dry, WALLAH! A finished challenge project.

I had lots of little cut ends left over from the warp. I couldn't bear to throw them away. The solution: a pom pom for a keepsake. Which I finished with beads as well.

Finally, I leave today to show off these items at the Studio 49 Retreat.

Studio 49 Retreat 2017 Challenge part 4

I finally wound my hand spun Polwarth yarn onto my 10" Cricket loom and started weaving. Post for part 3 here.

Scarf in progress on the loom. The thick grey line is the BFL hand spun yarn for the weft fringe.

A close up before I took it off the loom. Nice pleasing Fibonacci color sequence eh?!?

Off the loom ready for finishing and beading. I used every bit of the white Polwarth hand spun I had (part 2 post here).

My selection of glass beads to play with.

It only took me a week to weave the scarf. Duh! Now I just need to make time to do all the finishing. Sew in the yarn tails, connect the ends in to a loop, twist and add beads to the weft fringe, and finally wet finish. Doesn't seem like much but I know it'll take me longer than I think.

Lastly, here is a picture from my sister of the yarn I spun for her (see this part 1 post) and the beads she plans to knit into her piece. I can hardly wait to see her finished cowl.

The retreat is next weekend. Gotta finish!

Studio 49 Retreat 2017 Challenge part 2

See this post for the beginning of this story.

I have finished spinning my yarn for the Studio 49 Retreat 2017 challenge. Yay! I scaled down my vasty many oz. project idea from last year. I decided that finishing it without undue stress and last minute spinning/knitting was going to be better for my health and for my family.

So the new project idea is to spin just the original 2oz. of creamy white Polwarth and 2oz. of lovely natural grey BFL (BlueFaced Leicester) I have in my stash. I will finish two separate yarns and knit a 2-color Mosaic Sampler Hat. A new technique and a small doable project! Sort of unusual for me. But smart this time around.

My singles.

I wanted a 2 ply yarn so I needed to divide the singles into two sections to ply. I didn't want to ply from a single ball for some mysterious reason. Here is my set up. I weighed an empty bobbin then weighed the full bobbin and did some calculations to figure out what my end half bobbin should weigh so I had two close to even singles ready to ply.

The red box is my homemade shoe-box lazy kate with tension device. I made her when I first started spinning in 2003 and she is still my go-to kate. Almost there with the divided singles.

Two pairs of singles!

Plying set up.

I used my 1970's Ashford Traditional spinning wheel with the jumbo bobbin set up to ply both yarns into big skeins. I added a couple extra treadle pushes to get the tighter twist I wanted.

My two finished skeins and a close up of the lovely yarn. The grey BFL is a wee bit thicker than the Polwarth.

The yarns wet finished nicely. Both are soft and squishy. The Polwarth in particular is stretchy and the creamy white just glows. It's going to be fun to knit the hat. But first...must knit a swatch!