Friday 24 April 2015

Me Made May Pledge #mmmay15

'I, Jennifer at www.knitsewgrow.blogspot.com, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '15. I endeavour to wear my handmade items, either sewn or knitted, as often as I can for the duration of May 2015. I will also try to sew some more garments for my me-made wardrobe.'

There we are, I'm all signed up and excited to give this a try!

I saw a load of blogs and tweets last year and thought #mmmay14 was a great idea, but as I'd only just started making and blogging in earnest I didn't really have enough of a handmade wardrobe to give it a proper go.

This year, I've got more me-mades in my wardrobe, sewn and knitted, that I'm planning to wear whenever I can throughout May.

I also want to try and make a few more things, especially a couple of tops and maybe a dress - apart from anything else I've got tonnes of fabric sitting around waiting for me to do something with it!

If you don't know, Me Made May is a challenge administered by Zoe at SoZoWhatDoYouKnow, and you can read her post about this year's challenge and see who else has pledged to take part here.

Wish me luck! And Good Luck to everyone else taking part, I'll keep you posted with pictures of what I wear, and I can't wait to see what everyone else makes and wears!

Saturday 18 April 2015

Kamut Jumper

Hi everyone! What have you all being up to lately? I’ve been trying to cram too much in as usual, but do have a couple of completed projects to show you.

I started knitting this jumper at the end of January but then got side-tracked by making gifts for other people so it’s taken a bit longer than I expected to get it finished.



The pattern is Kamut from this Rowan Simple Shapes: Summerspun and Purelife Revive book with patterns by Sarah Hatton. The yarn was a pack of the Summerspun that I got at last October’s Knitting & Stitching Show in colourway Maida Vale. To be honest I wasn’t sure about the colours from just seeing it in the balls, but I really like how it’s knitted up and how the different tones of light and dark green, rust and brown have come together.




The pattern itself is just a basic round necked jumper, but the ribbing on the body, cuffs and neckband is a little more unusual for a change and looks really effective. It’s two rows of 1x1 rib between four rows of garter stitch which gives a really effective texture, especially in the multi-tonal yarn.




As I said, a straightforward knit with all of the main body and sleeves in stocking stitch. I’m pleased with the sizing too, I think it’s one of the best fitting things I’ve made in terms of the shoulders and bust area, although it could have maybe done with being a couple of inches longer in the body. However, as I really didn’t have a lot of yarn left by the end (maybe a quarter of a ball, if that) I wouldn’t have had enough to lengthen the back and front by much.


I love these Rowan yarns; they knit beautifully and are comfortable to wear (this one being a cotton and wool mix), and I’ve got another pack in a pink/orange combination but I’ll probably make a different pattern with this.

Nothing much else to say on this one, very happy and I’m sure I’ll be wearing it a lot, it’ll be great in this changeable spring weather.


Another little quick make to show you, this Doll Face Cushion made for my cousin as a birthday present, the pattern and instructions are in the latest issue of Mollie Makes magazine. I used felt for the face and the back and front hair pieces were cut from a fat quarter with a bit to spare. I actually enlarged the pattern from the size on the template download and I’m quite pleased I did, I think it would have been a bit small and fiddly otherwise. My cousin is also into her sewing and crafting so I hope she likes it!


Sunday 12 April 2015

Portia Trousers

A new sewing project to share with you this week – my Sew Me Something Portia trousers.


I had this fabric in my stash from a post-Christmas binge in my local haberdashery and had been debating what to do with it, maybe a dress, but with the big checked pattern I wasn’t sure if it would work. Then I bought the Portia pattern from Jules at the Knitting & Stitching Show and realised it would be perfect for these wide leg trousers, especially as the wool blend would drape wonderfully as well as being comfortable.


Tracing the pattern from the pack is always a bit of a mission – the front and back leg pieces just about fitted across the dining room table where I got the best light, and this time rather than re-tracing with carbon paper I cut out my pattern pieces to pin to the fabric and cut round. I also had to put extra pins in the fabric once it was folded in half to make sure the pattern stayed matched up, but this seemed to work pretty well.

With everything cut out it was time to start sewing, and one of the first steps in the instructions was the joined the front crotch seam and then insert the zip fly. Well, this turned out to be a little more complicated than it first appeared, but eventually, after consulting several YouTube videos, unpicking three times and checking what I was doing against another pair of trousers I came to the conclusion that one of the steps in the instructions wasn’t right. The fly on a woman’s pair of trousers should cross right over left, but the first stage of construction for this pair tells you to attach the fly extension piece to the wrong side, leading to a left over right fly. I’ve emailed Jules at Sew Me Something about this as I’m pretty sure that’s where the problem started. Anyway, I’ve ended up with the zip fly ‘the wrong way round’ but as I’m left-handed it doesn’t actually bother me in terms of using it. But at least I know for next time!



