Elastic Neck Top Two: MOAR Ruffles
Posted on March 9, 2024
Tags: madeof:atoms, craft:sewing, FreeSoftWear
After making my Elastic Neck TopI knew I wanted to make another one less constrained by the amount of available fabric.
I had a big cut of white cotton voile, I bought some more swimsuit elastic, and I also had a spool of n°100 sewing cotton, but then I postponed the project for a while I was working on other things.
Then FOSDEM 2024 arrived, I was going to remote it, and I was working on my Augusta Stays, but I knew that in the middle of FOSDEM I risked getting to the stage where I needed to leave the computer to try the stays on: not something really compatible with the frenetic pace of a FOSDEM weekend, even one spent at home.
I needed a backup project1, and this was perfect: I already had everything I needed, the pattern and instructions were already on my site (so I didn’t need to take pictures while working), and it was mostly a lot of straight seams, perfect while watching conference videos.
So, on the Friday before FOSDEM I cut all of the pieces, then spent three quarters of FOSDEM on the stays, and when I reached the point where I needed to stop for a fit test I started on the top.
Like the first one, everything was sewn by hand, and one week after I had started everything was assembled, except for the casings for the elastic at the neck and cuffs, which required about 10 km of sewing, and even if it was just a running stitch it made me want to reconsider my lifestyle choices a few times: there was really no reason for me not to do just those seams by machine in a few minutes.
Instead I kept sewing by hand whenever I had time for it, and on the next weekend it was ready. We had a rare day of sun during the weekend, so I wore my thermal underwear, some other layer, a scarf around my neck, and went outside with my SO to have a batch of pictures taken (those in the jeans posts, and others for a post I haven’t written yet. Have I mentioned I have a backlog?).
And then the top went into the wardrobe, and it will come out again when the weather will be a bit warmer. Or maybe it will be used under the Augusta Stays, since I don’t have a 1700 chemise yet, but that requires actually finishing them.
The pattern for this project was already online, of course, but I’ve added a picture of the casing to the relevant section, and everything is as usual #FreeSoftWear.
- yes, I could have worked on some knitting WIP, but lately I’m more in a sewing mood.↩︎
Denim Waistcoat
Posted on March 8, 2024
Tags: madeof:atoms, craft:sewing, FreeSoftWear
I had finished sewing my jeans, I had a scant 50 cm of elastic denim left.
Unrelated to that, I had just finished drafting a vest with Valentina, after the Cutters’ Practical Guide to the Cutting of Ladies Garments.
A new pattern requires a (wearable) mockup. 50 cm of leftover fabric require a quick project. The decision didn’t take a lot of time.
As a mockup, I kept things easy: single layer with no lining, some edges finished with a topstitched hem and some with bias tape, and plain tape on the fronts, to give more support to the buttons and buttonholes.
I did add pockets: not real welt ones (too much effort on denim), but simple slits covered by flaps.
piece; there is a slit in the middle that has been finished with topstitching.
To do them I marked the slits, then I cut two rectangles of pocketing fabric that should have been as wide as the slit + 1.5 cm (width of the pocket) + 3 cm (allowances) and twice the sum of as tall as I wanted the pocket to be plus 1 cm (space above the slit) + 1.5 cm (allowances).
Then I put the rectangle on the right side of the denim, aligned so that the top edge was 2.5 cm above the slit, sewed 2 mm from the slit, cut, turned the pocketing to the wrong side, pressed and topstitched 2 mm from the fold to finish the slit.
other sides; it does not lay flat on the right side of the fabric because the finished slit (hidden in the picture) is pulling it.
Then I turned the pocketing back to the right side, folded it in half, sewed the side and top seams with a small allowance, pressed and turned it again to the wrong side, where I sewed the seams again to make a french seam.
And finally, a simple rectangular denim flap was topstitched to the front, covering the slits.
I wasn’t as precise as I should have been and the pockets aren’t exactly the right size, but they will do to see if I got the positions right (I think that the breast one should be a cm or so lower, the waist ones are fine), and of course they are tiny, but that’s to be expected from a waistcoat.
The other thing that wasn’t exactly as expected is the back: the pattern splits the bottom part of the back to give it “sufficient spring over the hips”. The book is probably published in 1892, but I had already found when drafting the foundation skirt that its idea of “hips” includes a bit of structure. The “enough steel to carry a book or a cup of tea” kind of structure. I should have expected a lot of spring, and indeed that’s what I got.
To fit the bottom part of the back on the limited amount of fabric I had to piece it, and I suspect that the flat felled seam in the center is helping it sticking out; I don’t think it’s exactly bad, but it is a peculiar look.
Also, I had to cut the back on the fold, rather than having a seam in the middle and the grain on a different angle.
Anyway, my next waistcoat project is going to have a linen-cotton lining and silk fashion fabric, and I’d say that the pattern is good enough that I can do a few small fixes and cut it directly in the lining, using it as a second mockup.
As for the wrinkles, there is quite a bit, but it looks something that will be solved by a bit of lightweight boning in the side seams and in the front; it will be seen in the second mockup and the finished waistcoat.
