Betty Sweater

 I finished a sweater! This is betty from Rowan Magazine #50. I had to make this as soon as I saw it, I just love the fair isle neckline. It also gave me an excuse to use my favorite yarn again; blue sky alpacas melange and sport weight. The body of the sweater is made out of melange (which has a more subtle coloring than the sport weight, otherwise the same), this color is called cotton candy. The fair isle is mainly made from colors I had leftover from another sweater.

 This was a very simple sweater to make. The body is knit in 2 pieces, and increases to make the sleeves. Then the collar is knitted in the round, picking up from the neckline. You could change up this pattern very easily, making a different fair isle pattern or design. This is a simple sweet pattern, which knit up rather quickly.

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Houndstooth Coat Progress

I've been a very busy girl. The outside of my coat (vogue 8548) is done. I've been following all the tailoring techniques from the famous book Tailoring: the Classic Guide to Sewing the Perfect Jacket, (which apparently has a new edition out, but looks the same). Here are some of the techniques I used:

See! The inside is not as pretty as the outside.



Added hymo to the bodice portions, bound buttonholes and staytaped the neck edge.



Catchstitch the seam allowance down

Set in sleeve using a bias strip of lambswool (which worked out great)

Back Stay out of hymo, and twill tape on back seam

I also added pockets, and interfaced the rest of the coat with weft, because the fabric had such a loose weave. I've also run out of lining fabric while cutting my last piece out, the sleeve! Now I have to find something else to use. The fabric I had was a blue china silk that I ordered form Mood online, but when it came i was not happy with the quality. I have to find something that will match the pockets, because I am not ripping all that out. I've run just a bit short on the lining and the outer on this coat, so if anyone is also making it, make sure to get extra!

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Dress Mini-Makeover

Before

I've had this dress from Anthropologie for years, and never found it to be a very useful garment. It's a wool strapless dress, with boning.  I tried to layer it and put a t-shirt under it, or just covering it up with a cardigan, but it never fit right and who wants to wear a strapless bra in winter?!

 

After

 So I turned it into a skirt, by simply adding a waistband. I measured the width of the bodice and drafted a waistband using that measurement. I had to make the waistband about 4 inches tall because the zipper I had was a little long. The hard part was trying to seam rip the lining apart from the bodice. The outer waist band was sewn to the outer skirt and then inner waistband was catchstiched to the lining .

Now I have a useful skirt, that can be worn a million ways, rather than a dress that was never really worn.

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Coat Plotting

It seems the coat bug is going around the sewing world and I got it too. I have been dying to make Vogue 8548, ever since I saw this finished one on the Sew Tessuti blog. Wow is it gorgeous. I have gathered my supplies, a tan and white wool houndstooth for the outer, a bright blue china silk lining, lambswool interlining and hymo.  

The muslin is made from some leftover felt, which is closer to wool than just plain muslin fabric. It's not very pretty, but the felt worked pretty well,its easy to cut, fast to sew and you can mark it easily with a marker. This coat does not include pockets, so I will have to add some on the side seams. Nothing is worse than a coat without pockets. I'm also going to make three buttonholes instead of two. Other than that, it fits perfectly, and I'm ready to cut my fabric. I have been studing my tailoring book, and I'm ready to start!

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