Another Friend save the day, June Project

So once again, I relied on a friend to save my project. But that's just me. I am happiest in the company of my friends and always have been. Like last night sewing till midnight was a blast with Emily. She worked on her Maternity wardrobe while I squeezed in my June project.

I am traveling to Canada next week and meeting Emilie (Jalie co-owner) and wanted to show off my new top (The newest Jalie pattern 2806) in the fabric she sent for me, so this was sort of out of necessity.

So last night everything was going well and I am trying to be patient with the foldover pleat but it was just not cooperating. I tried hand tacking the allowance to inside but that didnt work either. Emily suggested that I try adding some weight inside the top to keep the pleat in place the but I just couldnt come up with a feasible solution.

Enter Donna... the problem solver!

"Lets tack the pleat down sewing through all the layers! And we'll make the stitches so tiny that they become part of the gathers." Brilliant! Of course she did the sewing too because unlike her my hand sewing skills are... Pathetic!

She she first basted the pleat down and I tried it on. It was perfect. She then used a coordinating thread and took really tiny stitches on the pleat. I love em!

Before:


After


Here's my review of Jalie 2806 on PatternReview.com

We then went outside to take some photos. So she takes the credit for pretty much half of my June project :)

My May Project

So you thought that I skipped a month right? Nope. I did manage to finish the bias skirt as my May Project. I had been fussing over this project for so long. Should I line it or not? What seam finishes? How will my first bias project turn out.. so on and so forth. In the end I only had 2 days left until month end and I needed to stick to my plan so I decided to jump right in and just sew it to the best of my abilities. Granted that this is not something I would enter in a contest, but it's a bias skirt and I love it! I decide not to line it and just wear a slip under it if I feel the need.

I also realized that there is no need to be afraid of bias. In fact I am going to make my next bias skirt in a gorgeous linen I picked up in NYC at the PR weekend last year. I've heard that bias is beautiful in linen and I want to see for myself. Plus its sweltering hot here so I need some linen on my body :)

Ok enough talk, lets see the photo of my FIRST BIAS SKIRT in silk charmeuse from Mike's Fabrics (The BEST!) at PR weekend LA.



I'll have to take a better picture when I wear it. It was 1:00 AM when I finished it and I could barely get Gagan to look at me, let alone take a photo :)

Jeweled up!

My mother in law is visiting and since her b'day is coming up soon, I decided to make something for her. My latest love is jewelry making and she loves big earring so my sister in law and I picked a design we think she'll like. So this weekend I got the necessary supplies and got to work. Here's the inspiration photo:


Photo credit http://www.firemountaingems.com

And this is what I ended up with:


If you arent into jewelry but want to learn, earrings are a great way to start. It's not a lot of investment and they are really easy to begin.

Of course I wasn't going to keep my supplies way just yet so here's another thing I made for myself. This was SUPER easy. I saw the design on my local bead store's website: http://www.lilysbeads.com and the owner of that store helped me pick out the supplies.



The beads are dyed pink jade even though it appears red in the photo. In this, the beads were just strung onto the silver beading chain and crimped into place with tiny crimp beads.

Jodi you'd be so proud of me!

A Friend in need...

is a friend indeed!

So true...

OK, so as you know knitting is another one of my hobbies. Am I good at it? HARDLY! and this post will prove it :) Lets just say I can knit and purl and that's about it.

So after my first successful attempt at My first knitted t-shirt, I picked a slightly more advanced project:

Sahara by Stitch Diva Studios


Photo credit http://www.stitchdiva.com

Which is all good but never did I realize that in a span of just 5 minutes it's possible to:
a) start knitting from flat into round
b) start doing short rows
AND
c) drop a stitch and then created a knotty stitch while trying to fix it.
Of course I didn't realize I did all those things until I took it to the doctors... aka Emily.

Oh what a life saver. Not only did she fix all the things I managed to do wrong, she also showed me what it looks like and basically saved the project.

Moral of the story... Make mistakes and then LEARN from them. Of course verdict is still out whether or not I LEARNT from mine ;-) I still managed to mess things up at her house yesterday but so far so good...

