Monday, March 30, 2009

you guys have to have a look

at this great sweater!

if i were a better colorwork knitter i would make one, but i'm crap at colorwork, so all i have is to be jealous.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Zig Zag Tweedy Sweaterlet

so, last weekend i did this sweaterlet. it's mad easy, and super quick. I've worked up a pattern for it, but i can't post it's link yet, because i'm not sure it's ready. My intention is to make it available for free, but I need testers. Are you a knitter? Would you be interested in testing it out for me? send a message to kmsmaverick AT yahoo DOT com to let me know.




it's got a button closure at the top only, the bottom is unfastened, so it behaves a bit like a capelet.

it's also got a nifty zig zag border

Thursday, March 12, 2009

this just in!

How utterly serendipitous! boston.com is running this article about shopping bags today.

my hannafords offers a 5¢ rebate for reusable bags, and a 2¢ rebate for recycling plastic bags. I'm pleased that massachusetts is making an effort to be less wasteful, and i'm glad the supermarkets are partnering on it too.

I'm working on some way to make a few of my bags (Say two flat bags and five or six singlet bags) available as some sort of raffle prize in a fund raiser. for food pantries, probably; i just have to work out in my head how to do it. An ebay auction? perhaps i'll do the auction, and then the funds raised can go to the food pantry of choice for the winner. i.e, for me, it would go to my town's food bank, where my friend molly might rather it go to one in the twin cities.

I think the first one will be bags made of stash fabric, so they may be a bit of a jumble. If it's successful, I'll make future fabric purchases with the intentions of having them be a matched set. Though, i wonder, if they are a jumble, d'you think people would be less likely to bid on them?

Post a comment, and pass along to people for their thoughts as well.

weeknight sewing

When one is stricken with the productivity bug, one must seize it, right? even if the end result is yet more crafty goodness, and still fewer clean dishes? well, that's where i'm at. I've gotten this urge to sew like crazy lately, even though i don't actually need any of the things i've been making, it doesn't make sense to have the fabric on hand unused.

In the past i've made some of those singlet shopping bags we all know and love, but those look best if they are fully lined.


This makes them very sturdy, durable and really nice to look at, but they aren't really Fold-up-able, so they are a bit bulky. They take up some space in a person's handbag. Enter the Hodges and Figgis Souvenir bag, which me mam so selflessly gave me; (every so often i call her up and say "Ma! guess what! I've gt a Hodges and Figgis bag!) and which i have meticulously reproduced!



anyway, that is a fab bag, because it's flat, and it's only a single layer of fabric, so it's foldable takes up very little room in one's pocketbook. so it's always ready if you need it!

The things that i don't like about single layer bags are the raw seams. They generally look- well raw. they fray and pill, and just don't look very nice. So, i looked around, and found the answer to my problem, the Flat-Fell Seam!

This makes the bag look fantastically finished and very tidy. plus it makes for a pretty sturdy seam, so the bag will be a bit more useful.

I added on the little pink tag to make it look more clever. the only thing i'm not really over the moon on this bag for is the handles- all i had on hand was flannel. I would rather have used the same weight percale as the yellow and blue; but you know how it goes, needs-must.



I'm going make a few more of these, i might give them away, if you know anyone who can use a few shopping bags in surprise fabric, send a message!

Monday, March 09, 2009

saturday sewing

Over the weekend i got busy with the little-engine-that-could. I do like that sewing machine, and it does me pretty well. One thing i learned how to do is button holes. they are so easy, once you get a few done on practice scraps.

And here's the thing, once you get a little good at them, they are SO MUCH LESS WORK than snaps! i wish i would have given them a try ages ago!



Now i'll be trying to think of ways to work them into all my new projects. look out!





This is a new dress i made for kristin. it might be a teeny bit too short, because i was trying to stop the stash, when i remembered that a half yard was enough when she was still a littlest googie, but now she's a toddler googie, so i needed to punt. this one is totally reversible too, thanks in large part to the great new buttonholes! yay!

Saturday, March 07, 2009

spaceman shirt!









so, i had this idea that i want to get back to sewing a bit more. I do love to sew, as much as i love to knit. but i really neeeed to use some things that are already in my stash, there is nothing more aggravating than having a shelf full of fabric unused.

then i saw someone's craftster post, and thought, well, those look really great, i bet i could do those too. so, i looked for a pattern, and settled on simplicity 3856. I shopped the stash and found this space man flannel i purchased for a duffel bag project that didn't pan out.

now, clothing is not without challenges, and the only way to get good at it is to have a few pancake pieces. (pancake, because they are much like the first pancake off the griddle; they generally go to the dog) But this one is only a little bit wrong. Just the collar in the back. the rest of it is totally correct! yay! even the button holes came out perfect!