Looking back on 2011 and forward on 2012!

I know I am a little late to the party, but I finally got some time to reflect back on my sewing journey in 2011, and post about planned project for 2012!

In 2012, not counting any projects for Kaylee or hubby or utilitarian projects (hemming *blah*, curtains *blah*, wallets, baby stuff… etc), my ratio of cloth sewn : cloth completed : cloth worn often  is….

28:26:25!

Not half bad I might say. I might have erased an UFO or two from my memory, as I am sure I had more failures than just two. There’s this top that I only wore once, the weather just got a little too hot for polyester knit that is double layered, and it wasnt exactly my style. But I will keep it around for the next pregnancy. Other than that, almost all completed garments got some pretty good wear out of them. So even though my rate my sewing had slowed down to one every 2 weeks, especially given that there was only two coats… wait, there’s three. why do I feel like I havent sewn enough coats? I have an unhealthy obsession with coats it seems. I also completed two knitted sweaters once I learnt how to knit and machine knit. It was a good 2011! I saw Toferet’s charts here and i just had to make one for myself:

In my defense, dresses are just the most comfy thing for a pregger!

Anyways, I have a lot of plans queued up in 2012 so far in the following order:

1. Silk blouse (50% there)

2. horizontal stripe wool skirt

3. boy pants for someone else

4. tan tailored jacket with elbow patch

5. fitted coat with grey 100% wool I found in hancock

6. sweater with horizontal cable

7. grey jersey draped maxi dress

8. one more flowy blouse in silk or rayon

9. flowery rayon maxi

10 black lace top/dress (undecided)

11. green jersey dress in a vogue pattern

only a few dresses, I am proud of myself! In a life before Kaylee, I’d probably make all those in 2 or 3 month. But I think this year it will take FOREVER, if I stick with them. The good/scary thing is, all the projects planned are from my stash… I should really stop buying fabrics!

I am not going to make anything for Kaylee until she can walk. She had out grown the few things I made for her even before I had a chance to make her wear them. When she cant yet sit up on her own, footed overall just seems like the most comfortable clothing for her. She is growing very fast too. She just turned 3 month, but she is wearing 9 month clothing already!  While she is not too chubby or skinny for her height, I dont want to make things for her ahead of time just yet. Anyways, I am looking forward to her different stages of growth. She’s already a lot of fun now! Here is a cute picture of her playing/talking with hubby:

Wearable Muslin- Linen Shirt

I had been eyeing some flowy blouses for a while. I dont enjoy making blouses as much as dresses and coats. However, even polyester blouses are around 30 dollars a piece, let alone something from natural fiber that is flowy. The cheapness in my just cant pay over 50 dollars for a blouse. So I decided that I will make one. Before I splurge my silks for it, I decided to make a muslin! If you had been following my blog, you know that I almost NEVER make muslins. But I wanted a white short sleeve shirt to layer under a cute sweater anyways, and I just happened to have a flowy linen fabric in my stash…

I like the pattern (burda 2009-09-105) quite a lot. I used size 36 and I think it fits quite well – the dart does point to my nipple but I did have to take in the shoulder by an inch. I ran out of fabric, so I had to use another fabric for the collar stand. I also made a mistake around the collar, can you spot it? I think I might not have cut out seam allowance for the front center seam…

On the other hand, after I made this I realized that I am fond of making white short sleeve blouses with snap buttons. This is my fourth one of the sort. My previous three are here: one, two, three! And I almost dont make any other blouses =_=. Time to change it up! If the silk allows it, I probably will be sticking with the  snap buttons — they are just so much easier than making button holes and sewing on buttons, especially that I got a snap button presser!

Shirt: self made

yojegging: self made

oxford: modcloth

sweater: forever 21

baby: self made

Knitted baby blanket

Thanks everyone for your advices on my skirt! I do love it and I think I will heed most people’s opinion on wearing opaque tights with it for work. It has loosened up a little from wear and now sits about 1 inch lower on my waist, so I think it shall be quite safe! I am surprised at the amount of readers who are also engineers hello!

One thing that surprised me about having a baby, is how much laundry you end up having to do. Between diaper accidents, squirting breasts, and outrageous spit ups (projectile!), we end up going through her blankets/towels quite fast. Luckily, we received tons of blankets and baby towels from our friends and coworkers. One of my favorite blankets is a hand knitted blanket from hubby’s coworker. It is made from merino wool and features very subtle teddy bears. I love the color, and I love how soft it is — kaylee is very active and this is the only blanket that she cant kick off easily since it drapes over her. I also love that its knitted — I dont worry too much about it getting on her face and suffocating her since its loosely weaved.

