Georgeina's Blog

Kina cardigan

georgeina — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 21:11:24 +0000

A commute-knit, this short sleeved cardigan for Marina was pretty quick – think I started it in November and finished it just before Christmas.

It’s a beautifully simple pattern by a french brand called Kids Tricot (which I found on ravelry) and the finished garment has a lovely shape. The knitting itself is simple: mostly stocking stitch with a garter stitch border all round. You knit top-down from the cast-on neckline. The complicated bits – and they’re not hard to master – are the increase rows, the short rows to make the cap sleeve edging and the button hole. Very very simple, and utterly satisfying as the entire garment just appears in front of you, fully formed. So if you can knit, purl and increase, try it – it would give you the biggest ego boost! Try it! The translation english could do with the tiniest of tweaks, but that’s me being a real fusspot.

The only complicated bit, was using a different yarn than the recommended one – I used DK Rowan Cotton Glace yarn, so ALL the stitch quantities had to be recalculated. The pattern says a gauge of 26 stitches, whereas my gauge required only 18 stitches to create 10cm of stocking stitch with 5mm needles. So I twiddled and fiddled and diddled and scribbled and finally realised all the stitch quantities simply needed to be multiplied by 0.7, which gave me the right dimensions. But if you look at my printed-out pattern that shows my working out, you’ll see it took about four goes to get right! That’s not counting the false start using 4mm needles }:(

All in all it was a really inspiring knit – dead easy and very satisfying, especially as the yarn was repurposed from an infant sweater and hat I made for Marina last winter. Anyhoo, I’m thinking of doing a longer version as a dress, with slightly puffier sleeves.

And the pattern goes up to 12 years, so, providing my enthusiasm lasts, looks like Marina is saddled with a WHOLE DECADE of hand-knit short sleeved cardigans!

Apple a day dress

georgeina — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 05:20:21 +0000

Yet ANOTHER woollen moth casualty – this time they munched multiple holes a much-loved green woollen wraparound skirt. Greedy. Bastards.

So, I size it up for a toddler’s tunic dress, just cutting approximately around another jumper dress and keeping the existing hem and side seam. As I’m cutting, I notice one of the offcuts looks like a leaf (see? between the armholes of the front and back?), and the apple motif follows quite naturally.

And then I’m off down memory lane… I had a dress with an apple on it as a child. Here is the original apple dress.

So I cover the mothholes with an applique apple. As it’s a fuzzy woollen, I’m guessing it won’t fray, so don’t finish any cut edges, or use interfacing to stabilise the apple. (Two machine washes later & I’m proved right – all stable AND unfrayed). The rest is dead easy: machine stitch the apple into place, followed by the side & shoulder seams, then fold the seam allowance once on the neck & armholes and stitch. It’s a bit wonky – my cutting, I’m afraid, but I figure it’ll wear ok.

The neckline looks pretty small all of a sudden, so I make two self-

covered buttons and loops for a shoulder fastening, and a small facing for each edge. This takes ages but I like the finished look.

However, in the cold light of day, it turns out the neckline is too BIG, so I run a little elastic thread through it with a darning needle – this works perfectly and Marina seems to like it!

NB After about 85 blurred photos she suddenly climbs on the sofa and strikes a slightly eerie doll pose. For a second. Then runs off and jumps around a bit more. Photographing a toddler to show off a garment is REALLY hard work. How do you do it?

————*-*————

Oh and I also made this hat from the offcuts. It’s simply a rectangle, sewn up the short side, hemmed at the bottom and tied around with a strip.

She wouldn’t keep it on for more than a second, threw it off and now we cannot find it ANYWHERE. Prolly been munched to dust, by a bunch of delighted moths.

Red fleece mittens

georgeina — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 21:26:37 +0000

A GENUINE whip up. My projects take hours. This one took minutes. About 59 minutes, to be precise, but there is a finished pair of little fleecey mittens on the kitchen counter.

The weather’s turning and my poor daughter’s hands are an icy deep pink when we finish the 12 minute walk to the childminders in the morning. Most of the mittens I’ve seen in the shops are so-so, or a little expensive. So I’ve been plotting to make some mittens for her. And tonight I had some steam left when I got home from work so I pulled out the machine and got cutting. And pinning. And sewing. And now they’re finished!

Some fleece, from Goldhawk Road – about £4 per metre. A great pattern, super easy to follow, from purl bee. Adapted by

reducing the print output to 75% to get the right size approximately
extending the mitten length by approx 2″ instead of handknitting the cuff.

Longest, most challenging part of this project? Waiting till morning to see if they fit her!

Lilac Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap

georgeina — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 22:14:00 +0000

Nice bit of forward thinking: winter will be upon us and Little Miss will need a hat. Last winter, the only hat that actually remained on her head had a chin strap. It was a hand-me-down from my beloved sister-out-of-law and it kept both my niece & nephew warm through 70s Bavarian winters.

So, I hunt about for a similar pattern and find the Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap - then get some soft Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino wool in a light lilac (340051) from John Lewis.