As for this one, it’s definitely going to get some wear as is, in casual contexts. Except. Well, it’s a denim waistcoat, right? With a very different cut from the “get a denim jacket and rip out the sleeves”, but still a denim waistcoat, right? The kind that you cover in patches, right?
And I may have screenprinted a “home sewing is killing fashion” patch some time ago, using the SVG from wikimedia commons / the Home Taping is Killing Music page.
And. Maybe I’ll wait until I have finished the real waistcoat. But I suspect that one, and other sewing / costuming patches may happen in the future.
No regrets, as the words on my seam ripper pin say, right? :D
@Poliverso - notizie dal fediverso ah, uops.
Grazie per l'aggiornamento delle istruzioni!
Prova di inserimento di due immagini in un commento, per vedere se invece lì appaiono :)
(stavo per chiedere, ma così ho già la risposta :) )
Vendo macchina da cucire Singer 8280 usata
Chiedo 100 euro trattabili, consegna in zona Varese / Como (se proprio
proprio necessario si può organizzare per zona Milano).
Mi pare che sia stata comprata nei primi anni 2000, il modello era in
vendita e presente sul sito singer fino all'anno scorso.
Ovviamente è ancora presente il manuale originale, completo di istruzioni di
manutenzione base.
Non la uso da qualche anno, ma era perfettamente funzionante e ad una prova
veloce mi pare che lo sia ancora.
Ulteriori dettagli nei commenti
Jeans, step two. And three. And four.
Posted on March 7, 2024
Tags: madeof:atoms, FreeSoftWear
I was working on what looked like a good pattern for a pair of jeans-shaped trousers, and I knew I wasn’t happy with 200-ish g/m² cotton-linen for general use outside of deep summer, but I didn’t have a source for proper denim either (I had been low-key looking for it for a long time).
Then one day I looked at an article I had saved about fabric shops that sell technical fabric and while window-shopping on one I found that they had a decent selection of denim in a decent weight.
I decided it was a sign, and decided to buy the two heaviest denim they had: a 100% cotton, 355 g/m² oneand a 97% cotton, 3% elastane at 385 g/m²1; the latter was a bit of compromise as I shouldn’t really be buying fabric adulterated with the Scourge of Humanity, but it was heavier than the plain one, and I may be having a thing for tightly fitting jeans, so this may be one of the very few woven fabric where I’m not morally opposed to its existence.
And, I’d like to add, I resisted buying any of the very nice wools they also seem to carry, other than just a couple of samples.
Since the shop only sold in 1 meter increments, and I needed about 1.5 meters for each pair of jeans, I decided to buy 3 meters per type, and have enough to make a total of four pair of jeans. A bit more than I strictly needed, maybe, but I was completely out of wearable day-to-day trousers.
The shop sent everything very quickly, the courier took their time (oh, well) but eventually delivered my fabric on a sunny enough day that I could wash it and start as soon as possible on the first pair.
The pattern I did in linen was a bit too fitting, but I was afraid I had widened it a bit too much, so I did the first pair in the 100% cotton denim. Sewing them took me about a week of early mornings and late afternoons, excluding the weekend, and my worries proved false: they were mostly just fine.
The only bit that could have been a bit better is the waistband, which is a tiny bit too wide on the back: it’s designed to be so for comfort, but the next time I should pull the elastic a bit more, so that it stays closer to the body.
I wore those jeans daily for the rest of the week, and confirmed that they were indeed comfortable and the pattern was ok, so on the next Monday I started to cut the elastic denim.
I decided to cut and sew two pairs, assembly-line style, using the shaped waistband for one of them and the straight one for the other one.
I started working on them on a Monday, and on that week I had a couple of days when I just couldn’t, plus I completely skipped sewing on the weekend, but on Tuesday the next week one pair was ready and could be worn, and the other one only needed small finishes.
And I have to say, I’m really, really happy with the ones with a shaped waistband in elastic denim, as they fit even better than the ones with a straight waistband gathered with elastic. Cutting it requires more fabric, but I think it’s definitely worth it.
But it will be a problem for a later time: right now three pairs of jeans are a good number to keep in rotation, and I hope I won’t have to sew jeans for myself for quite some time.
I think that the leftovers of plain denim will be used for a skirt or something else, and as for the leftovers of elastic denim, well, there aren’t a lot left, but what else I did with them is the topic for another post.
Thanks to the fact that they are all slightly different, I’ve started to keep track of the times when I wash each pair, and hopefully I will be able to see whether the elastic denim is significantly less durable than the regular, or the added weight compensates for it somewhat. I’m not sure I’ll manage to remember about saving the data until they get worn, but if I do it will be interesting to know.
Oh, and I say I’ve finished working on jeans and everything, but I still haven’t sewn the belt loops to the third pair. And I’m currently wearing them. It’s a sewist tradition, or something. :D
- The links are to the shop for Italy; you can copy the “Codice prodotto” and look for it on one of the shop version for other countries (where they apply the right vat etc., but sadly they don’t allow to mix and match those settings and the language).↩︎
@Sini Tuulia and by I don't need anything right now, I mean that I already have a *new toy* to be happy about today
(now, I'm glad that by getting sewing thread and needing some sunlight to see whether it is a good match for the fabric I have I caused what appears to be a week of rain. I'm really glad about the rain. Maybe a bit less about the delay before I can start sewing, but I still have other projects :D )
Jeans, step one
Posted on February 19, 2024
Tags: madeof:atoms, craft:sewing, FreeSoftWear
CW for body size change mentions
Just like the corset, I also needed a new pair of jeans.
