Easy Knit Blanket Sweater....

I started this earlier in the year.  I really indented for this to have been finished last winter but too much was going on and the finishing part is the part that I do not like.  I used the directions on Mama in a Stitch called Easy Knit Blanket Sweater.  Check out her version as mine as a little bit different.  Here's my finished rectangle:

It looks like I finished the actually knitting in the middle of June.  Just 6 months to get around to doing the finishing.  I will admit that my life has been a bit crazy in the last 6 months but it is finally calming down.

Here's the finished version:

 You can tell that this is a difference is casting on and binding off in this picture.  It looks like one side has more stitches than the other.  I think I need to practice more to get a more elastic bind off.

Here it is on:

This will be perfect for taking along to church and such.  Sometimes, you just need another layer with the fan/air/whatever is blowing.  It does feel a little bit big but for what it's doing it's fine.

I used the Bernat Blanket yarn that I found at JoAnn's.  It is 100% polyester and very cozy.  I used one strand of yarn.  If I was doing this again, I would use two strands to make an even cozier little shrug.

I think this is the end of my unfinished projects from the year.  Now, I will move back to the sewing room and finish up holiday stitching.

Happy Stitching!

Sewing Pants for Women...The Dress Rehearsal - First Fitting, Part 9

Continuing with the Sewing Pants for Women by Else Tryoler.  Today, will we talk about the first fitting:

If you have faithfully learned the lines of the Seven Giant Steps to Pants Perfection, your anguish will be at a minimum.  However, even with best of all possible plays has a few awkward bits.  In our case little individual body quirks you didn't know you had may become apparent.  Take heart, you must remember to take back any little oddity back to your pattern and make the changes there as well as in the finished product.

Now for the fitting:  Be sure you have sewn a belt onto the waist, or that you at least have a band basted to it.  Pants hang from the waist.  Don't try to hold them up with your hands and achieve fit at the same time!  The closing should be basted under on one side and the other marked with colored basting stitches for an accurate pinned closing.  If you are quite hippy put zipper in front or back, otherwise at any place you wish.

1.  Check the waist band for comfort, letting it out or in as needed.  This will affect the darts, making them deeper or shallower at the right place, either front or back.

2.  Check hip comfort, letting in or out slightly at side seams.

3.  Check crotch length.  Does it hang too low?  Then pin an even tuck all around the hip-line.  Is the crotch too short? Go back to Sewing Pants for Women...Preparing the Pattern for Alteration Step 2, Part 3 for the alteration. If it is only a matter of 1/4-inch or 1/2-inch, drop the waistline that amount.

4.  Check the crotch width.  Are you comfortable?  Is there a pull across the front or back at the crotch level?  Then let out the seams on the inner legs at the crotch point.  (See Sewing Pants for Women...Preparing the Pattern for Alteration Step 4, Part 5)  Perhaps there is too much leeway in this area.  Take the seams in, especially if you covet that cupped-in look of the younger generation.  In this case, taper a sharper inward curve down to the knee line.

5.  Check the back rise.  If any droopiness has crept in, or the seat does not hang as straight as you would have it, pin out a tuck across the seat. (See Sewing Pants for Women...Preparing the Pattern for Alteration Step 1. Part 2) .  If your pants pull in the center when bending or sitting:

      a.  Look at the waist center, front and back.  There may be too much dip or drop.  If this is so, set the waistband higher, tapering to nothing at the sides.

      b.  If more rise is needed, alter pattern by opening at center back about 1/2-inch and re-mark pants with altered pattern.

6.  Check for leg comfort.  This is a matter of taste as well as fit.  Take in or let out seams by the same technique you learned in { Step 6 }.  Be sure to keep the crease-line in the center!

A smile is a very pleasant thing indeed, except when it refers to wrinkles in the front of your pants!  Among the familiars of the garment trade, "pants that smile in front" is the euphemistic term used to describe garments with wrinkles that flair upwards from the crotch, as in the illustration.  And it is nothing to grin about!

The cause is varied:  there may be insufficient crotch width.  In this case the malady can be cured by referring back to crotch width alterations in Sewing Pants for Women...Preparing the Pattern for Alteration Step 4, Part 5.  There you will find instructions for widening this area.  Often, wrinkles are caused by too snug a fit through the hip at the side seams.  Misjudged hips or heavy thighs may need more breathing space.  Release the side seams and see if that doesn't do away with the unwanted smile.



To cup or not to cup -- that is the question!

The cupped-in look is a modern trend among the young-at-heart.  See the illustration.  Perhaps you admire it, perhaps you don't.  There are followers in both schools of thought.

This contour fit is achieved by reducing the crotch points in back only, and by deepening the seat curve.  The crotch curve must be a straighter, downward plunging line with a sharp turn inwards.  See Figure 31.

Perhaps you are not devoted to the cupped look, but find that there is simply too much fullness across or just below the seat.  Making the crotch curve a straighter, down-ward-plunging line or giving it a sharp turn inwards (or both) will serve to remedy the situation.

If any of these last-minute changes have cropped up in your fitting, and you have conscientiously made the changes to your pattern, you can go forth knowing that you are now the proud possessor of a true-blue pants pattern this is yours, all yours!  The final sweet reward will come when you sit back and dream of rows upon rows of perfect pants that are yours for the making!

Question:  What are you thoughts on these alterations?

Happy Sewing!

