Book: "Vintage Details" by Jeffrey Mayer and Basia Szkutnicka

My photo isn't terribly great, but this is what it looks like

I have bought and am giving myself a fantastic book as a present. Yay me!

"Vintage Details - A Fashion Sourcebook"  is just wonderful. It is also pretty heavy, a real coffee table book and I would buy it as a paperback again for easier storage. But this book deserves to be so heavy: there is just such a lot in it. And what gorgeousness!

It is chockful of photographs, initially as smaller index card style photos ('Visual Index') so you can quickly leaf through this section to visually identify what you are looking for.  This index tells you what page the larger photographs are on. So useful!

Often one of the pictures later on in the book will show a close-up of a detail, a cuff turned inside out, sleeves laid so you can see the most interesting part, a pocket flap turned back, the inside of a garment, etc.

Just look at this beautiful gusset, courtesy of the sleeve being folded out of the way:

The folded back tab shows an otherwise hidden seam and where the button is relative to the pocket flap:

The book is divided into several chapters: necklines; collars; sleeves; cuffs; pockets; fastenings & buttonholes; hems, darts, stitching & fitting devices; pleats, frills & flounces; embellishment; surface; and construction.

Going through the book feels like you've been to a fabulous vintage clothing exhibition but you didn't have to take your own photos hoping they'll come out well and show the details that caught your eye - instead it is all in here, in a very well presented way.

I love the shaped seam under the inverted pleat

This is in the Construction chapter, showing the inside of the dress

I know I will go through this book again and again: to look for inspiration, to remind myself of something I half remember and just for the sheer pleasure of indulging in this visual delight of what makes vintage clothing so fascinating and absorbing.

I give this book five out of five stars. I can only recommend it warmly: go find it, buy it.

"Vintage Details - A Fashion Sourcebook" by Jeffrey Mayer and Basia Szkutnicka. Laurence King Publishing Ltd, 2016

A pretty crochet border

...or how good it feels to complete a long-time UFO.  Damn good!

I started this project, a nice, cool summer top, so many years ago that I don't remember when. Judging from intervening house moves it was at least three years ago, but could be longer.

It is finished!!!  Ta-da!

I am so pleased. The feeling of satisfaction at completing something that was cluttering up my space: it is a priceless, unbeatable feeling. To no longer come across it and having to think: "Oh yeah, I need to finish that at some point, soon, whenver...".  Such a relief!

I do have waaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy too many unfinished projects hanging around like a bad smell. Triggering uncomfortable, opppressive vibes.

I want to no longer contribute to even more of them. It has to stop: either complete it, throw it out or do something (whatever it is) with it. Give to friends, to a charity shop, rip it back down if it's knitted, throw it in a clothes collection bin for making blankets out of or whatever they do...

I don't intend on exposing myself to the disheartening pressure of wanting to go through everything I have lying around and get this fixed right this minute, if not yesterday - I will take my time over it.  I am able to do this on a gradual basis, I don't have to stress myself out.  I will look at a few projects at a time, both knitting and sewing or quilting projects, and decide on which one 'grabs' me the most.  I like using spontaneous urges that have me pick up one specific thing - it usually means that I successfully deal with it.

As I mentioned, my sewing group is having a two-part sewalong on looking over UFOs, one was in January, the next one Part 2 is in March.  This proved extremely beneficial: I got the urge to look at just this or that UFO, and had started to do a little sewing here and there too.

Then I came across some of my knit UFO projects that are too numerous to mention - this is just the first one I was able to do something with.  I had absolutely no idea how I was going to deal with a gaping big neckline, the thought of knit ribbing was a bit offputting.

Seeing how pretty this crochet border looks, I am extremely glad that I looked for something else.  I do save a lot of photos I find inspiring. One of them was of a page in a Japanese book, an edging there inspired the top half of my border. I improvised the other part at the bottom:

I put down a foundation row of double crochet stitches.

I was able to go 'around' the corners by not crocheting into every stitch. The top part of the pattern then also missed out a stitch here and there to make it lie flat.