Back when my body size changed drastically of course my jeans no longer fit. While I was waiting for my size to stabilize I kept wearing them with a somewhat tight belt, but it was ugly and somewhat uncomfortable.
When I had stopped changing a lot I tried to buy new ones in the same model, and found out that I was too thin for the menswear jeans of that shop. I could have gone back to wearing women’s jeans, but I didn’t want to have to deal with the crappy fabric and short pockets, so I basically spent a few years wearing mostly skirts, and oversized jeans when I really needed trousers.
Meanwhile, I had drafted a jeans pattern for my SO, which we had planned to make in technical fabric, but ended up being made in a cotton-wool mystery mix for winter and in linen-cotton for summer, and the technical fabric version was no longer needed (yay for natural fibres!)
It was clear what the solution to my jeans problems would have been, I just had to stop getting distracted by other projects and draft a new pattern using a womanswear block instead of a menswear one.
Which, in January 2024 I finally did, and I believe it took a bit less time than the previous one, even if it had all of the same fiddly pieces.
I already had a cut of the same cotton-linen I had used for my SO, except in black, and used it to make the pair this post is about.
The parametric pattern is of course online, as #FreeSoftWear, at the usual place. This time it was faster, since I didn’t have to write step-by-step instructions, as they are exactly the same as the other pattern.
Making also went smoothly, and the result was fitting. Very fitting. A big too fitting, and the standard bum adjustment of the back was just enough for what apparently still qualifies as a big bum, so I adjusted the pattern to be able to add a custom amount of ease in a few places.
But at least I had a pair of jeans-shaped trousers that fit!
Except, at 200 g/m² I can’t say that fabric is the proper weight for a pair of trousers, and I may have looked around online1 for some denim, and, well, it’s 2024, so my no-fabric-buy 2023 has not been broken, right?
Let us just say that there may be other jeans-related posts in the near future.
- I had already asked years ago for denim at my local fabric shops, but they don’t have the proper, sturdy, type I was looking for.↩︎
La camicetta è finita.
(ignorate la sciarpa che potrebbe essere stata infilata a coprire la maglietta termica che stavo indossando sotto alla camicetta)
@Diego Roversi si è anche prestato per fare foto alla maggior parte dei jeans, per cui nelle prossime settimane spero di riuscire a finire e pubblicare i post relativi sul blog.
Quanto agli orli delle stays, quali orli delle stays?
The top is finished!
(don't mind the fichu-like scarf which may or may not be there to cover the thermal underwear I was wearing under the top)
And I've also had @Diego Roversi take pictures of most of the jeans, so that in the next couple of weeks or so I can hopefully finish and publish the blog posts for them.
As for binding the stays. we don't talk about binding the stays :D
E quando dicevo catena di montaggio, intendevo questo:
(settimana scorsa avevo scattato la foto, ma l'ho scaricata dalla macchina fotografica solo oggi O:-) )
oh, and when I said assembly-line, this is the kind of things I meant
(I took pictures last week, but only downloaded the pictures from the camera today O:-) )
Macrame Bookbag
Posted on January 31, 2024
Tags: madeof:atoms, craft:macrame
In late 2022 I prepared a batch of drawstring backpacks in cotton as reusable wrappers for Christmas gifts; however I didn’t know what cord to use, didn’t want to use paracord, and couldn’t find anything that looked right in the local shops.
With Christmas getting dangerously closer, I visited a craft materials website for unrelated reasons, found out that they sold macrame cords, and panic-bought a few types in the hope that at least one would work for the backpacks.
I got lucky, and my first choice fitted just fine, and I was able to finish the backpacks in time for the holidays.
And then I had a box full of macrame cords in various sizes and types that weren’t the best match for the drawstring in a backpack, and no real use for them.
I don’t think I had ever done macrame, but I have made friendship bracelets in primary school, and a few Friendship Bracelets, But For Real Men So We Call Them Survival Bracelets(TM) more recently, so I didn’t bother reading instructions or tutorials online, I just grabbed the Ashley Book of Knots to refresh myself on the knots used, and decided to make myself a small bag for an A6 book.
I choose one of the thin, ~3 mm cords, Tre Sfere Macramé Barbante, of which there was plenty, so that I could stumble around with no real plan.
I started by looping 5 m of cord, making iirc 2 rounds of a loop about the right size to go around the book with a bit of ease, then used the ends as filler cords for a handle, wrapped them around the loop and worked square knots all over them to make a handle.
Then I cut the rest of the cord into 40 pieces, each 4 m long, because I had no idea how much I was going to need (spoiler: I successfully got it wrong :D )
I joined the cords to the handle with lark head knots, 20 per side, and then I started knotting without a plan or anything, alternating between hitches and square knots, sometimes close together and sometimes leaving some free cord between them.
