A Little of This, A Little of That

Carolyn was in town in this weekend and after having a nice Saturday breakfast with her and Amy, Mariko, and Melissa (and Augie!), I still had some free crafting time this weekend. I did a bit of knitting on the jacket sleeves. Progress seems so slow on this project, but I'll keep plugging along. I also managed to cut out my Liberty print for the halter sundress. I'm afraid to start sewing for fear of messing it up and wasting all that fabric.

The last thing I worked on this weekend was filling up my portfolio. I'm near the end of the fashion design program and this term, one of my classes is Portfolio Development. We're working on resumés and cover letters and selecting a concept/theme that the portfolio is built around. I'm looking through sketches, technical flat drawings, and all of my previous classwork to select representative pieces. I was dreading it, but it was actually fun to see the progress I've made.

Weekend Update

I spent the weekend doing a little bit of sewing and knitting. I actually finished knitting the body of the chartreuse jacket the other night. I actually knit more than the directions called for, but I figured that woul dbe fine since I didn't want it to be too cropped. I bound off for the armholes and put the rest of the stitches on holders while I cast on for the sleeves.

Once that was done, I finally decided what to do with the Liberty cotton that I got at the Bolt sale the previous weekend. I wanted to make a spring/summer dress and after looking through my patterns, decided on this McCall's pattern, view C with the halter bodice. I think I'll probably shorten it a bit. I pre-washed the cotton and cut out the pattern. I hope to make time to cut out the fabric tonight!

I also got some new sewing machine feet. Instead of a flimsy plastic invisible zipper foot, I got this one made specifically for my machine. I'm excited to try it out! I picked up a couple of rolled hem feet.

Ribbing

I've been working on the ribbing a little each night for the past week or so and this is all I have to show for myself! With all the slipping of stitches, progress is SLOW. I like how it looks though.

New Start

I cast on for this sweater last night with more Lion Brand Wool-Ease, this time in a color called lemongrass. The pattern calls for fisherman's rib, but I haven't knit that in a while and the written directions were baffling me. Internet to the rescue! I found this great tutorial from someone in Germany who reads the Rebecca forums regularly. That was very helpful and now I'm on my way. After looking through the forum, there was a pattern correction for this jacket: alt K1 P1 instead of alt K2 P1.

Bohemian Mod Dress

I finished this dress yesterday afternoon. I was a bit daunted by the prospect of having to do the all-in-one facing, but that turned out to be the easy part. The hard part was the invisible zipper because my invisible zipper foot is worn out, especially when sewing on the left side. I had to use the seam ripper several times to get that right. It's a plastic zipper foot that has gotten a bit warped with time, so I'll need to get a new one. After I learned how to sew in invisible zippers, I never use the regular kind anymore. Since redraping the dress and making some slight alterations, it fits me perfectly. It will be great to wear once the warmer weather hits.

Long Ribbed Jacket

I finished seaming the jacket and sewing the pockets on late last night. This morning, I threw the sweater into the washer and dryer and it looks great. I've already worn the jacket out and in this rainy, cold Portland weather, it's surprisingly warm. I really like having the pockets too.

Pick Me Some Pockets

I finished knitting up the sleeves a couple of nights ago and got started on the two pockets. I have a couple more inches to go and then I switch to the smaller needles and plain ribbing. The pockets will actually fold over and then be sewn in place. I may have a new sweater for the weekend! Then, it's back to finishing that darn dress.