Same at the back.  You can also see that my "seam line" between sleeve and body looks a little odd. I used the seamless method* by decreasing at this point in every second row. The kink in the line comes from switching from decreasing in the body area to decreasing at the sleevehead.

This method is probably a bit better for fibres that are smoother and will pull into place a bit better than this cotton yarn.

I made the ribbing in a K2 P1 pattern.

This photo shows the problem of the neckline very well: not only is it too big, the fabric also rolls in as well as out in several places. This would have never looked good or felt comfortable if left like this - I was really unsure what to do with it for a long time.

I can also see now that I could have decreased between sleeve and body a little more further down. You live and you learn!

Overall I am content but not ecstatic with how the top looks on me.  I am utterly delighted in an over-the-moon way that I finished it!

Yay me.

Now where is that other WIP where I need to do my magic with the squashed sleeveheads? Lemme at it!


PS: The seamless sweater method* has been explained by Elizabeth Zimmermann in at least one of her books, and also by Tuulia who developed a pattern that you can buy.

Project massive blouse 6 January 2017

Even more progress.  I closed most seams though I feel a bit weird saying this, surely these aren't all the seams just yet?  I'll have to check but I do think so.

More photos:

Burda 6230 muslin, in muslin

This shows how thin the fabric is. The back

You can also see the seams on the other side. Cuff in place

Slightly better details

I "just" need to do the buttonholes and sew on buttons.  Once I know what buttons I want to use.  On the other hand I don't have a lot of sewing thread left, do I perhaps want some kind of snap or other closure instead?  I'll need to think that over a bit first.

The other thing I'll have to do before thinking about the proper project is to get photos of me wearing this.  I'll be able to tell how much shorter I want the white blouse to be.

I have the white fabric right here to use but I'm reluctant to jump into carrying on.  I feel that I need to take a little time to consider how I want the white blouse to be. The sleeves do drag a bit funny and seem to twist a little, luckily they are about the right length.  The cuffs fold back on top of them instead of lengthening the sleeves as I thought, but they're still a good length on me.

The cuved baby hems turned out really well, I'm happy I did them.  I also really enjoy how much I could practice my 'accurate' sewing. Looking quite good in most places!

The standing up collar seems a bit tall - it comes up too high and that make me feel a bit 'wedged in', like the collar is some kind of restraining device framing my head.

Problem: I'm not sure that I've got the collar right - it doesn't at all extend to the button bands. That's the complete opposite of the photo on the pattern envelope: the collar extends all the way to their edge at centre front.  How very odd.

There are no notches on the collar to show where it is supposed to hit any specific points, like the shoulder, so no help there.  I did sew the buttonbands on correctly: the instructions show a normal seam allowance, it's not like they mean for you to completely encase the front edges.  The width across also works on the finished article but for some reason the neckline seams too big for the length of the collar.  I might just redraft it and stop worrying about it.  But it is odd when something like that happens.

This is an old Burda pattern where you have to add seam allowance, the pattern pieces do not include them.  I realised when double-checking the pattern pieces: they needed to butt up against each other to fit.  I consulted the instructions (and highlighted that bit!) to make sure.  Newer Burda patterns follow industry standard of including the allowance, but they didn't used to.

I even went a step further than just highlighting the instructions - I even scrawled 'Add Seam Allowance!' in big, fat marker on a few of the bigger pieces so I'd remember when I use this pattern again.  I know how easy it is to forget and just cut out as normal.

I am please with how far I've got.  Now I need photos of me modelling it because the mirror only shows a static view and restricted angles.  Then I'll do some more thinking.

I will want to do more sewing now, to keep my momentum going, who knows I might just carry on with WIP!  Wouldn't that be a novel thing?

I seem to have bought a pattern

I went to this charity shop for a men’s shirt.  I wanted a shirt to upcycle (I just fancied it as a sewing challenge) and not having any men’s shirts to hand, I gave this charity shop a go.  They did have quite a few shirts, but none in a fabric that I liked.

Instead I found this:

Excuse the badly lit photo

Also a cardigan which I got rid off as soon as I got it home because there was a stain I didn't see in the shop, plus the fabric wasn’t all that nice.  So off it went to another charity shop.  Oh well.

