Me-Made-May '17 Pledge

'I, Cathy of Cathy Makes, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '17. I endeavour to wear something me-made each day for the duration of May 2017'

This is my fourth Me-Made-May challenge, and I am so looking forward to it. My wardrobe has not increased exponentially, but the things I have made are much more wearable than my first efforts with quilting cotton.

The garments I have added to my wardrobe since MMM'16 are:
Peony Dress totally appropriate for Spring in the UK.
Black Karen Drape Dress one of my favourite dresses.
Vogue Coat which will likely be worn to work every single day in May. And definitely if I am lucky enough to be invited back to the Chelsea Flower Show.
Silver Bamboo Cardigan which I am already wearing this season.
Hibiscus Mock Wrap Dress which needs fixing as the neckline has gaped. I'm hoping a run of elastic through the bias binding will solve.
Molly Top which is going in the bin on 1 June as the fabric is awful and has already started to fall apart.
Wool Jersey Karen Dress ...let me count the ways in which I love thee.

That's only 7 garments for me in the last 12 months. My Coco Dress makes it 8, but it is not suitable for the season. Makes me think that the 3 or so makes I have planned might not all come out before the end of May: pyjama top (totally counts!), Alex shirt and a t-shirt.

Train Cake

One of our favourite rituals is to look through the Woman's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book for birthday cake inspiration. I have two of them, the vintage and the modern. I love looking at how fashion has changed over time. The buttercream icing, natural colours and terrible photography has given way to pretty fondant icing, beautifully worked, and photographed on attractive backgrounds. The Vintage gets my vote, every time. They feature cakes that I have an outside shot at actually achieving, and being an under-achiever, I feel comforted by that.  With a train cake in each book, it was only a matter of time before a train cake was commissioned. I am only surprised that it took 10 years.

I fell back on my trusty formula of buying slab cakes, covering them in egg white icing and smothering them in sweets. Once a cake is covered with sweets, no-one looks at anything else.

Cake Bases

The engine is made up of two madeira cakes and one swiss roll. One madeira cake is sliced lengthwise as the base of the tank. The swiss roll goes on top of that. The second madeira cake is sliced in half widthwise. Cut sides go face down on the board to be the base of the driver's carriage. The first cake is then laid on top of that an trimmed down to be the roof of the driver's carriage.

The two carriages are just single slab cakes. Lemon drizzle, in this case. The funnel is a section of Cadbury Mini Roll and the wheels are Oreos.

Icing

I spent literally one and a half hours mixing up the red icing. One and a half hours! For just the engine! I read bloggers who say, "I whipped up these cookies in about an hour." The ones that are each decorated with piped icing, in 5 different colours, all piped and flooded and decorated in 5 different patterns. How? I can't even mix the icing in less than an hour, let alone mix batter, cut out cookies, bake cookies, make outline icing in 5 different colours, make filler icing in 5 different colours fill piping bags and pipe the 5 different designs. That's about 25 hours of work for me. But, back to the horrible red icing. There reason I say horrible is because of the quantity of food colouring in it. The base is egg white icing. I had paste colour called Scarlet, but was a pinkish red. Even with the entire jar of paste in there (gross), it was still only pink. So I had a rummage through my cupboards and turned up another bottle of food colouring in red. Expiry 2008.  A few drops made no difference so in went the whole bottle. (Eeew!) I decided I'd better not let the kids eat the red icing. But it was still pink. I found another bottle of red, from colouring easter eggs in about 2009. Use by 2010. (No problem!) 

Actually, there was a huge problem with putting so much colour in the icing. It went very runny. I've had this happen before, and it is the reason that I have switched to only buying paste colour. I could not get the red to set. The next day, I iced the cake and you could see every contour of the cakes underneath. I mixed up the rest of my egg white powder and put that in. Back to a pink shade. A few drops of yellow took the bubblegum sheen off the pink, but it was still pink. The texture was improved and at least I could get the cake covered. I spent the next few hours scraping icing off the board as it poured off the cake. I didn't dare decorate it yet.

Instead, I did the two carriages. They are fondant icing that my supermarket was selling pre-coloured. Hooray! I just rolled it out and laid it over the top of the two cakes. I was smarter with the green one, to tuck in the bottom so the raw edges weren't on show. I covered up the blue one with twists of red liquorice. 

