Ruby Tuesday Cardigan

An essential addition to my summer wardrobe: a navy cardigan.

This photo looks like Royal Blue, but I had to photograph it in full sunlight to show up the detail. It is actually navy.

This make has been semi-finished for so long now that I am so grateful it is finally done! I cast on last Summer, and got most of it done. Got sidetracked by child's birthday making, so used the yarn for a doll hat and scarf. Then wanted a winter jumper in time for winter. Then took a break from knitting to rest my weary wrist and started to crochet instead. But enough was enough and spring was springing so I got on with it, finished the second sleeve and sewed on the buttons. Done!

The pattern is called Ruby Tuesday. It is a really nice little pattern, knitted all in one piece, from the top down. The eyelet increases in the yoke give a nice definition and a good shape to a really simple garment. I've linked to it from my Ravelry notes.

It only comes in one size, a 34, so I followed the instructions and made that. Because I only added buttons in the yoke section, it has come out appearing a little small. For a cardigan with negative ease,  such as this one, I would do better to include buttonholes all the way to the bottom and stabilise the button bands with grosgrain ribbon. These are stabilised in the button section only.

The yarn is Sirdar Country Style, a 4 ply yarn in a wool/acrylic blend. I really like it. My favourite cardigan is also a Sirdar wool/acrylic and I am a big fan. The acrylic gives it better shape and easy wash and wear, while the wool makes it warmer and generally nicer. The amount I needed was astonishingly small: only 2 skeins for the whole cardigan. I had bought 8, so I have plenty left over for other projects. A pullover for me, or cardigans for the girls would be nice.

One of the reasons I was so long in finishing this was because I bought 3 buttons for it when on holiday in Italy. I had the yarn with me, I went into a tiny little shop in Orvieto and selected 3 buttons with a rope-like motif on them. Seven months later, when I wanted them, could I find them? No, I could not. I held off getting more buttons, because a) they were perfect, and b) I knew they would turn up the second I got a replacement set. Eventually, I really wanted to start wearing the thing so I dutifully trotted off to John Lewis and got 3 new buttons. Not quite as nice, but they were navy and they would do. Sewed them on and BAM! Found the old buttons. Bother! Feeling lazy, I sewed up the buttonholes a little smaller and called it done. Now I have 3 navy buttons in my stash.

Costs:

Yarn: £4.80

Buttons: £1.50

Total: £6.30

Turquoise Circle Skirts

My new favourite colour: turquoise! I had to make two new circle skirts for the little girls, I just love how it combines with white to look crisp and bright.

I got 2 yards of this quilting cotton at Walmart last summer. I managed to get both skirts out of the 2 yards by piecing the smaller one out of two half circles.

I've improved my techniques since I first tried a circle skirt a year ago. These have a separate waistband, made from a circle of fabric, as you would make a band for a knit. This was joined to the front of the skirt and top stitched down to the inside of the waistband, with an elastic encased inside. The hems were a lot quicker too, I used white polycotton and used the method for exposed bias facing.

I have noted that plain cotton fabrics show the creases much more than patterned fabrics. If I'm going to avoid ironing as much as possible, patterns are the way to go.

Cost: 
 Turquoise cotton fabric: Walmart, £3.78
 White polycotton fabric: fat quarter, £0.86
 Elastic: Walmart, £0.84
 Thread: stash
Total: £5.48 for two
= £2.74 each

Two drop-waist dresses

There's not much to them but these two little dresses will be cute and cool in the summer heat. They are designed to throw on with no fastenings, aside from a single button loop at the back neckline.

I made one up as a sample, planning to use it as an introduction to sewing children's clothes. The dress is really fast and gives a good intro to seams and gathers. It gets a bit fiddly at the exposed bias facing, but by that time, hopefully the sewing pupil will have gained enough confidence to tackle them.

As an experiment, and for a bit of a laugh, I tried out a new dress pattern, Simplicity 1584. Yes, it is a collection of dressing up costumes, but a dress is a dress, is a dress and I wanted one which would pull on over the head.  Call it View A without the sleeves. My kids were both measuring up as the size 5 bodice but I reduced the A line shape further to get more of a straight line to the hip line where I chopped it off and added a drindl skirt with small gathers and patch pockets. They are a real hit, the girls love them. Unfortunately, I got the first ones badly wrong, much too close to the centre. The fabric really shows the puncture marks from the needle, so I couldn't unpick and reposition. I made buttonholes and closed them up with buttons, so they don't look too bad. The finishes are all exposed bias facings, with the back buttonhole made by extending the facing over the edge and looping it back into a button loop. The opening is just finished by top stitching over the opening edges and a bar tack for strength.

