Saturday 31 December 2022

Double faced wool coat with metallic silver fur trim

I actually made this coat for going to the theatre. Its a very simple wrap over dressing gown style of coat so no real fastenings other than a belt. 


And because the fabric is double faced no lining. Its still warm though and is some kind of wool mix that I picked up in a sale a couple of years ago. I made a ski cape from another piece of this fabric. 

Its trimmed with the same very light weight fur fabric I used for the sweater cape and hoody. I love and wear both of these but they are not that good for winter. They are too light weight and more suited to Autumn /Fall. More like sweatshirting than fur fabric. I have loads more of the silver fur though, so am considering either having two layers of this cheap fur  - one as lining and one as outer or lining with something else? Not sure yet but I should use this because its lovely soft fabric and the silver definitely adds a bit of glamour..

 

Its actually a pale grey fur with metallic silver in it. You can just about see it in the above photo.

I really love this coat because its relatively light to wear, has loads of room for thick jumpers under it, and its just comfy and warm and easy. Possibly because the same pattern makes a dressing gown. I actually used the dressing gown pockets rather than the patch pockets meant to go on this. You can just see them inside the coat here:

 

Still not so sure this was the best idea to use the inserted pockets rather than the patch pockets, but it does work, though as you can see on the inside is not so neat as it might be. I could catch the pocket liners down though I suppose which would make it neater inside. Here its worn over one of my long skull dresses.

I think this could also work as a kind of monkish fancy dress coat but it was made for going out in style to the local Pantomime which we are going to later this week.
Because its full length I can pretty much wear anything under this and it will be covered. 


Its kind of off putting though when I start to make coats because my track record to date is not good. I have several part made coats and jackets currently waiting for me to get round to finishing them. One goes right back to winter 2015 so I am feeling quite pleased to have actually got it together to finish this one and relatively quickly really. Thats really because its such an unstructured easy design to make, but then if that means I get to make a proper coat there is nothing much bad about that. I reckon I may yet try another coat in this design. Having a hood as well makes it so practical for UK weather. So many coats do not have hoods and when you live in a country where its usually raining thats what you really need. 

The pattern for this is from one of my vintage Burda magazines (bought for 99p off Ebay so the postage cost more than the mag but even then its still a bargain). This is style 132 from 10/2001 and I have to say if you wanted a lot of coat and jacket patterns this would be a good Burda to look out for.

Anyway, Happy New Year and I wish everyone the best possible luck for 2023

Take care 

Bracken

Sunday 25 December 2022

Ginger Christmas socks

This yarn is from West Yorkshire Spinners (WYS). In the end I was so happy to buy this long ago now back in August. Its felt like even I could make these for Christmas if I started then. But I needed to finish some other projects and I was delayed starting to knit these. In the end I am very lucky to finish them in time for Christmas. 


I also had to start twice because I began a textured pattern called Rudy which is free from WYS ( designed by the Winwick Mum) but I just could not get along with it. I suspect its not the pattern though but my own inexperience knitting socks. I found it just too difficult so I swapped to a plain knit pattern by the Winwick Mum which I have done several times before and then it went smoothly.

And as you can see they are ready to wear for Christmas Day - just!

 

I actually also bought some yarn in a different Christmas colour also from WYS but since I have only just managed to get the one pair finished on time I might just save that for next year. Maybe then after a few more pairs of socks I might manage a more interesting pattern. For now I am very happy with these.

 

Though I have developed edema which is swollen ankles. This makes the socks look tight. They are not and I cannot actualy wear normal bought socks right now either. So my hand knits are really useful right now. I had some tests to find out what is going on but so far my liver, kidneys and heart are all working ( which is good of course) so who knows. Hopefully the edema will go away with the end of 2022.

I do love these even if they are just plain socks

Happy Christmas

Bracken

Saturday 24 December 2022

Festive PJ Trousers for Mick & Me and a pixie hat


I made these to wear over Christmas and New Year so we can just lounge about and be warm and cozy.

I bought the fabric for Mick's PJs before Christmas and when it arrived I realised it was not as wide as I had thought. Probably down to me not reading the description but its narrower than I envisaged so to make what I wanted meant I needed more fabric. Well it had sold out so instead of shorts I decided to make Mick some PJ trousers by using the fabric to do "colour blocking".