More blues and greens - split neck tee finished!

Remember, back in April I was working on finishing my knitting UFOS? Well I am psyched to show you my FIRST Hand-Knit T-shirt. Sounds silly doesn't it? I mean, I could finish a t-shirt (and I have) in 45 minutes then why would I want to knit one which takes a month!

Well, for starters because I want to and I can :) And secondly, you've gotta see it to really appreciate the hand knit garments. You can experiment with such luxurious yarns and feel so special when you wear them. And third... knitting is portable. I can take my project with me wherever I go.

Summer is hardly the time to knit, right? Wrong... I love cotton and cotton blend yarns you can find these days and there is a sort of "ZEN" like feeling when I knit. I can forget about pretty much everything else and just remember the rows and stitches. Ok, so here's a photo I snapped this morning with my handy dandy tripod. I tell you, you've got to get yourself one of these. It's total freedom. Especially if you blog or write reviews, you need to take lots of photos. OK back to the finished item...

When I picked the contrasting yarn for the trim I wasnt so sure about the color but I really think that it makes the whole garment "pop" and adds a punch to it. Don't you think?

Ok, a little bit about the pattern:

Pattern: Split Neck Tee From Fitted Knits Book by Stephanie Japel
Yarn: Main - Classic Elite Flash
Contrast - Tahki Cotton Classic

A Trip to WEBS

This is for you Tini! Back in Germany I promised her that whenever I go to WEBS, I'll blog about it and take some pics. So here you go...

So a few weeks ago I was meeting someone (can't say who just yet) and we both decided to meet in the charming town of Northampton. Northampton is located in Western Mass and is just a few minutes away from UMASS. It's a historic little town with great energy and the best part?

WEBS is there! If you knit, you already know about yarn.com.

21,000 sq. feet of yarn, everywhere!!! What more could one ask for?


Of course being the enabler that I am, I emailed Tini if she wanted me to pick up anything for her and her list came right when I checked my Blackberry (love that thing!) outside of WEBS.

I picked up a few basics for myself and a lot of yarn for Tini :)


Finding the yarn was so easy. Every bin has a tag hanging which lists the yarn type, gauge, yardage, fiber content and pretty much all the info you'll ever need to know about the yarn.



WEBS also gives a hefty 20% discount if you buy over $60 and even though my total was $59.90 they gave it to me anyway. The customer service is superb. I had a few questions and all the salespeople were more than willing to help me. They even took a photo when I requested :)



Oh ad if you are accompanied by a spouse or a non-knitter, they even have a nice lounging area :) How thoughtful.


Sorry for the bad pictures by the way. I forgot to take my camera and this is the best I could do with my blackberry.

Needless to say, I came back very happy and fulfilled :) I was a good girl though, didnt buy any more than I needed but... I've already placed another order with them ;-) The best thing is that they are local, ok not really because it's an hour and a half away but still, it's nice to know that I can go there, pick up some yarn, have lunch at one of the many great restaurants in the area, do some shopping at Valley Fabrics (review to follow on PR) and make a day trip out of it!

Super Quick April Project

Whew! Just in time. So as you know, this year I decided that I HAVE to sew at least one wearable item each month. So, while I am finishing the knitting UFOs this month, they still don't count. Last evening I put my knitting aside to whip up this quick top. Now, I already had the pieces cut out from a year ago (that's right, a year!!!) but never made it. I ran into a few problems with this one, like forgetting to cut the binding for the neck...

So, I decided to take the easy route and just do rolled hems on my serger. I stay stitched the V neckline and carefully rolled all the top edges, including the hem on my serger. I LOVE this finish and it's so EASY. If you havent tried it, you've gotta give it a shot. Just serge slowly without stretching the fabric so you don't end up with lettuce edging instead.

I know this is not from my wardrobe plan, but at least it's a wearable project so I am good :). Next up... a silk scarf to go with this top!

Oh almost forgot about the pattern. It's (unfortunately) an OOP Pattern from Burda.

Burda 8356.