Upcycled Furry waistcoat

 

This is essentially a free project. It also is a very quick sewing project for when I am recovering and unable to sew with a machine. Its actually been on my sewing pile for years and because I needed to hand sew the hem has stayed there. Every winter it comes out again. Every spring I put it back away not having finished it. I even wore it with dangly threads and a chopped lining inside it when I went out shopping a few times because I really like it but never got round to this small bit of hand sewing. 

Anyway that does mean this project will not be a waste of time because it has been worn half-made for years!

Originally this waistcoat was a second hand fur coat which I bought to use a piece of the fur around the hood of a jacket. 

I do not actually remember what the coat cost, but not much, which is why I used it for my trim. It was also much better quality fur than I could at that time source so it ticked all the boxes. It did seem a shame to waste the rest of the coat though. 

And then of course I was left with the rest of the jacket. I took the sleeves off a while later - not too sure what happened to them but suspect somewhere in my fabric stash. If I find them I am considering making a muff. Anyway the jacket pretty soon became this waistcoat, just I never finished sewing it. I sewed around the armholes by zigzag ages ago. Probably after about a year of just wearing as it was around the house. But the hem just stayed this cut off frayed mess. 

Then about a week ago it occurred to me that I am sitting here vegetating because I am not allowed to sew. I had a total hip replacement. Though as you can see I can now stand without crutches! I do not actually walk really as yet but physio will hopefully make me stronger very soon. I want to be normal again and really need to be able to use a sewing machine. Anyway, time to do the bits of hand sewing I can manage and this is very basic easy sewing because you cannot really see if I do not do perfect stitches and to be honest I am rubbish at hand sewing. 

The waistcoat is worn here with a pair of my camo joggers and my green velvet top ( and my new hat!). Also because this was originally a coat it has more hooks at the front than most RTW waistcoats of this type making it much warmer to wear. 

I am starting to feel very wintery now. I really need to find out the other items of hand sewing I need to do. I do not have many because using a hand sewing needle is something I actively avoid but there is a couple of other things I could do now that will mean I get stuff sorted out that has been left in most cases for years. Otherwise I am stuck with reading and doing the odd bit of knitting and I am very slow at that as well. 

Have a great week and hope to see you again soon,

Take care

Bracken

The Isolation hat revisited

I made this hat pattern before when it was new ( and free because the designer gave it away for free when she was in Isolation due to covid. Hence the pattern name.)

The first version is not so well knitted. Its made in 100% lace weight mohair/ acrylic yarn. This version has different yarn and is more substantial in feel. 

I used a different lace weight mohair that is mohair/nylon in two shades of dark purple. I used these colours previously in a bat wing jumper I made a long time ago now. I look so young on those posts! Mind you its nearly 10 years ago. The pale pink yarn that runs through the hat is a vintage 100% wool sock yarn bought on a whim from Ebay. It's I believe 1950s yarn and it's 3ply. I bought 3 colours and this is the pink. I also have peach and yellow- all pastels. 

It also contains no nylon hence I have not used for socks because they would not last long. 

The darker purple is 2 strands of kid mohair in two colours on the main part of the hat and just one strand/ colour on the ribbing. The body also has a strand of gold glitter. I used this stuff before in an aran. Then I used it to tie together loads of oddments of similar coloured yarns to make it look like just the one yarn. This time its just for a bit of glam. Unfortunately the gold doesn't show in the photos so please just believe me it adds a bit of sparkle to the knitting which I hope will cheer me up come nasty cold winter ( usually wet) weather. If only we could have more snow and less rain! I do not mind the cold really just the constant wet we have here in the UK.

Ah also the original pattern has a seed stitch edge so the single stitch you increase for the main ( in original pattern)  I added to the ribbing to get the right stitch pattern. That's all I changed though. The shaping etc is as the original. I prefer a ribbed edge but that's just me. I did version 1 exactly as the pattern so this time its time for adjusting for me ( as you do!).

I actually knitted this hat in the summer. I am trying hard now to think ahead and plan more sensibly so make winter clothing in summer and summer clothing in winter rather than make when you need only to find its not yet finished and the weather has changed. 

Really I made another of these hats because I thought I had lost the original version when we had a family outing to a country park and was gutted to lose it so decided to make a new one. 

In the end I had not lost the hat but the warning was made I would miss it very much. The hat actually turned up at the end of the day out, stuck down the back of my jacket! 

I was so lucky I had not lost it and realised at that point I really need another if I like that design so much. Hence version 2.

The star stitch is easy though it's tricky knowing where to make it once you get past the first few rows. This is especially the case when you do not knit it for a few days and when you go back its a case of when to do the star. I needed to unpick a couple of times because of this but all in all this is a very straightforward hat to knit. The star pattern shows much better on this choice of yarn than on my first version. I think I am going to like this hat even better and I love the original.

Thanks again to the designer for this pattern.

Have a great week,

Bracken