Sewing Madness

One I started this blog, I was only knitting.  I hadn't sewn is a very long time.  I started sewing again about a year ago.  I had forgotten how much I love to sew.  It started with sewing patterns by Oliver & S for Morgan and Gwen.  The first dress I sewed by Liesl of Oliver and S was the Bubble Dress.   I love Liesl's designs.  The patterns are well drafted and the instructions are easy to follow.  She even rates the patterns for difficulty.  I have made 4 different items from the Little Things to Sew book and highly recommend her patterns for anything you sew. 

My latest venture into Lisel-land was her free pattern called Popover Sundress.  This pattern is a free download and my first pattern which was printed on my printer.  You tape the pieces together.  It was easy to do.  This is a good first pattern if you are just starting back into sewing. 

This blog post is going to be a tutorial on how to make your own bias binding.  That bias tape that you can buy at the big box fabric shops is not a wonderful thing to sew.  I never realized the bias tape/binding could be so wonderful to use before I started sewing again.  Now, I tried to make bias tape back in the day when I was quilting.  I tried to make continous bias tape with these type of instructions.  I knew quilter who could make their continous bias binding with this method but mine came out uneven and I was never happy with the end product.  I thought bias binding was too hard to do.

So, here we go. First lay your fabric out flat.

Fold the fabric in so that you form a triangle.  This will be a 45 degree angle to the selvage edge of the fabric.  This is the bias area of your fabric.  It is a stretchy wonderful thing. 

Press the fold.  Open the fabric and  place your rotatory ruler on the pressed fold line. 

Cut along this fold line. 

With the rotatory ruler, line up the 2 inch line with the cut edge of your fabric.  Cut a 2 inch strip of fabric.

Your strips should look like this. 

Now we are going to sew the single strips together so that we maintain a bias edge.  This longer strips will be the binding edge of my dress and the strapes to tie together for the little sundress.  Turn your strips right side up.  Place the first strip right side up and then place a second on top of first strip right down with the straight cut edges together.  You want a tiny triangle to hand over the end of both edges.  Your strips will be at a 45 degree angle with right sides together.

Pin these pieces together.  Sew a 1/4 inch (or I think it is 4 millimeters) sew allowance on the edge. Press open the seam allowance and trim the little triangles off.

So, now you have a continuous piece of bias binding.  You can continue this process until you have the length of bias that you need.  I am going to show you how I attached my binding to the neckline of the Popover Sundress. 

You fold the bias strip in half and press with the iron. 

Open the strip.  Now fold an edge over the meet the center fold.  Do this for both edges.  After they are pressed, the edges will look like this, kinda like a commercial bias tape only softer and more flexible.  Since your strip was 2 inches wide.  The center fold divides the fabric into 1 inch areas.  After folding the edges to meet the center fold, the strip will be 1 inch wide. 

Cut your bias strip to the length recommended in your pattern.  In my case it was 34 inches.  Press under the end. 

Fold your bias binding in half and pin it halfway point to the side seam of your sundress.  Pin the bias binding along the edge of your dress making sure you do not stretch the bias binding. 

Fold the pressed edges together on the strips that is the strap area of the sundress. Sew a 1/2 inch seam in the armhole area. 

Press your bias binding towards the seam allowance.  Pin the bias binding to the armhole area, encasing the rough seam allowance.  I then repin the bias binding on the right side of the dress.  I do this because I will be topstitching the binding together from the right side.  When you turn the bias binding over, pull it snug so that you have more bias tape on the wrong side of the garment.  Your bias tape should be about a 1/2 in width. 

I topstitch the bias tape from the right side because it will be seen and I have more control.  I sew with an edge-stitching foot.  I move the needle over to a left stitching position.  This foot has a metal guide that I run along the seam.  If I run the metal guide along the seam, I have a consistent topstitched seam. 

This is the final project.

  The little bag was sewn from the pattern ScreenPlay by Nancy Ota.  This was a class at Dave's Bernina in St. George, Utah.    Before I sewed the panels to the screen on the bag, I embroidered Morgan's name with my Bernina sewing machine.  I also used some iron on interfacing to make the fabric lay flatter and give a little support for the bag.  The bag was sewn in the medium size.  This pattern has four sizes and is a nice pattern for multiple uses.  A pattern modified I made in the sundress is that I added a 2 borders to the bottom of the dress and a pocket.  I mean, every girl needs a pocket. 

Could I have some Cheese with this whine?