 

So hes got multi coloured PJ trousers to wear over the festive period and as it turns out I am actually very pleased with how these did work. They make for a slightly more interesting look.

And of course I can use the offcuts for next years Christmas bags - assuming that idea goes down well with relatives and friends. 

The pattern I used for Mick is my TNT New Look 6142 which is a brilliant pattern because its got trousers tops and vests all in the one pattern in both mens and womens fits.

I made a pair of these with rats on them a while ago as well as several pairs of shorts.  Though I did also add pockets because - well pockets! 

They are top stitched where the two prints join to make it a feature. I think it works. Though as you can probably see I added a bit to the hems to accomodate the seams where the colour blocks join and I obviously then sewed smaller seam allowances than I added meaning they have turned out too long. I will fix that in the next day or so - after Christmas. 

So these probably should have gone on the blog before Christmas but never mind. Its still the festive holiday and before New Year so that counts and life just does not always go quite to plan does it?

 

My red fluffy trousers are the Lekala sports trousers pattern and I have made these loads of times before. The original pair were the same bright scarlet but I think they are more wearable in red when PJs rather than the track pants I made back when.

More recently I have used this pattern to make my glitter sweatshirt trousers. This was super cheap fabric and I bought it on a whim before I sewed my fluffy pink top up and decided after my fluffy pink top was so difficult to make that  I would make something simpler with this - and this is thinner and sewed much easier. I have enough to maybe make a top as well but thats one for January at the earliest now. It was Mick's idea to use this for PJs and a very good idea that has turned out.

Worn here with my navy glitter sweatshirt which is just seen.




And my rainbow socks
and in front of the Christmas tree.

Out of the scraps I have left I also decided to make a pixie hat from a pattern I bought for a bolero but have never yet got round to using. Thats an early aim for my New Year's list which I have yet to decide upon. 

This pattern is Simplicity 1293 and its a faery costume pattern and has two different pixie hats. I never till now intended to make either hat but I now want to make the other one as well. I will have to make a smaller size next time because it turned out a bit on the big size, but this is just a fun hat for Christmas. It actually fits Mick better than me but he did not feel happy wearing it so its my hat for Christmas day.

And you can see my now quite old home made Christmas Gothic Fairy which we are still using for the tree after several years now. Though over time her gothic ( felt tip pen) eye makeup has smudged a bit.

 As usual my sewing stops at Christmas so we can use the table for the festivities.

Have a lovely day and wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,


Bracken

Saturday 17 December 2022

Pink Teddy Fur oversized hoody


Now I need to catch up with reading people's blogs.Its been a very hectic few weeks for me and I am well behind in my "blogging duties" so this weekend my plans are to pop around and visit other blogs and see what I have been missing out on.

This is my latest creation and it took absolutely ages to make it. Its an oversized sweatshirt type hoody top to hopefully keep mecozy and warm over the next few months.

I really liked two tops recently that are RTW. 

One from H&M was just too expenisve to buy at £99.

The other was more reasonable but had sold out by the time I even noticed it. This is just a hoody.

Also I wanted it in "teddy fleece" also known as Sherpa or if you wanted to buy the fabric from a fabric shop then its actually usually called Borg. Well I think I should be able to make either of these so order 3m of Borg fabric. And for far less than £99. These 3m cost £26 including delivery (off Ebay). Fleece - as in normal fleece would have cost a similar amount. It would also have been far easier to sew up as it turns out.

I decided after washing, drying and just looking at my fabric for the next couple of weeks that actually the best pattern for this is probably a mens sweatshirt pattern so thats what I ended up using. 

The pattern used was McCalls M6614. I have used this pattern loads of times before mainly for Mick but accasionally also to make a big top for me. For example the red and black T shirt  for Mick and my skull hoody .

I also decided that although I love the H&M zip neck I am far more likely to wear a hoody so thats what I went with. It would be easy to alter the pattern for a funnel neck though because its just a tube and the zip could go in at the shoulder seam when lining up the funnel neck seam to it, so giving the nice zip neck. But hoody it will be for my effort. I nearly bought some more fabric in fact to make a second version. So glad I didn't!

Well possibly this is the most difficult fabric I have ever sewn up!