And apparently I also completely forgot to take in-progress pictures.
I kept working on this for a few months, knotting a row or two now and then, until the bag was long enough for the book, then I closed the bottom by taking one cord from the front and the corresponding on the back, knotting them together (I don’t remember how) and finally I made a rigid triangle of tight square knots with all of the cords, progressively leaving out a cord from each side, and cutting it in a fringe.
I then measured the remaining cords, and saw that the shortest ones were about a meter long, but the longest ones were up to 3 meters, I could have cut them much shorter at the beginning (and maybe added a couple more cords). The leftovers will be used, in some way.
And then I postponed taking pictures of the finished object for a few months.
Now the result is functional, but I have to admit it is somewhat ugly: not as much for the lack of a pattern (that I think came out quite fine) but because of how irregular the knots are; I’m not confident that the next time I will be happy with their regularity, either, but I hope I will improve, and that’s one important thing.
And the other important thing is: I enjoyed making this, even if I kept interrupting the work, and I think that there may be some other macrame in my future.
Stavo cercando altro (che poi ho trovato), ma mi è tornato tra le mani questo:
sempre utile ricordare che Mazzini e Vetinari sono la stessa persona
I was looking for something else (which I then found), but I stumbled on this
periodic reminder that Mazzini and Vetinari are the same person.
@harper the one I've made myself, of course :)
The fun thing was reading this post just after I had woken up after a dream where I had to describe my backpack, which had been misplaced, and I had a moment of hesitation and then answered “a black invicta”, which is closer to what I had a couple of decades ago .
E ho finito le canaline per le stecche degli #AugustaStays che ho iniziato (ho controllato il vecchio post) a novembre 2022! E la spoletta di filo è bastata! (in realtà nel frattempo ne avevo presa un'altra, dato che penso di usarla anche in altre cuciture, per cui comunque avevo delle alternative).
Dopo aver fatto la foto ho anche finito gli occhielli di un lato del centro dietro, e aggiunto le stecche ai due centro dietro e ai fianchi davanti (ma è tramontato il sole, niente foto fino a domani).
Adesso devo solo finire il resto degli occhielli, e soprattutto cucire tutto quanto. :D
Forse per gennaio 2025 ce la faccio :D se non mi distraggo con qualcos'altro.
Aaaaaaand I've done all of the boning channels on the #AugustaStays I started in (checks for the old post) November 2022! And one spool of thread was enough! (I have another, luckily, as I plan to use the same thread for other seams, but for those I would also have had alternatives)
And since I took the picture I've also finished the eyelets on one of the center back pieces, and added boning to both of those and to the side fronts (but the sun has set, so there will be no more pictures until tomorow).
Now I only need to finish the rest of the eyelets, and most importantly to sew the whole thing :D
Maybe in January 2025 it will be done :D If I don't get distracted.
Possiamo fermarci un attimo per festeggiare il fatto che il filo della bobina sia finito a metà cucitura (ovviamente), ma l'abbia fatto su un'imbastitura non strutturale, in un punto in cui posso anche evitare di cucire la parte che manca? (linea tratteggiata azzurra, dopo la freccia rossa)
can we please stop for a second to celebrate the way I was out of bobbin thread while doing a non-structural basting seam, and after I had done enough of said seam that the missing bit (blue line in the picture, after the red arrow) didn't really matter?
Mini Books
Posted on January 13, 2024
Tags: madeof:atoms, craft:bookbinding
In 2022 I read a post on the fediverse by somebody who mentioned that they had bought on a whim a cute tiny book years ago, and that it had been a companion through hard times. Right now I can’t find the post, but it was pretty aaaaawwww.
At the same time, I had discovered Coptic binding, and I wanted to do some exercise to let my hands learn it, but apparently there is a limit to the number of notebooks and sketchbooks a person needs (I’m not 100% sure I actually believe this, but I’ve heard it is a thing).
So I decided to start making minibooks with the intent to give them away: I settled (mostly) on the A8 size, and used a combination of found materials, leftovers from bigger projects and things I had in the Stash. As for paper, I’ve used a variety of the ones I have that are at the very least good enough for non-problematic fountain pen inks.
Thanks to the small size, and the way coptic binding works, I’ve been able to play around with the covers, experimenting with different styles beyond the classic bookbinding cloth / paper covered cardboard, including adding lace, covering food box cardboard with gesso and decorating it with acrylic paints, embossing designs by gluing together two layers of cardboard, one of which has holes, making covers completely out of cernit, etc. Some of these I will probably also use in future full-scale projects, but it’s nice to find out what works and what doesn’t on a small scale.
Now, after a year of sporadically making these I have to say that the making went quite well: I enjoyed the making and the creativity in making different covers. The giving away was a bit more problematic, as I didn’t really have a lot of chances to do so, so I believe I still have most of them. In 2024 I’ll try to look for more opportunities (and if you live nearby and want one — or a few — feel free to ask!)
A Corset or Two
Posted on January 7, 2024
Tags: madeof:atoms, craft:sewing, period:victorian, FreeSoftWear
CW for body size change mentions
I needed a corset, badly.
