DOH

Didn't get much done last night. I had to go to JoAnn's to pick up more double folded bias tape (picked out an olive color) with matching thread. I also went to Borders to get the latest Vogue Knitting magazine. It's got some really nice pieces in it this issue. I also picked up a few sewing magazines that looked like they had really good tips.

So last night I sewed the bust darts on the vest pieces with the interfacing. I sewed the shoulder seams and side seams too. On the lining I have one shoulder seam done with the other shoulder seam and both side seams still to be done. It was annoying because I screwed up sewing and had to pick out stitches....TWICE. Ugh. I hope the rest of it won't be too bad. I can't go to sleep too late tonight if I want to get up at 7:00am tomorrow for archery. If I can't finish tonight, I'll have time tomorrow afternoon as well. That should be enough, I think.

Only a few days left

...before going to the Renaissance Faire. I may go on Sunday instead of Saturday as Lawrence declared that archery plus Faire equals too much activity for one day.

Tuesday night, after knitting, I stayed up until almost 4am sewing. This is one seriously addicting activity. It didn't even feel like I got much done! I ironed the red fabric and traced the vest pattern pieces onto it. I cut it out, pinned the bust darts on the front and sewed in the darts. That was all.

After sewing them together, I took a look at the pattern and realized that I had done it wrong... You're supposed to baste the interfacing to the cloth *before* you sew up the darts. GAHHHH. Then I realized that I could just have those pieces be the lining.

Last night, I traced and cut another set of the vest pattern pieces. I had already cut the interfacing a week ago, thankfully. I pinned the interfacing onto the cloth and basted it all together. That ended up being rather time consuming as well. The only thing I had time for at the end was to pin the bust dart seams together and mark out the line I was to sew on.

Reading through the instructions, I also realized that I used the WRONG bias tape. I had used the double folded bias tape for the blouse's elastic casing, but then I realized I was supposed to use the single fold - no wonder I ran out! It's the vest that calls for the double folded bias tape to enclose the edges of the outside, interfacing, and lining fabrics. I'm going to have to head back to JoAnn's for more bias tape...joy! I doubt they have more of the dark brown I've been using since I took the last one in the store on Tuesday. On the bright side, that means I could pick a different color to use for the bias tape! I realized that dark brown edges on a dark red vest would probably not show up very well. Unfortunately, I don't know what would work better. Black maybe? Black matches everything...

If I can go to JoAnn's tonight, I *might* be able to finish the vest tonight. Besides the darts for the front of the vest, I will have to sew the shoulder seams and side seams together. Next comes the bias tape all around the armholes, neckline, front opening, and bottom edges. That will probably be the most time consuming part since there are so many curves everywhere. Once that is done, all I have to do is hammer in the grommets and create a cord to lace the front with.

Costume Update

Skirt - Done except I need to sew on the eye & hook. I sewed on the eye...but then I realized I did it upside down. Who knew that bend in the wire is actually there for a reason? I bought the smallest size JoAnn's has because I didn't want it to be visible, but after trying to manipulate it I'm starting to think that wasn't a good idea. It's a real pain because it's fiddly in my clumsy fingers and it's hard on the eyes.

Blouse - I've got the pieces cut out and ready to go. I studied the drawings and the instructions and I *think* I understand. Problem: I bought the wrong color of bias tape. I thought the bias tape was for the vest so I bought it in brown as accent that matches the skirt. Apparently the [white] blouse needs bias tape for the elastic band at the sleeve cuffs. ::sighhhhhh:: I'm going to have to go back to JoAnn's before I can even start sewing the blouse.

Vest - I didn't get to meet up with Annette today for further fitting because she had to go in to work. I did get to talk to her on the phone and she gave me some advice on what I could do on my own. She suggested I cut out the pattern pieces again with the broadcloth with an extra inch on each of the side seams so I have room to play around with the angles. Then, when sewing the side seams, I can experiment sewing straight halfway up, and then turning the fabric on the front piece so the seam angles in. That would reduce the extra space I had at the armhole. Then for the bust dart, I follow the line but a few inches from the tip, I dip in close to the edge of the seam and end it almost parallel.

