UFO’s!!!!!!!!

I have finally got back into the swing of things now that the weather has cooled down a bit, but unfortunately the more agreeable temperatures have brought with them a serious case of startitis. I have so much stuff on the go at the moment I can barely keep up.

This is a Marie skirt for Jessie. I got this far but I want to measure it on her before I go any further and she is on holiday, bummer. So that went on one side and I got on with this

The asymmetric top from Burda World of Fashion 07/09 I have done all the main seams but I didn't have any inclination to cut bias tape so I'm waiting til I can buy some from a shop. Lazy? Yep. So I moved on again.

These are all the bits for a Maryy from Burda Style. I'm planning on making three of these so I'm pleased I have made a start. Why three? Well one is for Jessie, but that will be the last of the three. I'm also making one for me in a really lovely silver grey jacquard with a hearts pattern for a wedding next week and before that I want to make another one for me in some striped seersucker which will act as a bit of a muslin for the smart one for the wedding. I really need to be sure that the dress will flatter me before I go out and buy shoes to match!

I also still have a whole heap of unfinished knitting projects, same old, same old. Brights 2 is moving along at a reasonable pace, it's starting to look like a cardigan now

My first Kai Mei is currently waiting patiently with it's heel all turned waiting for me to remember where I put my stitch markers so I can get on with the foot . I know I could just use little scraps of yarn, but I flipping well bought little stitch markers for sock knitting so I'm flipping well going to use them!

I also have received a new book of patterns and a copy of Knitscene so I'm itching to start yet more stuff. I would tell you exactly what all my faves are but I'm afraid I won't be able to hold myself back from starting something new if I think about all those lovely patterns right now, so I'll save that for my next post!

Tunic Dress

I finally completed the tunic dress yesterday and what do you know it wasn't a total disaster in the end. It has it's little 'issues' but overall appears to be wearable and Jess likes it, so hurrah! It's a little loose in places and a the hem looks rubbish but given how wrong it went I think we can just be grateful it actually looks like a dress! I will be making the pattern again (correctly!) because it is really nice.

It is actually really nice to have something to write about because it has been so hot here for the last couple of weeks that I haven't really got on with anything. I do hate complaining about the heat because it seems so stereotypically British but the weather has been really sticky and close. So once the temperature dropped just a little bit the other day I was able to pick up where I left off and finish Jessie's dress and also get on with Brights 2 which we last saw with an unwanted row of eyelets. As always, when I finally got on with it that problem was easily sorted and I couldn't work out why I had left it so long! I have now finished the increasing for the sleeves and now I'm making a charge for the neckline. when I actually get on with this it is a really quick knit and I can't wait to have it done.

That's pretty much it today, I ordered the latest copies of Interweave Knits and Knitscene a couple of days ago and also Kim Hargreaves Amber so I'm sure I'll have plenty of things to say when they arrive....and of course a complete rethink of my knitting queue!

Plan B is go

Well, I'm pleased to announce that the tunic dress is indeed salvageable and looks like it will fit Jessie very nicely with a few tweaks. Left as it is it fits almost everywhere apart from around the arms. This is obviously because the yokes are way too little to be doing without their seam allowances, thank you very much! At first I thought I would just whip off the yokes and cut new ones, but when I remembered that I had already sewn in the zip very securely I began casting around for other ideas. So, hopefully I can continue on as if nothing was wrong whilst being very stingy with seam allowance and then I should be able to bridge the gap between the shoulder seams, either with self fabric inserts or perhaps just little ribbons. I really hope it all comes together because I'm totally onto a winner if this works out. Now I just have to tell the cats. They seem to have decided that all must be lost and have already made a claim to this dress. No matter where I put it down, I turn round and there is a cat sitting on it. Without fail. Someone hand me the sticky tape, I'm off to de-fluff the flipping thing again.

One down....

I'm very pleased, I actually have completed one of my 'things for Jessie to take to Uni' projects. To be fair it is just a bag, but ticking things off is always fun. I won't bother taking pictures because it is practically identical to this one, except I have sewn a button and loop on as a fastener this time. I'm going to pop round and see her tonight and get her try on the tunic dress and then I can tick another one half off. Oh yes, about that, I went back and looked at the instructions and it turns out that I must have hallucinated the bit that said seam allowance was included. It wasn't. Oops. Seam allowances 2: Me 0.

Anyhow, this is just a self congratulatory quickie, my brother is arriving home from Manchester soon, hopefully for good so I'm gonna go see him shortly. We will all be glad to see him back, but it's hard not to see the irony. My parents were finally on the home straight to an empty nest with Jess off to uni and now Sam is coming back. Hee hee!