Great British Sewing Bee Series 2 Episode 1!

I don't have much to show for myself today - a bunch of failed bodice fittings and a half-finished jumper - so I thought I'd write about the Great British Sewing Bee second series episode 1! I might do this for the other episodes too.

I found out about this show when the first season aired last year - while my parents were in England they happened to see an episode on the TV and knew I'd love it!  The second series is slightly different - 10 contestants instead of however many there were last time, and much harder challenges.

There were three challenges this week, based on three natural fibres: cotton, wool, and silk.  Challenge 1 was to make a cotton top from a pattern, no alteration or decoration.  I think that was mostly to see if there was anyone who *really* shouldn't be there.  There were some lovely cute tops, all sleeveless and with a facing - which had to be made in 2 hours!  Fast!

The next challenge was to take a plain grey wool maxi-skirt and alter it in some creative way.  Basically everyone made it into a mini-skirt with some detail.  I think I would have kept the fabric in one piece but made horizontal pleats to shorten the skirt and add interest.  Can you believe that one guy made a welt pocket in like 30 minutes??  We did that at CIT last week and it took us 3 hours!

The last challenge was to make a fitted silk nightgown for a model.  I learned some tricks about cutting slippery silk - best to do it with a rotary cutter because scissors make the fabric shift.  Some of these nighties were spectacular (some sucked) and I was just so impressed.  It made me want to make a nightie!

This show has inspired me to get back to sewing.  After a few failures recently, I've given up and now I have a big pile of unfinished things and patterns to make.  But failure is just a step on the road to success I suppose, I'd better get back to it.  Totally watch this show!  It's the best!

<3 p="">

Completed - Milena cardigan!

It's finally finished!  This cardigan took me about 6 months to finish but I finally did it!

Presenting… Milena!

Pattern: Milena, by Ewa Durasiewicz

Wool: Bendigo Woolen Mills Classic 8ply in Hunter

My Ravelry notes here.

 I admit that I didn't knit the entire 6 months.  I did loads of other projects in between and sometimes didn't knit this for months at a time!  But it was pretty slow going.

 I made quite a few modifications to the pattern.  I didn't do any 1x1 ribbing (because who has time for that), I altered the back slightly to lower the neckline, I made the armholes bigger, and completely changed the sleeves.  The sleeves I knit flat, bottom-up, and increased ad lib to the armpit, then cast off ad lib for the sleeve head.  I detailed all of this in my ravelry notes.  It worked out pretty well IMHO.  The pattern was free, and only in one size, so everything was fairly lucky!

 Trying to get a closeup of the lace pattern… it's a pretty interesting one!  Mine came out a little more dense than the original, because it's a thicker wool while the original was cotton.  

Fix your collar Christina!!

 There are 12 buttons on this sucker.  It takes ages to do them up, so I think I'll wear it with every 3rd one undone, it gives a cute effect.
I accidentally was super dumb and sewed the button bands on the wrong way - so I have to do up this cardigan like a man's cardigan.  I'll get used to it!  You don't really notice unless you're a person who is picky about these things.

Overall a pretty nice cardigan!  I'm pleased this is finished, now I have a lovely deep green cardigan!

Completed - Tania Culottes AND Hawthorn Dress!

Double whammy coming at ya!

I made another pair of Megan Nielsen's Tania culottes!  This one I love the best.  The fabric is light and flowy, the length is perfect for me, love love love.

The fabric is a beautiful thin brushed cotton, which I bought at St Vinnie's in Braidwood on our way home from the coast a couple of months ago.  It sounds nuts but I buy a lot of fabric at op shops, they often have a big yardage and the fabric is usually lovely quality.  You can get some cute retro prints too.

 But!  Observe!  The fabric has stretched on the bias, leaving me with long bits at the sides!

 I've never been one to leave a garment hanging to even out the hem, because I always want to wear it out immediately.  In this garment's case, I needed to wear it to Adelaide the next day.

So I ended up with kind of wonky culottes.  I don't think you notice much, but I learned my lesson.  Next time I deal with a pattern that's so circular, I'll leave it to hang overnight at least!

 Which brings me to my next project out of the same fabric!  I had a bunch left over and made another Colette Hawthorn dress!

 I am pretty amazed I got another entire dress out of this fabric.  I have to admit some of my layout was a bit creative, so I have some upside-down pieces etc, but you don't notice with this busy print.

It looks like I have a bit of bias stretch on this too.  Flipping heck.

 I made this in a super hurry because I wanted to wear it to teach in last week.  But I think I'm getting quicker and better at this pattern - it all came together well.

 My only alterations were to make it slightly shorter and do a teeny-tiny hem (fabric constraints), and I made the back facing longer.  On my other one it keeps popping up, but just a bit longer and it stays put.