This blouse looks lovely: I had not worn any ruffles placed like this before and now I think this works really well with my shape ('apple' as they say. Or 'barrel' shape: wide in the middle, tapering off on either side  - my waist is my problem area).  As a bit of a coincidence, I had decided a short while ago that I do need to add interest to the neckline area and the ruffles here do an admirable job.  I want to explore that element further in future in terms of clothes that I would buy or sew.

Unfortunately I don’t love the linen fabric and its thin weight.  The wrinkled linen look just doesn't look all that great in this particular linen.  Not utterly besotted by the colour either.  I don't hate it but I’m not in love with it either.  A chalky looking pale blue.  It is a bit insipid and puts me off from wearing this blouse.

Then I discovered that the bust dart is in the wrong place: it sits too high, points in the wrong direction and it is too short.  All of this is something that cannot be fixed in an existing garment.

But!

But I can easily adapt a pattern to use the design elements of this blouse and position the dart in the right place.

Now that I discovered the dart issue I am more than happy to get rid of the blouse.  As in: get it out of my wardrobe to never be worn again (I did wear it once, today, so that's fine: I got some use out of it).

I am thinking of taking this blouse apart: this will give me the shape of the ruffles (I suspect that they are circular, with the lower ones cut out of a slightly bigger circle than the upper ruffle) and the main proportions of the blouse: length, width, neckline shape – and also the sleeve pattern.

The sleeves are definitely something that I have to take apart to see what pattern they are based on.

With all that information I should be able to draft a blouse pattern that’s very close to this one. I know that I’ll want to take the side seams in a touch at the top and make a slight change to the neckline: I would prefer a simple V-shape instead of this neckband type facing which doesn't contribute anything particularly clever to the design.  I do like the yoke across the shoulder, I want to keep that.

So its seems that I haven’t so much bought a second-hand blouse as a pattern to use to sew something that I know will fit!   It turns out that this purchase was not a waste but a clever way of getting a wearable muslin – it is exceedingly useful in that function too!

Do you shop in charity shops and what kinds of clothes do you look for?  Something to upcycle or to wear as it is?  Do you ever frankenpattern several old clothes into one new design?  I would love to hear and see ideas!

I sewed something!

Oh my gosh, I am so relieved I cannot even begin to say how much.

I have been obsessing about sewing, dressmaking more specifically, for the last 3-4 years.  And yet: I just didn't get anything done.  Not finished I should say.

But look at this:

I broke through the block, I got out from under the jinx!  Yes!
I am so pleased.

It is by no means perfect, in fact the photos are very useful so I can tell where this pattern needs to be adjusted.  My plan is to get this right as much as I can - and then to put the two pieces onto some stiff paper (like wallpaper lining paper, that should do the trick) so I can use this as a template for all sorts of other designs: different necklines, with sleeves, buttoned at the front, wrap style, you name it.  I can embellish this by adding roses, origami shapes or flounces to the neckline, I can add a collar, or piece it together out of different fabrics, I can crop it or lengthen it - lots of possibilities.

Best of all: once I get the fit of this right I should never have another fitting issue as long as I want to make this simple style.  And I think simple suits me best.

I can see from the frontal photo above that this drapes well from the shoulder (thank goodness! That's the most important aspect that I think needs to be right first, everything else is secondary) - but I might tighten the side seams near the armholes just a little bit, lose maybe a centimetre at most.

The side photo: I am really aghast at how overweight this makes me look, I'm not that big!  So perhaps the side seams do need to be just a touch tighter down to about half way?  I'm not sure if this would work, I need to try that out.

I can see here that I need to make the centre front longer but keep the side seams the same length.  I want to shift the bust dart  at least an inch (bit more) further down - it's just plain wrong for it to end half way between the bust point and the armhole seam (who are these patterns made for?).  The front shoulder can be a bit less broad if I want a more close-fitting style.

I guess I need to look into a swayback adjustment (I think that's what it's called.  Not sure what it is nor what it does) and I can see from this photo that the back piece is much, much too wide at the waist. I think I applied my bigger waist measurement all the way around but I need to keep the front piece as is but use a smaller dress size (or two!) for the back.

