Category Archives: resourcefulness

how I dress for my strong shoulders

Me-Made-May is right around the corner, and as I mentioned in my last post on MMM, this excersise is more of a personal style challenge for me than anything. This has got me thinking about how I put together outfits, and what I’ve discovered and learned from that.

So, here’s the deal: my shoulders are prominent. They’re wider than my hips (for those who use those things to categorize), and they are angular. They are one of my most pronounced features, but quite honestly, sometimes I don’t want them to be quite so much. That’s when I do one of the following things:

• Duck and run for cover

Cheat. Blur the lines of where your shoulders actually ends. I tell you, this is my most used trick. Usually, tops and shirts and jackets should have their sleeve seam hit right at the tip of your shoulder, but if I followed that, the fit would be too big elsewhere. This means the seam is further in on my shoulder, but that’s ok! It actually hides my wide shoulders through an optical illusion (or the power of social norms – take your pick!). A yoked dress or cap-sleeve shirt are other examples for big-shoulder hiding.

• Vertical lines 

Vertical lines take attention away from horizontal lines – at least that is my reasoning and experience! I love wearing cardigans for this reason, and deep v-necks as well.

• Balancing out the hips

By creating volume at the hips, the shoulders don’t look as wide in comparison. There is a reason I love my Marie-skirts! Another way to do this is to wear a layer (like the outfit with the cardigan in this post) ending at the widest point of your hips to emphasize them, or to wear brightly colored shorts.

• Flaunt it!
 

They’re there, make them the focal point! By the way, the type of sleeve that this top has will work to hide the real width of your shoulders as well, oddly enough.

Now finally, part of me struggles a bit with this – there is a constant battle between the part of me that wants to feel like I look nice, and the part of me that feels I should be accepting of what my body looks like, and not try to “hide” any parts of it. I don’t know if I’ve come to any conclusions, but I’d love to hear other people’s comments. Is it possible to hide things in a “good” way?

reversible biking hat – alterations

The autumn hat I shared recently is one I based on my pattern The Reversible Biking hat. I’ve made a few of them now, so knowing the pattern pretty well, I wanted to change it up a bit. And altering knitting patterns to fit your own needs really isn’t that hard! Here is what I did/what you can do:

First, I used a different yarn, which usually means a different gauge. The gauge in the original pattern is 24 stitches per 4 inches, or 6 stitches per inch. My gauge for this new yarn was around 17 per 4 inches, or 4,3 stitches per inch. How many stitches do I need to cast on to make the same size? (hmm, I sound like a math book problem!)

The circumference of the hat is 18 inches, and with 4.3 stitches to the inch of my gauge, I simply multiply the goal number of inches with the amount of stitches per inch my gauge is:

18 x 4,3 = 77,4 (≈78)
goal # of inches x your stitches pr inch = amount to cast on.

At this point, you might have to make some adjustments to your cast on number. If there is a repeat pattern, the number for your cast on has to be a multiple of that. In this case, the repeat pattern I used is 6 (p1, k5), and 78 is divisible by 6, so I’m all set. Alternatively, if you have a cuff or a brim, you can adjust the number of stitches up or down in the first round after the cuff.

reversible biking hat

Another thing I did to change the look of this hat, was to stagger the 5-row repeats and create diagonal lines instead of straight lines. This is also quite simple; at the first round of the repeated section, knit the first stitch, then do the section as normal. You’ve effectively just nudged the pattern over by one stitch, and when you keep nudging at the beginning of every repeat, you get diagonal lines!

Reversible biking hat

When you tweak the number of stitches, one thing is to be aware of the stitches in each repeat. The other is to be mindful of the decreasing. The Reversible Biking Hat is pretty simple in how it decreases, so the major thing to consider here is that I have an odd number of repeats (13) instead of an even number of repeats (24) like the original has. This means that while most knit stitches in the very last row corresponds to two whole sections, there is one left over that corresponds to the last, thirtheenth section. That is ok – you can cut the tail and loop through the rest of the stitches that turns out to be 14, instead of 12.

The more intricate the pattern and the decrease design, and the longer the repeat is, the harder it is to substitue numbers. But for relative simple designs like this one, all you need is a little math!

If you have any questions, or if something was unclear, do please ask!

sewing underwear: the (free) pattern

Underwear. Knickers. Pants. Undies. Whatever you call them, I have a free pattern for sewing your underwear that I want to share with you! I’ve included several sizes; XS, S, M, and L – so I hope that is helpful!

I’ve been making underwear from t-shirts for years. My first undies-sewing attempt taught me that I should follow the grain of the fabric. The second time I discovered that twin needles are awesome. Most recently I’ve been playing around with different kinds of elastics to finish the underwear, and I’ll be showing that soon!

The “t-shirt underwear” pattern I’ve made is in the bikini brief style, but it can easily be tweaked to fit you perfectly. It’s graded in four sizes; extra small, small, medium, and large. I think the sizes should be pretty standard, but do let me know your feedback!

