Category Archives: finished objects

beignet corduroy skirt

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Sorry for the kind of blurry photo – the rest of them are better! We were in a slight hurry to get to a birthday party, and since this picture best shows the shape of the Beignet skirt I’m running with it rather than retake the photos. The birthday party was lovely, and I got to wear my very recently finished Beignet (so recent I, ahem, didn’t finish the self-tie or the beltloops. They’re coming soon).

Fabric: Pinwale cotton corduroy from Fishman’s Fabrics in Chicago. Beautiful quality fabric, like everything from that store (though often on the expensive side by US standards). I cut the pieces out so long ago, I don’t know how much I’ve used, but I think at least 3/4 yards of a full 58″ width, possibly a little more for the odd facing piece. I still have fabric left over, though no plans for it yet! For lining I used remnants of kimono silk left over from a theater production. Beautiful stuff!
Pattern: Colette Patterns Beignet. I’ve had this pattern for a long time, so it actually has the watercolor illustrations of the first round, which I sort of prefer anyways. First, but not last time making this, for sure.
Techniques: In-seam pockets, fully lined, bound buttonholes, twill tape for stabilizing waistline.

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I started this skirt over a year ago, and meant to finish it for a Sew Weekly challenge on buttons. For someone who enjoys the process of sewing very much, and in her perfectionist tendencies decided that all twelve buttonholes must be *bound*, it was a bit of a foolish endeavor to undertake in a week. So – the night before the challenge deadline I conceded I would not in fact have time to attach lining to shell, hem it all, and construct the 9 remaining buttonholes. And so it was put away.beignet_buttons_inside beignet_buttons_closeup

Clearly I finished them eventually, but my goodness, there is a lot of fiddly steps to the bound buttonholes! After you’ve actually measured out and attached all the little pieces (which I decided would have the wales running in a horizontal direction and therefore needed much precision in applying) and then sliced and turned and steamed and stitched down flaps…. Then you have to make all the corresponding windows for the backsides! They did turn out lovely though, and in many ways I enjoy doing these fiddly bits – making corners for myself, as Kristen called it – but definitely best done not under time constraints.

beignet_front2 beignet_inside_seamallowance The fit of this skirt is lovely. It curves beautifully over the lower back, and I think it’s a flattering shape. I will definitely make more of this – I’m thinking a sturdier cotton drill, unlined, with fun bias binding on all the seams for the next one. At the same time, I will probably also make some pattern changes, and also deviate from the instructions in the same way I did this time. For example, the width of the skirt front facing is absolutely killing me. I realized it when constructing the inside windows for the bound buttonholes, and then remembered that I’d seen this problem with other people’s skirts: the facing is too narrow. If you notice in the second buttonhole picture up there, the buttonholes should not be that close to the seamline attaching the lining. Not only did it make it very difficult to properly construct those little windows, but it’s not structurally very good.

I also made steps to reduce bulk over how the pattern is written. For example, all my seams are pressed open instead of to one side, including by the pocket where I just snipped in to the seamline above and under where the pocket is attached. Since the corduroy doesn’t fray super crazy, I also turned up just once for the hem. It won’t really show since the lining hem covers it. Finally, though the pattern doesn’t specify how to attach the twill tape, I chose to butt it up against the waist seamline, but only be caught in the understitching, as I thought it would get too bulky to have it sewn into the actual waist seam and folded back on itself. Oh! I changed my mind – here’s the new “finally”: Finally, I anchored the pocket seam allowance to a skirt panel seam allowance, since the pockets kept flipping back in the wrong direction while I was trying this on. I just laid the skirt flat, and pinned where the pocket could be attached to a vertical seam allowance – if that makes sense?

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As mentioned, I used remnants of kimono silk from a theater production to line this skirt. I had to piece several of the panels in order to have enough fabric, but look how lovely it is! I think it was a good choice for the soft corduroy since it provides some body (the silk being a little on the sturdier side). Unfortunately it also makes the skirt just a little lumpy in a way, since the corduroy is so very soft. That’s why for the next Beignet I want to try a sturdier fabric and not line it.