Renaissance Faire

I'm planning to go to the Renaissance Faire for the first time this year. It came about rather suddenly as I was at work going through a demo of our County's website for the redesign of our Department's webpages. I saw a listing announcing the Renaissance Faire starting in April and that reminded me that I had never been to one before.

I asked my boss about it because he used to go every year. I thought Lawrence might consider it too geeky, but he said he'd be interested. I was okay with not going in costume but at knitting night, Annette convinced me to make my own costume. She said she'd help me out too - how could I turn down that offer? :) I would get to go in costume (I guess I've always had a thing for that since cosplaying at my first anime conventions). I would get practice sewing garments. AND, I would have the help of someone experienced with sewing from patterns.

I picked out 2 Simplicity patterns from advice I found online - #5582 and #3618. I got real lucky and bought both for $.99 each from Jo-Ann's pre-Easter sale.

I met with Annette and she showed me how to get started. She also gave me a bunch of tracing paper so I could trace the patterns onto the paper and cut out the paper. When I got home, I was so excited I stayed up late making my practice vest (for fitting purposes). I got fabric for my costume and stayed up till 3am cutting out all the pattern pieces.

Current Status
Vest - Practice vest sewn. Need less pointy darts (make tip flatter along fold). Maybe need more in circumference. Armholes a little baggy. Annette will help me fit it.

Blouse - Pattern pieces cut and fabric ready. Will start on this as soon as the skirt is done.

Skirt - Sewed the panels together. Currently attaching the waistband. After that, need to hem the bottom. Still need to buy twill tape to run through the waistband, and maybe an eye/hook closure.

Updates on a few things

Weaving~
The loom arrived this week, w00t! Lucky for me the weaving books I bought from the Interweave Hurt Books sale also arrived this week. There's a lot more planning and math that goes into weaving than I realized, but it's still doable. I made my calculations and decided on the yarn. If I have time tonight I'll try my hand at warping the loom. Too bad the video instructions that came with the loom were on a VHS tape! The newer versions come with a DVD. I decided on using my KnitPicks Palette yarn since it was cheap and I've got several bags of it. Even if the project goes blech, the yarn was only $2 a ball. It probably won't take as much yarn as I'm imagining. For 2.33 yards at a width of 15", I'm only going to need 336 yards for the warp, which is about 1.5 balls of the Palette.

I haven't decided on the yarn for the weft yet. I may continue to use the Palette. I may use a different color of Palette. I may switch it up a bit to mix the colors. That may not turn out very good as the only colors I have a red, blue, and green (garnet heather, marine heather, & verdant heather). Why can't I pick out more complimentary colors instead of one color at each extreme of the spectrum?? I may end up using some of the other yarns I have in my stash. I have a bunch of thin boucle & chenille that I bought of eBay several years ago. This could turn out to be a multi-part super-experiment. I plan to keep a detailed journal through Google Docs.

Rag Knitting
Fail fail fail. I tried doing what the book showed...snip a bit into the edge of the fabric and rip straight down. That did not work very well for the first strip as it ended up deforming the fabric because I had to pull too hard. I ended up cutting and that gave me tons and tons of frayed edges. There were lots of little fiber bits all over the place, sticking out of the edges of the fabric and all over the floor. I spent a lot of time cutting holes & knotting the strips together. It was okay to crochet with once I figured out I needed my giant crochet hook. I had just enough to finish the bag with, but I'm not so sure it's usable. There are just too many little bits of thread sticking out everywhere and it looks SO messy. This may go straight into the trash.

