cosmicpluto knits!

back in action

I’m back! Indy was good, although I didn’t get the chance to check out that yarn store you were all on about! Next time.

I cam back to the fabric I ordered from Cia’s Palette last week. Yay, fabric!

I think the sewing bug comes in waves, definitely stronger in the spring and summer when I can whip up some skirts and bags (well, mostly skirts really) to wear out and about. And I think my laptop sleeve experience spurred on the sewing thing, too.

Not that I don’t already have a fabric stash. Cuz I do. I really must figure out what to make with it all! Anyway, I had trouble narrowing down the fabrics I wanted to something within reason, but I ended up with (left to right):

- Alexander Henry fabric for a skirt, perhaps wrappy-type,
- unknown “Homespun Simple Check”, probably for a dress,
- some Amy Butler for a top
- and the last two pieces are Chocolate Lollipop (which I love!), for a top and a skirt.

The tops will definitely be of the Built by Wendy cap-sleeve persuasion, from the pattern at right. I’ve never made a top before, but since this one’s a raglan and supposedly very easy, I think I can do it! I might try the dress, too, if the top turns out well.

A closeup of the Galaxy print. I’m thinking a nice flowy circle skirt, my favourite for the summer. All the fabric’s in the process of being washed at the moment, and I think I might even give something (a top) a whirl tonight.

In the meanwhile, I’m taking a chill day and watching some Buffy, and knitting my Manos silk sweater – it’s coming out great!

my computer’s new clothes

Have I mentioned how much I love my new computer? Seriously, it’s awesome. And since there’s less and less bloggable knitting around here, I thought I’d write up a little info on the laptop sleeve I sewed.

It’s basically just a zippered pouch, with some extra padding. I have a 13″ Macbook and used pieces of fabric with the dimensions 14.5″ x 10.5″ – I cut out a piece of cardboard to use as a pattern.

For the outside, I used a couple of Denyse Schmidt cottons, as well as a random scrap for the pocket. One side is solid with the pocket; the other side has two fabrics joined off-centre.

I really love that side! I just sewed the two pieces straight down, then trimmed to fit the cardboard cutout. I used a fairly light iron-on interfacing on the exterior layers (I couldn’t find my firmer interfacing, but it probably turned out better this way). The lining is an awesome pink silk dupioni.

For the pocket, I sewed two pieces together along the long edge with RS together, so the pocket would be lined. Then I just began following the zippered pouch tutorial, there – believe me, I made a lot of mistakes! I had to rip out quite a few (like 4) seams, and that is not fun with a very fray-y silk lining. Oy.

Anyway, I sewed the pocket inbetween the two exterior layers when they were joined, and then I just pinned the two layers of wool felt (cut to fit inside the seam allowances) to the wrong sides of both pieces of the exterior fabric (with the pin heads on the outside of the pouch!). Then I turned the whole thing right side out, sandwiching the felt between the exterior and lining. Then I sewed up the hole in the lining and also pushed in the corners of the zipper a bit.

The case is really quite padded – when empty, it’s about the same thickness as my computer! I haven’t sewn down the felt to anything, so it can sort of slide around a bit – not really ideal. But, I’m feeling kind of lazy about the whole thing now, so it’ll probably just stay the way it is. I had originally thought of sewing the felt in along the sides and bottom when attaching the exterior fabrics together, but that would make for super bulky seams (and didn’t fit in my sewing machine, anyway).

The whole way along I kept thinking “this isn’t going to work, it’s going to be too small, blah blah” but it actually worked out just perfectly!

happiness in a white box

Doorbell ringing Monday morning got me out of bed right quick.

Ooooh!

Only Apple would have styrofoam this awesome.

Hurray!

New and old.

I spent all yesterday evening playing with my new computer, moving stuff over from my old (G3, circa 2003) iBook, and futzing with settings. Two finger scroll? Awesome. One-touch right-click? Awesome. Seriously, I loved my old iBook, but I am in a whole lotta love with my new Macbook.

And today?

I made it some new clothes!