Using DK instead of the recommended “baby weight” (which is what exactly?) means my gauge is all out of whack so I adjust it by

casting on only 107 stitches
using 4mm needles
on the increase/decrease row, reduce the stitches between increase/decrease to 15, 16, 16, 16, 16, 15.

NB These adjustments are part measurement, part guesswork – I’m no deft mathematician, nor experienced gauge calculator. I just choose the needle size cos they are the smallest circular needles I have. The stitch looks ok so I knit a few rounds in garter stitch as per the instructions, then try it on Little Miss’s head. It’s clearly too big, so I mark out how many stitches go round her head and start again casting on fewer stitches. Then divvy up the non-increase/decrease stitches as evenly as I can.

I keep trying the hat on her as I go, so make only two further adjustments:

only repeat the increase/decrease row 8 times
add a 10 row garter stitch chinstrap with two cast-off buttonholes.

Overall, it’s a really simple pattern, if you know how to knit, purl, increase and decrease. And it finishes up satisfyingly quickly, speeding up rapidly as you decrease towards the wee point.

I locate a silver metal button that I *think* came from a dirndl skirt of my mother’s (she lived in the Austrian/German alps for a chunk of the sixties). My older brother recognised it immediately anyway (“Wow”, he said), and he’s not a button kind of guy.

Problem. The hat has not stayed on Little Miss’s head for more than two seconds. Hence no modelled pics. Any tips?

—————————–* – * —————————–

Update

A week after completion and the hat stays ON.

Could it have anything to do with the hypnotic qualities of CBeebies?

A sugar high?

Or the sudden drop in temperature over the weekend?

Who cares! Result! Pics!

change – what you think?

georgeina — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 09:23:00 +0000

I changed the look of my blog. I have done this a few times before then gone back to the original theme. But this time I was more certain about the change.

Do you like it? Or prefer it as it was?

M is for… marimekko

georgeina — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 08:35:04 +0000

Snaffled a lovely child’s Marimekko t-shirt at the Chiswick Boot Sale last weekend, only to find small hole in the front. So rustle up plan to hide it in a reverse applique ‘M’. I get busy while the little one slumbers and take

one vintage pillow-case, from a Secret Thrift Shop up north
one reverse applique tutorial - gazillions out there!
fusible interfacing from stash
embroidery thread from Brick Lane

and …

choose a design – I use a capital ‘M’ from the Eames stencil font. I measure out 10cm on a piece of paper, pull the ‘M’ up on screen and enlarge it until it is about 10cm wide, then trace directly from the screen.
draw ‘M’ onto the WRONG side of interfacing. Note: I get this wrong so my final ‘M’ is actually the wrong way round. I realise this WELL past the point of no return – but am saved by M’s symmetry – phew!
fuse the interfacing to the WRONG side of the applique fabric
cut out ‘M’ +3-4mm
pin to the WRONG side of the tshirt. Make sure I cover the hole!
sew with a straight stitch around the ‘M’

on the RIGHT side, handstitch a running stitch in embroidery floss along the machine stitch line

snip out the tshirt fabric 3mm inside the embroidery line

Next time I do it I will

- make sure my letter/pattern is the right way round – FIRST time

- attach interfacing more carefully – it took me three goes because I ironed too vigorously and smooshed up the interfacing

- make sure my design actually COVERS the hole – I cut one ‘M’ way too small

- consider purchasing an embroidery hoop – it would make the handstitching easier.

Once done, grapple with the thorny challenge of a small, determined model, who is capable of wriggling, running and roaring independent movement.

Thanks Daddy for taking over on the camera!

Short trews

georgeina — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 20:43:37 +0000

From a pair of unflattering shorts comes a pair of short trews for our little miss. The shorts are low rise, pegged and cut my thighs off at their widest – so rarely get worn, funnily enough. But a nice fabric and decently made, so I hang on to them for years longer than I oughta.

It’s the low-rise that does it – a few sunny weeks back I find myself thinking they are so ridiculously low, they’ll probably fit Marina in a matter of months… so I measure them against a pair of her trousers and the infinitesimal difference inspires me to make sure SOMEONE wears them before summer disappears.

A few refashioning hours later they are transformed, after I

remove 20cm from the overall waistband and leg width
fake a ruffled hip pocket from the spare fabric trimmed off
insert elastic into the waistband
insert new but thrifted button on waistband
remove 5cm from the legs at the back yoke seam (this brings the back waistband down so the difference between it and the front is only about 3cm)
reposition the back pockets, having sewn in small pleats at the top to reduce width
gather the leg hems into an elastic

The shape is by eye and I make it up as I go along. The 14-month old figure is pretty straight up and down, so the side seams are at a right angle to the bottom hem. Levelling out the waistband – again by eye, but also using another pair of shorts for reference. Back pockets are pleated so they fit onto the back leg, but keep the lovely curve and point of the original design.

With hindsight, it is a pretty easy project. But I am mightily pleased to have finished these, as I’d forgotten how faffy refashioning can be – realising you could have done something better, dithering over whether to unpick and redo, not measuring my daughter so not knowing how tight to make the waistband and regretting sewing while she’s asleep but knowing it’s not possible when she’s up and about. Beginner’s mistakes after decades of sewing, but they come back time and time again.

