Lots of Leggings

So I just recently discovered BurdaStyle.com. It's magical, really. The patterns are much cheaper and, so far, they've been perfect! The first things I have made are leggings, and I have made FOUR already.

Another thing I'm in to recently is using huge clothes I find at Goodwill to make other clothing. I started with this shirt:

It's partly cashmere, which made me super happy because it cost me 3.99! So, to make leggings out of it, I cut off the sleeves and use those as the lower leg and use the body for the upper part.

I didn't have a serger for the first two, so I spent extra thread finishing the edges, but here's a pic of the finished project:

The next pair was a green mostly acrylic sweater type thing for about the same monies:

Same method, here's the result:

For the third ones, I got more ambitious.  I found this sweet fabric at Goodwill:

Pretty blue metallic snakeskin print stuff, made fantastic leggings!!  These are on sale on my etsy site: http://www.etsy.com/shop/scienceofsewing

Aaaand this last recent pair I used a different pattern. Pacific Fabrics was having a $1.99 /ea sale on McCall's patterns, which I had a list of, so I bought seven of them, two of which were leggings patterns. The difference is these account for a butt. The rear has more room, whereas the BurdaStyle pattern is just one same crotch. I also got some pretty clearance knit fabric while I was there. Tada:

I think it's time to get into another pattern. I also got a cool knit shirt pattern and still have tons of fabric to make cute jellyroll skirts out of. I'll post those pics, soon.

Knitfitti

I have done it!

I have too much yarn.  I can't help it.  My problem is that I buy yarn and tell myself I'll think of a project to use it.  However...that rarely happens.  I have a large stearlite box that is overflowing with my yarn stash...

SO!  I decided to knit bomb with some of the stuff I will probably never use.  I have a premade bomb that I'll be using soon, too.  It was supposed to be a scarf, but it's utterly wretched and silly and changes widths because I made it before I knew anything about gauge.  Aaaanyways...

Knitfitti: A Formula

Ingredients

• leftover yarns (any yarns, really, so long as they didn't cost more than 7 dollars a skein. Goodwill has lots of crappy yarn...)
• Needles, fairly large. I used 15's
• Zip ties
• Scissors
• warm clothing
• camera

Procedure

Find something you would like to bomb.  I originally thought I would use a street sign that looked chilly, so I measured it (9" x 42") and figured out how many stitches I would need to make that 9".  I used 25 to begin with because my first yarn was a bulky weight.
Knit.  For a long time.  While watching something good. 
When I changed to my worsted weight, I added five stitches and doubled the yarn up (which used more of it).  GOODBYE Ugly orange yarn I used for a Jayne hat a year ago!
I got bored of just stockinette stitch, so I threw in a cable here and there. And an owl.  :)

 Not quite all the same width...but meh!

 Most of this was acrylic yarn I got before I discovered stores that weren't JoAnns...

 I used a lot of silly shiny metallic eyelash yarn I have little intention to use....

 There's a cable in the purple, you just can't tell.

 Owl cable!

 You can see him better here.

 And the top, with some more cabled thingys.

Make a tag!  Unless, of course, you would rather remain anonymous...  I just wrote my blog address on a piece of paper and ironed it between a few layers of a clear plastic bag so it wouldn't shrivel when it starts raining again.  I should have taken a pic of that, too, but I forgot.

When finished, wait til it stops raining/snowing (if you're in Seattle, that's basically never).  Dress warmly (season-dependent) and go out late.  I just got back and it's 12:30, so I think I left around midnight.  At first I thought I would attach my -fitti with a zip tie at each end and one in the middle and then crochet the rest together, but that seemed like it would take forever...so I just threw a zip tie on every few inches.  Sadly the only length of zip ties I had on hand were 10', so I had a lot of tails to cut off... :( Must invest in shorter ones that won't be quite as wasted.

Adjust your bomb so it faces the way you want, take a quick picture, then walk away as though nothing happened!

 This is the corner fence at a school parking lot.  The neat thing about this place...is that tonight is Friday night, tomorrow is Saturday, and the farmers' market is in the parking lot in the morning!  YAY!  I'm pretty proud of it.  :D

 

Dude.  It's waaaay bedtime!  Goodnight all!  Happy knitting, and I hope you found something good at the market!

Sloping a Drafter

Or is it drafting a sloper...hmm...

So I got this book recently off of Amazon.  I can sew a lot of things, but I want something that will make it easier for me to do that.  So I got this:

The Practical Guide to Patternmaking for Fashion Designers: Juniors, Misses and Womens

and this:

Design-It-Yourself Clothes: Patternmaking Simplified

And dove right in!  I should probably have started with the simplified version...but I have never been one for simple, always choosing the most difficult pattern in the book to start with.  So I took all the required measurements off of the dress form I made based on this video:

How-to make a Body Form

I drafted all of the bodice pieces, front and back, using some brown packing paper, which is pretty thin.  I put it up to the body form and pinned it down along the lines, but it doesn't quite fit.

So here's the problem:

The sides don't match all the way and the shoulders stick out funny.  Am I just supposed to smooth it out and make it fit, then take it back to flat and re-draft?  Can anyone out there tell me how to modify this thing?  I would think I could just add an inch and a half to the sides, but I'm not sure.  So...does anyone know what to do about this?

Here I am! A new blogger! (knit gloves)

Hello world!  I am Amy.  I'm a grad student in biochemistry and an avid creator.  Sometimes I think I'm in the wrong place, but I'm going to stick through it and see what happens.  My true love is my creativity, but something's got to pay the bills, right?

So while the name of my blog includes 'sewing' this is not going to be strictly sewing.  I dabble in far too many artsy craftsy things, so I will be posting any and all of my creations.  Lately I have been sewing and knitting, but I have also just picked up spinning.

As my first post, I am going to show off a pair of mittens I am working on.  I got two balls of mini mochi rainbow sock yarn and found a cool pattern for it.  I only get chances to knit in classes and in my borrowed spare time (I don't sleep nearly as much as I should...).

I've never made gloves before, so I figured I'd start fingers down!
 

I thought I had pictures of the in between stage when I added the thumb and fingers, but it turns out not.  Instead, here's the mostly finished back side:

Palm side:

 Close-up on the pattern (I got it here: Jeannie's Sewing, Knitting and Beyond):

I couldn't figure out what I wanted for a cuff, so I went with I-cords and cables:

The cuff is slit on the thumb side of the wrist and I made I-cord loops and knots as closures.  I'll post the completed gloves when they're finished.  I have been writing down the pattern, so I'll post that as soon as this first one is finished!

Until then, I hope to continue blogging and showing you my pieces.