Friday, December 30, 2011

Finished: Box Pleat Skirt

A few months ago, my sister-in-law pinned this skirt:

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It's way cute and way over $200. I told her I'd make her one, but made one for myself first as a muslin. It actually turned out completely different than the inspiration picture because the fabric refused to gather - it has SO much body - and I didn't use a high-waisted contoured band. I like the original skirt so much that I'll try again at some point. The pictures do not do the fabric justice. It has a beautiful sheen.



Pattern: I used two 18" x 30" rectangles for the skirt and I can't remember the measurement for the waistband. For the best fit, I need a contoured waistband. This one gapes a  bit. I was going to use Simplicity 2215, but the waistband is just a rectangle and the pleats are asymmetrical.

Fabric: poly/silk/wool faille from Mood - I was able to iron the fabric at a hot temperature with a pressing cloth and there were no problems.

I had to hand stitch the waistband facing because stitching-in-the-ditch was not working out and neither was topstitching.
Next up will be finishing my sister-in-law's skirt (it's halfway done), Anhinga and Simplicity 2054 out of gray sweatshirt fleece.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Obligatory Resolution Post

2011 wasn't a great year for me, so I'm looking forward to hitting the reset button and trying again. My priorities include school and family, but I also want to flesh out my little home here. I know very few crafty people in real life and sincerely appreciate the feedback and support received by being a part of online sewing and knitting communities.

The Binks - obstructs any and all progress in the craft room.

I'm going to worry less about offending people, get more comfortable with writing, not sew things just because the blogosphere is going absolutely apeshit over them (those projects generally do not work out for me), sew with a plan (SWAP!), knit without constant frogging and over-analyzing...

This is getting out of hand. I'm going to sew and knit a lot, which should result in more successful FO's. That's it.

So happy holidays, happy new year and I'll be back in a few hours with a skirt. 

Monday, November 21, 2011

Finished: Kaide





I finally finished Kaide

Sunday, November 13, 2011

WIP: Anhinga

As soon as I finished knitting Kaide (It's blocking and taking FOREVER to dry. I've even used a blow-dryer.) I cast on for Anhinga.


I'm using Lana Grossa Carezza. It is gorgeous, shimmery and glides right through my fingers. The endless stockinette is a welcome reprieve from the constant cabling I've been doing.

You know what I should be working on? These:

Tangled Yoke Pullover - in need of buttons since '08!
Brocade Socks - single since '07

My Ravelry projects page was looking pretty sparse, so I decided to dig through boxes and drawers to find all of my knitting works-in-progress. There are quite a few things that have been wrongfully abandoned - including single socks. I LOVE handknit socks. Anyway, I'll be finishing up a variety of knits and featuring them here. 

Yeah, yeah. I'm working on my Clovers. I fixed one thing and made another much worse. My latest round of alterations resulted in a huge back dart. I'm figuring it out. Slowly.


Friday, November 11, 2011

Clover: Rounds 2 & 3

I'm just about done posting pictures of my bottom half in tight pants. Don't worry!

This isn't my first time sewing pants. I've made jeans. But non-stretch jeans are significantly different than stretchy cigarette pants. These have been really tough to fit mainly because of my muslin fabric choices.


Round 2 was sewn up in mystery material from Joann's that I swear had something about "reversible jeggings" on the fabric bolt. It's the stretchiest of stretchy material and so incredible comfortable. I have enough left over to make these leggings once this Clover business is over with.

Anyway, I altered the pattern by doing a full butt adjustment and took out 1" horizontally from the front and back pieces. I also brought the legs in quite a bit. When I first tried these on they barely fit, but by the end of the day - yes, I wore them all day - they were perfect! But I still let the legs back out a bit for the final pair. The sides were really bunchy and weird, so I straightened the hip curve just a touch on both pieces.


Oh boy. Round 3 is in periwinkle corduroy with no stretch. I'm not entirely sure why I thought that would be a good idea, but here we are. I'm not even going to show you the back because it reminds me of sausage casings. For this muslin I slashed and spread [more] the back crotch area thinking that I would have some more room for my tush. Not the case! I still have diagonal wrinkles and tightness. Obviously it will look different and better in a stretch fabric, but the extra room is definitely needed. I did another FBA and am hoping for the best. The front crotch is still kind of weird too, but I think if I take in a bit more at the center front seam it will be fixed.

At this point I'm just going to go for it. No more muslins. I've enjoyed the process because I LOVE messing around with fit and patterns, but it's time to move on. I'm still using mustard corduroy, but I also found some cute, stretchy lightweight denim in my stash that I might use up as well.

I've been knitting my little heart out and Kaide is almost finished! The front pieces need to be blocked and then it's just seaming and the collar that's left. Hooray! So expect to see some exciting stuff here in the next week.

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Miss Scarlet

Today I shipped off a couple of dresses that I made for my niece. 


Pattern: OOP New Look - size 4
Mods: I think I just shortened it a bit.
Fabric: suuuper cute quilting cotton; muslin bodice lining



Pattern: Simplicity 2460 - size 4
Mods: None.
Fabric: I have no idea what this is, but I love it. Maybe a cotton/metallic mix? I was able to iron it on warm with a pressing cloth. I bought it a few years ago when I worked at Nuttall's.

 Here are a few other pieces that I've made for her.
Kwik Sew 3665 - Showing off her bloomers!
Simplicity 2684
Kwik Sew 3664

Tuesday, November 08, 2011

Clover: Round 1

I completely missed the sewalong, but now I'm ready to go!