The larger dress is made of an old sheet that is still giving up plenty of usable fabric, as long as one looks carefully for stains. Sewing with it is beyond easy, because of the grid pattern it is like sewing with graph paper! I put a false placket on the front, cut on the bias, and decorated it with two buttons that match the ones on the pockets and at the back neckline.

The fabric on the smaller one is Rashida Coleman-Hale, Making Tracks, a lovely organic cotton. Little one picked it out herself at The Village Haberdashery and she has been waiting patiently for a year for her dress. I was stalling because I realised how lovely the fabric was and I was planning to snaffle some for a top for me! Sadly, I only bought a meter of it and I owed her the dress.

I love seeing these two dresses running along the beach.

Costs:
Large: £0.00
 Fabric: reclaimed
 Buttons: stash
 Pattern: used previously
 Thread: stash
Small: £6.00
 Fabric: The Village Haberdashery, £6.00
 Pattern: used previously
 Button: reclaimed
 Thread: stash

Broderie Shift Dress

Boden S/S 2015

A simple, white shift dress. Crisp and cool for summer. Sort of.

I'm not actually sure if this is a keeper or not. My style inspiration was from the Boden S/S'15 catalogue, the Verity Dress. Cute, non? I hesitate to post this picture because mine are not the same. As always, for the home sewer, it comes back to fabric choices. Mine is not a true cotton Broderie Anglaise, but a cotton voile embroidered with a silver thread that is quite metallic looking. I think this detracts from the sweetness of a true Broderie and makes it look more synthetic. I bought in the Isle of Wight two years ago and used some to make a white dress for my eldest daughter. Hers still looks lovely on her and it always comes out from the wash looking amazing.

The fabric is very sheer, so I underlined it with white quilting cotton. I considered a lighter weight underlining but it would have been too sheer. I'm pleased I went with the quilting weight, even though it adds just a touch too much body to the dress. Both of my fabrics came in very generous widths, so I got this dress out of just over 1m of each fabric.

Close up of the embroidery

The pattern is New Look 6176, made before in a knit fabric. This time I made View C but made the pockets slightly larger and more square. There are significant gathers appearing in the sleeve heads. They are supposed to be eased in so I don't know why there is so much fullness. If I make this again, I'll have to pinch out about 1cm at the top of the sleeve, to eliminate this. It might seem a bit less odd to me if they were smooth.

I omitted the back zip, and cut the back on the fold, but I am reconsidering and thinking about inserting a zip post-make.  I would like it just a little more shaped, with a tiny bit less ease. I made a load of other fitting adjustments but I am not going to list them on the blog. I am using Trello instead. It is a great program that I use to track my sewing projects, patterns and fabric stash as well as a multitude of to-do lists from other areas of my life.

I'm trying to work out if this is a go or a no-go. It's not very "me", and I hardly wore it on a recent holiday. But looking at these pictures, it doesn't look so bad. This is a shape that suits me, but is not very current, despite the Boden catalogue. I think I will take a little break from this pattern. Some fit and flare dresses are on their way!

Costs:
 Fabric, outer: £3.74
 Fabric, underlining: £6.60
 Pattern: £0.00 used previously
 Thread: stash
Total: £10.34

Little Yarn Bags

I've been making some cotton bags as gifts for my nieces. I love the colours in this cotton yarn and cotton is one of my favourite fibre types of all time. Great stitch definition and drape.

I have one crochet and one knit bag to show off here. They are both about 25 stitches across, the crochet is double crochet and the knit is garter stitch. The knit came out really stretchy and the crochet is very firm. Completely different fabrics from the same yarn and the same hands. I find this fascinating.

Ravelry links to the knit and the crochet have all the details.

My Me Made May '15 Pledge

I, Cathy of Cathy Makes, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '15. I endeavour to wear an item of me made clothing five days a week for the duration of May 2015, plus one week of all home made.

I had a good time doing Me Made May last year and I am looking forward to participating again this year. Despite the oodles of doll clothes that I have sewn, I seem to have managed to add to my own wardrobe, making it easier to wear me-made more often. I am therefore adding one additional day a week from my MMM'14 challenge.  I'm keeping the whole week as it is a good way to ease into the whole month.