How I Am Growing as a Knitter or Mistakes Are Fun.

UPDATE...

Wow... it has been a while! 

 I finished up my costume to- dos and went to and enjoyed Burning Man 2012.  I made two tutus and several other items but I have since moved on to... KNITTING. Yay!

My husband gave me a knitting book for Xmess last year called Boutique Knits by Laura Irwin.

THE BOOK!!!


I love staring at the patterns/charts in knitting books but I am scared to death to try them out. I don't usually follow directions well. Okay, so I made a Jayne hat and that went okay except for the half of the hat I lost track of and then just winged it... but it turned out nice.  It did! Promise!

Well, I have faced my fears and have began knitting one of the patterns from the book. It is called
*drum roll* ....

Heather Headband.

I figured start small. Headbands are small. I can try a sweater next. Maybe. Or retry the headband.

But it is going really, really well.  I have made a couple of mistakes but I come from the “it does not have to be perfect” school of knitting so I am keeping it as is.  Can you tell by looking the picture below what my mistake(s) are?

This pattern requires reading charts, which I haven’t done before, and knitting cables, which  I have only done once before and that was with help from an awesome knitting coach (thanks, Mom).

The blurry in progress pic.

Look at me! I’m growing! *gasp* *teary eyes*

In progress pic....

Okay, okay... I will point out my mistake.  It is hard to see in this picture anyway. Can you see at the bottom of the project (where the needle is showing) how the cables twist into each other all cabley-like?  Well, if you look towards the top you can see that they are more s-shaped and less cable shaped.  That is because I forgot to alternate front and back position on the center needle. So! That is what happens when you mess up your cables. Oh, and another thing... I was supposed to do the two in front one in back thing on the bottom and I jumped ahead to two in front two in back... so that caused an issue too..

Like I said, though, I’m keeping it. :-)

See? Mistakes are fun.
I’ll post more pics when it is completed.  Hope to finish this weekend. Yeow!

Happy crafty fun times!  :-*  <3

Thrift Store Petticoat

I have been looking for a petticoat to make the corset dress shown on the Threadbanger Sweeny Todd episode for a while.  After several trips to the thrift store and no luck, I finally found a petticoat I am willing to work with.  It WAS a navy blue velvet dress at a thrift store for $13.00 and in my size!

(Plus size here.  In case you care.  You probably don’t.  As you shouldn’t.  Okay, time to move on.)

It- the dress, yep back to subject at hand-  had a petticoat that wasn’t perfect... it was mostly made out of tulle, not satiny like shown in the Threadbanger Ep., but I was excited to revamp it and give it a go.  Plus, I love tulle.  Plus, who knows when the next plus size wedding/bridesmaid/ prom dress would come in?

I took it home, my husband ripped it apart (he is the shiznit, let me tell you), and I went to bed dreaming of all the different things I could do to it.  Corset dress?  Tulle skirt petticoat? Gypsy Skirt?

In the end I grabbed some elastic, made a waist that will cinch up for me since the skirt was too wide, and here are the results....


I had to cut a lot of the satin top off, so the non see through is pretty short, but it is going to be worn with another skirt or some shorts underneath so that is no big deal.  Maybe I can pair it with my bustle skirt I made hmmm... that would look very cool if I do say so myself.  And I DO!

In the end I decided not to do the corset dress with this particular petticoat, so I am on the petti prowl again.  ;-)  

On second thought, I AM going to add some kind of frufruery to the edge of the satin that meets the tulle.  I think that part needs prettying up.

Maybe I’ll use the fringy stuff I originally was using on the bustle and then changed my mind.

Other than that I will leave as is.  Can I just say I love cannibalizing stuff?

Yay!  Happy Crafty Times!  :-)

Bustle Skirt Finished!

My Bustle Skirt is Done!

It’s gone from WIP (Work in Progress)  to an FO! (Finished Object) Woot.



I added a third layer, as suggested in the tutorial I listed on the previous post and it was plenty poufy, so I ripped out the tulle and set it aside for another future project.

Instead of using plain black lace, I used a ribbon that had black tulle attached.


I used the same material as the body of the bustle for the waist band and gathered it to cinch together in some random spots to match the thrown together look of the three layers.  I used my sewing machine on the ties on the ends and then hand sewed the middle part- it was really thick!

Viola!

I can tie the ties together, but since I don’t want to use it for anything other than a bustle skirt, I may sew some buttons or snaps to keep it in place instead. The fabric is pretty thick so tying it doesn’t look that great.

(Please ignore the hot pad that some how ended up underneath my ironing board.  I blame my kitty.)
Thanks!


Tune in next time for Fun with Tutus!  :-)

Work In Progress- Bustle Skirt

Quick! Look at these cool sew-craft sites!   Craftovision and ThreadBanger.

Now that's done--

I love gothy/victoriany/gypsy/ circus /train conductor type clothing.
Bustle skirts fit into that love soooooo... I did some research and found an easy to follow tutorial from Corrine at Craftovision.  After watching it, I decided yes-YES it was indeed something I needed to try.

I had a pretty fabric shower curtain I wasn't using but couldn't bear to throw away, so I washed it really well and then... bustle skirt!

I do not follow directions or patterns very well.  I like to look at an idea and then jump in and try to do it.  When it goes wrong, as it inevitably does, I love trouble shooting.  The end result is similar to a pattern or tutorial but definitely mine.  Usually in a good way.  Mostly.

So far I have two layers and I added some tulle between the two layers to give it some extra pouf. The tulle was left over from a tutu I made last year.  I cut way more tulle than I needed and I ended up setting it it aside because I knew it would come in handy someday.  See?  I was right!

I think I am going to add one more small layer on the top and then maybe a long droopy layer underneath and some more lace and maybe some flower pins or dangly pretty things... and...

We will see...

Craftovision Bustle Skirt Tutorial.

N@

Blog! First Post!

I have been starting blogs and getting the first post done and then abandoning them ever since I heard of blogging.  Here's hoping I will stick with this one!  I plan to use this space as a showcase for my works in progress, my failures, and my successes!