In order to use Colette's fit guide correctly, I needed to figure out my problem areas. The diagonal lines across my butt and pooling underneath indicates that a full butt adjustment is needed. The waist and hips fit great, but the legs are suuuper baggy. I like my pants tight! There were frown lines by my crotch, so I pinched out an inch at the center front seam.


That looks better, right? I'll also do a slight adjustment for my knock knees. I'm still undecided on the length. I think these will be relatively high-waisted and if that's the case then I can wear them with flats. But I mostly think they should be worn with heels. I lengthened the pattern by 2 7/8" and have taken up a 5/8" hem. I think they need to be a touch shorter.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Versatile Blogger!



Lavender of threadsquare kindly tagged me with the Versatile Blogger Award. I've been racking my brain trying to come up with seven things. Here we go:

1. I met my husband when I was 19. I worked at a fishing tackle shop and he needed an ice auger. It was love at first sight.

2. My blog name is misleading. I am a much better knitter than seamstress, but I think it has something to do with the risk factor. In knitting, you can unravel a whole sweater and get that yarn back if things go awry. With sewing there is no looking back and sometimes that scares me.

3. My cat Binks, the Binxiest of all the Binkertons, is one of the great loves of my life.

4. I was born and raised in Utah and almost 30 years later I still haven't made it out. Sure, we go on vacation, but I haven't lived anywhere else. This used to bother me, but I'm proud to say that I've been to all of the state's National Parks multiple times, hiked the Boulder Mountains, fished Causey Reservoir, rock-hounded Topaz Mountain, tagged along on a crane hunt in Vernal and have been everywhere else in between. It's a beautiful state and I'm grateful my husband's hobbies have taken me places I wouldn't have ventured on my own.


5. I love bright colors. Like, I've really had to restrain myself when it comes to home decor, but our house is still pretty saturated. For example, my sewing room is chartreuse. I also love buying loud yarn and fabric, but I mostly wear natural, muted colors. Funny, huh?

6. I have a pretty sick sense of humor and love to laugh. I read web comics daily, have been obsessed with Dibert since I was 12, love funny movies and [good] stand-up comedy.


7. I love to cook! I'm not amazing by any means, but I'll tackle any recipe and love trying new things. Lately we've been eating a lot of carnitas because I've been trying out different variations.

Thanks Lavender! That was really fun. Here are my picks (not new bloggers necessarily, just some of my favorites):

sallieoh
A Good Wardrobe
Grainline
All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go
Garment House
the wardrobe, reimagined
Ginger Makes...
Sew Well

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Beatnik and Why Gauge Matters


I'm really proud of this one. It fits nicely (after some serious stretching and blocking). I wouldn't mind another Beatnik in a bright color with stockinette sleeves instead of moss stitch. I was pretty thorough in my note-taking, so if you want to read specifics go to my Ravelry page here.

I used a different weight yarn than called for, different sized needles and knit the smallest size. That was wrong of me.  I rarely knit a gauge swatch and when I do I kind of stretch it out and manipulate it to fit whatever it's supposed to be. Weird, I know. So here's a kind reminder to myself that I do not have a 32" bust and that I should always knit a gauge swatch. It's totes worth it.

My mantra. It almost caught up with me on this one. Phew!

Here are a couple of shoddy pictures of fabrics that I have in my stash. I don't really have a plan other than if I cut into something this fall it better be one of these fabrics or something teal.

Bizarre-o mish-mash of sparkly jersey, silk/linen coating and poly chiffon.

I was supposed to head south this weekend, but unexpected events are taking me north for a little while instead. I won't be able to sew, but I'll get a lot of knitting done. Like, Kaide better be finished. I'm sick of talking about it.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Recovery

I'm still recovering from the weekend. I lost one night of sleep because I was so excited for the Sewing Summit and another couple of nights due to watching movies (That's another one of my favorite things - movies. Has anyone else seen Incendies? OMG.)

The Sewing Summit was amazing. I learned so much and met some super-talented, friendly, incredible girls. I walked away from the experience inspired, motivated and overwhelmed! I'm also going to re-think how and what I sew and attempt some more difficult pieces.

It was so fun for me to not only meet, but hang out with sewing bloggers that I've been following for years. I was able to spend a lot of time with Lavender and Suriah. We went thrifting, talked about sewing techniques (I never get to do that) and enjoyed a few good meals. Lavender's Rooibos is so beautiful in person. It fits her perfectly. I also met Sunni, another local, who was wearing her fabulous Clover pants. Gertie is hilarious and I like how the classes were a bit unstructured and fun.

Gertie! She's kind of a big deal.

Speaking of Clover pants, that sewalong has started and I'm not even sure I have fabric for a muslin! I think there's some white stretch twill somewhere on my craft cave floor. For my final pair I'm using some stretchy mustard corduroy. Does that alarm you? I was going to pair them with a white, tucked-in, button-up OR a slouchy knit sweater.

Thursday, October 06, 2011

Chambray Tiny Pocket Tank



I wore this shirt everyday all summer long. 
I didn't even bother taking it off for a quick press before my big shoot.


Pattern: Tiny Pocket Tank (Highly recommended!)

Mods: Size 2 with a 3/4" FBA and an exposed bias trim. This is the first tank I made and initially thought it was too small, so I threw away the traced off pattern. Huge mistake because I would like fifteen more.

Fabric: cotton chambray