WIP Archives - Page 2 of 7

Lucinda April 21, 2013

Saturday Stitching – Tiramisu Dress

Surplice/wrap/mock wrap dresses have eluded me. I’m convinced that I’m just not “built” for them since they always gape open. However, I’ve seen so many positive reviews of the Tiramisu dress by Cake Patterns that I wanted to give it a shot. Basically, you measure your high bust, full bust, and waist to determine what size to cut out – there’s about 20 different size combinations, which makes it pretty promising that someone like me who is “wrap challenged” could find the right fit.

Well…sort of. I think I erroneously measured myself and cut out a 30D since I thought my high bust was 33.5 and full bust was 34. When I basted the side seams together, I was surprised to find crazy bagginess at the underbust seam. I ended up pinching out about 2.5″ and moving up the underbust seam.

This kind of fixed the problem but it ended up messing up the sleeve seam since I made the front shorter than the back. I finished sewing the rest of the dress and it fits perfectly in the waist and hips, but I’m bugged that I couldn’t get the bust to fit correctly. I’ll still wear my practice dress though!

I just went back and re-measured myself – my high bust is 34.5″ and full bust is 35″. Well gee, no wonder I didn’t get the right fit! I’m still conflicted about what size to cut out: those measurements almost match up to a 35A bodice piece, but I think the 30 fits me well in the shoulders. I may just bite the bullet and cut out the 35A and give it a whirl in my pink knit fabric.

Have you made the Tiramisu? How did you get the fit right?

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Lucinda April 6, 2013

Saturday Stitching

I’m on Vine! I thought it would be fun to share the progress I made so far on my Knit Night Cardigan – in addition to furiously finishing up my dress for the Cocktails with Colette party tonight, I’m also taking some time to work on my sweater. Just need to make the sleeves and stitch up the seams – my least favorite party of knitting, ugh.

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Lucinda February 21, 2013

Clover Muslin, Or, I Will Make Pants In 2013

I decided to take advantage of my “Staycation” this week to catch up on the sewing that I’ve wanted to work on. If you haven’t been able to tell, my sewing momentum has been lacking in the past couple of months, partially because of work craziness and also because winter is getting to me and I want to make cute clothes for warm weather, not heavy bulky stuff. I churned out a dress this week from my faux Missoni fabric, gave up on my Beignet (more details on that later), and made a toile (sounds so much fancier than muslin) for a Jasimine blouse. And since I had the muslin fabric out, I cut out a pair of Clover pants because gosh darnnit, 2013 will be the year that I get over my fear of pants and freaking make a pair already.

So here’s the results from Round 1:

Since the waist and hip measurements for a size 6 are spot on what I measure, and the Ginger skirt I made last year fit perfectly, I cut out a size 6 and crossed my fingers that everything would turn out as good as humanly possible. I must say, I’m pretty pleased with how the first muslin turned out since it wasn’t as awful in fit as I thought it would be. The waist is a perfect fit and comfortable, but I noticed that I have some bunching around the crotch area. Hmm. I’d like it to be as smooth as possible, but I don’t want to take so much away that I can’t sit comfortably.

Here’s the back:

Shhh don’t look at that pile of clothes and fabric in the corner

When analyzing pull/drape lines in pants, the terms “smile” and “frown” are used since you’re looking for lines shaped just like, well, smiles and frowns. Smiles denote that more fabric is needed in an area and frowns mean that there’s too much fabric and it needs to be reduced. Well, I’ve got a frown-y backside wth too much fabric going on, affectionately referred to as a “Flat Derriere.” Now this isn’t news to me, I know I have, ahem, such a backside – I’m all straight lines and no curves. And since I’ve run into this problem before with pants, it’ll be good to figure out how to eliminate that problem for future pants patterns. Also, the legs are crazy baggy on me and nowhere near as fitted as they should be, like on Sarai.

So here’s what I’ve determined I need to do so far:

Flat rear adjustment: I’ve seen a couple of different techniques online on how to do this and I also looked through some of my Sew Stylish and Threads magazines as well as some of my fitting books. I have a some ideas on what to do.

Shorten the torso: I’m thinking that may be what’s causing the excess fabric in the front and the back? Maybe it’s just the crotch depth that’s too big.

Thin leg adjustment: seems pretty simple, but it’d be the last alteration I do after I get my butt figured out. Just tapering in the leg from the crotch seam.

Realistically, I don’t think I’ll have these pants fitted/made by the time I go back to work next week. But it’s nice to have the time to spend on a project this involved.

Do you have any tips on fitting pants? I’d love to hear them!

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Lucinda January 31, 2013

Back on the Horse – New Sweater WIP [Chuck]

See? I told you I wouldn’t be down for long after my last sweater fail.

This week, I made a lot of progress on my new sweater: Chuck by Andi Satterlund. Why you ask? Well, after being a slave to my couch for a couple of days after a bout of “stomach flu” this weekend (aka norovirus ewwww), I used the time between naps and rehydrating to catch up on some knitting and Murder, She Wrote. I have to say – this is a genius way to knit a sweater with set-in sleeves from the top down: you knit part of the back, pick up stitches at the shoulder, knit the front to the armpit, and then join the front and back and continue knitting in the round. Pretty cool, right? It’s be a while since I did a serious cable project, which I love knitting, so knitting this sweater has been really fun. And since it’s cropped, it won’t take as long as a normal sweater, sweet!

My sewing plans last weekend were dashed but I plan on making up the lost time this coming weekend – I cut out a Colette Patterns Beignet skirt from wool I bought on my recent NYC trip. I’m a little nervous about the 12 buttonholes (holy moly!) since my machine isn’t the greatest at making them, but I have a feeling the skirt will go together pretty smoothly.

Ahhh back to normal…

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Lucinda December 7, 2012

WIP: Honey Cowl [On the Needles]

I’ve never been one to impulsively buy yarn. Fabric yes, yarn no – I guess it’s because it’s easy to say “2 yards, please” for fabric and I’ll have enough material for a variety of projects, but that’s not the case for yarn. Yarn quantity for a project depends on the weight of the yarn, the gauge and size needles it’ll be knit on, the type of the project, etc. To me, there doesn’t seem to be some sort of “magic number” that will work for buying yarn and having enough for whatever type of project inspires me, like a cute sweater.

Well that’s not entirely true, usually one ball of yarn can get you a nice scarf or cowl. Such was the case when I met Ana of Toil and Trouble during the Greater Boston Yarn Crawl back in September. The Black Sheep Knitting Co. in Needham hosted a special trunk show during the event showcasing her hand-dyed yarns which were too gorgeous for me to pass up. I fell in love with the sparkly green yarn above and had to have it, but since it was a sock weight yarn and I don’t do socks, I didn’t know what I could make from it. Ana suggested a scarf made on some larger sized needles to give it an airy look and I liked the idea. It wasn’t until last week that I found the pattern that seemed just right to showcase the colors of the yarn.

Enter the Honey Cowl by Madeline Tosh: 8,000+ projects on Ravelry and counting. I’m knitting the long version but making it on size 7 circulars since, errmm, my 8s are being used on *multiple* projects right now. After trying it on, I’m afraid it may be too short to wrap around my neck twice, but I still think it will look nice hanging in a single loop. It’s slow going on the knitting front, only two inches completed, but it makes for great TV knitting. And it also serves as a great procrastination project from my Owls sweater, of which I have to frog and wet yarn from the first time I cast on for the sweater. I’m down to my last ball and I neeeeed that yarn to start the second sleeve and continue the yoke.

Look at the sparklies! Oooo, it puts me in the holiday mood.