Monthly Archives: May 2010

the pebble vest

There is a new baby nephew in the family, so of course I need to gift him some wool! Yes, I realize that this is the completely wrong season to be giving growing babies wool garments… I have no eye for baby-sizes, so half of the time this looks alternately too big or too small anyways. It was a quick and lovely knit however, so I figure that if not this particular baby nephew, someone will get some joy and use out of this vest.

The pattern is Pebble, the manly baby vest, by the Thrifty Knitter. As with most of my projects, I wanted to start immediately, with a complete disregard to recommended yarn-types and needle-sizes. This particular yarn came from a thrifted sweater that I frogged, and holding the yarn double, I came pretty close to the gauge in the pattern recipe.

This is a pretty popular pattern; it has 827 projects on Ravelry, and a favorite blogger of mine, Amanda of SouleMama, is on her third vest in about a year! I think my favorite part of this little project was the garter stitch. For being the dreaded beginner-knitter stitch, it is surprisingly squishy and yummy! I’ve kept my distance from the garter stitch for a long long time, but it’s just perfect for baby-projects.

I’ll be seeing the little family addition in person really soon, and I’m excited (a bit apprehensive too I have to admit!) to see if the vest fits. It seems easy enough to size the pattern up, so I think there might be more of these coming in the future!

boyfriend shirt (… for boyfriend)

For the longest time, I’ve been afraid of sewing shirts. I mean, plackets, cuffs, yokes, collars, collar-stands, and a lot of flat-felled seams all in one garment? Well, with a little time and patience, it turned out to not be so intimidating after all.

It is still a nitpicky thing to make, and perhaps more than with most garments, it looks the best with extreme precision both in the pattern, and in the sewing. I don’t mind being accurate in sewing – in fact, there are few things I enjoy more than perfectly topstitched seams (I can’t live without my magic sewing foot that makes that kind a stitching super easy). The flat-felled seams also came out beautifully, and I am really quite happy at how tidy the seams on the shirt looks.

The pattern I used was the Jacob shirt, from Burdastyle. It’s nice to have a basic shirt pattern to work with, but I’ll be making some alterations to the pattern itself. The only person I plan to sew shirts for is this guy, so after this first prototype, why not alter the pattern to fit him to perfection?

This next paragraph will get a little pattern-making-geekey, so if you are into that, here you are! If not, go ahead and skip to the pretty picture! ;)

My issues with the pattern:

  • It’s a bit big. I cut out the smallest size, and it’s still quite roomy. The shoulders and collar seems to be placed alright, so I can’t just cut out a chunk out of the pattern from the shoulder area. I think the excess will come partly from the front sides (perhaps cutting out a wedge-shape?), narrowing the shoulder ever so slightly, and partly from the sides, which will mean I’ll narrow the sleeves a bit as well to make it all line up.
  • there are actually several pattern-pieces that don’t match up in length. I don’t see any reason to have 1+ inch of ease for the sleeves in a shirt-style like this, so I’ll take that out. I think there were a couple of other small discrepancies in lengths of pattern-pieces, which there is no reason for, so I plan to go over and fix them. It should make the next shirt easier to sew together, with no need to ease or gather or pull!
  • The sleeve-vent is just a slit, with a bias-binding style finishing. I want to add a more solid and proper vent, the kind that has the little top-stitched triangle at the top.

The boy pondering what color shirt to ask for next.

I think there is something exciting about sewing a garment that is such a wardrobe staple. Even more exciting is the prospect of making shirts that can pass as store-bought! That, to me, is the ultimate compliment. Not that the garment looks like it could have been bought anywhere, but that it is sewn and finished in a way that just looks professional.

my new vintage sewing book

Look what I got via air-mail! I was lucky enough to win a give-away over at cargo cult craft, and the prize was a vintage sewing book called “Complete Dressmaking in Pictures”. I was beyond excited to win this one!

In the give-away post I was really drooling over how detailed and solid the sewing instructions looked, and also the pattern (or instructions) for this afternoon dress. Isn’t it sweet? I can’t wait to make one!

The book has instructions on making blocks from measurements, which I am really excited about. I’m very interested in patternmaking, and specifically in the different approaches to making personally fitted blocks. I am so looking forward to trying this method, alongside other ones. (Oh, and a tiny little flying bug was also curious about the blocks – click to see the larger image)

There is a wealth of techniques in this book, and not only are they illustrated, but they also have catchy titles! “Pick your pocket” or “Take a tuck” anyone?

And of course… lots of things I haven’t even heard of before – such as “mantua-makers seam”. This is perhaps what I’m most excited about; learning new techniques! On my road towards becoming a seamstress extraordinaire, this will be a good tool I think! So, thank you Susannah, for making my week, and for providing my summer reading!