Criticisms aside, I really do like the shape of this skirt, and look forward to making it again. Not to mention how happy I am to have both this fabric out of my stash, and finally – this skirt out of the UFO-pile!

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Pinwale Corduroy

folk dance costumes

Oh, what a couple of weeks it’s been. I’ve been hard at work with costumes for the opening night of “Mellom rutene -det første trekket avgjør ofte det siste” (the link is to a news article). I travelled up and spent last weekend there to make sure they were all in order – and to see the performance of course! Following that I went straight into a monster work week, and now I’m home sick. I’m sure they’re related. But! That’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about the costumes I made!

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I’ve been working for this pretty cool project: This traditional folk dance foundation does a three-year project in a municipality, ending in a final project performance. It’s very much shaped by the folk music and dance material traditional to each municipality, so every project takes on a unique life and progression. I got involved to make costumes for one of these final performances, and it was a really nice experience!

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The setting for the performance was a chess-game, and the concept revolved around what happens if the pieces starts breaking the rules. This show is an expansion of the version they did last year, and part of my job was to expand on the costumes they had used. This meant I was making a lot of pieces that needed to supplement the tunics they already had in place. It also meant that the silhouette was more or less already given, but anything I added also needed to be very dance-friendly.

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The main pieces I worked on were the vests for the kings and the queens. They already had beautiful hand crocheted crowns, but they needed something to make them more visibly different. I gave them vests with exaggerated collars (they queens more so than the kings, as you can see), and to make sure they were dance-friendly, the closures were made up of elastics in the front.

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I also made four skirts for the rooks. I really wanted a straight, column-like shape in the skirts for the stoic rooks, but you can’t dance and roll around on the floor in a pencil skirt! The solution was to use stiffer and heavier fabric for the main portion of the skirt, and to insert cheese-cloth-like thin fabric in between the panels. When the dancer moved and twirled and stuff, the panels opened up to full skirt shape, in line with how the other skirts were moving on stage.

bd3bd5Photo by Ina Cyrus

There were of course more chess-pieces to identify, and we used hats and collars to do so. The pawns had simple tunics and hats, the knights had flat shoulder-collars, and the bishops were given neck ruffles. And, being costumes, lots of velcro as closures!

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A recurrent inspiration was the medieval times, for several reasons: The previous performance was based on the old norse royal game of chess, so the existing tunics were very much medieval in style, and also – with my background in medieval studies I do jump at a chance to draw source material from the era. Several of the patterns were even based on medieval clothing, and I think it does show! In a good way, of course. For instance, the late medieval period saw a lot of collars attached to the bodice in the back with a diagonal seamline. It’s not really done much anymore, but it makes attaching the collar much easier, and I think, also more stable.

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In addition to working with costumes and getting a lot of freedom in picking fun fabric combinations, I got to meet a great group of kids who did a wonderful job on stage. They were a dedicated and fun bunch, and I’m glad to have met them!

SONY DSCPhoto by Ina Cyrus

renegade mallory sweater

IMG_2754I’m back from easter vacation! I hope everyone had a lovely holiday – I definitely did. I’ll share some picture in the next “around here” post, later this week. I mentioned in the last post that I had one goal – to eat and drink well, and I certainly did that. Anyways, this is about the sweater I promised to share after easter. So here it is, with some lovely sunset pictures!

IMG_2798Yarn: Fingering weight “Tynn Alpakka” yarn from “Du Store Alpakka”, in a dark brown.
Pattern: Heritage Pretty Mallory by Cascade Yarns. By the way, I came across an early discussion where the designer was settling on the name of the pattern, and I liked the first iteration of “Renegade Mallory”. See more of my notes on my ravelry project page.
Techniques: Lace on the sleeves, top-down raglan construction. Did shaping at sides instead of in middle. I used twisted knit stitches on all the rib, and it helps it not stretch out too badly, and looks very neat. The rib doesn’t lay totally flat though, but I’m not quite sure what to do about that.

