Fitting Issues

So, to give Rebecca a bit of heads up, that I'm def. not the queen of fitting, I'd like to tell you about my latest sewing project.

I'm working on a blouse, that I had tissue fitted in a Palmer-Pletsch Fitting Class in Aarhus, Denmark, in January (yes, I'm that slow, but I wanted to finish the Quilt of Doom first.). We also had pin fitted the fabric and it looked fairly good.

So finally on Thursday I had everything assembled so far (including sleeve plackets, which the pattern didn't call for) and now the armscye is too tight. (Plus I was sold the wrong interfacing IMHO, since the collar and the cuffs are waaaay too soft for my taste. I wanted a sharp collar like you have in mens shirts).

So here's the shirt

The pattern is from a 2007 ottobre magazine. I think, it might have been better to use a size 36 instead of a size 34 as a starting point, since it feels like it's just a tad too small at the shoulders, although my high bust measurement puts me in a size 34 (with a huge fba for my taste, since I'm barely a b cup...)

I have already posted for help on facebook and I hope for feedback from my fitting instructor

Busy finishing stuff

So, the last few weeks I have been busy busy busy finishing ufos and working on my stash but I'm so bad at taking pictures. Here are two I've taken...

 The first is a spiraling rib cowl, from Stitch red out of some handspun I finished this winter, but the roving has been in my stash for ages.
And taaadaaaa, the neverending ufo-quilt is also finished. It's wonky but it's done. It has the perfect size for cuddling on the couch!

Some love for an unloved project

After finishing the bag for Frau Wo, I worked on the unfinished quilt a bit again and I'm kind of impressed of how much I got done.
All of the blue and yellow squares were sewn into bigger squares and the squares were all trimmed to be the same size:

I even started working on the yellow and red squares (which are already assembled but need to be cut to the same size as the blue-yellow ones).

This quilt is going to be very crooked!

And now M. leather slippers have a hole in them, so before I get back to work on the quilt I need to make new slippers!

January gifts

Christmas is over and it seems I'm still in gift producing mode (one gift I can't show just yet, since it hasn't arrived in Finland...).
But the other two have arrived at their destination, so here they come.
First some socks for my friend Steffi

The pattern is Monkey by Cookie A., availabe via Knitty.com for free. The yarn is some very old Trekking XXL in the colourway Brazil. It's a shocking green IRL!

Next was a project bag for my knitting friend Frau Wo, she requested something made with the pink stretch velour/velvet I had in my stash (a gift, don't ask), but not cute. So I appliquéd a jolly roger onto some blue cotton:

The pattern is a free pattern called "japanische Knotentasche"

Gifts given

This year I haven't made many knitted gifts. I made my Dad some very long, very boring gray socks for his birthday but I haven't gotten a good picture.

The only other knitted gift I made was a cowl for my friend Ute from Suo ergo sum. Luckily she is a lot better with her camera than I am with my point and shoot, so at least I now have a decent picture of one of my knitted things

The pattern is the Riverton Cowl by Valerie Hobbs, a free pattern on Ravelry. The pattern is very straightforward and I highly recommend the pattern. The yarn is a discontinued bamboo-wool blend by Phildar. It's really soft but pretty beefy and Ute likes to wear it, so it was a good gift I guess!

Productive December

So, December has been a very productive sewing month for me. After months and months of very very little sewing, December has seen a spur of motivation. And it all boils down to the quilt of doom, that is finished and that now lives at my sisters house, since it was my wedding gift to my sister and my BIL all those years ago....

It's the disappearing nine-patch block and it's very amateurish made but for the most part with lots of love (o.k. during the actual quilting the twins would have learned new swear words but they were asleep :) ). I really don't like quilting. I do love quilts though and I admire people, who do quilt.

After the burden of the quilt of my chest, productivity levels spurred up! First the girls annual Christmas dresses (of which I don't have a better picture....) just yet.

(that's E., currently self named "Pandora" with some goggles, that were in her doctors bag, Santa brought). The pattern is Minikrea2002, the same pattern I used last year. The upper part is rayon velvet out of my stash and the skirt portion is silk crash velvet, that my friend Annika gave to me in 2008.

Since I was having a blast sewing, I decided to make some things for me, very selfish, so on Christmas this cute top was finished:

as you can see, I had plenty of food on Christmas ;) The pattern is the Day to Night top by MariaDenmark, I already put a review on patternreview but will copy it and will publish it here too!

On Christmas morning a friend brought over an unexpected gift for the girls and I had just purchased a little trinket for her daughter, so off to the stash I went and pulled out an old wader (a wrap dress for me) and made her 2 year old daughter a top, using an ottobre pattern from 2007 (yay for pattern stashes), that I have actually made before for my niece, when she was 2 years old....

As you can see, I had to be a little creative when cutting out the sleeves.Geesh, it seems I was a lot smaller 5 years ago or 6..... The top is for a 98cm tall child!

Transforming a former wadder into something cute was so satisfying, that I made another one for my girls, transforming an old shirt of mine and some remnants into a shirt as well. It's too big just now and somehow the top was a bit pulled in, when serging it to the lower part of the front, but it's still a lot cuter than the original top.... Again I had to be creative when cutting the fabric for the shirt....

5 projects finished in a month! I hope 2013 will continue that way!

Time flies

Hi everybody,

sorry for beeing absent AGAIN for quiet a while. Anybody still out there? I don't know what happened, I had so many plans for blogging but I guess with doing 2 podcasts I'm kind of out of words plus I'm just not sewing much at the moment, so I have very little to share and then I do see all those great pictures on other blogs and I feel kind of underwhelmed with my ability to take good pictures (and I can't blame that entirely on my point-and-shoot camera.

Anyhow: I promise to be back soon and I will have something to show :) AKA I need to get my hair cut, so that I can have pictures taken without looking too frumpy....