Follow up

Yesterday, Blogger didn't want to upload pictures from my phone. I'm using more and more for knitting pictures.

Here is the skirt 

Here is how it fits. I love it! It's a combination of wool and acrylic, picked for color. The stitch is alternating seed stitch (k1, p1 then knit a round, p1, k1 then knit a round)

This is a hat and mitten set that I knit for the guild tree. So far I've made 2 hats and 5 pairs of mittens. I may need to take a break and knit mittens and hats for myself. My pink and purple mittens that match my coat keep getting holes. I have matching yarn and keep repairing them. Replacements are scheduled. I also need a hat and mittens for my green Borg coat if I'm going to wear it in the cold weather it is suitable for. Have yarn, must knit. In addition, I have a navy dress coat. The hat scarf and mittens are gone. I have a blue scarf that is suitable, but need hat and mittens. Have yarn, must knit. I need to do these for next winter.

In the mean time, I keep working on my green socks.

I'm having trouble with the heel. Operator error! At first I didn't have the heel centered. It's a heel construction I haven't done before, so I need to pay closer attention. I should have a heel by tonight.

The sweater will be finished by month end. I'm almost at the armhole of the second sleeve. Then on to the front bands, collar and zipper. This will go well with the skirt. The cuffs, front bands, and collar are reversible cables.

Skirts are finished

The Spanish skirts are finished. Skirt #3 took almost 1000 inches of ruffle fabric, edged on both sides. That's 27.5 yards of fabric run through the rolled hem foot. The customer is very happy! Part of the reason for the yardage amount is that the fabric was thinner, so the gathering foot gathered it tighter. The dress form does lean, the result of a fall a long time ago.

I finished my green socks Sunday night. I've been writing about skirts instead of socks. The pattern was interesting. I like entrelac as a technique, but I don't think I'd knit these again. They are too fiddley.

I keep knitting the shawl. Black lace forever.

Today I got a box of sock yarn from Plymouth yarns. I need to contact them to see what they have in mind.

Another day, another skirt

I'm actually sewing three skirts, but the last one isn't as interesting, so I'll probably just show a finished picture. This is skirt #2, which I'm to copy and make in her size.

I use paper table cloth for many of my patterns. I was looking for plain paper, but could get a roll of this and it actually has 1" squares. This is the pattern piece for all the skirts. The yellow sticky note has ruffle information, as in how wide,and how long, so I know how many pieces to cut for a straight ruffle. The third skirt has two straight fabric ruffles. Originally the skirt top was too wide, so I altered the pattern. The skirts are all 8 gores. Today's skirt is shorter, so I just folded out the top part.

The stripes are cotton hem facing. I tried sewing the stripe to the edge of the hem and turning it up to the outside. It had too much sizing to ease in nicely, but I left it the way it was. The upper stripe is edge stitched to the skirt at the top, leaving the bottom edge loose. A line of stitching keeps the fold folded. I attached that after the inside ruffle.

You can see a little of the skirt in this picture. Under the paper are 16 pieces of ruffle fabric. Each edge is 48". That's 768 inches of ruffle edge or over 21 yards. All pieces were sewn together, seams serged, edges serged, turned once, and stitched. I flipped the ruffle back so you can see the edge. I misfigured the inner circle, so I gathered a little in attaching. The original had the same problem. Each skirt section had two ruffle sections. I could have just sewn the ruffle on and cut off the extra as I did on skirt #1.

Copy complete and shown with the original.

I have been doing a little knitting, but I'll show that tomorrow. Mostly I've been shawl knitting and there isn't much to show.

Skirts for Spanish dancing

The last few days I've been sewing dance skirts for a customer. Skirt #1 needed red fabric added under the ruffle for a fake petticoat. She also needed some bloomers.

She needed three skirts made. The floral skirt is like the black one, but 2" shorter and only one ruffle. By the way, could you line the ruffle so the other color shows when I dance? Start with an eight gore skirt in the proper size.

Cut yards of ruffle. Edge top edge of ruffle with rolled hem foot.

Close up of rolled hem foot. this is a great tool, but works best on straight edges. I sure have plenty of that here.







Next step is to attach the lining and understitch it so it will stay put.




Next step is to gather the ruffle. A special foot is helpful here too.


By stopping fabric movement behind the foot, the ruffle is fuller.

Here's what the foot looks like.




The ruffle lining was stitched to the ruffle below the gathering line. The edge was serged before attaching.

Next comes attachment. I usually ease the gathers so that the thinner spots thicken up. The finger behind the gathering foot eases up at times to move the fabric and the gathering is loose there.



Sew the ends of the ruffle together and the skirt is finished. The pink will show as she dances. You can see in the flat photo how close tot he edge it is.