My First knitted Cardigan

I've not got a massive amount to say about this cardigan but feel like it warrants it own post. Because, I finally, finally did it- I knitted my own cardigan!!

My lovely husband bought me the yarn and pattern for Christmas back in Dec 2016. I started knitting immediately and managed to knit most of the pieces fairly quickly (for me!). It then languished in a cupboard waiting to be sewn up. 

The pattern is number 7492 by Hayfield.  I used Hayfield Chunky Tweed in the Tenby colour which has lovely red, blue and yellow flecks. It was lovely yarn to use and because it was chunky I think this meant that my knitting grew quickly. As a beginner, this was good because it meant I could see my garment progress.

I've finally managed to get the fit right- previous cardigans have turned out too small and have been frogged half way through the project. It's also lovely and warm and is often the cardi I grab when it's cold outside. The only downside, is that the cardigan has bobbled quite a bit at the sleeves.

I am immensely proud that I have actually completed a wearable knitted garment. It is by no means perfect but it's a start.

Whats on your needles?  

Wardrobe Update

Hello! I know it's been a while and I'll admit I had given up on blogging. I never deleted my blog but had no intentions of continuing to blog about my sewing and knitting adventures. Life sometimes gets in the way and for a while, I completely lost my sew-jo.

When I last posted, approximately this time last year, there never seemed to be enough hours in the day. My son was 10 months old, I was still breastfeeding due to his dairy allergy, he was only napping for about 30-40 minutes at a time and not sleeping through the night. We went through a rough patch where 5am wake ups were the norm. And to top it all, I had to give up milk products (cheese, chocolate, most cake ...).

I failed to manage to build in any sewing time into my schedule. Although we have a spare room I couldn't sew in there when he was asleep as he's a light sleeper and I couldn't sew during the day because 10 month old babies crawl. And mess around with your sewing machine foot!

So, fast forward a year and where am I now? Well, firstly we managed to find a dairy free formula that worked for us and I was able to gradually stop breastfeeding once my son reached his first birthday. And then he magically started sleeping through the night and wondrously began to take naps - eventually consolidating to one big nap of 1-2 hours a day. Most days I have to wake him up!

So now, I'm able to get at least an hour of sewing in a couple of times a week - usually on a Thursday and Friday's when I don't work. After a couple of months of moving the sewing machine around the house anytime I wanted to sew, I cleared out a cupboard in our kitchen/diner which I've now dedicated to my current sewing projects.

It's slow going compared to the speed in which I used to complete a garment and the time I used to dedicate to my sewing. It's really true when they say that sewing is good for your mental health, because I feel so much happier now I'm back creating my own wardrobe.

So I feel I should update the blog with a short rundown of what I've actually created since I last blogged.

Grey Jersey Wrap Dress - Feb 2017

I bought 2m of grey spot wool jersey at £4.59 per metre from Fabricland with the intention of creating another jersey dress. It came as a surprise to me when this sweater knit jersey turned up; it wasn't exactly the colour or fabric I thought it was. The perils of online shopping! It did however become a Wren dress by Colette patterns, with a gathered skirt. This dress has seen a lot of use, it's warm and cosy yet smart enough to wear to school with boots. It was great in this winter's snowy spell!

Forgot to take pics of this one!!

Red Pencil skirt - April 2017

I made my first ever pencil skirt way back in October 2015. The pattern was from Gertie Sews Vintage Casual by Gretchen Hirsch - the Easy Knit Pencil Skirt. I bought some red Ponte Roma from Fabricland with the intention of making a t-shirt but decided it was too thick. Instead, I whipped up another pencil skirt. My husband doesn't really like this skirt, but it fits so well into my wardrobe and I find I've got loads of different tops to wear with it. It works well with a simple t-shirt or something smarter for work.

Blue Houndstooth Pencil skirt - April 2017

After making the previous pencil skirt, I immediately cut out and sewed up this beautiful skirt in blue and camel dogtooth print jersey. The fabric is very heavyweight and lends itself to being a pencil skirt very well. It's very flattering on and I love wearing this to work. It has such a vintage vibe but is so comfy. I love the pattern as it only has one piece to cut and only uses 1m of fabric. The only problem with this fabric is that I couldn't get my machine to hem it at all! From what I remember, the needle was just bouncing out and in the end I had to slip stitch the hem by hand.   

Teal chunky knit cardigan - Oct 2017

I finished a cardigan!! I was so proud to eventually finish this cardigan, even though I started it in January 2017 and finished it in October. It's lovely and snuggly to wear and I love putting it on. I feel this cardigan warrants it own post so I might get round to posting about some details sometime!