Fabric from Japan
So I ordered some fabric from an Etsy vendor in Japan because I knew Japanese fabrics come in all sorts of cute and I wanted something really cute for my crochet hook holder. They got here yesterday! The fabrics are totally awesome and cute. Two of them are a little thicker/coarser than I thought but they're still really cute. A thicker fabric may bulk up the crochet hook holder too much, but uh...good thing I made the ties extra long. :D Before warping the loom tonight I will probably finish up this project.

More Goodies from Japan
I bought some things from another Etsy vendor. I ordered several Hamanaka crochet hooks from her because they came in every size I need, they're double ended so you need fewer hooks, and they come with extra padding in the middle so they're easier on your hands. She also sells tawashi yarn and books, so I bought 1 book and 3 balls of acrylic anti-bacterial tawashi yarn. I also bought some cute little animal stickers and a set of pom pom makers!

Stash busting project ideas

I didn't want to make any clothing items because most of the yarn I have stashed is not so great for wearing. It's cheap big box store stuff, and I don't have enough of any one nicer yarn to make a garment. So, the alternative then is to make home decorative items. I don't know why but I've been feeling big on home decor lately. A while ago I bought the book, Simple Sewing (by Lotta Jansdotter) because I liked the simplistic, contemporary style of the designs and fabrics in it. Even if I don't specifically use the patterns, it's a good source of inspiration. I'm actually planning to make the wall hanging pocket organizer. However, that means I need to actually buy some cloth, so it won't really be conducive to reducing my stash.

While using the Ravelry pattern browser, I came up with a few good ideas for potential projects. The problem is that it needs to be something on the large side, but should not be in only 1-2 colors. First of all, because I probably don't have enough of any one color to make a large project with, second some of the yarns I have would not look good by themselves. For example, I have several skeins of Lion Brand Homespun in a solid forest green. I have a couple skeins in a heathered teal. I think there's more in a lighter heathered color too.

While the yarns in my stash come in many colors, I did not consider coordination when choosing colors. Thus, a lot of the yarns would not really go together well in many instances. Luckily, while looking at patterns I saw some creative color solutions.

In terms of project types, I looked mostly at blankets/afghans, rugs, & pillows. Quilt-inspired patterns seem to provide the best color combination solutions. Examples would be log cabin-style blankets, modern deco-style blankets, and various geometric pattern repetitions. Although I did not specifically find a plaid design I liked, I saw one that inspired me to use the Tartan Designer web tool to design my own plaid considering my color and yardage limitations. I would get a rough idea of how the resulting color combinations would look before I even cast on!

Domo-kun Pillow

This is the Domo-kun pillow I made for my brother for his birthday. It's made of fleece, sewn together using a sewing machine (Simplicity Creative Spirit), stuffed with polyester filling, and its facial features are pieces of felt glued on with a hot glue gun. I think I did a pretty good job. Lawrence said I it needs arms and legs. Perhaps I'll try that on version 2.0, but a rectangular block is good enough for me on my first attempt at a sewn plushy.

Stroke of genius

I hate throwing anything away. Lawrence is constantly frustrated at how much junk we've [I've] accumulated and how it creates a never-ending mass of things that need to be cleaned or put away. So, when he tried to throw away his Diesel jeans, I squeed at him and cried inside. They're a beautiful dark blue, thick, solid jean fabric. He had bought 3 pairs because they were on sale. I ended up wearing them. Turns out he didn't like the fit.

He complains that I always save up all this stuff with the idea that it will be good for something one day, but I never actually do anything with it, and indeed end up going out to buy more new materials. Well. Today, I figured out what I can make with those jeans - a shopping bag! These alternatives to your standard market plastic/paper bags are getting popular, why not make myself one? I don't know if I can even bring myself to cut up the pants, the stitching on the seams is very nice. They're very nice jeans. >_< If I lose enough weight I'd be able to fit in them again.

don't start with the sewing...

While looking for cat sweater ideas for my aunt's cat, I came across a sewing pattern for a totally adorable little stuffed cat toy! This was the image that caught my eye on the Google search.