My overlockers both hated it. One - the older one- got damaged years ago and it was cheaper to replace than fix it. I bent the upper and lower cutters and generaly wrecked it where I got something jammed inside it.  I did eventually bend it back but its never had quite the right tension since and usually I use the newer one. I tend to think its worth keeping just for edging things like woven cottens for neat edges. 

Well the newer one kept breaking needles. It jammed and I gave up on it. I have since oiled and cleaned it but have yet to rethread the thing. I so hate threading overlockers.

This fabric is so thick it will not feed properly.  No matter how much I tried to adjust I just could not get it to work. I decide in desperation to see if the older one might be able to finish what I started. It feeds much better and actually sews - but then the seams start falling appart first time I put any pressure on them. You are not meant to pull the fabric through when overlocking but it just does not feed else so thats the only way to get it sewn up. This then leads to wavy seams. 

Weak seams!

Inside showing the edges with wavy edges
What to do? 

I zigzag with my normal Janome machine just inside the overlocked edges so giving it a second stretchy seam. Luckilly this was cut big so intended to bean over top. 

Needles again keep breaking. I sew as slow as possible. But at least the fabric does feed here and I get to reinforce the sewn seams so now I decide I had best line with something because it will make it warmer and give it a bit of body. Also its the only way to hide what will now be raw inside edges that keep shedding all over what ever I wear under this. This sheds loads on cut edges and sticks to everything. Since I wear a lot of dark colours and black thats not a good thing to be constantly having to deal with. Not when you have pale pink fluff everywhere anyway. This fabric came in very few colour choices so this pale pink was the best available. For me anyway.

Please ignore the background mess in these photos. My house gets busy and it was tree decorating time when these were taken so there is mess everywhere.

I decide on some blue football shirt mesh ( its not really mesh but has a texture). I have had this fabric hanging round for ages and do not actually like the colour much. I use the wrong side of this because it might be a bit rough on the right side because what is now my right side is normally outside the football shirts. For a lining it will be against the skin unless I wear a long sleeved top under it so might be uncomfortable. Anyway the safest way is not to risk it and use the smooth side. Its a bright royal blue but there is not enough for both the body and sleeves so I use some cheap polyester (white) for the sleeve linings and just do the front and back in this bright blue. I can at least sew these up with my overlocker. I line up the inside and outside and pin lining to body at shoulder and at hems. 

Decide I should add pockets so I cut the pocket part off the Peppermint jersey dress pattern I used for the grey glitter dress.  Also I now know how to fix those gaping pockets because I got them to work on this top! Thats something to sort probably over Christmas/ New Year. I at least learned something useful making this foruse with other patterns too. 

I then stick my pocket pieces back on the dress pattern. Thats a good idea because now I realise how to make those pockets work I may just make another dress with them. So far I made several of these dresses but after the first one I leave the pockets off. Though its a very wasteful way to add pockets and might be better to sew them in seperately anyway as I did with this top. These pockets work and stay inside eve with no hands in them.

 

Anyway, so I zigzag the pockets in. Pin lining in place. Sew lining to sleeves from inside to keep nice and neat edges and this worked well so I need to try to remember for the future how I did that. Its something I usually struggle to do. I realise then I got one of them twisted but I did successfully manage to take that appart with no holes appearing in the Borg fabric so resewed that. The taking of that seam back appart took another afternoon due to how difficult it was to see the stitching on this fabric!

By now I have been at this very simple and I expected straight forward to make garment for a full month!

And I still have yet to sew the hood together or work out how to finish the hem either because its not going to work well to just hem this now the overlocking was abandoned because the raw edges shed constantly so I need to neaten somehow - hence the lining idea. 

Ah another week of fiddling around and the hood is together - both hoods because I decide to line with the same fabric. Fluffy inside and out sounds like a good winter option and its now -7degC in the mornings here so yes its getting colder.

A few days where I pin and unpin my hood. Then zigzag the outer hood onto my neck and that went very well. I decided after thinking about this for a while the best thing to do will be to hand sew the lining of the hood down to cover all raw edges. I hate hand sewing but none of my sewing machines have a chance in hell of coping with what will now be 3 layers of Borg and one layer of football shirting. No way will that work and it could even break my very precious and much loved machine. So I decide that can wait till I sort the only remaining problem and I start to think that actually this over-shirt may even work. 