Burgundy Corduroy Cleo Dress- Nov 2017 

When Tilly released the Cleo dress I wasn't immediately sold but found myself eventually warming to it. I finally took the plunge last Autumn and downloaded the pattern. The fabric I used was leftover from a previous project. It surprised me how simple this was to make, but the fit was a bit rubbish and I almost gave up. I'm glad I didn't because it has been worn loads this winter. In fact, so much that I made another one!

Black apple print tea dress - Feb 2018

This is a simple sew tea dress made from a barginous length of apple print crepe de chine bought for £2.49 a metre at Fabricland. The fabric has a a subtle texture to it, but was a pain to work with- lots of fraying and since wearing I've managed to snag it in a couple of places. I love this dress though, the fit is brilliant due to the shirring at the front and it is so comfortable.

Black denim Cleo - March 2018

I love this dress!! Such a quick project to sew up and complements my wardrobe wonderfully. I will hopefully write a post about my two cleo dresses as there are lots of details I would like to share.

Anyways, that's what I've been up to in the last year. I've got another garment almost finished (just need to hem) and some knitting going on which I'd like to update you on. I've also got to start planning some summer sewing.

What are your sewing plans for the summer?

Online fabric shopping spree

I'm still plotting away with the sewing front. There hasn't been much sewing going on in these parts, except from some wedding bunting which is a future post, but I have been planning the garments I would like to sew. 

I always end up having a big splurge on fabric about once a year and then spend the rest of the year sewing it all up. This time I bought 7 lengths of fabric online as I just don't have the time for real life shopping anymore and its not that fun with a little one in tow.

My online shopping comes courtesy of Fabricland. I have been to one of their fabric shops in Brighton and was really excited when they revamped their online shop.   

The top fabric is 2m of black stretch denim at £4.99 per m. I love black denim and this is a lovely textured colour. I'm planning on washing it a couple of times to soften it up before I sew with it. This is destined to be a button front skirt (a pattern which came with Love Sewing magazine) or I have a sneaking suspicion it might end up a Cleo dungaree dress by Tilly and the Buttons. 

I bought 3 lengths of jersey. The first is 1m of red Ponte Roma which was £3.99 per metre and is intended to be a simple t-shirt. The next is a blue and camel dogtooth print jersey, which I can no longer find on the Fabricland website. It's quite heavyweight and I mistakenly ordered two lots so I have 4m in total - enough to make a dress and a skirt and maybe even a t-shirt!! I also bought 2m of grey spot wool jersey at £4.59 per metre, which has already become a lovely wrap dress that has yet to be blogged. I also bought 1m of grey sweatshirt fabric at £4.99 per metre (not pictured) which has become a pair of joggers, also yet to be blogged about.  

My final purchases were 2m of black apple print Crepe, which was a bargin at £2.49 per metre and also 2m of Forest Floral Crepe De Chine. Both are destined to be dresses, although I have no idea which ones yet- perhaps something from Gertie's Ultimate Dress Book which I got for Christmas but haven't used yet!

So plenty of sewing plans for me to get on with! I'm hoping to supplement my work wardrobe as well as sewing some casual pieces now I'm only working part time. I've had a big sort out an ditched loads of ready-to-wear clothes which I had been hording for years and am now beginning to plan for the gaps in my wardrobe.

Sunrise Socks

Every time I go away on holiday, I always pack some knitting to take with me. I have found that socks make the perfect project, small enough to be portable and not take up too much room but interesting enough for me not to get bored half way though. Add some brightly coloured yarn and I'm a happy bunny!

Inevitably, I only manage to get part of the pair finished. This pair, which I have dubbed the Sunrise Socks because of the beautiful sunrise colours, I started during our holiday to see family in Spain in November. This time I managed to complete one whole sock in a week and then forced myself to finish the other in January so I could move onto other knitting projects.

The yarn I used in Schachenmayr Regia My First Regia a 4 ply yarn in the Sandra colourway. I mistakenly thought this came in 50g balls and only bought two, in fact it comes in 25g balls so I had to order another one as I didn't have quite enough to finish both socks. It's lovely and soft and the variations in the colours are beautiful.

I used the same pattern as for my Happy Camper socks, which has become my go to sock pattern and came free with a ball of  Sidar Heart and Sole Sock Yarn. It's a straight forward pattern to knit and much easier the second time round. The only difference I made was to shorten the length of the ribbing at the top of the cuff of the socks.

I have already worn these several times and they are so comfy. Now that I have made a couple of pairs of socks I am hooked. I have already bought three balls of King Cole Zig Zag which comes in the best colours for my next sock project as we are off on holiday at the end of the month. Can't wait!!

Nursing Tee

I spent ages trying to decide if it was worth sewing my own nursing t-shirts. My current wardrobe staples consist of a pair of stretchy skinny jeans, good for sitting and playing on the floor and a nursing t-shirt. Add a brightly coloured cardigan and my outfits are completed.

