Late summer round up: Antrho knock-off, Carthamus shawl, M6744

While it feels like I get no. thing. done. all day long, my FO pictures tell me I've at least been plodding along in the sewing and knitting departments.  I really want to stick these up on the blog so I can move on to some WIPs.  I'm very chronological like that.  So first up:

Carthamus Shawl

This is the Carthamus shawl by Kirsten Kapur from Through the Loops designs.  The yarn is Louet Gems Fingering in aqua and linen grey.  I ran out of the linen with literally about 33 stitches left, and some kind knitter on ravelry sent me about ten yards so I could finish.  I love TTL's designs and I queued this the second it came out.  It's kind of a hybrid between shawl and scarf, and I think it will be perfect for the colder months. 

I love the construction.  You knit the thistle lace pattern first, then knit the garter stitch shawl on to it, knitting it together with the live stitches as you go.  I just love that method of slowly knitting on (or off, in this case) a border, watching your FO take shape as it slowly falls off the needles. 

With a shawl, the blocking is almost more important than the knitting.  In this shawl, you really need to pin out each YO in the edge of the lace.  In the above picture, you can see that I started pinning the center of each thistle flower, then I went back and pinned out each YO.  Without that extra work, the lace wouldn't shine like it should.  Blocking : knitting : : pressing : sewing. 

Kirsten usually hosts a summer shawl KAL, so you can see more of her amazing shawls in her Ravelry group here. 


McCalls 6744

This will be known as the summer of the knit dress.  This one was almost a wadder, but I stuck with it.  I should have listened to my instincts.  My instincts said that even though my measurements said I should make a large, experience with the ridiculous amounts of ease the Big 4 pattern companies put in their patterns told me I should make a medium.  So when they were on a crazy cheap sale, I bought both the medium pattern and the large pattern so I could make a hybrid, medium on top, large on bottom.

Ack!  I'm not wearing my beautiful chewbeads necklace!  Just imagine it there. 

When it came time to cut, though, I chickened out and went large all the way.  So when I put it on, it basically would have been a great swimsuit coverup.  The thing is, I wasn't wearing a swimsuit.  I didn't want to give up because the fabric is incredibly soft and drapey and in a really beautiful color of blue.  So I tacked down the bodice where the front cross, and that took care of the top portion.  Maybe the faux wrap of the skirt works if you're making a maxi version of this dress, but in the short version, it was just obscene.  The fronts only overlap by about 6", so it felt like it was just wide open.  I just stitched it down until about 8" from the hem. 

While not ideal, these fixes made the dress wearable, although a bit harder to nurse from, which was kind of the point.  I've worn it several times, dressed up with a belt and some baby-friendly accessories. 

Anthro knock-off

In those summer weeks when we were moving, it seemed like everyone (mad housewife, aleah, jennifer) was making these cute little mixed print tees, and I was so bummed my sewing machine was hidden behind boxes.  It took me all summer, but I finally made one of my own.

Many people used Skirt as Top's Scoop Neck Tee, but that was too small for me.  I spent 0.5 seconds wondering if I could figure out how to scale it up, and then found the Casual Lady tee from Go To Patterns.  I made a CL tee, but I was worried it would be too small, so I made a bigger size than I normally would.  (Do you sense a theme in my summer sewing?)  HUGE.  I still wear it, but again, it's kind of like wearing a swimsuit cover up.  I used my regular size for my anthro tee, and gave it more of an A-line shape after the bust. 

Hey!  Here are my chewbeads!

Here's my final anthro knock-off.  I'm pretty happy with it, although my husband doesn't 100% get it.  He said he likes the stripes. 

This pattern calls for a wide facing/lining, which might work well in a heavier fabric.  The white stripes in my fabric were a bit transparent, and I didn't want the navy stripes showing through from the wrong side, so I cut a neckband.  I really should have stretched the neckband a bit more because it gapes too much, but summer was waning and I just wanted to wear the thing already. 

I'd have to spend some more time playing around with the CL pattern to get the fit I want, but for now, I've moved on.  I'll return to it next spring for sure, because I think it could be a good wardrobe builder. 

***
Those are some of my favorite summer projects.  I have a slew of things I want to do this fall, but I'm trying to be a bit more realistic about what I can do.  It's a lot easier to find time to knit than it is to sew, but there are a few patterns I really want to make.  My first fall project, though, is a fair isle sweater for my daughter.  More on that to come!

FO: McCalls 6073

I'm a teeny bit disappointed in this dress, but it's actually still comfortable to wear and exactly what I need.

I made two of these maxi dresses last summer, and I figured they would be breastfeeding-friendly dresses. 
I've had this fabric sitting around for too long, and it was bugging me.  Somehow, yarn sitting in my stash makes me happy.  Fabric sitting in a stash makes me antsy.  I only had two yards, though, so I was limited in what I could do with it.

That's right: I'm bring the French braid back.

My main disappointment with this dress is that I really need to wear a cami with it.  I'm not sure how this happened, as I used the same pattern pieces and same mods, but it doesn't fit the way my last version did.  I like the way it looks with a cami, and it actually works out very well for nursing, but it still feels like a bit of a misstep.  If I'm going to the trouble of making clothes, I ought to make them to fit.  If I wanted a dress that I had to wear a cami with, there are hundreds I can buy.  But because the bodice is too wide to wear on its own, it makes for a great nursing dress.  Maybe I should just starting telling myself I made it this way intentionally!