I have a BIG WHINE! Two weeks ago, I pulled out some wool that my friend, Janet, bought me years ago at the local thrift store. Some of the yarn was Colinette. I was thinking of knitting with the solid wool. When I pulled it out, I was horified! BUGS! I had thousands of eggs buried in the skein and lots of shredded wool. I pitched the wool immediately. And looked at all the wool around the box. The effected wool was a minimally processed wool with lanolin in it. All the other yarn were blends and non-wools….or so I thought! Today I went down to look for my Philosopher’s wool in a cream to swatch for an Irish knit sweater for a Craftsy class. (Yes, I am out of control, but what else is new! ) I picked up the skeins of cream and they felt gritty. BUGS! I have had the Philosopher’s Wool since I lived in NJ. I was planning on knitting a sweater for Joe but he not so politely declined the sweater. So, it has been on my shelf for years. I could just cry…… Could I have some cheese with this whine? 

Fortunately, the wool that I bought from Sweet Grass Wool was stored in a different area.  I have 5 skeins of this gorgeous Targhee wool.  It is so soft and looks beautiful.  There are no bugs.  I pulled the five skeins and brought them upstairs.  I need at least two more skeins for the Portulaca sweater, a class taught by Carol Feller on Craftsy.com. So, I ordered three more skeins in the natural white so I have yarn to swatch the cables. 

Carol's sweater design is an updated style of cables.  She said in her introduction to the class that she likes the sweaters a little more fitted.  And this Portulaca sweater has raglan sleeves.  The sweater is knit in one piece from the bottom up.  I love cables.  I can't wait to get my three skeins of yarn from Sweet Grass Wool and start swatching.  I doubt I will start the whole sweater until the weather gets cooler.  A wool woman's sweater knit in one piece in the hot Utah summer does not sound like a good idea!  Pictures to come when I begin swatching.

The Chevron Affair

I started knitting my Noro Chevron sweater 2/19/2011.  Like many love affairs, I started out hot and heavy.  I loved knitting this sweater.  I was using a Noro yarn, Shinano 8, which I bought many many moon ago when I lived in NJ.  I paired it with Paint Box yarn, colors 16 and 24.  I was having so much fun knitting the chevon pattern, just one more row to see how the color patterns would lie. 

It was so much fun.  I was using my creative side to my brain and the knitting was going fast.  I ignored the advice from the LYS knitter who proofreads knitting patterns that this pattern was filled with inconsistency in the writing.  I mean, who listens to my mother when she doesn't like your boyfriend?  This was my new boyfriend and he was so cool!

Then, February turned into March and April.  And the desert got too warm to knit a sweater with wool.  And Daybreak came to town.  He was smart and sophisticated.  Everyone wanted to go out with Daybreak.  So, Chevron went to the WIPs bin.  I think I heard him cry a little one night but I ignored him.

Winter came and Morgan and Gwen needed Advent calendars.  Christmas came with all my gift sewing and Chevron lingered in the back of my mind.  Did he still love me?  Was he going out with other sweaters?  I really needed a warm sweater for the chilly nights when I was camping.  Do you think Chevron would take me back?

So in March, I made up with Chevron.  I didn't care that the instructions were skimpy.  I decided to forge on and try some short row shoulders.  Sorry, Chevron was a little camera shy...he didn't like not being finished.  I struggled with the short rows and with the help of my good friend, Jan, I conquered the neckline.  It was laying smooth. 

Now like any true relationship, I had to mold Chevron. I didn't like his friends who were a little rough around the neck and buttonband. I pulled out my Lucy Neatby DVD Kntting Gems 1 and knit attached I-cord around the body. It took several tries. I think I ripped back about 6 times until I found the perfect colors on my Paint Box 24 skein. 

 He was perfect. Next for finding the perfect button. I searched all through my button boxes.  It was hard to find just the right buttons for my perfect boyfriend.  These were the applicants.  The winners were #1, #2, and #4, who is a little camera shy being a queen and all.

Now, I wanted my Chevron to be as beautiful on the inside as the outside. Here comes Gigi of the Knitmore Girls to my rescue. Gigi has a grosgrain ribbon tutorial that is a very good treat. She follows up with couture button tutorial. Gigi is a very patient knitter and sewer. I like that in a friend. So I took her advice and sewed my Petersham grosgrain ribbon on the inside of my Chevron.

He even got the couture treatment.  The buttons are vintage and just love Chevron to death.  They have been around and they know who they love. 

