Source: kremelife.myshopify.com via Lily on Pinterest
Ann’s stuff purging became my care package. Lucky me.
This is my new teachery watch.
I really like they way it looks with my rings. Thanks Ebay!
A down vest in really good condition. It’s perfect vest weather here. Also guess what?
It’s REVERSIBLE!!! The shirt was a recent find, too.
By “we made” I mean that I cooked up a scheme and AVO put it into play…as usual. It has made our kitchen so much better!
We have so little space in our kitchen, getting the pots and pans up in the air was like gaining a whole cabinet worth of storage.
I found these things for AVO. I’m super impressed with myself for getting it so right with the fit. I put the clothes on myself and tried to remember where the shoulder point on his shirts hit me.
I was so excited to see it things fit correctly that I made him try it on right away, hence the extreme wrinkles.
I can’t get over how well this wool shirt fits.
The third thing I found for him is was this jacket. I measured from the center back of the collar to the shoulder point and thought 9″ seemed familiar from having checked the measurement on a jacket that fits him well, but it was a long time ago so I wasn’t sure if I was remembering right.
I was. The shoulder fit is spot on. It’s too big in the waste, but who knows, maybe I’ll advance in my sewing enough to take it in for him. Oooouuuu technical term alert! A little research reveals the narrowed waist in a man’s jacket is called “waist suppression”. Maybe it’s called that on a lady’s jacket, too. I’m not sure. Supposedly altering waist suppression is pretty doable–as opposed to changing the placement of the shoulders which would be a total drag/most likely ruin the jacket if attempted by a not professional (me).
He was really in to everything. I love findings things for someone when they’re not shopping with me and then have the clothes fit and have the person like them. Pulling things off the rack for people is fun too but not the same rush. While he was trying things on I was doing a little happy dance.
I’m back to sewing. I did some sewing as a young teenager. There were a lot of baby doll dresses, a wild red jump suit, which some of you might remember. Then there was a bias cut sundress that just would not come out right. I have recently learned people call that a “wadder”. After that I didn’t sew much. I made a few bags without patterns, and once I designed a skirt. It actually came out pretty wearable. It was a pencil skirt made from light weight gray canvas with slits on both sides.
This skirt is the opposite. It’s a bright pink baby wale corduroy poofy mini.
I’m not sure how flattering it actually is, but I wanted to start my sewing renaissance with the simplest project. I don’t think you get any simpler than the elastic waste skirt. I’m trying to be really systematic about learning to sew again, so I don’t run into game ending frustrations. I’m also attempting to be very patient and follow all instructions exactly. This pattern is a Sew New Learning the Basics pattern, so it has extra instructions that most patterns don’t have, like ironing each seam after you stitch it. Doing so seemed to give the skirt a more polished, crisp feel. Overall I’m happy with how the skirt came out. The sandals are Kors Michael Kors. I found them at Buffalo Exchange a few weeks ago. I LOVE them and have been wearing them all the time.
Thanks for everything Dads! What would we do without you?
My Awesome Dad got this:
No, he doesn’t have really long hair. That’s me. Maybe this summer I can get a picture of him in his hat. I knit it using this pattern I found on Ravelry. The decreases make this cool swirl on the top of the hat:
Ehhhh. I didn’t bother getting out my tripod and had a hard time photographing the top of my head. Oh, well, you can kind of see what I’m talking about. It’s like a pin wheel shape on top.
I was waiting for the circular needles I ordered to arrive (I made my first foray into the world of nice needles and bought a pair of Addi Turbos), but I got impatient and knit it on some double pointed needles I already had. They’re metal and I had lots of problems with stitches sliding off. On the upside I was forced to figure out how to pick up dropped stitches. Eventually I got frustrated and came up with this cork based system:
It worked but, man, if I ever make anything on double pointed needles again, they’ll have to be wooden. I do want to make some leg warmers that are knit on dpns, though I think there is an Addi Lace tiny tiny circular needle, maybe even as small as 8 inches. I might have to look into that.
I recently sewed this lil’ buddy:
We were calling it Catbear. It’s for AS’s baby who is due this summer. I made it out of hot pink baby whale corduroy. The face is embroidery thread. I used this pattern. I changed it up a bit. I left off the muzzle and did the face differently.
Then I made this lil’ guy:
We’ve been calling him Pillow Guy. He went to a friend’s new baby. He’s made from an old cashmere sweater. I now have a reason to buy the thrift store cashmere sweater that seems perfect (yeah!), but on closer inspection has holes (no!). Oh no, I feel a bout of fabric hording coming on.
I used the same pattern as Catbear, but I tried to make it a little bigger. Somehow I mostly just made him wider, more pillowy. I didn’t have embroidery thread in the right color, so I improvised and just used a few strands of regular thread. I do not recommend this method. I was a mega pain. The thread really wanted to tangle. When I made a stitch all the threads wouldn’t come through evenly. Then when I pulled on the stitch to even it out it would get really tight on a few strands but stay all baggy on the problem strand. Whatevs. I’m just saying lots of threads do not equal embroidery thread.
Aww look they’re friends.
Nice, right? 