Trousers for Richard: Part 1 Cutting and Pockets

It’s rare (like this once) when my husband asks me to make him something. I think he just asked so that I would have a project to work on (as if I needed more), but he asked for some slacks, which I hadn’t done before, and appreciated the challenge.

I had him pick out the fabric (an olive twill) and I choose a pattern from Kwik Sew (since I was so impressed with their men’s shirt, I figured their trouser pattern would be just as professional looking. It’s been sitting in my project queue for quite sometime, and since I still haven’t made it to my first weight-loss goal, and I’ve been itching to sew (not that knitting hasn’t been fun, but I love sewing), this would be a good project to work on.

Firstly, I had to take his measurements. My husband is pretty tall (6’4″), and thus, he has a difficult time with finding pants that fit. The ones he finds that are the right length tend to be too wide in the waist, and the ones that are the right size in the waist, are often too short. (This is why we sew, right?) The standard pattern measurements were pretty comparable for his size and shape, the only big alteration to the pattern I had to make was adding 2 1/2″ to the length of his pants. This was the first time I ever cut into the actual pattern, and it was a little scary. But I figured I was probably only going to make these pants for him, so I came to terms with cutting up my pattern.

Lengthened pants pattern

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Starting the Spring Garden Tee

Now that I’ve finished three(!) knitting projects, I needed to make something a little more challenging than a rectangle (even if that rectangle turned into an infinite loop). I’ve spent a LOT of time on Ravelry (and any knitter or crocheter would probably attest to the fact that you can spend a lot of time on there) looking for my next project. I settled on the Spring Garden Tee–it looks like a fairly simple stockinette stitch t-shirt with a cute lace pattern on the cap sleeves.

I’m using CotLin (cotton/linen blend) from KnitPicks in Harbor for my shirt.

Three Skeins of Spring Garden Tee

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Ten-and-a-half Feet of Nerdiness

I’m finally done with my first knitting project ever, even though I started and finished two more in the same amount of time. Hah!

Takeaways from this project? Buy enough yarn up front and you won’t have to worry about colors not matching when you buy more, or running out in the middle of the project and then having to wait until payday so you can buy more yarn. (By the way, I used the KnitPicks worsted Wool of the Andes in colors suggested by DoctorWhoScarf [see below]).

I had anticipated a 11′ scarf, but after blocking, it was only 10.5′. Pretty close! I’m really happy with how it turned out, and this was definitely the best project for a [nerdy] newbie to have made. I hope to never knit a dishcloth :P

Completed Doctor Who scarf

Completed Doctor Who scarf

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What I’ve Been Up To…

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. Kind of been slacking on my projects.

Personal-honesty-time! So about three years ago, I managed to work really hard (eating a healthy diet and regularly exercising) and lost 15 lbs. I was at my goal weight, and was happy with how I looked. Sometime between then and now, I forgot how to be vigilant with my eating habits and exercise, and ended up slacking off to where I am back at where I started. I’m a bit annoyed with myself, and am experiencing problems fitting into my clothes, so last month I placed a moratorium on myself to not sew anything until today for two reasons: 1) So I could try to lose 10 lbs in six weeks (if I worked really hard, it would have been doable), and 2) to get other projects done for other people.

Obviously, I thought I could still eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, go to the gym maybe twice a week, and somehow two pounds would fall off each week. Right. Okay, no more sob-story. I’m just going to get it done, and to encourage myself, I’m going to reward myself with a couple sewing projects:

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That’s Not a Moon, It’s a Quilt!

Because I was being a pansy about how I wanted the Star Wars quilt to be quilted, mom offered to do it for me. On Saturday, we went over to my parents’ house to borrow their truck so we could do some shopping at Ikea and get rid of some furniture out of my crafting room. So when we got there, I dropped off the assembled quilt with her to work on while we were out running errands. She suggested doing an all-over stipple pattern that wouldn’t go over the top of the faces of the characters, and that sounded good to me.  When we got home that night, we assembled all the furniture we got at Ikea and I finally had a proper place to sew. (Still need to do some organization in the room, but for the most part, it’s a lot better than my previous set-up.)

This morning, I finished attaching the binding to the quilt, and hope to stick it in the mail tomorrow!

Finished Star Wars Baby Quilt

Also, here’s a pic of my new sewing area. So happy and comfortable with it now!

Proper sewing area

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Cable Scarf

I finished my second knitting project ever! It’s going to be a gift for a friend and it’s probably getting a little too warm to wear it now, but it’s the thought that counts, right? :)

Cable scarf

Cable scarf

I wanted to give cables a try, so I hunted around for an easy pattern to give a try. Through the magic of Pinterest or something, I found a free pattern for a reversible cable scarf. I also wanted to get started on it right away, because I think I started on it while I was waiting for more yarn for the Doctor Who scarf, so I went to my local yarn shop and wandered around and around until I finally settled on some yarn (Blackstone Tweed from Berroco) that was at the inexpensive spectrum. Unfortunately, it probably wasn’t the best yarn to pick for this pattern. I probably should have gone with something lighter and not tweed. However, this worked out really well for me. Why? Because I made a TON of mistakes with this scarf. :) It’s okay, they’re hard to see with the yarn I choose, so I’m okay with it. The cabling actually shows up pretty well, but the 2×2 seed stitch in between the cables isn’t as noticeable (which is okay, because I think that’s where most of the mistakes are).

