FO: Lady Skater x11billionty!

After an incredibly long hiatus my sewing machines are back up and running, which should be pretty obvious seeing as my last post was about a sewing project.  I've just got a bit out of order because I'm finding it a bit of a task to get things photographed in a timely fashion.  Now it's winter it is incredibly dark inside my house and it's far too cold to go outside so I'll make my excuses about the quality of my photography in the coming months and we'll say no more about it from now on if you don't mind?

Once  was back in business I did begin by trying to finish the New Look 6262 dress that I was halfway through when the great sewing machine rearrangement happened, but I really wasn’t feeling it.  I did install the second half of the zip because it annoying me that it was left like that, but I couldn’t make myself knuckle down and finish it off.  What I needed was a quick and easy project to get me back on track.  Something that would take very little time but was guaranteed to turn out great and get me feeling like sewing again.  Basically there was no way that this project was ever going to be anything other than a Lady Skater, in fact I very nearly cut out the fabric to make 2 at the same time but I was raring to go (raring to sew!) after the first one.

At this point there’s not a whole lot to say about this pattern and me.  This was the first time I used the full length sleeves and I will need to shorten them just a little next time.  There was a minor incident resulting in me having to cut the sleeves twice after I forgot that I’d actually cut off the top of the pattern piece when I’d used cap sleeves with the intention to stick that bit back on again come winter.  I knew that piece looked weird when I was cutting it out but the bit of my brain which remembered what I’d done remained silent on the matter until it was too late.  Luckily there was enough fabric to cover this, but I had been hoping to have enough left for a tshirt for Cassie L

The fabric is a poly jersey from The Textile Centre on eBay and I’ve managed to tempt one of my colleagues in to buying some of the same stuff in the green colourway (mwahahaha!) because it really is quite nice.  I love the retro-ness of it and it’s lovely and snuggly.  In fact I’m almost tempted by a green version myself.

No idea what's going on here, but my face is hilarious!

Although I should totally be getting on with my poor abandoned NL 6262 I’ve got the walking foot and a ballpoint needle in my machine now so I’ll probably bash out a couple more jersey projects while the machine is set up.  My sister is coming round on Saturday for a bit of help making her first t-shirt from some lovely fabric she got on our trip to the Knitting and Stitching Show in October and I’m really looking forward to seeing how that turns out.  I'm also planning a major scrap stash bust where I'll be sewing up lots of little tshirts dresses and leggings, basically anything that I can squeeze out of the leftovers that I have kicking around.

FO x 3: Lady Skater

As promised I'm finally getting round to writing my little round up of recent Lady Skater obsession.  I still haven't managed to get any photos I'm really happy with but hey ho, you can't win em all.

So first up was my practice plain black version that ended up being my first entry for the OAL.  While it looks really nice with my Miette cardigan it's not the greatest dress I'v sewn but it was a really good starting point to working out any adjustments I needed to make.  Essentially it was far too long in the bodice and consequently far too long altogether.  I was happy with the size chosen though so I felt pretty confident to go ahead and cut out the bits for both of the next two dresses together after shortening the bodice pieces by two inches.

I actually made both dresses side by side, production line style and while it took a little longer before I got a finished article I managed to finish the pair of the in less than a week.  The pattern really is very easy to sew, it comes with a really detailed set of instructions as well as a shorter crib sheet for if you'rte feeling confident.  I just used the crib sheet and found that it was enough for me, next time I will highlight the bit about adding clear elastic in the waist seam though because I totally forgot this time.  Oops.

All in all I'm really happy with both of these dresses but I extra, super love the pink and grey striped version.  It was a bit of a pest to cut out and my efforts to pattern match turned out to be completely wasted.  The stripes are so thin that it doesn't really notice at all, but it would have been really gratifying if they'd have all matched up nicely.  I'm really happy with the how neck band lined up though, I definitely gave myself a pat on the back for that!

Not sure what colour you'd call this and it's kind of horrible, but I love it.  I'm going though a weird yellow phase, so although this probably isn't yellow it sort of fits with the general theme. The pattern itself is just printed on one side so it's not as soft and lovely as the pink and is really the only reason it's not as high up in my affections.  The jersey is also a little heavier and has sagged a little after a few washes, but it's not too drastic (you know what probably would have helped there?  Clear elastic!).

So this is a pattern I'd definitely recommend.  This is the style of dress that I like to wear, it looks pretty put together but is comfortable like a t-shirt.  It comes togethjer really quickly, especially now I have an overlocker and I've had loads of comments about my dresses and people are really surprised to learn that I didn't buy them!  Look out for more of these in the future, I've got a black and grey one I'm dreaming about already.

OAL 2015 Outfit 1 complete!

From the ashes of original planned outfit I'm really pleased that Plan B has already produced an actual wearable outfit.  I present Miette with a pretty boring yet super useful Lady Skater in black jersey.

I won't go into too much detail about the dress today, I've already got versions 2 and 3 on the go so I'll do a separate post about the pattern in more detail when they are all done.

This black version was always supposed to be a test run of the pattern, but my sudden realisation that it would be a great match for Miette meant that I was a bit more invested in it than a normal test run.  Honestly it could have turned out a little better but it's pretty good for a first stab at a new pattern and the two garments together make a really great every day outfit.  I have made tweaks to the pattern for future dresses but this one is perfectly wearable and is lovely and comfortable as only a jersey dress can be.

In other OAL news I have got to the point of joining the underarms of my Vianne without having to rip back again at all.  Casting on 9 times for a single project was making me wonder if this cardigan was doomed but I'm hoping I've moved past all that now... of course now I'm knitting the fronts and back all together the potential for mistakes is much higher so I'm not counting my chickens yet!