Onward with knits: trees and stars

Making one project often seems to beget other project ideas. Sometimes it's ways to use up the fabric scraps, other times it's to improve on the first version.  I think that it's a good idea to chase down these ideas because they are the things I get excited about even though they are kind of queue jumpers (and I am way too obsessed with crossing things off lists.)

That happened.

The Geneva tee was a way of using the end of the star fabric, which I love, and the original project was a fail. It was also a way of using my scraps of my totally amazing cashmere merino blend jersey.
Geneva: size 36.

I added cuffs to the sleeves, which helped to stabilise the super fine sleeve fabric.  My second thought on this very fine jersey is that in the future it might be nice to double it up.  I am scared that the leggings are fragile and will get easily worn out.

The Minttu was a way of quickly testing whether there was a way to salvage this pattern. I didn't want to commit too much to it, but I did think that whatever I made would be wearable.
Minttu: size 34, back to full length, no lining or bindings.
I used the end of this lovely star embossed fabric and some navy ribbing for the under arm portions.
I still think the shape is too billowy but at least it's not too short.  I would decrease the exaggerated width at the bottom on future versions.

The mission tank was actually an idea from my first op-shop trip in March. I fell in love with this fabric, even though the original item was a pretty tight dress and therefore not a lot of fabric to work with. I really wanted it to be a Renfrew but I could not make it happen. And as a Mission it has already had lots of wear!

Mission size 6.  Upcycled dress. 

Most Amazing Papercut undercover hood & Named Geneva raglan tee

I'll just smash these into one post since I made them the same day!

First was a Geneva Raglan tee, by Named patterns.
Done here.
I wanted to see if the size I've been making, 36, would work for a more sweater-type feel.  I was even armed with wrist and hem bindings.  I used up some scraps, as you can see.  Unfortunately I wasn't paying close attention and the left arm fabric had a right and wrong side...which I flipped thinking that there was a notch when there wasn't.  The right arm is made of ribbing, and didn't have a right and wrong side, so I didn't notice until it was too late (I did wonder why I had to ease the arms in so much on a raglan tee!)

Ridiculously, this worked out really well.  I did have to take in the arm with the ribbing, as that ribbing has proven to be really loose and floppy.  (See my Geodesic).  I ended up cutting about 2 inches off the hem and the hem binding looked stupid so I took it off and just zig zagged the hem and the wrists.  I'm not sure how well that will hold because the left sleeve fabric is kind of terry cloth and sheds, but I will see.

Then I made my Undercover hood which I've been dreaming of for weeks!  I have to majorly thank the Fabric Store, as I ran in straight from the airport with ten minutes before closing time and dithered over the knits, (Ah plus the new patterns from Papercut!  Exciting!)

I had envisioned an orange hoody.  But the orange wasn't the right shade and right next to it was...this.  It's drapey, thin weave merino and basically is a sweater weave.  Heavier than usual merino.  It so happens that I adore this colour, which is a dusky terra cotta. This thin, but drapey fabric, I know from experience, is totally the wrong thing for the Undercover Hood, which works better with moderate structure...

So I doubled the front and back.  I lined the hood and the pocket with a leftover, also merino, also from the Fabric Store, that was more stable, and I used the changes that I have written on my pattern from ages ago.  It's XS, with 1 inch removed from the length and from the sleeve length.  I narrowed the front body by about 2 cm but not the back.  If I had read my notes I might have been encouraged to shorten it by 2 inches as I still think it's too long, especially as this drapey fabric pulls down.

Anyway I think despite the length this is the most fabulous undercover hood I have ever made.
Plus I have an embarrassing admission to make. Until now, I have always used a straight stitch for all my knits, all the time.

For some reason I thought I'd try a very narrow zig zag.  And my mind was totally bent.  I somehow had never realised that was the way to fix knits which are just too tight in the seams!  I thought any zig zag would show up and look silly. 

So I have stretchy cuffs and a fabulous hoody.  It's a bit sad to me that these unglamorous basics are the things I wear All.The.Time but that is my life...