Still need to order more yarn for my Doctor Who scarf, so not sure what I’ll work on next… but here’s a latest picture of the Doctor Who scarf in the meantime.

243 rows of 436 on the Doctor Who scarf

243 rows of 436 on the Doctor Who scarf

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Red 5, Standing By

Completed quilt top

One of my girlfriends from grade school loves Star Wars and is having a son this May, so what’s a better gift than a Star Wars baby quilt?

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Emerald Men’s Shirt

I made McCall’s 6044 about a year and a half ago. I wasn’t pleased with the pattern, but at the time, I had bought two different fabrics to make two shirts using that pattern. Had I enough fabric, the second shirt would have been another Kwik Sew shirt, but alas, I did not.

Since I am still going through my projects in my stash, I intended this shirt to be for learning purposes only. I gave the flat-fell seam a shot and did one starting with the right-sides together and another starting with the wrong-sides together, so I could see which style I liked better. I was sewing it pretty haphazardly (again), so my seams on the sleeve were pretty sloppy. At that point, I decided I didn’t want my husband to wear it because of how sloppy/shoddy it was. But, even after showing him where I messed up, he said he still wanted it.

I soldiered on, and as I added the facing to the shirt this morning, I realized I was suppose to interface both sides of the facing. Arg! I had barely enough medium weight interfacing to interface all the pieces I already did. I shrugged, and told my husband the new problem I found. He shrugged back, and said it was okay, and he still wanted the shirt. At this point, I figured I must have subconsciously been messing up (I’ve never been this far off my game) on purpose because I didn’t like the pattern (nor did I care for the light-weightness of the broadcloth for the shirt).

The best part, is that this time I didn’t slip-stitch anything! Everything was top-stitched and edge-stitched. I don’t know why McCall’s put all those instructions in there for slip-stitching when it’s all going to be top-stitched.

Well, as you can see, he’s happy with it, and I guess that’s all that matters.

Richards emerald shirt

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Lovely Lacy Dress

Although, I started this dress as I do with every other garment, by following the directions to a T, I got a little sloppy by the end when it was time to finish the hem. It’s not entirely even, I’m sure, and the hem is all machine stitched and a little messy. Maybe it’s because I spent the better part of Sunday making the dress that I wanted to try to finish it within the day (or finish it for the most part, since I still had a few finishing touches to do before I could call it “complete”). I kept telling myself, while I was haphazardly sewing the hem, “I’m the only one wearing this, this is not going in a competition, and I wouldn’t do this on a garment for someone else.” Meh, it made me feel better.

Regardless, I’m very happy of the way it turned out!

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Tangerine Dream

This dress was meant to be made last year, since last year’s Pantone color was Tangerine. Oh well, better late than never!

While poking around on the internet, I came across Leanne Marshall’s etsy shop. Mostly, she sells wedding gown samples that she’s made on there, and I fell in love with the lace, tea-length dresses she sold. I so wanted one for myself. I was planning to design my own, but fortunately, found a pattern for one from Vogue.

Vogue 8766 - Style F

Vogue 8766 – Style F

I wanted to stay away from the “wedding look” so I decided to choose a different color than ivory or white. Searching around the fabric websites for some not-too-expensive lace fabric, I found a bright tangerine lace and paired it with a pink broadcloth for the underlining, both from Fabric.com.

orange lace dress fabric

It arrived in the mail and sat in the closet. It sat and sat. I must have been working on other projects in the meantime, so it just sat. Sometimes I’d look at it and think, “If only I wasn’t working on *whatever it was that I was working on*” or “If only I wasn’t too lazy to look at the pattern envelope to figure out what else I needed to make this (which turned out to be just a zipper, thread, and ribbon)”. Fortunately, due to my not-yet-employed state, I was able to start this dress.

The “sequins”, which are holographic dots stuck to the fabric, shed a bit in the wash. I wasn’t overly fond of them in the first place, so I’m okay with that. The skirt on this dress is a large circle skirt, so cutting out the pattern has been interesting, to say the least. Also, since the lace part is lace, or because the tracing paper I’m using is wearing out, it’s been difficult to see my tracing line. I’ve already ripped the pattern and tracing paper by vigorously tracing over the lines to get a clear marking of where I’m suppose to cut. And, I missed where I was suppose to cut and cut into my fabric at one point too. Oops! I’m going to try to fix it with some light interfacing, and maybe a darning stitch if it’s too obvious. It’s near the seam allowance, so I’m hoping it won’t be noticeable at all!

Before I head to bed, I’ve gotten all my pieces cut out from the underlining and the lace. Even though my blue carbon tracing paper was wearing out so much that I couldn’t see it anymore on the lace, I still managed to finished. Sure, I had to copy my sleeve pattern to a piece of tracing paper and cut it out, but I still finished! I left my project in the beginning stages, where I now need to baste the underlining and lace together for the bodice–along the edges and darts, and try not to get any tailor tacks stuck in between the two. Fun! Probably best if I leave that for tomorrow when I’m fresh in my mind.

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