So if you want to make your own underwear, click the image above or the link below to download the pattern! The pdf includes the choice of 1 page in the 11″ X 17″ format, or 3 pages that you line up and tape together (it is formatted to work for both US Letter and European A4 – just make sure there is no resizing when you print).

Download the t-shirt underwear pattern!

I’ll be doing a couple of posts on sewing the underwear, the basics of how to sew them together, and then some options of how to finish them with different types of elastics. So be sure to come back for that!

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Did you miss a post in this underwear-making adventure?

If you make a pair (or five?) from this pattern, please share! Comment, link back, and show off!

little things

I’m hard at work on my senior collection, which explains the silence around here lately – I’ve simply been at my sewing machine all the time!

Sometimes however, it’s nice, and necessary, to do something else. Something just for me – something simple. It’s the little things like soft cotton handkerchiefs in a bold, but sweet, flower print from my stash-pile.

Handkerchiefs hold a place in my childhood memories – my mom pulling them out of her purse to wipe chocolate and ice cream of my face; of burying my head into a pile of hot, freshly tumble-dried towels and handkerchiefs; of being allowed to iron and fold the cotton squares (which I’m sure was more so something to occupy me with, than me being helpful!).

I guess handkerchiefs aren’t all that fashionable anymore – even frowned upon as unsanitary. I’m not in that camp, so I will unfashionably keep these on hand and enjoy their utter simpleness.

(Made roughly following this tutorial by Tasia)

Eddie and his six incarnations

This was my Eddie Bauer sweater when I had thrifted him, before he turned into six different things:

Eddie is on the bottom. A little submissive and unassuming, you can say.

Then I started to take Eddie apart, and he looked like this:

And now, a digression. There is a traditional folk song in Norwegian called Kråkevisa (text, and youtube-video). I believe it’s a very common song to learn as a kid, and I remember very proudly answering “recycling!” to the question of what this song was about.  In hindsight I think the answer is much closer to “resourcefulness”. You see, there is a farmer, and a giant crow out to kill him. So the farmer shoots the crow (with bow and arrow!) and makes use of the entirety of the bird. He puts up the meat for the winter, then makes shoes, ropes, horns, and of course, from the beak, fashions a boat to go to church in.

The last verse of the song, by the way, goes like this: Og den som kje kråka han nytta så, han er ikkje verd ei kråke å få. — And he who cannot make use of the crow like so, is not worthy to have a crow.

So when Eddie, after being completely disassembled, turned into no less than six new knitted things; a sweater, three hats, a scarf, and a pair of socks, well… He is my crow.

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1. A sweater.


And not any old sweater – my first ever! And for my boyfriend. Who is still my boyfriend (take that sweater curse!). Blogged here, ravelry link, Pattern is Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Seamless hybrid sweater.

2. Socks

Another first – first toe-up socks! As the first, second, and next pictures show, there was some light grey yarn in the sweater, which was pretty textured, and as far as I could tell, spun with some sort of nylon-thread. Perfect for socks! (Ahem.. the socks in this household acquire holes pretty quickly).

I went with toe-up construction so I could just keep knitting until there was no more of the grey. I knit with a strand of the main yarn, so they were even thicker, more reinforced, and a little more comfortable. I used a mash-up of several different toe-up patterns I found online, I don’t remember how I even did the heel (which was a headache), and I’m not sure I’m a toe-up convert. Even if it was extremely convenient to use up all of that grey yarn.

3. A hat

And not just any hat – my first ever published knitting pattern (hat)! Hop on over to this blog post introducing the Reversible Biking hat, and here is the ravelry link (38 projects so far – woo!).

4. A baby hat

(Photo by Rogue Sheep)

And not just any baby hat, my first ever baby hat! Just to clarify, the hat in the picture is not the hat I made. I don’t actually have a picture of the hat that I made, but this unbelievably cute hat is made with the same pattern, the Aviatrix baby hat.

5. Another hat

I’ve run out of first. This was just a hat, enjoyably knitted for a friend. Blog post,  and raverly link to the pattern.

And finally…

6. A scarf

This is the Shifting sand scarf I recently posted about, and it’s making itself into my wintertime staples! What was great about this scarf, was that I could keep knitting up everything that was left after all these other projects were done. There is rarely a limit to how long a functional scarf could be, so it became my leftover yarn scarf! It also took me more than a year to knit this… but I blame in on waiting on all these other projects! Blog post, and ravelry link.

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Thanks Eddie, you’ve been a dear.

pocket pencilskirt in progress

I have a project in progress! My approach to my very loosely organized and ongoing stashbusting project is to figure out how to get the best use possible from a piece of fabric. What is the largest kind of garment I can make with the fabric available? What is the fabric suitable for?

The fabric-scrap I’m working with now is from a length of dark wool suiting fabric I have. I’ve already made a dress from this fabric (which I haven’t blogged about – yet!), and there really isn’t much left:

See the bodice cutout at the bottom?

I think the piece is 60″ wide, and only perhaps 25″ long at the shortest point. So there are some serious limitations in making this skirt! In the picture I laid out the first draft of the pattern I made, moving the pieces around and allowing for all the “cut 2″ and “cut on fold” pieces.