Oh well.  No time to worry about it!  I'll appreciate it for what it is--actually a very good summer nursing dress.  Or maybe I should see it as a success, since it started out sort of poorly.  On to the next!

FO: Maternity McCalls 5974

When I finally got over my first trimester ennui and felt like sewing clothes again, I knew that McCalls 5974 would be a perfect maternity dress.  I scoured google for sewers who had already done the same, and I was really surprised to find none!  Although it made me wonder if this was such a perfect pattern for maternity-ifying after all, I pressed on.

I had made this dress almost a year ago, but didn't add any length to the skirt, and it was way too short to wear in public.  But it was great to try on and see how it was going to work over my expanding middle.  After evaluating the straight-from-the-envelope pattern, I decided to added two inches to the back width and four to the front.  I added four more pleats to the front skirt so that even with the extra width, it would fit to a normal bodice.  I added five inches of length to the skirt, and also made the hem two inches longer in the front middle than at the sides, so that with a full baby bump, the hem is still even and not arced upwards. 

The color is not quite this purpley in real life. 

This dress worked so well for me, I immediately made another.  And I have been living in them both ever since. 

And I think I know now why this isn't an obvious maternity dress for the whole blogosphere.  The waistband at the bottom of the bust is supposed to hit at, duh, your waist.  Well, it definitely fits me more as an empire waist.  If I want to make this dress again post baby, I'll need to lengthen the bodice.  (But how would I do that without putting too much fabric in the bust area?  I think I'd need to do an SBA also.  And am I really going to want to wear this style dress again anyway?  I'm not going to stress about it now.)

I'm super happy with these, and I'm so happy making my own maternity clothes.  During my first pregnancy, I had a couple of super cheap knit dresses from Target, but they were too short.  I wore leggings under them, which is a fine style, but not exclusively and not for 6 months.  After I finished these dresses, I tossed those old cheap ones back in the maternity storage tub, and there they remain!

Next up: maternity tops!  

FO: McCalls 4769 shirtdress

I don't know what's going on with me lately, but the FOs are flying off the needles!  I started this McCalls 4769 shirtdress about a month ago, but stalled out after I finished the collar.  I was afraid of putting the buttons on and ruining the dress with sloppy finish work.  I finally overcame my fear, and now I have a new dress!

My husband took these pictures about 4:00 pm, during the three minutes we were both home at the same time.  It was very bright and sunny! 

I used a blue and lavendar seersucker from Harts Fabric, and instead of buttons, I used lavendar snaps!  This was not my unique idea; I shamelessly used mystitchnbitch's version as inspiration.  At the last minute, I almost decided to scrap the snap idea and go with buttons.  I had the snaps, so I tested them on a swatch to help me make my decision, and I instantly loved them.  So snaps it was. 

Wrinkles! 

Let's see.  It was so long since I started this dress, I can't remember any of the details.  Did I cut a 16 at the bust and a 20 at the waist?  I think so.  And I added at least 2 inches, but maybe 3.  Or 4. 

A lot of people on pattern review had trouble with the collar and the instructions.  I goofed one side of it, but figured it out by the time I got to the other side, so I only had to rip one side one time.  It was quite a bit fiddly, but it wasn't super complicated.  I think it came out really well, and I'm pretty excited that I made a collar!  I want to hang a sign around my neck that says, "I made this collar!"

This is a great dress for summer.  It's comfortable and very wearable, but also looks a bit dressy and pulled together.  Now I need some accessory help.  I think it needs a bigger necklace maybe? 

FO: McCalls 6073 Maxi Dress

It is hotter than hot here.  As someone from the arid West, I just don't know how women in the south do it.  After an hour of this humid heat, I very closely resemble a soggy washcloth.  How to the Paula Deans of the world survive the summer with their hair and makeup looking like it came straight from a debutant ball?  The only way I know to cope is dresses.  And lots of hair rubber bands.

This maxi dress is perfect for hot days.  It's basically as comfortable as wearing pajamas, and the flowy skirt means nothing is sticking to my legs.  This is the second time I've made this dress.  The first time, it fit okay except for the bust.  See?

There was just too much fabric, and the cross over panels flopped open every time I sat down.  I tried to fix it by running some elastic along the neckline binding, but that was only minimally successful and maximally frustrating.  (I never get frustrated with my knitting, but working on that neckline made me want to padlock the sewing room door and forget the whole thing even existed.)

So I found this most excellent Small Bust Adjustment tutorial from The Slapdash Sewist, and I'm pretty sure it's changed my life.  This is why I want to sew: I want to have clothes that fit well and make me look great.  Yes, there are things about my body that, in a perfect world, might be nice if they were, well, more perfect.  I'll still hold out hope that maybe someday I'll look a bit different, but in the meantime, I just want to feel great in my clothes.  So while I'm sort of 10% annoyed that I have to do a SBA in the first place, I'm 90% thrilled that I figured out how to do it successfully.  There is hope for all future garments! 

Half an hour later, my pattern piece looked like this:

The finished garment looks like this:

I look so annoyed!  Remember, that's heat and humidity all over my face.  Inside, I'm still beaming that I fixed a pattern so it fits me well.  I used a zig-zag print from Gorgeous Fabrics, which I've since seen at Joanns, although in a different colorway.


I love the detail of the elastic at the shoulder seams.  The pattern also has elastic in a casing at the waistline, which supports the weight of the skirt.  I added about 3 inches to the skirt, and I haven't hemmed it.

Look at that bodice!  And the mostly matching stripes!

I think I'll be living in this dress for the rest of the summer.