The Sweatpants of Dresses

This week I sewed a couple of dresses.

The pattern is the York Pinafore by Helen's Closet - a Canadian designer! 

The dress is perfect for putting on over a T-shirt for the summer. It was incredibly easy to make and so nice to wear - that's why I made two. And check out those pockets!

 The green one is the first one I made. I used some cotton twill I had at home.

Then I wanted to try it out in a lighter weight fabric, so the blue one is the second one.

Here are my thoughts and some changes I made -

I made size medium. The pattern is designed for someone with a B-cup, I am definitely not a B-cup, so I added length to the front straps like the pattern suggests (I added even more for the blue one - green one about 1/2", and the blue one another inch). I also made the blue one a bit wider in the 'bib' front. 

The dress is a cocoon style, which works in the twill, but I ended up taking some of the roundness out  of the blue skirt, it just didn't sit right.

I knew going into this that this style is not the best for me - I love tunics, overalls and loose fitting tops, but they 'ski-slope' off my boobs and look like maternity clothes. To help a bit I added a piece of elastic in the back (about a 6-7" piece at my waist).

I used a 3 stitch zig-zag stitch to sew it in.

For the binding I just made single fold bias tape,

I made so much that both dresses have the same (and why the second one was so quick to make).

For me this is a perfect home dress. Easy to wear and so comfy. The pattern is wonderful. It has very clear directions. Indie designed pattern are so nice to sew because there always seems to be lots written about them - tips, changes people make, sew alongs, tutorials, hacks.... There is a post on the designers blog showing the testers dresses here.

For other sewing -

This is the Moda Blockhead block - a 6" block.

And the 1880 Sampler Sew Along block - a 4" block. For this one I just picked out random fabrics without much thought, I think it shows but I am trying to step out of my comfort zone.

I spun a skein of yarn from some Merino fibre that I had dyed recently.

The yarn is about fingering/sock weight - 168g and 649m. I dyed and spun it for an Entrelac knitting project.

the roses are at their peak

All the best!♥︎

Another Quilt Along!

I decided to start another quilt along!

This one is called Moda Blockheads 2, a block of the week that started on June 6th, and ends next April (I am sure that I won't make them all, but I enjoyed making the first two).

The first one is Stellar Star, a 12" block,

and the second is Buckeye Beauty, a 6" block. I am using the same fabrics as all the other blocks I have been making recently, and these will be added to those blocks.

I dyed the yarn I had finished spinning last week.

I also did some practical sewing for a change - mending a well loved pair of shorts for my son.

This past week my sister and I volunteered for the Manitoba Sheep Association at a local fair.

There was a pair of lovely sheep to see,

and I enjoyed chatting with people about spinning. There was lots of great reactions - one little boy yelled at me from the other side of the barn that he knew what I was doing, I was using an old fashioned sewing machine!

All the best!♥︎

Finished Fleece

I finished spinning the third raw fleece I was given last fall.

1583m and 639g of yarn! I will dye most of this yarn.

This is how it all started - the raw fleece before washing, combing and spinning.

Here is my 1880 Sampler Sew Along block from the Temecula Quilt Company for this week (a 4" block).

My stack of "orphan" blocks is really growing. The plan is to make blocks until the end of the year, and put them together into a quilt top.

Because I missed having a crochet project to work on, I started another Granny Stripes blanket, this time using leftover handspun yarn that is all about fingering weight. This one is about 70cm/28" wide.

a pair of Goldfinches at the feeder

All the best!♥︎

More Blocks

It's nice to keep up with quilt along blocks for a change!

This first one is the May block for Antebellum Album from  Civil War Quilts - a 12" block called Cross and Crown.

And this one is for the 1880 Sampler Sew Along from the Temecula Quilt Company - a 4" block.

I have been trying to just pick out fabrics without too much thought, because lots of the blocks I have been making recently tend to be made with a few of my favourite fabrics.

This week I finished spinning three skeins of yarn (they average around 90g/200m each - about a sport weight yarn), these are from the raw fleece that I combed.

I also finished knitting a pair of socks. These were knit two-at-a-time, top-down, on a 100cm, 2.5mm circular needle with 64 stitches. This was my "car knitting".

The yarn was handspun BFL/Nylon blend,

from fibre that I dyed.

All the best!♥︎