But do you know what was the biggest surprise? I thought, I even wrote (see two paras above), that I dreamed this design up – the feminine frills at the pocket, the gathered rear pockets, and elasticated leg cuffs.

But NO. I only realised it when I pulled these H&M jeans from the washing machine… what a rip-off!

Oops! Don’t tell anyone, will you?

One nightie = hat, dress AND panties

georgeina — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 08:08:25 +0000

I bought a couple of giant nighties from Primark while pregnant and, hating to see these swathes of perfectly acceptable cotton jersey go to waste, I got my sewing mojo working back in April.

Now it’s July and my blogging mojo is slightly revived, here I am to tell you all about how from one UK size 22 nightie has come…

one dress, from McCalls M5916 pattern. I used the existing frilly placket and cut the rest of the dress around it. Sizing slightly skew-whiff – it’s big on Little Miss but that’s acceptable as these baby-people keep growing, don’t they? It’s a super-easy pattern and I’m sure if I keep making it, I’ll be able to bash out a dress in an evening before long. Motherhood, sadly, has not taken away my capacity to sit and stare into space instead of sewing.

one matching pair of panties, from the same pattern. The weather in London was unseasonably hot in April, and if Little Miss is out and about bare-legged, I didn’t want her nappies on show – just seems a bit wrong.

At this point I had to start piecing the fabric – thankfully only once, and the stripes hide the seam perfectly. I used jaunty fuchsia satin binding on the elastic casing, which may not show but *I* (and now you) know it’s there. Hopefully they will be silky soft against pudgy thighs.

one floppy brimmed sunhat. The pattern is by Enid Gilchrist, who I’d have remained ignorant of but for the Internet – an australian who wrote excellent books on DIY pattern drafting. I’ve resisted the VERY strong temptation to buy her books – yet another major distraction from reducing the pile of projects still needing finishing. So quaint to work in imperial measurements (inches)!

This sun bonnet just tickles me – cute but practical, AND rocking a somewhat Amish/dutch nun vibe. It was great fun working out how to eke out the remaining scraps and only piece them twice! I recommend giving it a try – the pattern doesn’t have instructions but it is do-able.

Lovely to be sewing again.

Refashioned stripey dress

georgeina — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 16:56:54 +0000

Once more my sewing is inspired by kirsty of loweryourpresserfoot.blogspot.com. Soon as I read her post of this super-cute dress in its various permutations, I knew I had to track down the pattern – McCalls M5916 – and give it a try. Thanks eBay!

A girly dress, with puff sleeves – what could be more perfect for a little girl with hair that clearly yells ‘I’m a boy!’ to passers by? I just wish I had the nerve of the lady I met in John Lewis yesterday – her 10 month old daughter was wearing a sequinned hat with fake hair extensions tumbling down her back. Quite something.

I took a Next t-shirt whose colours and buttoned neckline had wowed me into spending £1.50 on it at Chiswick Car Boot Sale, but just never suited me. I cut to keep the existing neckline, and luckily, was able to match the stripes pretty well on the body, and near-as-damnit on the sleeves.

I’m really pleased with the overall look – it’s a lovely, easy pattern to follow, and the puffed and overlapped two part sleeve gives just enough frou to be interesting. BUT I really need to go back to basics on using the overlocker, and sewing straight lines on very stretchy jersey. There’s crazy looping and wibbling going on all over the place which I just ignored and ploughed on regardless. But it bothers me.

Does anyone know of a decent online guide to no-tears-overlocking? Please share!

plus ca change, best intentions and all that

georgeina — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 20:59:52 +0000

Now our daughter is sleeping (such a short sentence, such BLOODY hard work getting there) I’ve gotten back what’s known in some circles as ‘evenings’, AND with them, my sewing mojo. Wahey!

Oddly enough, some things are unchanged by motherhood – procrastination remains my enemy, the stash is ever huge and I still have ambitions waaaaaay beyond my enthusiasm/endurance. But there’s the inspiration of a lovely daughter – little Miss Marina – to refashion for: she’s small, kids’ clothes are easier and quicker to finish and we’re running out of space!

There’s another carrot – just chanced upon elsie marley’s kids clothes week spring 2011. I’ll use this to get me into the sewing and blogging flow again and to put to good use the surprisingly large number of vintage and contemporary children’s patterns I seem to have. I don’t remember buying/acquiring many of them AT ALL. Must’ve been milk-drunk. Plus there’s the incentive of sewing for a rapidly growing child – I must use these patterns up before she outgrows them!

In preparation, I’m repopulating my creative blog list for inspiration. I lost my extensive list of favourites when our PC went pfffffft a few weeks ago. Started by re-remembering the ones I really enjoyed and am now following up new links in other people’s blogrolls. It’s just as exciting as when I first sussed out there were sewists out there doing stuff, and sharing their experiences and expertise.

to name a few. There’s so much inspiration, BIG life events and beautiful work out there! But if you have a favourite I should read – send me your recommendations, please, peeps.

Roll on May!