Years ago I had a chance to have my measurements taken by a former professional corset maker and then a lesson in how to draft an underbust corset, and that lead to me learning how nice wearing a well-fitted corset feels.
Later I tried to extend that pattern up for a midbust corset, with success.
And then my body changed suddenly, and I was no longer able to wear either of those, and after a while I started missing them.
Since my body was still changing (if no longer drastically so), and I didn’t want to use expensive materials for something that had a risk of not fitting after too little time, I decided to start by making myself a summer lightweight corset in aida cloth and plastic boning (for which I had already bought materials). It fitted, but not as well as the first two ones, and I’ve worn it quite a bit.
I still wanted back the feeling of wearing a comfy, heavy contraption of coutil and steel, however.
After a lot of procrastination I redrafted a new pattern, scrapped everything, tried again, had my measurements taken by a dressmaker [#dressmaker], put them in the draft, cut a first mock-up in cheap cotton, fixed the position of a seam, did a second mock-up in denim [#jeans] from an old pair of jeans, and then cut into the cheap herringbone coutil I was planning to use.
And that’s when I went to see which one of the busks in my stash would work, and realized that I had used a wrong vertical measurement and the front of the corset was way too long for a midbust corset.
Luckily I also had a few longer busks, I basted one to the denim mock up and tried to wear it for a few hours, to see if it was too long to be comfortable. It was just a bit, on the bottom, which could be easily fixed with the Power Tools1.
Except, the more I looked at it the more doing this felt wrong: what I needed most was a midbust corset, not an overbust one, which is what this was starting to be.
I could have trimmed it down, but I knew that I also wanted this corset to be a wearable mockup for the pattern, to refine it and have it available for more corsets. And I still had more than half of the cheap coutil I was using, so I decided to redo the pattern and cut new panels.
And this is where the “or two” comes in: I’m not going to waste the overbust panels: I had been wanting to learn some techniques to make corsets with a fashion fabric layer, rather than just a single layer of coutil, and this looks like an excellent opportunity for that, together with a piece of purple silk that I know I have in the stash. This will happen later, however, first I’m giving priority to the underbust.
Anyway, a second set of panels was cut, all the seam lines marked with tailor tacks, and I started sewing by inserting the busk.
And then realized that the pre-made boning channel tape I had was too narrow for the 10 mm spiral steel I had plenty of. And that the 25 mm twill tape was also too narrow for a double boning channel. On the other hand, the 18 mm twill tape I had used for the waist tape was good for a single channel, so I decided to put a single bone on each seam, and then add another piece of boning in the middle of each panel.
Since I’m making external channels, making them in self fabric would have probably looked better, but I no longer had enough fabric, because of the cutting mishap, and anyway this is going to be a strictly underwear only corset, so it’s not a big deal.
Once the boning channel situation was taken care of, everything else proceeded quite smoothly and I was able to finish the corset during the Christmas break, enlisting again my SO to take care of the flat steel boning while I cut the spiral steels myself with wire cutters.
I could have been a bit more precise with the binding, as it doesn’t align precisely at the front edge, but then again, it’s underwear, nobody other than me and everybody who reads this post is going to see it and I was in a hurry to see it finished. I will be more careful with the next one.
I also think that I haven’t been careful enough when pressing the seams and applying the tape, and I’ve lost about a cm of width per part, so I’m using a lacing gap that is a bit wider than I planned for, but that may change as the corset gets worn, and is still within tolerance.
Also, on the morning after I had finished the corset I woke up and realized that I had forgotten to add garter tabs at the bottom edge. I don’t know whether I will ever use them, but I wanted the option, so maybe I’ll try to add them later on, especially if I can do it without undoing the binding.
The next step would have been flossing, which I proceeded to postpone until I’ve worn the corset for a while: not because there is any reason for it, but because I still don’t know how I want to do it :)
What was left was finishing and uploading the pattern and instructions, that are now on my sewing pattern websiteas #FreeSoftWear, and finally I could post this on the blog.
- i.e. by asking my SO to cut and sand it, because I’m lazy and I hate doing that part :D↩︎
Random Sashiko + Crazy Quilt Pocket
Posted on January 5, 2024
Lately I’ve seen people on the internet talking about victorian crazy quilting. Years ago I had watched a Numberphile video about Hitomezashi Stitch Patterns based on numbers, words or randomness. Few weeks ago I had cut some fabric piece out of an old pair of jeans and I had a lot of scraps that were too small to do anything useful on their own. It easy to see where this can go, right?
I cut a pocket shape out of old garment mockups (this required some piecing), drew a square grid, arranged scraps of jeans to cover the other side, kept everything together with a lot of pins, carefully avoided basting anything, and started covering everything in sashiko / hitomezashi stitches, starting each line with a stitch on the front or the back of the work based on the result of:
import random
random.choice(["front", "back"])For the second piece I tried to use a piece of paper with the square grid instead of drawing it on the fabric: it worked, mostly, I would not do it again as removing the paper was more of a hassle than drawing the lines in the first place. I suspected it, but had to try it anyway.
