The Ravellenic Games 2012

The Olympic Games are almost upon us and to get in the spirit I am joining the Ravellenic Games hosted by the knitting website Ravelry.

Now I am not the biggest sporting follower, however this seems like a great excuse to sit and watch the games whilst being productive.  I have signed up for the WIP Wrestling which is for projects that are in progress but have not been touched since at least May 15th. 

My project is the Such a Debonair Little Jumper from A Stitch In Time Vol 1:

I stopped knitting it in about April when the weather started getting cooler and I switched to another more wintery project, but now with the Ravellenic Games I am inspired to finish it off, plus it will be getting warm again soon.  I only need to do all the rib for the top of the sleeves, sew it together and block it.  It really shouldn't take that long (she says hopefully).

If I finish quickly I am tempted to enter the Mitten Medley too.  I have never knitted gloves or mittens, but am certainly keen to give them a go.  Aren't all Olympians supposed to "aim high"?

The Mass Cast On begins at the Opening Ceremonies on Friday, July 27th. For me, that means I should be casting on at 6:00am on Saturday morning, however there is no way I am getting up at that time of morning to knit, lucky my first project for the games is a WIP that already cast on!

Are you an olympic crafter too?

Wardrobe Basic - Black Skirt Completed

Part of my "to do list" for winter was to make a new black skirt to replace the sad faded RTW one I have.  This is made from Simplicity 2698 another Project Runway pattern.  I chose the option with the simple two pleats front and back and the top stitched waistband. (previously I made this in the full pleated version here)

I used a gabardine fabric whilst a nice weight for winter, my serger seemed to struggle with on the waistband. I guess with the overlapping waistband and the pleating overlap it was all too much for my little machine to cope!  Not to be defeated, I decided to finish the waistband seam with a cute polka dot bias binding.

Not sure if you can see the waist detail, but it is a nice touch I thought, although it does add a bit of bulk that I am not sure I need!

Closer detail of the waistband:

I used an invisible zipper and am still debating the wisdom of this on this weight fabric. As with so many invisible zips, it does not like the change in thickness through the seams.  Time will tell, I can always change it as the construction instructions had me putting it in at the end rather than encased within the waistband.

Oh, and if you were wondering where all the white fluff on the skirt comes from, here is the culprit:

Maybe I need to think through my future garment colour palette!

Love Vintage

Yesterday I attended the Love Vintage Fair, this first to be held in Brisbane.  There was a wonderful array of stalls selling clothing, shoes, jewellery, and vintage reproduction items.  Whilst I was not supposed to take photos, I managed to sneak a couple at stalls where they didn't seem to mind.

All the pretty blue dresses - love!!

I loved the embroidery on this pale pink dress



A bit blurry, but I really liked the print on this dress

 I tried on a couple of dresses but they were made for people much taller than my 5'2" and would have required an awful lot of adjustment to fit well.  I think I should just stick with my patterns custom made by me for me.

I bought a few bits and pieces at this stall including a lace collar, and some metres of lace.

 

There was a wonderful stall with early magazines and kntting patterns.  After much deliberation and editing I narrowed my purchases to these:

Here are a few of my favourite patterns I want to add to my queue, if only I could knit faster.  I seem to only finish about two things a year - does anyone else have this problem?

Not a bad haul and a great day out!



Got the Blues - Part 2 - the jacket

As promised, here are pictures of the jacket I made to go with this dress.  I used Simplicity 3538, a Project Runway pattern.  I made the longer view with the gathered front and straight vented sleeves.

This jacket is super comfortable and seems to go with loads of my existing wardrobe, so even though I know I won't get a lot of wear out of the dress, the jacket is going to get a lot of wear especially at the moment with our semi-warm days, too cold for a t-shirt, but too hot for a heavy jumper.

My favourite part of the jacket is the surprise fun polka dot satin lining:

This was a super easy make although I did change the instructions slightly to get a cleaner finish on the inside. The pattern calls for a separate facing and then full lining underneath, but I combined the two so the inside only has seams around the armholes, which I have bound in red bias binding. I know I could have done it with no visible seams at all, but I was on a tight time frame as I was trying to finish it the night before I needed to wear it. As it turned out, the weather was lovely for the wedding and I didn't require the jacket after all.

Got the Blues - part 1

I received this delightful pattern via Etsy recently and when I had a wedding to go to I knew that it would be the beginning of a great dress.

As it was a wedding I wanted to be bright and cheerful, but it is winter too so had to keep that in mind as the last week's weather has been terrible.  I picked out a gorgeous electric blue cotton fabric, it also has kind of a waffle pattern to the fabric and a slight stretch, and decided to make a dress with matching jacket with a bit of a 60s feel.

The belt is taken from the Tilly and the Buttons Bow Belt Tutorial as I thought it would finish the dress nicely.  As you can see I changed the skirt from the original pattern to make it more of a 60s style straight design.  The only other pattern alteration was a FBA and an increase to the waist (as I find I need with all vintage patterns). 

 I also finished the kick pleat with another bow as there had to be one in the back too!!

I also made a jacket to go with it, but it was a gorgeous day and I didn't need it so I have no pictures yet.  I will post these as Part 2 later in the week.

 Loving the kick pleat!!