Monday, March 29, 2010

March Madness

I must have been crazy to start so many projects with a March 31 deadline.

Green socks
These were a Mystery Pattern from the Ravelry SKA group. Green is the March color for Ravelry Solid Socks group. Yarn is Lana Grossa Meilenweit Cotton.

Black scarf
Ravelry's Project Yarnway group had a challenge for March to knit with something not sold as yarn. I used black tape usually used for hanger loops in garments. My contrast is rayon seam binding. I would have made it longer, but the knitting was hard and time was short.

There is another pair of socks on the needles. Lace socks called Reflections from the Fiber Trends pattern called Walking Away Socks. SKA says I have until April 30 for these, but they are almost finished.

We won't talk about the sweater I'm knitting. Garment and design are due April 2. Oh by the way, could I do a machine knit pattern? Chosen yarn doesn't work on the machine, so I'm doing it in another yarn. Just need a pattern and technique illustrations, not a complete garment.

On the work front, I am making a "Judy Garland" dress from a 1940 pattern. My customer is a singer doing a Judy Garland program. She bought the pattern on eBay.

The dress is silk chiffon over lining. The bodice is underlined with the lining. I had considered doing a traditional lining, but the pattern construction seemed to make that difficult.

I decided to finish the shoulders with a Hong Kong finish using a bias strip of lining. I'll be using it on other seams, so do a how to then.

The neckline is finished with a chiffon binding. The bias strip was folded and the raw edge sewn to the neck. The fold is hand stitched to the lining. The lower hand stitching is the neckline edge of the front piece, not a separate piece.

The pattern is interesting. Perforations mark seam allowances. The pieces were pre-cut. Notches have more information than we get today.

Assembly instructions are printed on one side of a sheet of paper, but appear to be complete enough. I do think that the print and pictures are smaller than seen today. I will show that next time.

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