Named Geneva tee times three

I kicked off my sewing vacation with a Geneva tee!  Except it's not - it's a Geneva sweater, made from lambswool.  And not just that, but made from a massive, scratchy, hippie-ish 8-gored lambswool skirt that I got at some secondhand shop in Munich for 10 euro awhile ago.  I was cold when I got to Munich and it seemed a nice way of getting back into things.  So don't mind the holes, I kept a scrap of the fabric to fix them.

My Geneva pattern is size 36 based on my measurements.  It's a good fit for the thicker fabrics but maybe too loose for finer jerseys.  I like the shoulder darts - they do have to be ironed down but I don't mind emphasis on my wide shoulders, and I think they also fit really nicely on me.  Possibly if you are narrow shouldered you would need to size down.

It passed my first test, so I made a few more.  My second Geneva was a thin slubbed jersey with stars, from The Sweet Mercerie.  My order from this shop was amazing.  The fabric is sooo cheap, it's just like the pictures and there are awesome knits.  I had to narrow the side seams by 1 cm on each side to get a better fit, with this thin fabric. I think that the fabric would have been better suited to a Renfrew because it's so light jersey.  Since this pattern has normal hemmed sleeves and bottom, they tend to stretch out a lot over the course of the day.  I hope that it'll improve when I have access to a dryer and the fabric shrinks, but at present I think the Geneva doesn't seem like the best fit for a simple, thin jersey tshirt.

Sorry about the in-between and headless poses.  The light jersey is also pretty unflattering in photographs so I struggled to get some that looked decent.

The final version is a transformation.  I started with this sweater which was a going away present from my housemate Camille:

I wanted to use only the black parts but it wasn't long enough and I prioritised saving the hem, and so it cut into some of the dirty white.  I think the lace distracts from the, er, dirt and stains, though.  The stretchy lace is from Das Blaue Tuch, a lovely eco-fabric shop in Munchener Freiheit.  It's a rayon and something else blend, and is very soft.  When I was sewing it caught on all my callused fingertips and started to run, or pill, so I was glad that this was mostly a recycled project (first) and that I have a half meter left over for later (second.)  After wearing it for a bit I guess I'll have a better impression of how fragile the lace is.

Anyway for a recycled top I'm super pleased with it!  The neck binding was a pain because it has mechanical stretch but curls up and thins when you stretch it like one of those chinese finger traps.  Other than that it didn't cause me any trouble sewing at all.

Overall I don't know why this pattern (specifically) inspired me to such heights of recycled creativity.  Sometimes a pattern does, though.  Like the Papercut Hoody pattern, this one just makes my fingers itch to make more and to modify more.  Maybe it's just that I adore raglan sleeves?

The Geneva was also an unplanned experiment on using different types of knit fabric - the wool sweater turned out better than I expected with the random extra ex-skirt seams, and using the cotton sweater made me more comfortable with taking the fabric from one item and making it into another, taking into consideration what you start with.  I'm really proud of that; this sweater may be humble but I feel like it represents a more personal foray into why I really wanted to sew - making one (hideous, sorry Camille) thing into another awesome one.

The Geneva pattern rounded out my week of sewing.  I sewed a Geneva first - the sweater - and wore it my entire week in Munich.  I sewed the other two shirts at the end of the week.  Overall out of my sewing vacation I got: one Briar, one Mission tank top, one slinky Mission jersey dress, a Geneva long sleeved tee, a Geneva sweater and an stunning Falda summer jacket.  My friends got: one red Sallie jumpsuit, one Strathcona tee, and one Briar.  My storage box got one lambswool Geneva (because in Ukraine it was already getting too warm to bring it back.)

It wasn't easy to plan a sewing vacation with my head full of dreams, limited time, and luggage restrictions.  I reckon I did a good job. I'm so much happier now that I can wear me-mades most days - they may be imperfect and idiosyncratic, but they mean something that RTW doesn't and I definitely felt the lack in my wardrobe in the past few months.  The next step for me is to force myself to remake more of my wardrobe rather than giving things away so blithely.  It's a step I can't take right away but that I hope to integrate over the next year, and of course would be much easier if I would stop moving every year!