I decide on a hem band smilar to what you have on sweatshirts. So I cut a wide strip of fabric thats slightly shorter than the hem edge of my top. I overlock my outer Borg fabric to my inner football shirting lining fabric and that will both secure them together and neaten the edge and stop the borg from shedding. Then I sew the strip of edging together into a circle. Fold in half and overlock really slowly around the raw edge.

To attach I pin in place so its even because the strip is deliberately slightly shorter than the hem itself. Hopefully that will ensure its not too baggy. Then zigzag them together. I did every bit of sewing so very slowly and it did work. I even double stitched the hem on with a second round of zigzags. Should have double sticthed the hood on but I didnt so I am just hoping that will stay togteher now.

Then finally I hand sewed the hood lining into place. Again because I overlapped the neck it took a bit of working out but its a bit easier than expected because this thick fluffy fabric hides my dodgy hand sewing so that is actually a bonus. It was faster to sew than I expected for the same reason and I am now just hoping this will all stay together when worn. I am also happy to have had the fluffy borg fabric on both outer hood and lining. Its very cozy.

 Its taken nearly 6 weeks to make this from cutting out to finishing which is ages. I usually complete a garment every 1-2 weeks so I sew lots. This has been a serious challenge and its such an easy design. When I have made this in Tshirt fabric I have taken a day or maybe two days to make it. Just shows you how choice of fabric can really hamper how long it takes to make something.

Though in the end I am pleased with this. Its turned out better than I actually imagined it would and is warmer than I planned due to having to have a lining. I never intended to add a lining at all but its the difference between a warm cozy fluffy top and an outside cozy garment. This is more coat-like and will be amazing now the weather has really started to get cold. 

One thing about this I have learned is I will be highly unlikely to ever make anything garment wise from this fluffy Borg fabric ever again as long as I live. I really thought several times over the past month or so I have wasted my money on this one. I have managed to save this but its been a serious challenge and just shows how something you think will be straightforward may in fact become the biggest challenge in years. I might buy Borg fabric again though but to make something easy and simple like a throw - with lining fabric or maybe with two layers of borg. Then overlocking will be unnecessary. Its certainly stretched me to make this and not just throw it in the bin when it all went wrong. And I still have to fix my "good" overlocker before I can make anything else so I think maybe I will be knitting rather than sewing for a few weeks after this one. 

Mind you it does also prove to my other half that it really is worth keeping my second rate damaged machines as well because without the tension being out on my old overlocker this would have been impossible to make without having it shed constantly for ever after!

And in the end I really do love what I made here:

 

So a distaster becomes a great winter garment but itdid take a large amount of effort and perseverance to get to the point this is a proper wearable garment. Still whats the point of having a hobby with no challenges?

Take care and thanks for popping over.

Now I need to catch up with reading people's blogs.

Bracken

Saturday 10 December 2022

Green cable baby cardigan and bootees

 

This is just a baby cardigan I made. Its in what I hope is the 0-3 months size.
I actually started a comercial pattern and then realised I never downloaded the last page which had the chart for the pattern on it so I decided to use the commercial pattern as a basis as to how many stitches were needed for this size and just make up the cable pattern. 
So this is my first ever me-designed baby jumper. Not that I really expect to keep knitting baby clothes but every now and then its a nice change when someone has a baby because they are obviously fast to knit - being very small.
This is also the first time I ever tried knitting booties. I know lots of people love knitting them.  I don't!
Back
Underneath showing seam


I found knitting booties very fiddly, I also did not feel at all that I had achieved much so I do not think I will knit more of these. I might attempt baby socks but not booties.

They are very unfulfilling to knit,

This is a close-up of the front showing glitter buttons. Its for a boy, so not sure I really should have used these, but I do love a bit of glitter and had some of these in from a buying spree a couple of years ago and they are the perfect shade of green.


So this little jumper took just over a week to knit. The booties took two eveings. Honestly I wish all my projects were so fast!

I may do another baby jumper at some point because I have enjoyed this project but maybe in the second size beause I have had enough of baby knitting for now. Though I am seriously tempted to knit a toy.



Thanks for popping by my blog and have a lovely weekend.

Bracken