When I decided a skirt was the best use with this fabric, I realized it needed to be in many pieces to have as much flexibility as possible, moving pieces around and making them all fit on my fabric piece. I saw a skirt in a Threads magazine issue that served as inspiration, since it had a yoke waistband, vertical panels, and slanted pockets built into the construction. I drafted a pattern and crossed my fingers it would all fit in my piece of fabric! Next I sewed up a very quick muslin to check the fit.


(click for larger images)

Taking decent fitting pictures is a lot harder than I thought! And the fitting issues I noticed aren’t showing up nearly as well as I was experiencing with the muslin on. I’ll just fill you in (and help myself remember what I decided on!):

  • The waistband will be shortened. It’s 3 1/2 ” wide now I think, and it hits in a very unflattering spot. I’m shaving off half an inch or so, and I think that’ll  do the trick.
  • Something weird is going on where the yoke meets the skirt in the back. My swayback might be part of the problem, but I think the width of the skirt and the yoke is just too big. I’ll be slashing and overlapping the yoke to reduce the width there, and pinch the seams of the skirt the same amount.
  • The hip area feels a little tight in the back, so I’ll add a little ease just across the hips – about 1/8″ at each of the four seams in the back.
  • The pockets are way to low. I’ll bring them up to within a couple of inches of the yoke waistband.

I find the limitations of this stashbusting project both challenging and fun – but it does come with drawbacks. In this particular project,  since there is a very physical limit to how long the patternpieces for this skirt can be, I need to make compromises in the design, and patternmaking, and construction of the skirt. I’ll have to make a really narrow hem instead of folding it up, and also have a slightly shorter skirt than I would choose if I had all the fabric in the world.

I’m planning on adding a lining; I’m pretty sure I have enough lying around somewhere. I’ll just use the same patternpieces but add some ease, and shorten the length so it doesn’t show at the bottom. I might even add some trim at the lining hem like Gertie (link and link) and Tasia have done on some of their garments. I have some ribbon I want to use for this project, and I was thinking at the waistband, or at the lining hem. The ribbon came around a birthday present from a friend, but I thought it could make a nice little touch on the inside of the skirt!

on granola, bread, and ‘taking what one has’

There is a saying in Norwegian that goes like this: “man tager hvad man haver” – one takes what one has. Though, if it’s a proper saying is perhaps debatable. The origin is from a book on housekeeping, published in the mid-1800s by one Hanna Olava Winsnes. She ran a large household, and her book covered everything from husbandry, butchering, and baking, to cooking soap and making candles. The line of “taking what one has” seems perfectly in line with her belief s in the importance of good planning, and making the best use of the available raw materials.

It is also a saying that, while perhaps not directly shaping my beliefs in sustainable consumption and deep desire to get good use out of what is in my hands, has certainly encouraged it – again and again.

In a more tangible way, it affects my cooking and baking. I find it much easier to make meals based on whatever I have lying around, and baking is the perfect place to use what I happen to have on hand. Bread and granola are two things I make on a regular basis, and where the ingredients differ with the contents of my cupboards.

This is what I had for bread-making one day:

3 cups of warm water
Packet of yeast, pre-proofed with ½ cup warm, sugery water
A dash of oil
A dash of salt
Whole and white flour
***
A couple of handfuls of oats
Handful of potato starch
Handful of wheat germ
A dash of milk

Other things that would work: seeds of any kind, such as sunflower seeds or flax seeds, uncooked brown rice (yes really!), flat beer.

I wouldn’t call this a bread recipe as much as a guide – kind of in the way that a lot of Elizabeth Zimmerman knitting patterns aren’t really patterns, but more so a hand to hold. While bread truly isn’t hard to make, there are a lot of variables in baking due to elevation, humidity, oven peculiarities, etc, so bread-making usually involves some trial and error before you figure out what works the best.

So! Proof the yeast, dump the water, oil and salt in a large mixing bowl. Dump the non-flour extras into the water, add whole wheat flour until the dough is like a thick soup. Add white flour and knead until the dough is firm and doesn’t stick any more.

Let rise in a warm-ish spot for 30-60 minutes, knead and place in flour-dusted bread-pans. Let rise again for 30-60 minutes, and bake for 40ish minutes at 400° F (200°C). The breads should slide out of the pans, if they don’t, let them bake a little longer.

j
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Similarly, granola bars are not hard to make. I find them particularly satisfying to whip up because they are much cheaper than buying them in the store, but also because they are so forgiving in terms of ingredients. They practically beg to make use of whatever you can find in your cupboards! I use this recipe on allrecipes.com, but my simplified version reads something like this: 1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk, 3 cups of oats, 3 ½ cups of other stuff.

This time around, this is what I had lying around:

3 cups oats
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup sunflower seeds & honeycake
1 cup raisins
½ cup white chocolate chips

Other things that would work: nuts, flaxseeds, cranberries (dried or fresh), dried fruit, wheat germ.

Mix all the dry ingredients together, add the condensed milk. Spread out in a greased 9 X 13- ish inch pan, and bake for 20-25 min at 350° F (175 ° C).

Use what you have, and happy baking!