I myself has no patience for blankie knitting, but now that I have a machine, I got no excuse! I made one for Kaylee:

I made it so that there’s cables running down the side to alleviate the curling, and rows of eyelets. It took a little longer than I anticipated due to the details, but I think its still much faster than hand knitting. It still curled more than I like, but after a wash it softened up and its not too bad! Since this is my first time trying out eyelet and cables, I used 1/2 a pound of cheap poly/arcrylic (what is the diffeence between those two anyways? they are both plastic, no?) yarn from Caron. I love the seafoam color, and it is surprisingly soft. But the fabric snob in me is still slightly on the fence about the fact that its not natural fiber. But Kaylee seems to like it, and it is very awesome for the carseat!

Shimmering Skirt

I made a skirt! I bought the fabric yesterday and finished this morning, all during Kaylee’s naps, that is how easy the skirt is! It is literally made from 4 rectangles plus a zipper and unlined. I found this shimmering 90%poly 10% wool blend in hancock and got 1/2 a yard, and wasted nothing!

Paired with leather oxford and tan coat, i got myself a nice outfit

I especially love the exposed metal zipper. Hubby had a pair of shorts of the same color, so the zipper went well with the fabric:

close up of the fabric:

It is inspired by what i found on pinterest:

Not quite the same but hey, mine costed me less than 5 bucks in material. I want to make  a tan, notch collared jacket from camel hair and burda pattern, making almost an exact knock off of the look. But I am not sure if I will have the time, since I have to go back to work soon.

On the other hand, I took these pictures myself with auto timer, and had the darnest time  making it focus! I gave up at the end. It is hard taking photos for your blog without a photobitch!

Lastly, a quick poll — do you think this skirt is too short to wear to work? I work as an engineer, so people are mostly in casual wear, except me! But my skirts are usually within 2-3 inches above my knee. Not sure if this is too much shortness but I really want to wear it!

Sewing Table Mini-Makeover

During the last few days of pregnancy, I tried to get Kaylee out by being more active — cleaning the house, going on walks, etc. One of the things I did was to do a mini sewing table make over. I have one of those art benches with just a slap of fake wood on top, and it is pretty scratched up. I also have a very crappy ironing table, that threatens to topple over every time I used it. So I wrapped up the top part of the table in paddings and then in canvas, then nailed them tight on the back with upholstery nails. Now I have a new sewing table that serves many functions:

• It is prettier.
• I can iron large pieces of fabric on there easily
• I can poke my pins into the table and it wont fall off onto the ground

The only function it failed to serve was to get Kaylee out earlier. Can you imagine a full-term pregnant woman turning a large slab of table over, then went at it with hammers and nails?

Yojeggings — Leggings are not pants

Ever since the delivery, I’ve been favoring long sweaters over leggings kind of look, because I cant fit back into my old jeans or pants yet. They were very tight fitting to begin with anyways. However, I also know that leggings are not pants, and I always feel a little weird when wearing sweaters that are just a little bit too short.

So I made a pair of pants that I can wear as leggings, using jean material, with the cut of yoga pants. I gave this a new name – yojeggings. I hope this new pair of hotpants takes the fashion world by the storm in this new year! haha

Anyways — it really is super easy — I didnt want any zippers or pockets so that they would be more comfortable, faster to sew, and no extra buldges to show under my sweaters/shirts. I used burda yoga pants pattern, except that I made the legs straight (great for boots), and jus straight stripes with elastic bands as waist bands.

End result — sewn under 2 hours  over a few days during Kaylee’s nap time, and I love wear it with my highheel oxford and boots! They are super duper comfortable, and modest as well!

• Shirt: H&M shirt
• Sweater: Thrifted
• Yojeggings: self made
• Shoes: high heel oxford from urban outfitter

Cozy Sweater Dress and Knitting Machine!

 

Yeap! My new toy is a knitting machine!  I had been looking for one on craigslist for forever, one of those nice brother ones for less than a hundred. But I havent been able to find one in months. So I gave up and used a 50% off coupon and bought the ultimate sweater machine for 100 at the local Michaels. You can get one for 150 on amazon that comes with more stuff, but the reviews are not great, and I didnt want to deal with return shipping in case it didnt work for me. There was quite a learning curve, but since I am stuck on the couch feeding Kaylee a lot, I was able to watch its how to video over a few times, and I think I have mastered the machine!

For anyone out there who is considering this machine, here’s my review and some debugging tips.

This machine is very simple to operate once you’ve learnt the how to. Once it is setup and I’ve gotten the keys to move smoothly(knitting a test piece), I knitting a sweater out of it between feedings and diaper changes in 2 weeks. I think if I had an entire block of time dedicated to working on it, I really could make a simple sweater in two nights!

The machine by default makes stocking stitches, and with a little work you can make ribbings and cables. However, you will not be able to do stitches like garter stitch or moss stitches, at least that would be much slower than hand knitting. To get an idea of how it works, watch their howto videos on youtube, that is the best way to find out!

The machine also doesnt do well with chunky weight yard — it tends to split the yarn. Good thing that chunky weights are faster to knit by hand!

Another downside is that you have to secure the machine to a table using clamps they provided. So if you dont have a sewing space, it could be messy having it on your dining table as you finish your project.