Then I added a lining from some plain black cotton from the stash; for the slit I put the lining on the front right sides together, sewn at 2 mm from the marked slit, cut it, turned the lining to the back side, pressed and then topstitched as close as possible to the slit from the front.
I bound everything with bias tape, adding herringbone tape loops at the top to hang it from a belt (such as one made from the waistband of one of the donor pair of jeans) and that was it.
I like the way the result feels; maybe it’s a bit too stiff for a pocket, but I can see it work very well for a bigger bag, and maybe even a jacket or some other outer garment.
Crescent Shawl
Posted on January 2, 2024
One of the knitting projects I’m working on is a big bottom-up triangular shawl in less-than-fingering weight yarn (NM 1/15): it feels like a cloud should by all rights feel, and I have good expectations out of it, but it’s taking forever and a day.
And then one day last spring I started thinking in the general direction of top-down shawls, and decided I couldn’t wait until I had finished the first one to see if I could design one.
For my first attempt I used an odd ball of 50% wool 50% plastic I had in my stash and worked it on 12 mm tree trunks, and I quickly made something between a scarf and a shawl that got some use during the summer thunderstorms when temperatures got a bit lower, but not really cold. I was happy with the shape, not with the exact position of the increases, but I had ideas for improvements, so I just had to try another time.
Digging through the stash I found four balls of Drops Alpaca in two shades of grey: I had bought it with the intent to test its durability in somewhat more demanding situations (such as gloves or even socks), but then the LYS1 no longer carries it, so I might as well use it for something a bit more one-off (and when I received the yarn it felt so soft that doing something for the upper body looked like a better idea anyway).
I decided to start working in garter stitch with the darker colour, then some garter stitch in the lighter shade and to finish with yo / k2t lace, to make the shawl sort of fade out.
The first half was worked relatively slowly through the summer, and then when I reached the colour change I suddenly picked up working on it and it was finished in a couple of weeks.
looks denser in a nice way, but the the lace border is scrunched up.
Then I had doubts on whether I wanted to block it, since I liked the soft feel, but I decided to try it anyway: it didn’t lose the feel, and the look is definitely better, even if it was my first attempt at blocking a shawl and I wasn’t that good at it.
I’m glad that I did it, however, as it’s still soft and warm, but now also looks nicer.
The pattern is of course online as #FreeSoftWear on my fiber craft patterns website.
- at least local to somebody: I can’t get to a proper yarn shop by foot, so I’ve bought this yarn online from one that I could in theory reach on a day trip, but it has not happened yet.↩︎
finito!
ok, quasi. devo fare ancora i ricami che tengono ferme le stecche, ma quelli possono aspettare dopo che l'ho indossato un po' di volte.
it's done!
ok, almost. I need to floss it, but that can wait until I've worn it a few times.
I've been influenced
Posted on December 30, 2023
By the influencers on the famous proprietary video platform1.
When I’m crafting with no powertools I tend to watch videos, and this autumn I’ve seen a few in a row that were making red wool dresses, at least one or two medieval kirtles. I don’t remember which channels they were, and I’ve decided not to go back and look for them, at least for a time.
Anyway, my brain suddenly decided that I needed a red wool dress, fitted enough to give some bust support. I had already made a dress that satisfied the latter requirementand I still had more than half of the red wool faille I’ve used for the Garibaldi blouse (still not blogged, but I will get to it), and this time I wanted it to be ready for this winter.
While the pattern I was going to use is Victorian, it was designed for underwear, and this was designed to be outerwear, so from the very start I decided not to bother too much with any kind of historical details or techniques.
I knew that I didn’t have enough fabric to add a flounce to the hem, as in the cotton dress, but then I remembered that some time ago I fell for a piece of fringed trim in black, white and red. I did a quick check that the red wasn’t clashing (it wasn’t) and I knew I had a plan for the hem decoration.
Then I spent a week finishing other projects, and the more I thought about this dress, the more I was tempted to have spiral lacing at the front rather than buttons, as a nod to the kirtle inspiration. It may end up be a bit of a hassle, but if it is too much I can always add a hidden zipper on a side seam, and only have to undo a bit of the lacing around the neckhole to wear the dress.
Finally, I could start working on the dress: I cut all of the main pieces, and since the seam lines were quite curved I marked them with tailor’s tacks, which I don’t exactly enjoy doing or removing, but are the only method that was guaranteed to survive while manipulating this fabric (and not leave traces afterwards).
While cutting the front pieces I accidentally cut the high neck line instead of the one I had used on the cotton dress: I decided to go for it also on the back pieces and decide later whether I wanted to lower it.
Since this is a modern dress, with no historical accuracy at all, and I have access to a serger, I decided to use some dark blue cotton voile I’ve had in my stash for quite some time, cut into bias strip, to bind the raw edges before sewing. This works significantly better than bought bias tape, which is a bit too stiff for this.
For the front opening, I’ve decided to reinforce the areas where the lacing holes will be with cotton: I’ve used some other navy blue cotton, also from the stash, and added two lines of cording to stiffen the front edge.
So I’ve cut the front in two pieces rather than on the fold, sewn the reinforcements to the sewing allowances in such a way that the corded edge was aligned with the center front and then sewn the bottom of the front seam from just before the end of the reinforcements to the hem.