In the end I decided to give it a go using a tutorial by So Zo what do you know based on the Coco pattern. I made this ages ago - before christmas but have only just got round to blogging about it now! 

I decided to use the Breton t-shirt pattern from the Great British Sewing Bee: From Stitch to Style Book and adapt the pattern to create my nursing t-shirt. My husband bought me this book as a treat, post labour, and I liked this pattern straight away.

I traced a size 14 based on the pattern measurements tracing two front pattern pieces. One was left mostly the same, except I cut off the sleeves. The second I cut at the empire line, adding a seam allowance. Adapting the pattern was surprisingly easy, as there were only 4 pieces in total and one additional front piece.

The fabric I used was a floral print polyester jersey from Minerva Crafts, which I chose because it was cheap. I originally picked it to make a Cordelia Maternity camisole but didn't need it in the end. I managed to squeeze my pieces out of a metre of fabric, with none left over!

The construction of the t-shirt was easily adapted and did not take me very long. There was lots of trying on in the process to ensure that the fit was good. I did find that whilst the t-shirt fit very well at the hips and waist the neck was really, really gapey. I actually took around 2 inches from each side for it to fit correctly. If I make this t-shirt again I will make sure I grade down on the pattern at the bust.

I was happy with the fit of the final t-shirt. Unfortunately, I only wore this t-shirt once before it shrunk in the wash!! I've never bothered to pre-wash my fabrics but now I am convinced of the need. Lesson learnt!

Sadly, I don't think I'll be making another nursing t-shirt as my breasfeeding journey is slowly coming to an end now that the little man is approaching a year old. I'm back at work in two weeks, which has left me wondering where all the time has gone!

I've got a backlog of blog posts coming up which I hope to post in the not too distant future.  

Miette Progress

So, it's been a while. Like ages. January is gone, never to be seen again. I haven't stopped sewing or knitting but there never seems to be any time to photograph and blog about my makes. Baby Arthur and his social life is currently taking up most of my time - swimming lessons, sing and sign, baby groups, discovery play, ... I can't believe he's almost 9 months. But he's such a joy.

I have been managing to carve out some time for sewing, mostly in the evenings and lots and lots of knitting. Whilst I can't always find the energy to tackle a sewing project I can always manage to knit a few rows.

A knitting project that I started a while back is a Miette Cardigan in a lovely pink colour. Whilst I love this pattern by Andi Satterlund, its perhaps not my best choice for a beginners project. I have a bit of a history of starting knitting garments and not finishing them and unfortunately this has become one of these.

You see, I actually managed to knit about half of the cardigan. I knitted the main body and started on one of the set in sleeves. There was nothing wrong with my knitting- except the cardigan didn't fit. After trying it on I realised that it was minuscule on me- like child size!

So where did I go wrong? Turned out that despite knitting a tension square there were a few things wrong with this project. I struggled to get the correct tension with my chosen yarn Cascade 220- I had too many stitches and despite going up a size in the needles it wasn't right in the end. I also knitted the wrong size, I knitted the smallest size, a 32 inch chest, thinking that this would be okay with my small tension but in fact I needed a 36 inch chest for my post baby body.

I did decided to start again! I knitted another tension square using size 6 needles and magically got the right gauge. Hooray! This time I'm knitting the biggest size, a 36 inch chest and I can already see that it is a better fit.

At the moment though, I've shelved this project ... I kind of got a bit bored of it I think but I know I will come back to it at some point!!

Lots more knitting projects to share so watch this space!!

October and November

Where has the time gone? It's been ages since I have posted, although I have continued both sewing and knitting all be it at a slower pace. Previously, I used to have days or a week of frenzied sewing but these days I have to try and fit it around a small person. Little A is getting bigger and needs more entertaining these days so I cannot focus solely on sewing or knitting any more.  

We've finally moved into our new house. It was a bit surreal at first, having not lived in our own space since Uni (10 years ago!!) but I'm enjoying it immensely. We've decorated and I love living in a space which is so aesthetically pleasing to me. It turns out my tastes naturally tend to mid-century vintage - teak furniture, geometric prints and lots of teal, yellow and grey. Above is a picture of the dining area in our kitchen. I've had great fun unpacking all our belongings from storage, including our wedding presents. My favourite thing is our cutlery set - it's so bright and really cheers me up, I love using it.

Anyways, I thought very briefly about making my own curtains but soon realised this wasn't feasible with a baby and 7 pairs of curtains to create. So I bought ready-made, but the problem is our windows our not standard sizes (thanks to my architect husband) and so every single pair of curtains needs altering in some way. It's a nightmare!

So the reason I haven't been able to post is because I've been in curtain altering hell, which is not a great place to be. I've gone on strike currently and am planning to fit in some much needed projects for me. I have managed to get some time every evening with my knitting projects and will update on those soon!