IMG_2784 I started knitting this last april, and got about 4 inches past the neckband into the raglan construction, and then I put it away for almost a year. I’m not sure why I did, but after picking it up in January, it’s been pretty much a breeze! I mentioned here that I was flying through the sleeves, and they really did go so much faster than I expected once I had memorized the lace repeats. Of course, all I had left then was half a sweater worth of stockinette knitting! Slow and steady, and finally I was done with that too.

IMG_2790The pattern has some slight shaping at the princess lines in the front and the back, but I wasn’t crazy about potentially seeing that shaping, so I moved it to the sides. I also decreased a little extra on the front only, to shape for the bust a little better. This means that the sweater isn’t actually the same front to back, but you can’t *see* the difference easily! During my easter travelling I kept having to hold up the sweater to the light to see where the shaping was. So, this morning I took some scrap yarn and wove in a couple of rows of contrasting color to act as a sort of label. I thought that was quite clever!

I call this one a success. Also, pretty sunsets and clear skies, and warm, thin sweaters for spring days that I believe are here.IMG_2793

obsessed. Or, another tiny pocket tank

Oh, look at that. I made another tiny pocket tank!

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Fabric: Remnant of silk charmeuse left over from this halterneck dress. I bought it on a school trip to China, it is a lovely weight and drape, and I think I have enough left for a pair of knickers. Used on the wrong side for a softer shine.
Pattern: Grainline Tiny Pocket Tank. Yep, round three. For this iteration I actually added the pocket. I thought it was about time.
Techniques: French seams on the side seams, bias binding on all edges, including hem. I could not stand the tought of pressing and hemming this slippery silk, so bias binding made more sense (more control!).

This was a sort of indulgent project for me. In the middle of other projects (costume gig! Minoru jacket!) I just wanted to finish something to wear straight away. (Hmm, I feel like I’ve written this blog post once before. Oh, look! That was in February too!). The tiny pocket tank is such a satisfying project, so with the Kennedy mini-series in the background – you know, the one where Katie Holmes has a hard time deciding what accent to speak – I stitched this up. I did an FBA on the front, but even with some serious curve to the dart-stitching, I think I might have overdone it a bit. There is some less than perfect bunching going on around the dart, since after my FBA it is a rather large (too large!) dart. I’ll keep tweaking, since there are bound to be more of these.

20130226120451888Man this shirt is bright! A little outside my comfort zone.. but I’ll give it a shot. It is such a nice fabric though, and it feels downright luxurious to have the smooth silk side on the inside.

And, now I feel compelled to comment on my pictures. I know I’m far from the only one to have problems taking photos in winter, since the weekends are pretty much the only time with daylight, assuming the weather is decent too. I’d like for all the photos I post here to be beautiful, interesting, fancy-camera-level quality pictures. Hopefully soon that’ll get easier, since I’m looking for a camera of my own, so I’m not dependent on John’s stuff (and the planning that comes with that!). In the meanwhile, with the choice between taking pictures with my cameraphone, in daylight, with sunshine, and to not have pictures at all since they wouldn’t be “good enough”… I went lo-fi. I write this perhaps most for myself, as a gentle reminder to not place an imaginary bar so high that lots of stuff I want to share, ends up unshared due to my vanity and expectations. B, lighten up!

February Fitted Pullover for the win, I think?

I wanted to show you the dress I’ve been working on these past weeks, but it’s not done. And, being winter and all of a sudden busy at  my two not-so-new jobs, I really only have Sundays available to take pictures in actual daylight. I plan to have a pretty, summery, and finished (!) dress to photograph and show you next Sunday, but for now, we can take a look at my brand newly finished February Fitted Pullover:

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I started this sweater over two years ago (according to my ravelry notes), and the road has been a little less than smooth. While I wouldn’t call this a beginner pattern, it’s not entirely the patterns fault that I’ve had hiccups. I should have printed out the pattern and circled all the numbers that went along with my size, but I didn’t, so I’ve been swapping between, which of course didn’t always work out so well! I’ve also taken alot of breaks (ehem… two years to knit a sweater?), and completely forgotten what in the world I was doing in between. No matter, it is done now!