The allowances are then folded back, and then they are kept in place by the worked lacing holes. The cotton was pinked, while for the wool I used the selvedge of the fabric and there was no need for any finishing.
Behind the opening I’ve added a modesty placket: I’ve cut a strip of red wool, a strip of cotton, folded the edge of the strip of cotton to the center, added cording to the long sides, pressed the allowances of the wool towards the wrong side, and then handstitched the cotton to the wool, wrong sides facing. This was finally handstitched to one side of the sewing allowance of the center front.
I’ve also decided to add real pockets, rather than just slits, and for some reason I decided to add them by hand after I had sewn the dress, so I’ve left opening in the side back seams, where the slits were in the cotton dress. I’ve also already worn the dress, but haven’t added the pockets yet, as I’m still debating about their shape. This will be fixed in the near future.
Another thing that will have to be fixed is the trim situation: I like the fringe at the bottom, and I had enough to also make a belt, but this makes the top of the dress a bit empty. I can’t use the same fringe tape, as it is too wide, but it would be nice to have something smaller that matches the patterned part. And I think I can make something suitable with tablet weaving, but I’m not sure on which materials to use, so it will have to be on hold for a while, until I decide on the supplies and have the time for making it.
Another improvement I’d like to add are detached sleeves, both matching (I should still have just enough fabric) and contrasting, but first I want to learn more about real kirtle construction, and maybe start making sleeves that would be suitable also for a real kirtle.
Meanwhile, I’ve worn it on Christmas (over my 1700s menswear shirt with big sleeves) and may wear it again tomorrow (if I bother to dress up to spend New Year’s Eve at home :D )
- yep, that’s YouTube, of course.↩︎
TFW a metà mattinata passi da piazzale Kennedy a Varese e ti casca l'orecchio su un avviso di guasti agli impianti in stazione a Saronno, per cui decidi di passare al volo in stazione a vedere cosa sta succedendo.
E boh, avvisano di potenziali ritardi, ma tutto sommato la situazione è abbastanza tranquilla.
Ci sono linee privilegiate, per quel gestore ferroviario.
Quella sensazione di quando carichi del filo per cucire di seta nuovo¹ sulla macchina, sperando a) che funzioni per cucire a macchina e b) di averne abbastanza per cucire tutto il vestito, visto che è stato comprato online.
(il rocchetto nella foto è da 50 metri, ma ne ho un altro.)
¹ Ho usato lo stesso filo per la camicia rossa, ma quella è stata cucina interamente a mano. Ho anche già usato del filo di seta per cucire a macchina, ma era di un'altra marca.
TFW you load a new¹ silk thread on the machine and really hope that a) it will work with the machine b) you have enough to finish the dress, since it was bought online.
(the one in the picture is a 50 m spool, but I also have another.)
¹ I've used it before for the garibaldi blouse, but that one was completely sewn by hand. I've used silk thread in the machine before, but it was another brand
Piecepack and postcard boxes
Posted on November 4, 2023
Thanks to All Saints’ Day, I’ve just had a 5 days weekend. One of those days I woke up and decided I absolutely needed a cartonnage box for the cardboard and linocut piecepack I’ve been working on for quite some time.
I started drawing a plan with measures before breakfast, then decided to change some important details, restarted from scratch, did a quick dig through the bookbinding materials and settled on 2 mm cardboard for the structure, black fabric-like paper for the outside and a scrap of paper with a manuscript print for the inside.
Then we had the only day with no rain among the five, so some time was spent doing things outside, but on the next day I quickly finished two boxes, at two different heights.
The weather situation also meant that while I managed to take passable pictures of the first stages of the box making in natural light, the last few stages required some creative artificial lightning, even if it wasn’t that late in the evening. I need to build1 myself a light box.
And then decided that since they are C6 sized, they also work well for postcards or for other A6 pieces of paper, so I will probably need to make another one when the piecepack set will be finally finished.
The original plan was to use a linocut of the piecepack suites as the front cover; I don’t currently have one ready, but will make it while printing the rest of the piecepack set. One day :D
One of the boxes was temporarily used for the plastic piecepack I got with the book, and that one works well, but since it’s a set with standard suites I think I will want to make another box, using some of the paper with fleur-de-lis that I saw in the stash.
I’ve also started to write detailed instructions: I will publish them as soon as they are ready, and then either update this post, or they will be mentioned in an additional post if I will have already made more boxes in the meanwhile.
- you don’t really expect me to buy one, right? :D↩︎
Forgotten Yeast Bread or Pan Sbagliato
Posted on October 29, 2023
I’ve made it again. And again. And a few more times, and now it has an official household name, “Pan Sbagliato”, or “Wrong Bread”.
And this is the procedure I’ve mostly settled on; starting on the day before (here called Saturday) and baking it so that it’s ready for lunch time (on what here is called Sunday).
Saturday: around 13:00
In a bowl, mix together and work well:
- 250 g water;
- 400 g flour;
- 8 g salt;
cover to rise.
Saturday: around 18:00
In a small bowl, mix together:
- 2-3 g yeast;
- 10 g water;
- 10 g flour.