I like it with a belt.  The buttons were kind of expensive at $1.30 each at Lincraft - but I got one extra since there was only 1 left in the tube after she counted them out.  Bargain??  Not really since I didn't need it.

It's a bit hard to see but I made belt loops using needle lace.  It's easy, you just make a few loops where you want it and then blanket stitch around the threads the whole way accross.

I wore it four days in a row teaching.  But that's okay, because I teach a different schools.  Nobody knew I was recycling my outfit!!

New Year's Resolutions update - how am I going?

I thought it would be nice to review on how I'm going with my resolutions!

1. Floss my teeth DAILY!
Am totally winning at this.  My dentist will be SO THRILLED.

2. Write in my diary daily.
Also winning at this!

3. Get up earlier.
Not really winning at this.  I have terrible sleep problems.  Last night I literally did not sleep at all, I was so nervous about my first day back at teaching.  I'm trying to take melatonin pills at the same time each night but it doesn't do much.  My problem is tension, not anything physical.  So usually if I'm sleeping at 8am, I want to stay sleeping for as long as possible.  Hopefully eventually I'll settle into a routine and begin to sleep better, and then I can transfer it to waking up earlier… or should I do it the other way around?  I start teaching at 7:20am on Mondays so that will kick start me.

4. Buy less and have less.
I think I'm doing ok at this.  I did buy some t-shirts and shoes the other day, but I think I need those things to function!  The problem is now getting rid of some t-shirts and shoes that I don't want!  I haven't bought anything big or expensive though, despite really wanting a particular dress from Review...

5. Use up a bunch of my stash.
Very much winning!  Yesterday I managed to make a whole dress out of a piece that's been hanging in my stash.  A few weeks ago I made a cushion out of a skirt that was silly.  I also found some old UFOs that I might try to finish soon.  I have plans for a lot of my stash too.  It's still huge - embarrassingly huge.

6. Sew more wearable clothes for me.
This dress I made yesterday I totally wore to work today!  And I also wore the jumper I knitted recently!  So yes, doing quite well.  It's a matter of finding a few patterns that really work for your style and just recycling them!

7. Finish projects before starting new ones.
Winning SO HARD at this!  It is also great because I feel less stressed about all my projects - now I'm just feeling stressed about my stash.  So far this year I've finished my ripple blanket (post to come - it's a biggie), my Amber Bramble jumper, my lace chevron scarf, and I'm working on finishing my Milena cardigan (doing the sleeves now!  Nearly done!).  

I'm also getting fitter (so far)!  Charles bought me a FitBit, which has been encouraging me to get out and walk more.  It rewards you with buzzes and lights when you walk more than 10000 steps!  Hopefully 2014 will be a happier, healthier year!

Finished - knitted Amber Bramble jumper

Look!  I've finished a jumper!  This one has been taking forever but I powered through the last few days and got it done!

Pattern: Rose Bramble, by Deborah Helmke, featured in The Knitter

Yarn: Bendigo Woolen Mills Stellar yarn, 50% bamboo and 50% merino

My Ravelry project notes

This is from The Knitter magazine, which is my favourite knitting magazine!  It's from the UK and it always has lovely, modern designs for people who aren't between the ages of 0 and 6.  I always find something interesting in that magazine!

This is what the pattern actually looks like, as you can see I altered it quite a bit.  I added 3/4 length sleeves and a bottom rib band.  I didn't like the unfinished look the original had.  Because I was adding on sleeves and this was bottom-up, I had to think quite hard about how to join them in and keep the cables correct!  In the end I joined them in like in my Owls jumper, and it turned out quite well (I think). 

This pattern is called "rose bramble", because it has a kind of climbing flower design in the centre front and back.  Then it has some large cables on either side of that, and small cables next to them.  It took so much courage to start this pattern once I'd gathered my materials, I was terrified of all those repeating patterns!

The flower pattern is 19 stitches and 10 rows.  The large cable is 9 stitches and 20 rows.  The small cable is 4 stitches and 6 rows.  So I was always counting rows to make sure it all lined up.  My piece of paper is covered in tallies!

I made sure that the rose pattern went down the centre of the sleeves too!

This jumper is the same back and front - so it doesn't matter which way I wear it!  It also looks kind of similar inside out :-)

The only thing that didn't quite work to my satisfaction was the neck opening.  It's kind of large and floppy.  I had to undo it a couple of times to try and get it tighter, but I'm still not happy.  My solution is to thread some thin elastic through the top to keep it in shape, which I will do in the next few days.  

The yarn was a mix of bamboo and merino, which was lovely to knit with - it splits slightly more than 100% wool, but has a nice feel and is quite smooth.  It's got a bit of lustre too.  The pattern called for merino/silk and I think this is pretty similar in all important aspects.  This means the jumper isn't too warm to wear in all seasons!