The shoulders at the back are way too wide, they make me look rather broad-shouldered.  Carrying on from a slimmer shoulder at the front, I will probably want to go a lot further in - this will probably end up as quite a rounded armhole shape for the back whereas the shape at the front needs to remain quite straight down.

I am not sure if I am keen on the shape of the back neckline but I think this is quite easy to change.

I used this fabric because I have plenty of it and can't think of a suitable project, it seemed perfect to use it for what is really a muslin (or toile).  I didn't appreciate that the fabric is quite soft and is quite easy to pull out of shape - I would much rather use a plain cotton next time I do a muslin.

Now I just need to look for another piece of suitable fabric from my stash (I got plenty!) and then I can go for version number 2.

Oh, this is fun!

Slippery slopes - it's a snow white jumper!

I finished a few more projects (yay to me!) - I'll need to write them up gradually.  I must have put more time into knitting and finishing things than writing about them.  Not the worst way round of doing things!

So here's the white jumper in Gedifra Amara.

Pattern:   Seamless jumper by Elizabeth Zimmermann
From:       Knitting Without Tears

I have a feeling that this yarn is being discontinued.  I bought one ball at John Lewis and then found the yarn pretty cheap on a website. They had nine so I snagged them all up.  I had started what was going to be a little scarflet (in a feather and fan pattern) which was going to be my 'leave at work and take with me to knitting group when I forget my normal knitting' project.  I must think of another one to bring in and leave under my desk (Note to self: bring it, don't just sing it).

Then I found that I needed ball No 10 as well.  I wasn't totally sold on the scarf idea in any case so I ripped that one down without much in the way of regret.

The pattern is wonderful, I really, really enjoyed knitting this!  I'm sure you're aware that I've got a soft spot for Elizabeth Zimmermann patterns and this one is just as idiosyncratically described and wonderful to knit as the others I've tried.  I just love it.

This version of the seamless sweater has the saddle shoulder detail.  I love the way the decrease line curves towards the body for an inch or so, then runs upwards for a good bit before it comes across to the neckline near the shoulders. It's a great shape, very flattering!

A friend is making the Hybrid sweater and I was 'helping' with it.  I'm sure that all the information I've thrown at her is more likely to put her off!  I must say that I enjoyed knitting this one so much that I'd like to try the Hybrid sweater next.

The yarn is very slippery, it literally flows onto the needles and runs back off them!  The yarn was pretty easy to unwind from the rolls of cardboard: you just had to hold it up and let a bit of it spill off!

It is made from a cotton core wound around with nylon thread.  The colourways in white and black are great: same colour for the cotton as for the nylon.  I feel that other colours just aren't as successful: the shade of the cotton is a lot more muted and dull than the nylon colour.  I think it gives the resulting fabric quite an old-fashioned look, I'm just not keen.  I first became aware of this yarn when I spotted the bright turquoise shade and went up to investigate.  On a closer look I chose the white instead!  Still, I'm not sure, but they may be discontinuing that.  At least John Lewis had it in their sale, 'to clear'.  It might be a summer yarn that's being rotated with whatever winter yarns Gedifra wants to get into stores.

   

I'm slightly annoyed that the decrease line at the shoulders is not perfectly straight: there is a kink at the point where you change to knitting the shoulder bits backward and forwards.  Minor niggle though.  I quite like my idea for the neckline: I did a K1 P1 ribbing and I think I used a thinner needle a bit further in - did the ribbing for long enough so I can turn it in, - but I also added some more stocking stitch and increased a few stitches around to make sure that I could sew the inside down in a suitable spot.  It worked alright!  I can still pull the jumper over my head - which has got to be the most decisive criteria for wethehr a jumper is suitable for wearing!

I really enjoyed this knit.

Spontaneous project No 2

Here is the second short-sleeved top that slipped into my queue at the time:

Debbie Bliss Prima - loosely following a Drops pattern but I modified this quite a bit because my gauge was very different.  I also didn't knit the sleeves separately to join into the yoke but did a temporary cast-on for those stitches and knit the sleeves back down.   Which means that the zigzag pattern in the sleeves is actually upside down.  Whoops... Not quite intended, really.

