Category Archives: stashbusting

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.

making costumes & missing crafting mojo

There has been a lot of life happening lately, and life needs attention (and paperwork apparently!). My crafting interest is nowhere to be found right now, and since I really don’t want crafting – or blogging – to feel like a chore in any way, I’ll just be waiting until it shows up again. I’m thinking some tea, chocolate, and lots of “Downton Abbey” is the normal cure for this, right?

Now – I have been crafting a little. I just haven’t worked on any of the “real” or big projects, like my Minoru jacket, which got half cut out before it got abandoned for now. Single-sitting projects are more like it at the moment; some underwear from old t-shirts (I have a free pattern is you want to make some too!), and a pillow-cover. It’s certainly not a big important project, but I like it all the same.

I pieced together the cover with left-over pieces from this lovely, dense herringbone wool we used for the Amanda show – see all the lines on the right side in the picture above? I stuck a zipper in there since this is for a regular pillow doing duty in the livingroom whenever we don’t have sleepover guests. That was a last minute addition as I realized I would be needing to get the pillow back out of the pillowcase!

This is our little reading nook, with a bed turned-into-sofa by folding the top mattress in half and covering it in fabric, putting up some shelves/backboards, and filling up with pillows. I’m working on the pillows part.

That’s it. I made a pillowcase, and it made me glad.

Also, I’ll be making some costumes for the student theater group here in Bergen! Right now I haven’t actually made any yet, but they are designed, and here are the fabrics. Should be fun!

the Valentine’s day skirt

Finally, something sewn! There has been a lot of knitting around here lately, which isn’t too strange considering that I’ve been without my sewing machine for months over the summer, only to play a repair waiting game with an airline, an insurance company, and a repair shop.

So, fed up with waiting, I did what any normal person would do. I finished this skirt by hand.

Eking every last centimeter out of this remnant. And yes, that makes me ridiculously proud!

The pink lining, the graphic ribbon, the silk organza, and the wool suiting.

Yeah, this skirt has been waiting for completion since sometime this spring. I started patternmaking around Halloween (I clearly remember my co-worker talking about the scant and tacky clothing she was planning to dress up in, and me drafting this pretty demure pencil-skirt. I pick pencil-skirts over scant and scandalous any day!). I posted about my muslin and the fitting changes back in December last year, and was really determined to finish the skirt for my Valentine’s Day date (John and I went to the Museum of Science and Industry in the morning. Then I went  straight to class. It was lovely). That obviously didn’t happen!

The Valentine’s Day thing seemed appropriate because of the rich pink silk that I lined the skirt with, and I got pretty close to finishing before it all came to a screeching halt. I really wanted this skirt to be full of lovely touches, so I’ve been taking my sweet time and doing things thoroughly and nice. I interfaced the waistband with organza; I bound raw lining edges with more organza to prevent the crazy fraying I knew would happen otherwise (I used the same silk as a lining for another skirt, and when I took a look at the inside for some reason, it was such a mess! Just silk-fuzz everywhere!); and I french-seamed all the lining seams I could.

Binding the edges of the silk used for the pocket and the lining with strips of bias organza. That should keep the silk from fraying, and I think really increase the durability and lifespan of the skirt.

I had sewn in the zipper already and was all set to attach the lining to the waistband when I realized I had closed up the wrong side of the lining. I had just messed up which side was supposed to be open when looking at the right side – and since the right side of the lining was facing my body, it wasn’t the same as the shell where the right side faces outwards. Ops! Undoing painstakingly made french seams on silk charmeuse? Yeah, it went in the waiting pile.

Where it stayed. I graduated. I went on a cross-country road-trip for several months. I moved back to Bergen and Norway. And I was without a sewing machine. And really missing my sewing.

The insides of the pockets are the same pink silk as the lining. So lovely to put my hands into!

So I redid my french seam, and attached the lining to the waistband. I used this black and white graphic ribbon in the transition, and I love the way it came out! I also used it at the bottom – it made sense to me in how I needed to sew this thing by hand. Look how narrow that hem is! On the one hand I’m a little perturbed – hems aren’t supposed to be that narrow – but on the other side, I think the flash of black and white and pink is pretty cool!

The waistband facing, contrast ribbon, and the lining. And the same at the hem.

And I love the pink charmeuse best of all. I adore putting ont the skirt and seeing all the pink just hiding cheekily! Oh, and happy Valentine’s day everyone!

curry & snow

Well, look at that – I knit something!

With an absolute want of wintry knits, I had to hit the stash and make it happen before the temperatures dropped too much. One I had already started; the cabled watch-cap:

It took a lot of episodes of “House of Eliott”, but I finished it! Washing it got rid of all the kinks in the yarn, but it did bring about a slight problem. I guess it’s like straightening curly hair (which I know nothing about even though I’ve wished for curly hair for years) – it’s way longer in its unkinky form. Which means, my hat is too big. Luckily it’s all wool, so I think a tumble in the dryer under strict supervision might be enough to make it have the right amount of snugness. Don’t want to have my hat falling off after spending that much time on it, do I!