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If you look at this from the right angle, I swear there is a bit of a herringbone pattern going on, which makes me wonder how I can play that up in what I pair this sweater with. In fact… I wonder what in the world to pair with this sweater, period! I’m thinking jeans might be too close in color, and the kind of see-through-ness of the lace pattern could limit underlayers. Let’s all play a game and brainstorm what to do with this sweater, shall we? I’ve noticed a lot of people on ravelry wear theirs with button-down shirts, but that’s not really floating my boat. I’m planning to try it with my grandma-dress (I think the colors will look nice together!), but then what? Help a girl out!

tiny pocket tanks

I made myself another tiny pocket tank! I loved the first one so much and found it so versatile, I knew I just had to make another as soon as possible. And I did, and just now got around to getting the man to take some pictures of me wearing it. It’s gotten tons of wear, just like the first, printed one – I’m finding it a definite staple in my wardrobe, and I especially like the shape of it – the neckline shape, the shape of the straps, the shape of the hem, et cetera. Staple I tell you, staple!

Remember Me-Made-May? The printed tiny pocket tank was by far the self-made garment I wore the most:

For being a graphic, tribal-looking print, I’ve found lots of uses for it! It’s a bit out of my comfort zone to have patterned clothes, but I think since the shape is so simple, it works really well as building block.

And can we talk about this jacket for a little bit (which pairs really well with the tanks, as both of the pictures above proves)? I’ve always admired the way people like Kendi of Kendi Everyday or E. of defunct but awesome Academichic wears blazers with anything and look smashing. I’ve come to realize that while the traditional blazer-shape doesn’t necessarily work for me, this seersucker- like, 3/4 sleeve, collarless jacket in fact, does. It’s structured without being stuffy, and dressy without being serious. And, it takes a perfectly basic (albeit a very well-shaped basic) tank top up a notch if I need it, and that I approve of.

Now, I think perhaps the next tiny pocket tank will have an actual tiny pocket on it. Maybe a nice, matte silk would be nice? Ooo, yes I think so!

cherry blossom tree cowl

Some of you might have noticed this cowl in my me-made-may posts, and I’ve been meaning to show it off. Here it is:

I am a sucker for cowls I think. Three of them in four years isn’t really excessive I guess, but the last three scarves I’ve made, and really – about the only ones I use, are of the loopy variety. (here is a red cowl, which was the first one, and then a yellow one from this winter.) It’s just so lovely to not have any ends to tuck in, or to not have re-wrap while fighting blistering winds!

A funny thing with all these cowls is how the yarn has dictated the outcome. With the red one, I choose garter stitch to show off the changing colors, and tried intentional pooling for the first time. With the yellow cowl, I went with subtle and simple stitch patterns so the yarn is showcased in all its fluffy glory.

For this cowl, it was the colors. While I love tweedy, heathery color variations in yarn (like what I used for my Bayview Street cardigan), I usually don’t go for variageted yarn simply because I really don’t know what to do with the pooling that happens. This was a gifted yarn, and much like my yarn that did not want to be knit, I absolutely adored the colors and the skein, but was stumped by what to make with it. I tried a pair of mittens first, thinking I’d like the striping effect, but I actually hated it (my ravelry project page has a picture of the fated mittens).

So, another cowl came to life. It’s the honey cowl pattern, which has a pretty simple slipped stitch pattern repeat. I wanted something that would break up the pooling, and this did (with some additional coaxing to get the repeating of the colors to alternate and stagger instead of stacking). As I was knitting I kept thinking the one side looked like morse code! I view this scarf as patterned, and it’s quite honestly a little outside my comfort-zone and I’m having a bit of a challenge incorporating this cowl easily into outfits. I actually had more patterns as a goal in my (sort of failed, kind of still being worked on) fall palette challenge, so this is a wee attempt to do just that!

I also thought the colors were like the Japanese cherry blossom trees that have been coming in to bloom downtown. It does actually look like bark and buds to me, but I think it might be a good thing the cherry blossoms were still in hiding when we took these pictures, because they would have put my scarf to shame and made it look like a pile of mud! But it’s a funky pile of mud that keeps my neck warm, so it’s all good.

Photos by John B.