So about a decade ago, I ordered this kit from Alabama Chanin. It is still unfinished and to distract myself from starting new projects, I’m looking at it again. The original design was allover Le Moyne stars, but I’ve departed from that idea before. I reopened my EQ file and I’ve settled on this design.
Indigo Carpenter Star Quilt
The more I look at this, the more I like it and I think it’ll be enough to get it finished. After finishing my Christmas makes. And after finishing the Storm At Sea. And maybe I’ll try and fit it in between all the other things..
I’ve bought so many patterns but have so many projects in some form of progress, that when Liesl mentioned the sew-a-long, I thought, yes, let’s bump that up the list.
I had some cheap offcuts that I bought at Spotlight ages ago that I thought would be perfect for a light sweatshirt. It’s a lightweight knit that is definitely not cotton. I determined this by setting the iron to cotton and tried to press a scrap. While it didn’t melt, it definitely didn’t press.
As I cut out the pieces, I discovered that I didn’t have enough to cut the lower sleeves in grey, so I created a stripe and cut the rest of the sleeve in blue. I’m happy with this as I actually wanted a mostly blue sleeve.
I also had to piece the hem band. I really screwed this one up and cut it with the grain instead of across. But because it’s not a tight fit, I decided to add it anyway to finish it off.
I sewed all the seams and edge stitching with a zigzag stitch.
And so here we are, a completed sweatshirt that I think fits well!
Front viewSleeve detailBack viewEverything looks neater with felled seams.
I covered my camera strap years ago and being the kind of thing that you don’t normally wash, it has gotten really, really manky. To the point where hubby refused to put it around his neck when I needed him to hold it for me. He was right, it was disgusting.
I found some really lovely indigo fabric at a fabric market in Taipei and bought more than enough to cover my strap and maybe make a tote.
How is it already October?! My last update was quite a while ago. I need to figure out how to post automatically from Instagram so that it doesn’t happen again!
I’m working on several different projects, but here’s an update on the Advent Calendar. I have 16 ornaments decorated with sequins and beads. Eight to go and the only thing left to do will be to sew on magnets to the ornaments and jump rings to the tree.
I ended up buying an assorted colours bag of 4mm sequins and sorted out about a third into their colours. It was really cheap this way, but labor-intensive.
The pattern suggests pins to attach the ornaments, but I like the idea of magnets. I bought some tiny neodymium magnets earlier this year to make magnets out of buttons that my kid liked.
So I started making this advent calendar in the last week of November. As if there was even the slightest chance I would have it done in time for Christmas 2017! But at least it’ll be ready for Christmas this year. Better late than never?
Yeah. Because it’s not enough to make the blanket according to the original instructions. And actually, because I opted to use Inklingo to create the shapes, it’s already different and adding a few more of my own choices make the blanket truly my own. Right? Right!So I recreated the original pattern in EQ7 so I could try a few tweaks. This uses the 6″ Le Moyne star collection and measures out to 62″ x 80″.
Ideas I had in mind included a medallion, like the carpenters Star, Waltzing Matilda star, or the Inklingo star. But the medallion looked too small at 12″, So I tried a 12″ block in each corner in addition to one in the center.
Then it occurred to me to try reversing the colours so that the blocks were more obvious.
I finally squeezed in the time to make this shirt. As I learned with the Oliver + S Secret Agent Coat, the instructions were excellent and I didn’t have to unpick any seams. One thing that wasn’t clear, but only because my experience with sewing knits is minimal, was whether I should be sewing with a stretch stitch or straight stitch. Of course, if I had read the instructions all the way through before starting, I would have seen that stretch stitch is specified when required. Sigh. So I have stretch stitches where I didn’t need them, but that’s not a disaster on my first try.
I had intended to reverse these colours, but I underestimated my yardage. The short sleeves are fine, but I think the three-quarter sleeves will be more flattering. I also did my first full bust adjustment and while I think the dart is a little low, I think it worked out over all.
I’ll definitely make more when I can squeeze some more time out!