Saturday: around 21:00
In the bowl with the original dough, add the contents of the small bowl plus:
- 100 g flour;
- 100 g water;
and work well; cover to rise overnight.
Sunday: around 8:00
Pour the dough on a lined oven tray, leave in the cold oven to rise.
Sunday: around 11:00
Remove the tray from the oven, preheat the oven to 240°C, bake for 10 minutes, then lower the temperature to 160°C and bake for 20 more minutes.Waiting until it has cooled down a bit will make it easier to cut, but is not strictly necessary.
I’ve had up to a couple of hours variations in the times listed, with no ill effects.
Forse qualcuno si ricorda che l'anno scorso ho #cucito a mano una camicia di lana rossa, ma ora che l'ho quasi¹ finita era già troppo caldo per andarci in giro.
Finalmente è arrivata la Stagione Per Bene, e posso metterla!
Ci sarà un post sul blog. Prima o poi.
¹ voglio aggiungere ancora qualche variante di colletti e polsini separati, per variare lo stile, ma la loro assenza non mi impedisce di indossare la camicia così com'è.
Some of you may remember that last year I have been #handsewing a shirt in red wool, but by the time I've mostly¹ finished it it was already too warm to be able to wear it significantly.
At least, the Sensible Season seems to have started, and I can wear it!
There will be a blog post. At some unknown time in the future.
¹ it does need a few detachable collar and cuffs variants, to style it a bit differently, but those don't prevent me from wearing the shirt as is.
@Kenobit @Nelson @Nicola Bernardi @RetroBigini
sigh, tra pioggia e buio e il case incastrato non è stato facile :(
il case e gli hard disk mi servono. dell'alimentatore si può parlare (se non è rotto posso riusarlo, ma ne ho anche altri). tutto il resto è a disposizione.
Se ho ben capito c'è una possibilità di consegna zona Varese, che sarebbe perfetta?
(e OMG, mi ero dimenticata di quella ventola sopra al dissipatore della CPU a forma di RAZZOMISSILE)
(e con “dimenticata” si intende “avevo rimosso” :D )
@Rapita dagli alieni e grazie alla spinta del voler dimostrare di avere *tecnicamente* ragione¹:
Font sans serif di default di Inkscape (mi è venuto in mente dopo che poteva essere rilevante, non ho ancora fatto colazione), in nero, generatore di Lorem ipsum di inkscape senza aver fatto niente di particolare. Stampante laser casalinga Samsung CLP-415.
È carta che mi aspetto di vedere usata da chi fa fotocopie? lol, no :D Non ha neanche apprezzato molto il passaggio nella stampante, onestamente.
¹ technically correct is the best kind of…
Chickpea Crackers
Posted on September 20, 2023
And another half-written article I had in my repo. (Am I doing #FallFinishAlong with blog articles instead of / in addition to craft projects? it feels so).
I was in need of snacks. I wanted something bready, but with a bit less carbs and more proteins. I had a bag of chickpea flour.
Ingredients were:
- 100 g wheat flour
- 100 g chickpea flour
- 100 g water
- 3 g salt
- 1 g dry yeast
Mix everything as usual for bread, leave to rise for 4-6 hours.
Divide in 4 parts, roll them out to a thickness of about 1 – 2 mm, prick them with a fork (or the fancy cracker pricking tool that you don’t really need but I may have bought).
Optionally spray with a bit of water and sprinkle with salt (coarse or flake is best).
Preheat the oven to 240°C and cook for 5 minutes, or preheat the oven to 210°C and cook for 10 minutes for a dryer version.
I’ve tried both cooking temperatures: the 210°C had the big advantage of being the same as the common bread I was already making, so no additional oven time was required (it was summer. this was a consideration.), but I’m not sure which version I like best, so I think in winter I will alternate between the two.
Put it in a cotton (linen?) bag and keep it in a dry place, where it will keep for weeks (assuming you’ve made a bigger batch :D ).
This is now part of my staples.
Nello spirito di #FallFinishAlong, 3 giorni fa (3 giorni???) ho postato una partita vinta a #YarnChicken a metà dello scialle che sto lavorando ai ferri.
Di cui posto una foto adesso, perché son lenta a trasferire le foto dalla macchina fotografica al pc. :D
Comunque, lo scialle è lavorato con quattro gomitoli di lana, ho iniziato a metà giugno, finito di lavorare il secondo gomitolo 3 mesi più tardi. E adesso ho quasi finito il terzo, e credo oggi di iniziare il quarto.
Che sarà più lento, dato che non è più a maglia legaccio, ma insomma. Dubitavo di riuscire a finire per dicembre, e invece la cosa inizia ad essere anche abbastanza fattibile.
Sto lavorando ai ferri uno scialle in due colori, e in base alla bilancia di precisione ho esattamente la lana che mi serve per fare ancora due ferri con il primo colore, prima di passare al colore successivo.Ho infilato un filo di sicurezza (si chiama così in italiano?), perché so che perderò questa mano di #yarnChicken.
Solo che adesso dovrei fare colazione, ma farla ritarda il momento in cui scopro *chi ha vinto*.