A lot of people on amazon said the machine didnt work or dropped stitches. I can understand why they were frustrated by the machine. When I first got it, some of the keys had this grey foam stuck on it and comes out when it is moved, causing the key to not much forward smoothly. That caused dropped stitches. All I had to do was to knit a large test piece, and pick out the grey stuff as it comes out. I also discovered that I tend to press the top of the machine too hard when pushing it across the keys, which cause it to lower and catch some keys on the edge.

Thats it! I think I am going to keep the machine, even though it has much limitations. I cant bring myself to hand knit anything that is less than chunky, and this can make quite a few things without breaking my bank! Here’s the sweater dress I made. This time I used simply soft, a polyester blend. I really like it, as it is soft and light, and not scratchy like wool.

I had been looking for a loose sweater dress like this for a while, but I havent been able to find a flattering one. I used the pattern that came with my machine, but made the body longer, sleeves shorter, and the neckline wider (so I can pull it down for breastfeeding).

The knitting is very neat, there are occasional rows where its a little too tight, but it was due to my cat pulling on my thread, thus messing with the tension.

I am looking forward to making lots of basic sweaters on here!

Am I going to finish up the sweater in the last post? Definitely not by hand. I think it can be converted to use the machine for the bodice and sleeve part, but  I am still on the fence for that as well. I might just finish up the cable chest part as a head turban!

To knit, or not to knit?

Its official, I like knitting. I never thought I’d say that since knitting is so slow — you have to make all the pattern pieces first and then join them together. But now I know how to knit cables, I can see why knitting is so fun and full of possibilities. So I am being ambitious and am currently working on this:

Its free from lion brand again, and I am making it a sweater dress that hits above the knee. Ive been looking for a nice sweater dress and having no luck finding a nice one for under 100 dollars. I expect that this would take forever (probably 6 month since im knitting just a little at a time) , but I am using organic cotton and am looking forward to the softness of the dress next year.

However, hours into knitting, I saw this sweater on pinterest:

Only $60 dollars. That is less than cost of yarn. HMMM!!! Granted, it is made from a wool/poly blend, probably not soft like my organic cotton. But it is the length I wanted and I can have it now… not a year later. On the other hand, I cant wear a dress like this (not convenient for breastfeeding) for anther few months, and the sweater above looks a little flatter than the handknit ones.

So what to do? knit, or buy? The two designs are eerily similiar!

Outfit – Bubbly Rider

I had been following quite a few non-sewing fashion blogs lately, and I really enjoy seeing how they throw an outfit together. I had also been cleaning out my closet. For the past few years, I had been reluctant to throw out clothing. As a result, I have a bunch of clothing that I dont wear much because they dont fit/are not appropriate, or a bunch of clothing that had been over-worn and looks old and raggy.

So I am going to try and take pictures of outfits that I like, and hopefully get down to a more efficient wardrobe. When I make clothing, I will also have to think more about what is missing in my closet (for now: sweater dresses, jegging), instead of just sewing what I like (coats coats coats!).

Lastly, I can report some of my purchases to fellow petites who doesnt sew!

Here’s my first outfit!

• Hat: thrifted
• Circular scarf: self-made
• Coat: self-made here, minus the weird lapel. I finally bite the bullet and just cut the extra lapel off, its so much better without it! sometimes less is better.
• Dress: self-made here
• Legging: bought from walmart
• boots: Steve Madden Lindley boots, I love the contrasting zipper. The boots are a tad too tall for me and I’m 4’11 with what I hope proportionate legs. When I sit down, the knee bend hits the back of the boots. Its still comfy as it has a vent, and I love the look and the flat heel. I found mine at half price ($120) at 6pm, its still the most expensive pair of shoes I own, but I totally love it. I see the small sizes for black color one on sale here!

 

Striped Sweater Dress & snap button presser

Its been a while! I havent been sewing much the past few weeks — the husband is back to work and I have less time to tinker in my sewing room. Besides, I got myself another secret machine that I am playing with, anyone want to guess what it is? (Hint, its not a sewing machine.)

The only project I finished sewing was from a few weeks ago. I wanted some sweater dresses for winter — I havent gotten back in shape enough to be comfortable in my old jeans, but I dont have much sweaters that are long enough to be decent with leggings. Also, I need something that can be opened up easily for breast feeding. So I made this dress/cardigan.

It was made using wool sweater knit, so it is very warm. I made it using only the serger, so it didnt take long. There are snap button closures along the front and the belt (I hate the little yarn that retailers use to hold the belt in place). When its buttoned up, I can wear it with leggings as a dress. When unbuttoned, it looks good as a layering cardigan.

Talking about snap buttons, I forgot to mention that my dad got me a cool snap button installing presser from china, along with tons of snap buttons. He meant for me to make pajamas (the ones that can be unbuttons all the way to the feet) for Kaylee, but given that I can get nice clothing for her from good wills for less than 2 bucks, I am hogging those buttons for my own sewing projects for now  I love not having to hammer the snap buttons in the garage!