When you love someone, you are proud.  I am very proud of Chevron.  He molded very nicely into the sweater that I was dreaming of when I started this affair one year ago.

Double your knitting, double your fun

I was able to attend a class on Double Knitting taught by the one and only Lucy Neatby. Lucy is quite the character and quite the knitter. Lucy is a former Merchant Marine Officer. I found an older picture of Lucy on the internet and I have to say I like her better with her bright rainbow colored hair. I have multiple DVDs by Lucy which I have watched most of them from beginning to end and I didn't realize that she loved to where shoes of two different colors.  Isn't her Andean Vest the best?  I saw this at the class and it is wonderful. 

Ok.  I never could wrap my mind around double knitting.  So, when Lucy was teaching this class sponsered by Blazing Needles in Salt Lake City, I signed up immediately.   I didn't have a clue as to how to use or knit double knitting.  And I only knew one person who ever did double knitting.  But I thought I could learn a lot from Lucy.

After fumbling my way through the class, I decided that I wanted to knit a scarf in double knitting.  Lucy recommended the Plaid DK (Double Knitting) Pattern.  So, I bought it plus a whole lot of other patterns and some Kauni yarn, but I digress.  This is one side of the scarf.  It is knit with fingering weight yarn, the white is a sock yarn and the blues is a indy dyers fingering weight yarn that I had a lot of in my stash.

When you start a double knitting project, Lucy recommends the Tubular Cast On. This gives you a rounded beautiful cast on edge.  I have to say, it took me several tries to "get" this cast on.  And I am sure that the next time I use it, I will be watching my DVD or a YouTube video.  The link for the Tubular cast on is featured on a beautiful baby bonnet pattern by Lucy.  This little bonnet is so very cute and would be really warm because it is DK. 

This is a picture of the double knitting on two needles to show you the front and the back of the scarf.  To knit this, all the stitches are on one needles, front and back stitches are alternated.  I didn't realize until I took the class with Lucy, that when you are double knitting you knit in a sort of k1, p1 ribbing style.   This now makes sense to me.  Because when you are knitting a row, you are knitting both the front and the back of the scarf.  The knit stitch is used for the fabric in the front of the scarf and the purl stitch is used on the back fabric.  This is accomplished with a technique of moving your yarn back and forth out of the way of the yarn used to knit.   I know that I am not explaining this very well.  I'm still VERY NEW to this technique.  Here's a excerpt from Lucy Neatby's Double Knitting Delight DVD.  I do OK with double knitting until I change colors.  Then I sometimes mess up the pattern.  Fortunately, correcting your mistakes in DK is just like correcting your mistakes in knitting stockinette. 

What do I like about double knitting?  One:  I liked the challenge of learning something that is an advanced technique.  It took a little while until I had the "aha!" moment.  That was when I could identify the front and back fabric on my needles.   Two:  I love knitting with two colors in two hands.  This reminds me of two handed fair isle knitting which is my favorite type of knitting.  Three: I like that Lucy's pattern for the simple scarf gives several variations to try to knit.  This will help because I get bored with a long repetition in a scarf.  This is not late night TV knitting.  I have to really concentrate while I knit double knitting.  It is still not ingrained on my brain.

If you have never seen a Lucy Neatby DVD, I strongily encourage you to watch one.  She has the best techniques and the very best teaching methods out there.  She reminds me of Elizabeth Zimmermann in that she encourages you to put you boundries.  I know that I have pushed my boundries with Double Knitting. 

What have I been doing?

What have I been doing?  Well, in the last month, I've been to the East coast twice and worked several shifts.  A week ago, I had the good fortune to take a double knitting class with Lucy Neatby!  I know!  Lucy Neatby!  I found that I love double knitting using both hands for two different colors.  I am starting the Plaid DK Scarf.  I started it with a cream Fortissima sock yarn and Zauberball yarn.  But the Zauberball yarn was much thinner than the Fortissima.  So, I next tried Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn.  The weight of the yarns were ok but the Noro tended to be rougher and I didn't like how it stuck out.  So, I went stash diving again.  This time I used a yarn by an indy dyer on eBay called Over the Rainbow Yarns.  I bought this yarn many, many moon ago.  I liked this combination.  And I am now knitting the scarf.  Pictures to follow.

This afternoon, I have been sewing up a storm.  I finish Lindsay's Emmeline apron.  I am calling this Emmeline goes to NYC.  This is Lindsay's black and white apron. 