Sewing Pants for Women...Preparing the Pattern for Alteration Step 7, Part 8

Continuing with the Sewing Pants for Women by Else Tryoler.  Today, will we start with Step 7 of the seven giant steps to pants perfection:

The Back Rise

What is the back rise, anyhow? When you look at the blueprint of a pair of pants, the back rise is your sitting room.  It is the extra bit of length built into the center back seam to give you the necessary leeway for sitting, bending, an walking.  No one can appreciate it more than the poor unfortunate who has heard that ominous rrrrip in public.

Therefore, if you are intent upon constructing a pair of pants primarily for action -- to wear for golf or bowling, or mountain climbing -- you will want to be sure that they have the necessary back rise to make such activities possible.  By the same token, if you desire pure chic and fashion, the amount of back rise will determine whether they do hang arrow-straight from the seat.  In either case, too much of a good thing is going to give you that dreary droop in the seat that has a way of making a pair of pants look tired.

Remember that you cannot always have comfort for activity and an extremely straight hang from the seat to hem.  More active sports usually call for Bermudas or pedal pushers, and a slight sag in the rear is not as noticeable in this length as it would be in the long, tapered pants.

Take your fabric into consideration, too.  A soft fabric with more give through the seat will require less rise.  Woolens and unlined knit fabric (or knits) need very little, and a stretch fabric needs no back rise at all.

It is difficult to determine just how much rise a pattern maker has built into his pattern.  When you cut a pair of pants from a pattern be sure to leave extra seam allowance.  That is, add 1-inch instead of the usual 5/8-inch to the center, waistline, and side seams in the back.  Add 1-inch allowance to front waistline only.  See Figure 23.  Broken lines indicate seam allowance.

The dismal results of too much back rise is a seat that droops and hangs down like the tail of a whipped puppy.  The fault cannot be corrected by taking up at the wait, nor is it associated with the length of the crotch.  If you find, at the first fitting of pants cut from a pattern, that this is the case (as in Figure 24), pin out the excess rise in a tuck across the seat at the hip line.  Starting at center and pinning tuck along hip-line, taper to nothing a the side seam.  You will transfer the same amount to tuck to the pattern by cutting the pattern along the hip-line, from the center back seam to side seam.  Then overlap the lower half over the upper half a the center back seam and taper to nothing at the side seam.  Reshape the crotch curve slightly, as shown by the broken line in Figure 25.  Also, use these directions for alterations on read-made pants. 

Having now adjusted the pattern to the exact amount of rise needed by you, rip the side seams of your garment down far enough to permit re-placing the pattern upon it, and re-mark to the new dimensions.  You see now why we warned to leave a little extra seam allowance when cutting from a pattern for the first time.

In altering a pair of ready-made pants for which you do not have a pattern, drop the waist the same amount that you pinned out across the seat a center.  See Figure 26.  The broken line is the former stitching line.  The side and the center seam mover over and assume a new position.  See solid line.

How do you know how much back rise to eliminate?  For long, glamorous pants that look their best when hanging in a die-straight line below the seat, a shorter back rise is required.  Take out 1/2-inch to 1-inch by cutting the pattern from the center back seam along the hip-line from center back to side seam.  Overlap the correct amount at the center, taper to nothing at side seam.  Adjust the crotch curve as in Figure 25.

Pants intended for more strenuous sports need more rise for movement.  Cut across the hip-line from center back to side seam, and pin pattern to an insert about 1/2-inch wide at the center seam, tapering to nothing at the side seam.  Adjust the crotch seam as in Figure 27. 

Modern pants need a deeper curve than patterns and ready-made pants allow.  The curve must be deepened on a pattern or pinned in on ready-made pants.  For a cupped-in look, the curve must be fitted deeply, and a small amount tapered off the crotch point in back.  See "Crotch Width Alteration", Figures 12 and 13 in Sewing Pants for Women...Preparing the Pattern for Alteration Step 4, Part 5.  These alternations apply to the back ONLY.  They will not work on the front.

Question:  What is your thought on this method of altering the back rise?  Have you tried it?  Did it work for you?

I stumbled upon this alteration accidentally when I was taking a pant drafting class.  It was the only way I could get the wrinkles under the butt to disappear.  The teacher told me that it was an incorrect alteration.  However, the next iteration of the class did indeed show that alteration. 

Next will be sewing instructions for the perfect fit.

Happy Stitching!

Tawashi Knot...

I found the Tawashi Knot on Ravelry here and thought it was kinda cute.  So, I decided to attempt to make one with left over cotton yarn from the kitchen towels that I have made this year.  Here's my version:

I did make a small mistake on my version but I can't really tell that it affected the end result much. Since this version is made out of cotton, I don't think it will be much of a scrubber but it will certain work as a dish cloth.  The recommend yarn is acrylic but I think I'm going to try a different "yarn" to try the next one.

This was a fun little free project.  Just right to make little bits of yarn disappear.

Note:  I saw many complaints about the directions for folding this.  Just follow the directions/pictures and you should be okay.  I got it on the second try. 

Happy Stitching!

Knitted Kitchen Towel....

I finally finished the second kitchen towel as this post back in April.  It's amazing that so much time has past since I started the kitchen towel.  Here is the towel in the reverse colors from the one made in April:

This time, I actually followed the directions exactly.  I like the stripes slightly better in the first towel along with the darker color of the body.  What do you think?

Happy Stitching!