Details next post, or just click on through to my Flickr for the details!

things to do, places to go

A quick post – I really have lots of things to do to get ready for Le Trip, plus it’s Good TV Night (ahhh, grey’s) so I need to get them done fast!

I did decide (with some egging on) to make something else for Rhinebeck, a pretty awesome tote bag.

I cut the pieces Tuesday night and whipped it together Wednesday in under an hour. The outside is barkcloth from Reprodepot, and the inside is some stripey cotton I got from Yahaira! The straps are black canvasy stuff.

It’s nice and big, modeled after one of my usual bags from Grassroots. Perfect for filling with wool…

Clothing is packed, but knitting…not so much. Need to go wind some wool and pack enough knitting to last me a week. You know it’s true. Also need to charge camera, gather up shampoo and such, clean out and pack up my backpack…

See you at Rhinebeck!

an afternoon with denny

Denny came over today for some fibrey fun! She brought her warping mill for me to borrow/keep, and showed me how to use it:

And I gave her an email tutorial.

I wove! It’s a looong way from perfect, but whatever. Fun!

It’s…I dunno, a scarf or something. Long. All cotton, white with pink stripes. We wound two more warps, much wider ones, so those will be the next couple projects.

And Denny took some photos of my latest finished dress – don’t mind the blurry, you get the idea, right?

Pattern is McCall’s 5137.
Fabric: “Carmen Paisley” in brown from Reprodepot; brown cotton twill from Fabricland. The paisley is really light and gauzey, and has a ripple texture. I thought the twill might be too heavy (especially doubled for the neckband and waist) but it gives the garment some good weight.

Thoughts on the pattern – well, I think there are some unnecessary seams. You could cut the back bodice and centre back skirt panel on the fold and eliminate those seams. And it’s very low cut! I made the size 8 on the recommendation of Erin from A Dress a Day, and it fits fine. Very comfy.

I decided not to do doubled sleeve ends and just did a normal hem around the sleeve. There’s supposed to be an extra panel at the bottom of the skirt, but I nixed that too and just hemmed. All in all the pattern was fairly straightforward.

Now I’m all tempted to buy more of that paisley!

hey, she can (kinda) sew

Finally, here is my first successful dress (I’ve attempted before, but that didn’t get too far). Photo taken in my sister’s room, which we painted this week. Did the trim today, so it’s still drying.

(very difficult to get a decent photo of this, on my own anyway. looks better, and slimmer, in person.)

Pattern is Butterick 4443, view C (the yellow) without the bow, obviously. Size 14. Fabric was cotton/linen blend from Fabricland for $5 a metre! Quite a nice fabric.

The pattern was…well, challenging for me, queen of skirts and bags. I liked the princess shaping rather than darts, and once I figured out where to clip, they were easy to put together. I didn’t understitch the lining, which was good, because I ran out of thread…not till after I finished, but then there were alterations to be made.

The pattern really was fairly straightforward, though. The skirt is a really nice shape. I bought this pattern awhile back, so I’d gotten the 8-14 size – I made the 14, but it’s a bit snug in the waist despite reducing the seam allowances on the sides to less than 3/8″. Wearable, though.

Once I finished slip-stitching in the bodice lining (very tedious), I put it on, zipped it up, and….it was too big in the bodice. The back was gaping madly. So I had to make some modifications:

Two back darts.

Plus, I had to go and wreck my nice lined bodice by taking it in at the shoulder – with a different colour thread, too! Ah, well. I wore it out to SnB on Wednesday and got quite a few compliments.

And since the sewing bug’s got me, I finished another dress today! Okay, it’s not totally totally done, but it will be tomorrow. I even cut yet another dress tonight, and it should be fairly easy to sew up tomorrow.

Quick knitting update: Unfortunately, I had to rip what I’d done of the Blueberry Greek Pullover that I showed the other day! I went to count the stitches to figure out how many more increases to do, and realized I’d just cast on the wrong number of stitches. Not the smaller size or anything, just kind of a random number inbetween. I think I’m finally, finally back on track.