The rest of the construction was fairly straightforward. I was hugely impressed with my own neat double topstitching to attach the back pockets, and am really pleased with how the front pockets sit too. Oh, and pattern matching happiness!




Attaching front to back introduced a few fitting issues. I’d cut out a straight size 14 based on the measurements given, which was fine around my hips with a comfortable ease for moving and sitting. But I knew the waist would probably need taking in, and in the end I took in about two and a half inches in total across the centre back seam and two back darts. This definitely solved the gaping back issue, but meant I had to remember to alter the waistband when I attached that.



Waistband on, belt loops attached, button hole made, button sewn on – nearly there! Just the hems to do, which I had to get Mum to help with pinning them up to the right level.

Done! I’m really pleased with these, they’re definitely the most complicated thing I’ve made yet, but not so scary that I wouldn’t make them again (now that I know what to do with the zip!). The fit is still not quite right, I think I erred on the side of caution a little too much with the waist and it could really do with taking in another inch or two so that they sit better at my actual waist line. I’ll do this after they’ve been through the wash in case there’s any further shrinkage anyway (I did pre-wash the fabric before starting!). They are really nice to wear though, and I’m delighted to have found a good pattern for wide-leg trousers as I just don’t get on with slim or skinny trousers at all, they plain and simple do not work for my body shape.

I’ve got more knitting to show you next time as I’ve almost finished my jumper. What have you all been making recently? Hope you’re enjoying the sunny warmer weather too!

Monday 6 April 2015

Rainbow Blankets

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you're all enjoying the long weekend. I always look forward to having the extra time off work to get on with other stuff at home, but then try to fit in too much and wear myself out! 

Today I actually want to show you a couple of things I haven't made myself, although I have been involved in the projects.

If you've seen any of my previous posts you might have noticed that I take a lot of my photos against a multi-coloured blanket background. In purely practical terms this is mainly because it's on my bed which is a good flat space in pretty good light under the window. In more sentimental terms it's there because my Mum knitted it and gave it to me, and I've had it on my bed all winter because it's really warm and cosy.


Now I love anything multi-coloured, or anything coloured in general really. You'll very rarely find me wearing black unless there's a pattern or another colour somewhere in my outfit (red lipstick is a prime example). My bedroom has orange wallpaper, my bed sheets are bright colours, and a lot of my accessories and 'stuff' is very colourful too. I just find that being surrounded by colour makes me feel better, happier, and more optimistic. Most of the time - we're all allowed an off day.



In my crafting too I love colour. If you take a look back through my previous projects you'll barely even find anything in neutrals, I'd much rather use fun fabrics and yarns as I find them more fun to work with and they fit better with my personal style, or I'll try to match an appropriate colour if I'm making a gift for someone. My gardening is very colourful too, my favourites are any bright and cheerful flowers - at this time of year it's daffodils and tulips, later on I'll have sweet peas, lavender and dahlias, and my favourite cut flowers are gerberas.







Rainbows especially make me very happy, and not just in the traditional 'red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple' spectrum, but any combination of lots of colours together, whether they're subtle tones or bright contrasts. I quite often pin rainbow coloured things on my Pinterest boards purely because they make me smile.

Sorry, waxing lyrical a bit there, back to the blankets.

My Mum has been a knitter for years and years, since my Nan taught her, but she prefers to just knit simple things that she can work on in front of the TV without needing to concentrate too hard. Garter stitch squares are pretty much as simple as you can get, but once you've got a pile of well over 200 of them in loads of different colours the best use of them is in a massive bed blanket. This is where I came in to help; we spent a really fun couple of hours with all the squares laid out on the living room floor (after we'd moved the furniture to make room!) playing with patterns, eventually deciding on the diagonal striped effect with the colours running through toning families. It then took another long while to sew all the squares and rows together (I helped), and then Mum knitted a red narrow border to go all the way round which just finishes it off beautifully I think.


With this first blanket being a bit more luck than judgement in the co-ordination and planning stakes, Mum decided to choose her colour scheme more carefully for the next one. Thank goodness for the ease of internet shopping, quick delivery from Deramores, and a slightly weighed down delivery man, we now had a huge bag full of Red Heart Lisa in pinks, purples and blues. Mum's been working on this one for about the last six months - no rush, it's just for fun - but I absolutely love how it's turned out. It's slightly more subtle colour shading than my blanket, but I still love the rainbow effect that works really well on the diagonal. This one is having a purple border which Mum is in the process of knitting now. 




I'm kind of hoping to acquire this blanket too, but we'll have to wait and see! And then we'll have the fun of choosing a whole new set of colours for the next one!

This post is my submission  to the Deramores Craft Blog Competition 2015. Deramores is the UK's number one online retailer of knitting and crochet supplies. Visit www.deramores.com for more details.