This colour navy is unfortunately a discontinued shade. I was incredibly lucky to get more of this yarn (after I, predictably, ran out) from a wonderful website called A Right Good Yarn, whose customer service was tremendous!

They specialise in some discontinued shades/lines and if you can't find it anywhere else (like me) then give them a go.

And imagine how my jaw literally dropped and hit the floor when I realised that somehow I'd lucked into more of the same dyelot! How lucky is that?

I love the way the zigzag and the garter stitch/eyelet strip works together.  I quite like the reversed effect in the sleeves.  The pattern suggested using just one row of garter stitch to start but I decided to repeath the same pattern from the neckline.  I really like it this way.

My silliness in not quite reading the pattern didn't just show up in my upside down sleeves (I should say top-down sleeves) - it started when I 'forgot' to put the zigzag pattern above the hem!  Oh well.

I must say that this very simple hemline is very much my thing.  A lot of my projects look like this.

 There is just something about it.  My most pronounced pet hate is rolled hems (they make me wince) and I am not keen on garter row hems either, though I much prefer those to the rolled hems that, to my way of thinking, just look as if the knitter hadn't realised that stocking stitch will roll up.

The above is the stage when I really got stuck.  Not even running out of yarn quite dampened my enthusiasm in adapting this pattern to my liking (thinking about it, I may have actually decided not to include the zigzag near the bottom, I don't quite remember now...) - but it took me a while to get from the stage shown above to the finished article.

I was very unsure that I had the "right" amount of stitches.  However many that was supposed to be.  My gauge is totally different than in the instructions.  Realising belatedly that I was meant to knit the sleeves hem upwards and unite into the yoke... oops, that slowed me down to a complete full-stop.  A full stop that incorporated much head-scratching and confusion.

Once I checked and found that the zigzag pattern repeat equals ten stitches, and counting mine found that I had 74 - it finally dawned that I couldn't reduce to 70 stitches but would be better off increasing to 80.  Which worked out really well.

If I had gone for decreasing then the sleeve shape would have been exceedingly weird.  An increase and accompanying flaring out, that I could cope with.

So here it is.

PS: 'Scuse the wrinkles, I forgot to take a picture before first wearing this (too impatient for once I guess!) and a subsequent wash.  At least it shows up that the yarn washes very well (just a normal 30 degree mini cycle, not even the delicate or wool function).  I did dry it flat and turned it over a couple of times.  I suppose I should have given the hem area a quick steam before I took the photo.  Next time.

One more long term project completed!

It is a very pleasant thing when you hope to do something and you accomplish it within a reasonable amount of time.

I mentioned in my last blog post that I would like to do something about two sewing projects that are lying around, crying out to get picked up again, and a green top that needed very little to go from 95% to all done!

And here it is, I've done it!  (It 'only' took ten months):



My Green Summer Lace Sleeve Top (Ravelry)



I will post a better picture as soon as the top is finished blocking.  All the other pictures I took are rather fuzzy: I hadn't discovered the macro setting on my photo camera yet (isn't it wonderful that you learn something new every so often?) so no wonder...

My photography skills improved considerably since.

I could have waited for this top to dry but couldn't contain myself. Best strike while the iron is hot.

The details:

Yarn	Debbie Bliss Prima (half strand)
Needles	3.25 mm (I think)
Pattern	made up as I went along
Source	lace patterns from Harmony stitch books

I wrote about my madness in wanting to knit this in a different weight than the yarn provides for (Splitting matters).  I am very pleased with the effect.  The only thing is that I should have paid more attention to the dye lots - I got 100g in a different dye lot and managed to introduce stripes across the top part of the garment.  That was completely unintentional and doesn't look interesting enough for me to get away with pretending that it is part of the design.

My solution to any kind of design problem: do something to make it look as if it was always meant to look this way.  I can't come up with anything in this case though.  I thought of embroidering some wavey lines over the stripes but I think that would make it look worse.  So far the stripes are relatively subtle, this is preferable to any 'solution' I can think of. Best leave things as they are instead of messing this up with an "improvement".

