Making it Work

I don't know about you, but I sometimes have moments where I wonder if I actually know anything about fabric and sewing. I have those projects that should just work and for some unkown reason just don't. Do you know what I mean?

This project was one of those. All the elements for a successful make were there: stretch cotton, tried and true pattern, all the right notions and haberdashery but somehow - It. Went. Wrong. and I'm still trying to work out what I did that caused the error.

Recently I'd been working on a make for Minerva and had bought some black stretch cotton from 1st For Fabrics to line the top I was making and make an accompanying black skirt. I had enough left over for a cropped pair of trousers.

This cotton is super stretchy - it has a slight sheen and a smooth even surface, it does crease quite a lot, but as it's a stretch garment that isn't too much of an issue. The recovery is good too.

I settled with the Closet Case Ginger Jeans pattern as the base for these trousers - constructing them without all the top stitching as I was making trousers. I also omitted the back pockets. I made the same size that I had done the last time I made Jeans (less stretchy fabric) and made my usual adjustments. I even basted them and tried them on - all seemed well. However, once I had put the waist band on I tried them again and realised they were way too tight. I wouldn't have been able to sit in them.

Cross with myself I threw them in the corner, thinking that they might fit my daughter, if I could be bothered to finish them - she wasn't intreested. I left them there for several days until they were ready to say sorry and I took another hard look at them, determined to make it work. I hadn't trimmed the waistband so that could be taken off and I'd left the full seam allowance on the inseam and outseam. 

I unpicked the waistband from the front to just past the side seams to allow me to adjust them. Then I let out the inseam and outseam by 0.5cm - not much at all, but enough to make a whole world of difference to the fit. Before sewing a second line of stitching to secure the seams, I thought I had better try them on - Hooray, success! I thought to myself as I pulled the zip up and straight off the end of the zipper! DOH! I had forgotted I'd trimmed the zipper tape.

Off I went to my local fabric shop to buy another zip as I didn't have another at home and then proceeded to complete the fiddly task of applying a zip after finishing the fly!

With the buttonhole finally made and a button from my stash and the hems completed, these were finished. I wore them to work last week and got lots of compliments  - they are very slimming! I'm not sure how much wear I'll get out of them before it becomes too cold, but I'm sure these will be a great addition to my summer work wardrobe.

Eastern Jewels

I first spotted this crochet blanket pattern on Pinterest well over a year ago. I was drawn to the colours and the 'random' way it all fitted together to give a very different afghan style blanket. I'd stalked other people's makes and once I'd seen it posted up on Minerva Crafts it went onto my 'want' list.

By July I still hadn't bought it, so when my mum asked what I'd like for my birthday; I knew exactly what to ask for. After being away for a few days in early August my gift arrived and I started making.

I decided to start on the octagonal sections first as I knew that they would take the longest. I worked row by row so that I would remember the stitches I needed to do, gradually increasing the size of the octagons until they were finally finished in early November. I found the pattern instructions easy to follow and the colour guide I kept on hand to make sure I was using the correct colours. I still managed to get some of the colours in the wrong place, but on this design, it really doesn't matter.

Once the octagons were complete I started on the granny squares, which were relatively quick to make up. followed by the triangular pieces.
Fastening it all together was quite quick and as long as the corner stitches were marked it was easy to match the edges. I wove the ends in as I went where possible, but did make a bit of a mistake here - more details later.

The edging really brings the blanket together, but I decided to change the colours suggested on the pattern and use some of the colours that I had most of left, so some sections that should be blue are now Fuchsia - and I like it.

I held up my newly finished blanket to show my hubby, and horror of horrors I discovered some of my granny squares had come undone in places. At first, I thought it was just one, and I replaced the whole square. Then I discovered more. I think it was where I'd cut the tails quite short when fastening off at the end of a row and where the next row did not have enough stitches to hold the tail ends in place.

Gutted I threw it into the bag I'd been keeping it in and sulked. Months of work ruined!
However on the 8th December, (look how long it's taken to get some finished photos!) it was our monthly crafternoon and I took the blanket, hooks, scissors and spare yarn and was determined to rescue the blanket.

Where the yarn had come undone - (due to the weight of the blanket as I'd moved it and it had stretched a little) - I found the dropped stitch and then knotted on some more yarn to make sure I had enough to fasten this off securely this time, and I fixed it. I gave the blanket a few good shakes so that any sections that were loose would show up and then fixed them all. I was going to use the leftover yarn to make other things, but I think I'm going to keep it in case any more sections need to be repaired.

This has been a labour of love and I really do love the finished blanket. but if you are going to make it, make sure you leave long tails on the ends of the rows so they don't come undone when you sew them in.