27 May 2018

Cloth Habit Watson, Itch to Stitch Visby Henly, machine embroidery

I've been keen to try the Itch to Stitch Visby Henly top.  With the raglan sleeves, placket and cuffs there is an opportunity for colour blocking.  I recently bought fabric for this, thinking this would make a great top for cooler weather.  However when I took the fabric out it was much thinner than I imagined.  I won't be able to wear this until spring.   The pink that I had bought for the sleeves was very sheer.  However I love the colours so went ahead and made it anyway.




 I'm not sure what was wrong with me, whether I was put off because I was disappointed with the sheerness of the fabric, or whether my head just still isn't right after the upheaval of the last couple of months but I made soooo many mistakes on this.  The first was the sleeves.  There are double notches on the back of the sleeve and single notches on the front.  I somehow did single notches on both front and back.  My fault, the pattern piece definitely shows 2 notches.  Unfortunately I attached the sleeves to the front, single notch to single notch so not an issue.  Then I came to attach the sleeve to the back and oh oh, single notch again on the sleeve.  When I compared the sleeve to the pattern piece I could see I"d sewn the back of both sleeves to the front.  Not only that but it was serged so to try and unpick on such a fine knit would be disastrous.  I decided I'd just have to go for it and hope that the sheerness of the sleeves would disguise the twistiness of the sleeves.

Second mistake was the placket.  I could clearly see on the pattern piece that there was a large X on the bottom for stitching.  I ignored that and created a buttonhole at the bottom.  Uh.  Had to stitch over the top of the buttonhole.

Anyway I think this doesn't look too bad actually and will wear it in spring as I do love the fabric.  I've just bought some more fabric in a heavier weight knit and will try it again for a winter piece.

I made my usual Itch to Stitch adjustments.  Size 8 in bust and waist, graded to 12 hips and lengthened 1".  It probably didn't need lengthening as it is quite long, but I like the extra length.

Another recent make was my first Cloth Habit Watson bra.
I say my first, because I'm sure there will be a lot more.  This was my muslin and fits perfectly.  This is made from a purple scuba that I overlaid with a purple stretch lace.  It is very comfortable and pretty easy to make.  Though once again, my head isn't where it should be and I made mistakes.  The most notable being forgetting to make up the straps before sewing to the bra.  This resulted in the only way I could get the rings and sliders on and workable were by sewing them inside out, so the sliders are inside the bra strap instead of outside it.

I've also made some machine embroidery.  Including a cover for my sewing machine that I have been wanting to make for over a year.

The design is from Embroidery library.  Sewn onto a pre-quilted fabric and bound with bias tape.











I wanted to  make a quick gift for a friend so made this crazy patch notebook cover from Kreative Kiwi.  I still need to buy a notebook to fit inside it.  I added a lining once the machine embroidery had finished.

13 May 2018

daffodil quilt

I haven't touched the daffodil quilt since September.  I don't have that much left to do so I am going to try and do some each month so I can get it finished before the end of the year.

This is row 6 completed.  Only one more row to do, then they need to be joined, borders added and binding added.





3 May 2018

Machine embroidery pictures, lisbon cardi and Lago tank

As I'm selling my mothers house I had all furniture removed and stagers came in and put their furniture and pictures around.  There were a couple of walls where you could see pictures had been hanging so I wanted to cover those patches.  So a couple of quick projects and I was finished in an afternoon.

Design from SweetPea, part of their spring table runner.  This is the cherry blossom.  The home stagers had a large picture of cherry blossom in one of the bedrooms, so this goes on the wall of that bedroom.


Koru Heart, a freebie for members from Kreative Kiw.  The colours the home stagers used in this bedroom  were greens with a large picture of leaves.
And a couple of sewn items for myself.

I think this is the 3rd Itch to Stitch Lisbon cardigan I've made.  Made in a poly knit with the bands a ponte.



Another Itch to Stitch pattern.  This is the Lago tank.  This was a very quick and easy make, only took just over an hour to sew it.  Using remnants of the same fabric used above.  As the fabric is a bit warm for a summer tank, I will probably wear this as a camisole.