D ::

I did it!  I stitched together my first garment from a pattern and in Japanese at that.

I am so proud of myself, I mean the shirt itself is no where near perfect, but it is wearable, just about!

I decided that I should start with something reasonably simple looking and that wouldn't require too much fabric and I only used an old sheet.  That way if it did go terribly wrong I wouldn't have ruined some beautiful, expensive fabric.

I am so glad now that I decided to just get stuck in and have a go, because I learnt so so much by actually doing it and it wasn't until I started putting all those techniques in to practice that they started to make much more sense, some a little too late for this garment unfortunately, but that is of course what practice runs are for!

I really struggled a lot with the binding on the neck and the sleeves, it just didn't seem possible!  I actually ended up making some larger binding for the neck piece and handstitching the sleeves.  I'm not sure how to prevent this from being such a disaster next time, but I'm sure with a little more book reading and internet searching I'll get there.

I also didn't even consider raw edges until I'd finished!  For this garment it's not the end of the world, but next time I will definitely consider how to finish the edges.

I used Built by Wendy's sew u book for a lot of the technical stuff, I've had this book for ages and ages, but I've hardly even flicked through it before (I think I may have read a bad review of it just after purchase and it just got neglected after that) however it was actually really really helpful and I had it next to my sewing machine for constant reference throughout.

So next up....a dress!  Well maybe anyway.  I really want to make a dress to wear for my cousins wedding in April, but I'm not entirely sure I'm brave enough to make that big step of cutting up beautiful, carefully purchased fabric just yet!  Maybe another practice run first would be best.

• pattern D from stylish dress book 1 available here


• burdastyle notes here

mustard hearts for me ::

 

my newest short sleeved sweater is finished!  It still needs blocking (which I'm really hoping will give it a bit more length as it's a teeny bit short) but otherwise it's all finished and I'm quite in love with it.

I made a few silly mistakes with the fair isle pattern, but for a first attempt I think I did pretty well.

I have to be honest I didn't knit it all in continental style as I had intended, in order to get some practice, it was too easy and quicker to slip back in to my old habits, but I did do enough to just about justify knitting myself yet another sweater!

• owls pattern available to download as pdf for £3.50 :: here (although this is fairly modified)


• my ravelry notes :: here  

 

finding inspiration :: london fashion week ::

there was some lovely knitwear appearing on the catwalks last week, here are some of my favourites.

Super cosy oversized stripey cardigan by Betty Jackson.

Betty Jackson had lots of fabulous knits mostly in gorgeous reds, here's another of my favourites.

Margaret Howell had very chic and simple knitwear.

Though I'm not sure I really like Christopher Kane's pieces all that much, it's nice to see the granny square making an appearance.

But my absolutely favourite items have to be the amazing granny style crochet pieces from House of Holland.

I mean granny square print tights...amazing!

japanese pattern book sew along ::

I received an email from Kate at M is for make this morning, inviting me to take part in this...

As I am a complete novice, I'm thinking this will probably be a fantastic opportunity to get a bit of help from some more experienced sewers along the way!  Plus it may give the boost I need to get that sewing machine off for the service it so desperately needs before any dress sewing takes place!

Now to decide which dress to make and the task I'm most looking forward to, choosing some fabric!

another short sleeved sweater for me ::

so as I said, new knitting skills require practice and well, what perfect excuse to knit myself a new sweater.

I saw this beautiful Katia Peru yarn in my local yarn store a few weeks ago and fell in love with it.  It's super chunky and soft and I imagine it will be oh so warm too.

I found a fabulous book of fair isle in the charity shop this week, it has some really interesting history of the technique along with some patterns.  I'm using Kate Davis' Owls pattern for the main body of the sweater, though I'm going to try and amend the bulge that appeared on the back of the last one I made.  I am going to be omitting the owls this time and instead working in some fair isle hearts (I think anyway), where the owls would be.

I'm really pleased with my colour choices and it just so happens they match the crocus's, that appeared on my window ledge this morning perfectly!

continental style ::

last week I attended my first neighbourhood 'knit and natter' gathering, it was lovely and there were fabulous cakes!

Whilst I was there I was taught to knit continental style (essentially holding the yarn in your left hand rather the right).  So far, so good, I'm not quite as fast as I am english style yet, but getting close.  I'd love to be one of those super speedy knitters, you know where the needles are a blur of motion.  I guess it just takes a whole lot of practice.  But I'm fairly convinced that I can be a lot quicker with the continental knitting than I am currently.  I just need a bit of practice, which is the perfect excuse to knit myself another sweater I feel!

stylish dress book ::

this arrived in the post for me yesterday.  I'm hoping to make myself a dress to wear to my cousins wedding in April.  Inspired by this lady's beautiful creations, I feel in love with this book.

It's truly beautiful and I can't wait to get started, however I can't help but feel I was perhaps a little too ambitious, seeing as I have never made a dress before and can't read japanese!

Before I even start to think about fabrics I really really must get my sewing machine serviced, but I have been adding some inspiration for the dress to a pinterest board here.