Decorating

The red liquorice was used on the blue carriage to hold the smarties in place. The chocolate biscuits on the green one are just laid in place. Luckily, I had set aside some white icing which I used to stick the smarties on to the wheels. Otherwise we would never have got to the party!

Feather PJ Top

Ahh, family jammies... We should all have dreams in life. 

The full set of matching family jammies is still quite a distant dream. I have started with a top. 

Just a top. Not even a proper set of pyjamas. I'm calling it a finished project, because I have not got enough fabric for the bottoms and I'll have to wait until I am lucky enough to go to Spotlight in Australia again, and hope that they still have this fabric. If not, I have another set of jammies waiting in the wings; and I will make bottoms with one half this fabric, and the other half from the other set. Matching!

But back to the top.

Simplicity 1504 jumped into my online basket when Minerva were having a sale in 2014. I couldn't resist the idea of making Christmas PJs. Again: distant dream.

This feather fabric was on sale at Spotlight, for an astonishing $3 per metre. That's A$ ! Unfortunately, I thought I needed 3m and I actually needed 4m. But 3m has been enough to make a top and cut out half the bottoms. Actually, the sizing on this pattern is so GINORMOUS that I might have been able to make the set with 3m.

Adjustments

Based on my measurements, I cut the size Adult Small. Next time, I will most definitely make an XS. I didn't bother with my usual waist shortening and sway back adjustments, because I knew it was a loose design with lots of ease.

• Reduced collar width by removing 1/2 inch from the outside edges.
• Added piping to the notched collar
• Back facing added and stitched down across back.
• Smaller cuff on sleeves: Added 1/2 inch to length of main sleeve, reduce cuff by 1.5cm
• Reduced sleeve with. Took off 1/2 inch from width of sleeves at cuff. Graded out to meet original sleeve head.
• Cuff dimensions 14 inches x 5 inches. Should have interfaced cuffs.
• Reduced total length by 2 inches. 1.5 inch hem allowance.

Piping

I was planning to use a solid pink cotton that I bought at the Knitting and Sitching Show. But, it turned out to be not quite the right shade. There are three shades of pink in this fabric and I felt that the piping should match one of them. Instead, I discovered that I had saved a knit toddler dress, intending it for a refashion, and it was exactly the shade I was looking for. Making piping out of knit fabric was a bit of a pain. Of course it stretched out of shape during the making, and I had to hand baste it to the edges.

The piping widths do vary. I had a length of No2 (2.5mm), which I used for one front, before I ran out. My replacement was not the same. It was actually 3mm wide and twisted from three strands. Instead of returning it, I found that if I untwisted them two of the strands were 2.5mm thickness. I tried this along the other front edge. I didn't like it that much because you can see lumps and bumps through the knit fabric. For the collar, I used just one of the twists and I liked that finish much better. Total requirement for piping is about 2.7m. (Collar = 70cm, front facing x2 = 60cm, notched collar x2 = 3cm, sleeve cuffs x2 = 78cm). The pattern envelope very helpfully calls for "two pkgs. of piping".

While we are talking about baffling, why doesn't the pattern instruct you to add piping to the top edge of the front lapel? They have quite carefully hidden it in the photos, but it definitely isn't there. I added a small section of piping to this edge, about 2.5cm. I didn't join it to the main edge, just stitched it down with the seams. I don't think the joins show too badly. If I made a rounded edge to the lapel, I could make one continuous strip of piping.

I skipped the front pocket. If I had made it, I would not have made it with the piped edges. Who has ever seen a pocket like that? A more traditional pyjama pocket has the piping across the top of the pocket, set about 2cm from the top. I am still open minded about adding a pocket. Having a monogram would be fun, but making it would not be. I would have to do it by hand since my machine does not do embroidery. I'll decide after I have made the pants, in case I need every last scrap just to get them completed.

Finishing

I finished the inside edges of the facings with a hem that I also zig zagged into place. These will get a lot of wear and I want them to be durable. I also added a back facing. The finish at the collar on the pattern instructions is quite nice, but the front facing shoulder edges are just left dangling which I didn't like. I had a look at my RTW pyjamas and they have facings. They are stitched down with stitching that is visible from the outside, but I was completely surprised that I had never even noticed them before. I drafted mine from the back pattern piece and matched up the width of shoulder seam at the front facings. I am also happy to have the reinforcement in this area, which gets a lot of heavy wear, plus it will give extra warmth. 