I wasn't sure about the blue fabric.  But I think it turned out nicely. 

This is the opposite side of the apron. I love that this apron is reversible. This is the third time sewing the Emmeline apron. 

This is the third time sewing the Emmeline apron.  The brown apron was my first and I sewed it for Ariella. 

My second over due project was embroidering napkins for Jenny and Jon.  I bought these blue napkins in January and never go around to embroidering them.  I love the green and the yellow initials.  I tried a red thread but the bobbin thread showed too much.  Both sets of projects are in the mail.  I hope both Lindsay and Jenny receive them by the end of the week.  Whew!  That was a lot of sewing!

Back in the Saddle again

I'm back in the saddle again.  I took about 18 months off from blogging.  I didn't feel like I had anything to say.  Well, I'm back!  This time the blog will be both about knitting and crafting.  I still am very interested in knitting and well, I'm taking classes to improve my knitting skills.  My Rangers friend, Twiggy, mentioned that she was taking a couture sewing class on Craftsy.  I love sewing and I love fine finishing techniques.  So, I went over to Craftsy.com to take a look.   Craftsy.com is an online craft class website where you can take classes from well known teachers.  The classes are available 24-7 and you can access them anywhere that you have internet access.  I know, because I used my iPhone to watch some of Laura's class in the middle of the night while we were camping.  But, I digress. 

 Ok, let me start with the disclaimer that my life has been hectic the last year.  When I went to Craftsy.com, I saw that I had signed up for two knitting classes which I promptly forgot about!  I signed up for the couture sewing class and then looked at the knitting classes that I signed up for about 6 months ago. 

The first class that I have been taking is Laura Nelkins' Mastering Lace Shawls.  Go ahead, look at the intro link, I'll wait.  I learned a lot from this class.  This first shawl we knit is called Skywalker.  Yes, Laura is a Star Wars fan.  I wasn't too kean about knitting shawl called Skywalker but I had some extra sock yarn and time to knit, so off I went. 

This is Skywalker.  Laura designed this shawl using Elizabeth Zimmermann's Pi Shawl formula as her beginning.  The shawl is a semi-circle.  It starts with a very small number of stitches that are double with each increase.

I enoy knitting patterns that are repeated in the shawl.  I use stitch markers after each repeat section so that I can count my stitches.  This makes it easier for me to find a mistake and correct it in the repeat.   The hardest stitch pattern for me was this enlongated stitch.  Each stitch is wrapped a prescribed number of wraps.  I had to really concentrate and count when knitting this stitch pattern. 

Lessons learned.  I learned how to identify right leaning and left leaning increases.  I learned different centered decreases.  I am comfortable ripping back my knitting several rows within a repeat and reknitting them instead of ripping back the whole shawl.  I now use life lines and like them. 

Now, I need a picture of me wearing the shawl.  Next up, the Clarus shawl and my attempts to knit with lace weight yarn. 

Proverbial Cap

I have been intrigued by twisted stitches or Bayerische knitting. I really love how textural the stitches are and theway the stitches travel across your knitting project. When this fall's Interweave Knits came out, I was so excited. There was a 4 page article by Meg Swansen on the techniques used for knitting these wonderful twisted stitches. I knew I had to knit the Proverbial Cap once I saw the pattern.



I cast on the hat with Nature Spun by Brown Sheep. This yarn is a little smaller than the original yarn, Quebecoise, but I didn't know that when I cast on the cap. I started the cap with a size 4 needle and after knitting a good size swatch, aka the hat for 4 inches, I realized my gauge was too small. So, I ripped it out and said that was good practice. Then I started knitting with #5 needles.



The double helix motif really gave me fits. I was ok with the first helix in the pattern but when it came to knitting the helix in reverse to travel the opposite way, well, let's say I had a brain fart. I ripped it back twice. Finally when I got it started the correct way, it was easy sailing.

I had a little difficulty with the decreases and keeping the knitting in pattern. But I worked it out by knitting the knot pattern in the ribbing portion as it is between the knots. I was a little surprised that I had trouble with the compensation portion of knitting. I haven't really had problems with compensation in needlework.

I am very happy with this hat. I now understand why knitters love 100% wool for cables. This Nature Spun yarn really makes the stitches pop. I actually knit a project that more than 10 knitters on Ravelry have knit. I think I may have to knit the Alpen Socken out of this issue also. I could always use another pair of socks.