Oh and also I got my hair cut!  It's shorty short now!  I love it so much.

What are you knitting?  Let's be friends on Ravelry!

Completed - Lace chevron scarf

I finished a project!  My New Year's Resolution is coming true!

This is a yarn I bought from the Braidwood Alpaca Shop, and it's a 4ply 100% alpaca wool.

The pattern was free with the yarn!  But it's a very simple 4 row repeat, using a multiple of 6 stitches plus 2.  I used 44 stitches for mine:

Row 1: K1, *YO, K2, K2tog, K2*, repeat until 1 stitch left, K1.

Row 2: Purl

Row 3: K1, *K2, K2tog, K2, YO*, repeat until 1 stitch left, K1.

Row 4: Purl.

As you can see, rows 1 and 3 are basically the same except moved along 1 stitch.

I did this mostly while we were away in Adelaide recently, and finished it off today.  It seemed to take me a long time, but that may have been because it was kind of tedious.  I also am really looking forward to starting something new, but I still have to finish off something else first!!

The "chevron" is a little hard to see actually, but the K2togs make little chevrons if you look at it the right way.

It's just as long as my xylophone!  About 185cm.

After I steamed it, it flattened out and looked fantastic.  I love it!  Alpaca wool is so soft and beautiful, it drapes a bit nicer than sheep's wool in my opinion. 

Now let's wait for the weather to cool down so I can actually wear it!

Ravelry project notes here!

New Year's Resolutions and Goals!

Happy New Year everyone!  Gosh what a month it's been.  Since last time I posted, I've been really busy and away!  Christmas happened, then we went down the coast, then New Year happened, then we went on an 11 day trip to Adelaide!  I'll write a whole new post for that.

New Year's Resolutions.  I've made 7!  Here they are.

1. Floss my teeth DAILY!
This one is self-explanatory.

2. Write in my diary daily.
I don't mean writing long entries about my feelings and opinions, but I do like to write down what I did each day before I go to sleep.  That way, I can look back and remember each day and they don't blur together.  I find it really helpful to write things down so I can find out when things happened later.

3. Get up earlier.
I've found that we tend to stay up too late and then sleep in, especially on weekends or when I have to go in to work later.  This really knocks me around when I have to get up at 6:30 for percussion ensemble on Monday morning!  So I would like to train my body to generally get up and sleep earlier.  I'm going to schedule my teaching for mornings when I can this term.   Charles also finds that when he goes in to uni earlier he gets more work done and can come home sooner.  Sounds obvious but it's taken us this long to figure out!

4. Buy less and have less.
I feel like I've already started this resolution.  I am just tired of having so much stuff - and in particular, having so many clothes.  Yesterday I went through my clothes and gave away 28 items, and it felt so cleansing.  I still have hundreds of items left, but it's a start!  Going through, I found lots of clothes I'd just forgotten about.  Also, having a small house and a few big things we need to have (our instruments), space is in short supply.  

This is all the stuff I got rid of: 9 tops, 5 cardigans, 4 skirts, 3 dresses, 1 pair shoes, 1 bra, 2 tights, 1 spencer, 1 dressing gown.

5. Use up a bunch of my stash.
I have a lot of fabric.  Most of it was bought with a purpose in mind, but also a lot was gifted to me or an impulse purchase.  I want to try to get it down to a reasonable size!  This also applies to my yarn stash!

6. Sew more wearable clothes for me.
I know this is against my previous resolution of having less stuff, but I can't live with the same clothes forever.  They wear out and get old!  So instead of buying I want to make myself wearable clothes.  This means not making another party dress, but instead making a plain blouse to go with my skirts.  Not making an experimental jacket out of blue tartan, but instead making a basic fit-and-flare dress to go with my cardigans.  Make more underpants!  In this way I hope to have a better thought out wardrobe that is easy to mix and match.  You need to put more thought into making a garment than buying one, so this mindfulness will help with my other resolutions.

7. Finish projects before starting new ones.
Sometimes this can't be helped, like when it's Christmas coming up and SOMEONE asked for a Dr Who scarf.  Projects can still be put on hold for things like this.  But currently, I have 4 knitting projects on the go, and 4 with wool bought queued, and a bunch of sewing projects ready to start. On top of my crochet and needle felt and everything.  This is too much and it makes me stressed!  So until my current projects are down to a reasonable level, I am NOT ALLOWED to start anything new.  I need to stop getting bored with my projects!  Plus, the feeling of finishing something lovely is so worth the wait.  I'd like more of that and less frustration with myself!

Next, some of my goals for 2014.
1. Start up my custom underpants business!
2. Save up a bunch of money for the future!
3. Design and make some of my own patterns!
4. Become a better teacher!

How about you?  What are your New Year's Resolutions?