The sleeves were meant to be much more flared - possibly gathered at the top (at the shoulders) and then flaring like wings over the top part of the arm.  They didn't work out like that.  I still only attached them at the top half of the armholes which left the bottom half quite unfinished looking: the edges were a little raw and way too loose too.

I used buttonhole stitch to edge the open armholes, something like this:


buttonhole stitch

Or to show the detail a little better, only closer spaced together than this:


Also called blanket stitch

I tried to get these stitches as even as possible, but it could do with a bit of elastic thread to prevent the armhole curve from being too floppy.

The bind-off edging is my own design.  It is a sort of flared edge with picot details.  As soon as I can put my hand on my notes, I will blog about this.  I made up my own thing here because I wanted to avoid this from becoming too tight and rigid as happens when you bind off in the normal manner.

I do like very plain hems.  The yarn is 80% bamboo and 20% merino, so the hem (long tail cast-on, one row purl stitch and then stockinette), does not roll up quite as much as it could, - but it still does.

A turned ridge hem would have been better. Or I'll need to sew a fabric facing to the inside if the curling up remains a problem.

Black and White neckline top

This is another top (I do seem to make them in batches oddly enough), and it is quite funny that I am blogging about this just after my quickest project, the electric purple mohair shawlette.  This one took the longest.

It is a 4 ply cotton top-down tee type top with raglan lines from the corners of the neckline down to the underarm grafting lines.

I had started this top something like ten, or maybe even fifteen years ago? It's been so long that I can't even remember.  I do know that after happily knitting away I put it down one day, and just never came back to it.  Up until a few weeks ago.  At first I thought this was something for frogging, I couldn't even remember what it was supposed to be. The black and white detail around the square neck brought it back to me and all thought of ripping this down for the yarn was forgotten.  I now also remember why I stopped: I got stuck on how to continue into the sleeves when I was only going to increase further at the raglan lines - if I had carried on I would have made a two-dimensional, unwearable piece.  It would have pinched in a really nasty way!

I was aware that I needed to do something to shape the armholes but I was completely flummoxed as to what. Last December I knitted the Elizaber Zimmerman 'Hurry up Last Minute Sweater', which could also be called The Wishbone Sweater (to be blogged about later, I want to dye it first), and the mystery of the underarm shaping was revealed to me: you need to cast on a number of stitches that will make about three inches (7.5 cm) to shape the area under the arms.  A temporary cast-on can work terrifically because you can pick up those stitches and just knit them off when it comes to working the body from them in the other direction, down to the hem.

At the stage of dividing the piece for the sleeves, I just left all the stitches on my 80 cm long circular needle (I love circulars, I don't use anything else except for DPNs for sock knitting or a doily until it gets large enough) - cast on those under arm stitches, then just knitted off the sleeve stitches as designated by the raglan lines followed by the cast on stitches, in the round. The circular needle is too long for a sleeve, but just pull it through whenever you get to the "beginning" of the round and keep knitting as normal.  If there is not enough stretch in the material then you may have to use DPNs but this may be a pointer to the fact that the sleeve is too narrow.  I made sure to feed a thinner circular through half the body every so often so I could try it on and see how I was doing, size-wise.

I was extremely lucky that, making it up as I went along, my choice of how deep I made the neckline meant that the sleeves are not too narrow.  That's just sheer luck though in this case.  Next time I do a top like this I would work out a rough sketch from the gauge and not wing it like I did here, blythely.

Another lucky thing was my choice of yarn.  This is a 4 ply 100% cotton yarn and of course I ran out of yarn within eight inches of the hem.  I thought that the yarn looked quite similar so I tried Patons 100% 4 ply cotton and I couldn't see a difference between them.  Generic cotton or not, that's extremely lucky I think!  Any other yarn and I would have to come up with something creative: picking a totally different yarn and probably colour to do the bottom of the body.  I did make sure to knit both the sleeves first, just in case!

Quite looking forward to the weather getting warmer so I can wear this and the other short-sleeved tops!