Sewing: Knitting Case

Sewed together muslin and print strips for the inside.

Started sewing the individual pockets.

Half are spaced at .75" the others are at 1"

Here it is closed.

and open!

I am very happy with the finished project. If I made one again, there are a few things that I would probably change. Such as where the outer tie is placed and how much the prints overlap on the inside. Overall, this went well considering I was not following any pattern or tutorial and was just making it up as I went.

:D huzzah for finishing the first project done completely on my new machine!

Finished Pillow!

So I have had the top portion of this done for quite some time, and it had just been sitting in a bin waiting for me to finish it. I finally got around to it today after my joann's trip when I had thread to sew it up with! It was quick and easy.

I had never really quilted anything before and this was originally meant to be the start of a placemat set for the old apartment, but never quite got there (surprise, surprise...). Regardless the top was originally done on my previous (and lovely!) roommates sewing machine. Looking at it now I can tell that I should have adjusted her machine to a tighter stitch/tension as some of the seams within the quilted section of the piece are already starting to gap now that I have stuffed the pillow. Regardless, live and learn as they say. I wont be making the mistake of using such a wide stitch setting for seams again.

Stitch Test

Tested all the stitch types on the machine. I will have to remember to adjust the tension for using a really light fabric like muslin so I dont get as much pulling as I got on this test piece.

Joann Trip

Went to Joanns today and got some desperately needed items that I mentioned in my last posting. Spent just over twenty dollars got a whole starter sewing kit and three different remnant fabrics to start playing around with. Overall very successful trip.

I will say that the joanns I visited was huge and was every bit a crafter's paradise that I expected it to be. I can foresee many trips there in the future.

Newest Addition to the Family

Today I bought a sewing machine. Nothing too fancy but it most certainly will suit my needs! It is a brand new Brother VX-1435 that I bought for $40 from a girl off of craigslist. It is a little beat up from having sat in her back trunk for the past eight months, but is is new. She had never even opened up the casing to put in a new bobin. It was probably for the best that she moved it into more interested hands.

All of the excitement of having a sewing machine is slightly dimmed however by the fact that I don't have any thread! Or at least cant find the thread I thought I had. I took advantage of the fact that my previous (and lovely!) roommate had a fully stocked sewing table that used to be her great-aunts(?) and it had everything I could possibly imagine. Now I am going to have to build up my own stock of bobins, threads, needles, pins, seam-rippers (a must because I know I will make mistakes) etc.

Regardless of the little things I still need, I am happy to have the machine and cant wait to get started on it!

First Test: Honeycomb Twist Hat

After seeing a really cute posting of a color-work motif for a little robot from Celia at Celia's Knitting Adventure I was unfortunately too late to get added to the tester list, but it did direct me to this neat group on ravelry called: Free Pattern Tester I of course am a bit enthralled at the moment with the idea of designing some of my own knits, so I figured I would give testing a try and see a bit more of what some other people were posting on the group before jumping in as a designer myself.

Long story short, I am doing my first test for YuLian. I am making her Honeycomb Twist Hat using some of the homespun yarn I made back towards the beginning of the year with some roving I purchased from my trip out to Ohio. The roving I purchased was cheap for a reason. It was not the best washed roving and stil had a number of little itsy bits of hay flack within it which you can see a bit in the pictures. When I am finished I am going to have to go through with a keen eye and pick out the little bits and pieces that are still left over within the hat.

On a bright note however, I have never actually knit any of my handspuns in a nice pattern like this before (a plain scarf doesn't really count!) so I am looking forward to the end result!

As far as the testing goes, the pattern has been a fairly smooth ride. Nothing too extravagant in terms of types of stitches used, just some basic lace and cables to make a very nice pattern. I also have never made a slouchy hat before, so I am excited to see how it turns out.

More will most definitely be posted once I get to the blocking!

First Post

I make a lot of these I find. First post, that is. Here we go again. Hopefully I will be able to maintain this blog a bit better. I find myself with a lot of time on my hands for looking at craft blogs and working on my own projects, so I am hoping that that bit of free time will be able to make room for keeping a blog about it too!