I should have done flat felled seams at the shoulder seams. Instead I overlocked them. I did do flat felled seams for the side seams. I used a contrast thread for the outside, partly because I had almost run out of the main thread. (Bought by my Mum to make me curtains for my very first solo bedroom - when I was 13! I still remember those curtains, and I have found the light silvery grey blue an incredibly useful thread colour.)

I hemmed by turning up twice. Nothing fancy. 1.5 inches hem allowance was fine.

Thoughts

As I went along, and tried on the finished pieces, I could see how large it was. The shoulder seams fall about 10cm from my actual shoulder. I knew the pattern was large, but this was ridiculous! Who wants an overcoat instead of a pyjama top? Double breasted, not less. There was that much space. I would not go to a great deal of fiddling around with the pattern to make it smaller. I'll just go down to the XS size. I could even go into the children's sizes, they may not be cut for a different body shape, since the adult size is for men too. When I eventually get around to making the kids PJs, I might size down for them too. Especially if they actually need them to wear in the same winter. I'm all for children growing into things, but there is no point wearing things out before they have grown into them.

Materials
 Fabric: 3m (Spotlight) £5.46
 Pattern: (Minerva) £4.65
 Interfacing: medium weight (Spotlight) £2.20
 Piping fabric: upcycled £0
 Piping cord: (£2.20 + £0.44) £2.64
 Thread: silver £0, pink £0, overlocker (new light grey spools x4) £7.57
 Buttons: 5, up cycled from school uniforms
Total: £22.52

But... I have counted all the fabric, all the pattern, new overlocking thread, and all the piping, some of which went on my Peony dress. True total is more like £12.75 with £1 bottoms to follow.

Wye Valley Jumper

It was a long and winding road (valley?) for this jumper. 

It started with a subscription to The Knitter at the end of 2015. Issue 95 was my favourite, and I immediately queued lots of the patterns. I made the Stride Socks first, but this jumper, Wye Valley, was always my favourite.

I even went ahead and bought the right yarn for the pattern - a first for me - Rowan Kid Classic. It is a lovely yarn. Kidsilk Haze sized up to an Aran weight. Since I love kitting with Aran yarn, and don't enjoy lace weight much, this is perfect for me. It is soft and slightly fuzzy and works up beautifully. Rowan do beautiful yarns, I'd have to say they are probably my favourite major yarn brand.

I chose this teal colour and ordered 10 balls, since the pattern called for 9-10. I used 5.5 for this project.

The reason I didn't come close to needing all that yarn is because this project came out way too small...

...I planned this for me! #fail 

Luckily, in my household, my girls are getting to the age that, if something doesn't come out quite the right size, there are plenty of other takers for it. In this case, Big Sis was happy to oblige. Luckily, teal is one of her favourite colours too. The model in these photos is Little Sis. (Big Sis was too busy.)

For sure, the sizing was my fault. Firstly, I went down a needle size. I did this knowing that in every single thing I knit, I have to go up a needle size. Had I done this, it would likely fit me. I went down a size because I liked the tighter, more saturated fabric that the size 4mm needle gave me. But my Ravelry notes tell me that I even knitted a gauge swatch and got perfect gauge with 5mm.

I made the back first. I wanted to make sure I was happy to knit the lace pattern before making the rest of the pieces. The bobbles didn't give me too much trouble, but there were no instructions for making them in the pattern. Just "MB": make bobble. Thank goodness for the internets and You Tube. As I got into the top half of the back, I sized down the bobbles by one stitch.

The rest of the jumper didn't cause me any dramas. But I didn't spend a lot of time on it. I hardly knit a stitch during the summer, and I didn't spend many nights on the sofa in the Autumn and Winter. 

But I did little bits here and there and eventually it was mostly done.

Since I made the sleeve length to fit me, but the rest of the jumper has come up child size, I was left with long monkey arms. They were comically long. I could have just rolled up the cuffs, but that is a waste of lovely yarn, so I looked up how to shorten the sleeves properly. Tech Knitting came up trumps. What a great website. 

I only had to pick up the sleeve side of the cut stitches. There is no cuff on this pattern. I used the Super Stretchy Bind-off to finish the cuff edge.

The hem and the neckline do roll. I know this is part of the pattern, but I don't think it is great feature at the front. The back is supported by the columns of lace stitching, so they only roll slightly. The front is a different story. I suspected this from the pattern photographs. The model is working hard to push the front hem down. I did a row of double crochet around the neckline and it worked to stop the rolling and bring it in towards the neck. I haven't done the front hem.