My other knit was a fairly quick, and much needed cowl. Ever since making a loop scarf out of the yarn that did not want to be knit, I’ve become a cowl convert. No ends to tuck away, or fly away – just woollyness around my neck! The yarn has been in my stash for years, and I’ve been tucking it away, waiting for the perfect project. I’m not quite sure if perfect projects are real, or just something that makes your stash dusty while you wait for perfection to arrive, but this yarn – finally – told me it wanted to be a cowl. I’ve been afraid of using it for a project that just wasn’t good enough, but this felt very right.

Also, I made curry today while wearing the cowl (it’s a bit chilly this time of year here – even inside), and they were totally the same color. That made me happy. Also happy? This picture of a boat at the docks we can see from our apartment. It is clearly also feeling the curry and snow.

All phots by John B.

using the fabric scraps

I can’t stand waste. More specifically, I can’t stand being wasteful.  I don’t know if the mild hoarding is the source, or the consequence of this aversion to throwing away anything that could possibly be useful, but here I am – constantly with drawers and boxes and surfaces covered in things that surely will be useful – somehow, sometime.

fabric scraps

Setting up in a new apartment always feels like a new start, so spurred on by that, I’ve come up with a way of making at least some of my hoarded materials turn useful. I’m sure I’m not the only one with scraps of fabric left over after sewing projects – too big to throw away (too beautiful!), but too small to be put to use in a garment. Some people make small things; pincushions, coin-purses, soft toys – but I mostly make garments, and these pieces aren’t even large enough for pockets. I finally realized the perfect use for these scraps was to make bias tape!

making bias tape

I make my bias tape by measuring the same amount (say, 3 inches) along two sides of a triangle – along the weft and the warp grain. Connecting those two points gives me the bias, and then I can just use my ruler to draw new diagonal marks. This works well on oddly shaped scrappy pieces, but I’ve found that my lines can get a little skewed after four or five repeats – best to double-check my lines every so often!

making bias tape

making bias tape

One trick to getting perfectly aligned seams when joining pieces is to make sure the short ends are at a 45 degree angle to the long ends, which they will be if they follow the grainlines to begin with. Sometimes it’s easier to trim the scrap piece of fabric first. The other trick is to mark the seam allowance, and offset the two pieces so that it’s the stitching line goes edge to edge on both layers.

self-made bias tapeIt’s kind of amazing how many yards of bias tape you can get out of a fat quarter sized scrap (or smaller!) of fabric.

I think I’ve been fooling myself with my mindset of “this can be useful somehow!”. Sure, most of the things we having lying in drawers and boxes can be useful, but are they useful to us – in the way that we use things? Like I mentioned, I don’t really sew or make small things, so smallish scraps of fabric don’t hold any value to me, at least not in how I craft. So while someone else might have found a million things to make with my scraps, I didn’t. By making these remnants into bias-tape, I’ve turned them into something I will actually use  – something that makes sense with the kinds of things I craft. And that is the whole point, isn’t it?

And what will I use my bias tape for? I took a workshop a while back where I learned lots of finishing techniques, like hong-kong hemming, bound seams, and decorative uses. Quilts can be finished with some home-made bias tape; use it for a decorative piping touch,  and my favorite, a really nice edge finishing from Tasia of sewaholic.

it’s a ham

So, I made a ham – a tailors ham, that is! I’ve seen some tutorials around, but the gist of them all was more or less to cut out two layers of a ham-like shape, sew them together almost all the way around, fill with sawdust or hamster-bedding, and sew shut.

I’m reasonably satisfied. I love projects where I can use scraps, so the felted wool underside makes me very happy. However, see the wrinkles? I’m not totally happy with the shape, which I can fix for a potential next ham. It was actually really difficult (and time-consuming!) to fill this thing with wood shavings, so it’s not nearly as dense as I would like it to be.

Allow me to muse for a little bit. I don’t typically point out all the things I’m dissatisfied with in my crafting project, but this is going somewhere. I’m guilty, as I think a lot of crafters are, of looking at something handcrafted for sale and saying “I can make that myself!”. There has been some interesting discussion about just this in relation to pinterest, and the pinning of things for sale at say, etsy, with just that tagline – I can make that.

While we have the ability to craft things, and often get a lot of joy from making, aren’t we crafters just a little quick to exclaim that we can make something ourselves – instead of supporting fellow crafters and buying something they have perfected? Goodness knows that my ham is far from perfect, and the time I would spend on perfecting my pattern and technique is certainly worth something, isn’t it?

A story about Pablo Picasso and a napkin-drawing has been in my mind for a while. The story goes that a man asks Picasso to draw him something on a napkin, which Picasso does, and hands it over with a request for 6000 dollars. The man is aghast, and says “That only took you five seconds!”, to which Picasso replies “No, that took me 40 years.”

It is so easy to forget the work, preparations, and materials that goes into creating things. Even though I have the ability to make something, maybe I should support and honor the work and knowledge of crafters who have been making that something for much longer than my singular attempt. And with that, I am going to buy a beautiful, handmade tailor’s ham from this talented person, to a beautiful, handmaking, talented friend.