FO: Jumper for Joy

Hello, blog.
I miss you.

Right now, I'm avoiding homework to show you this jumper I made for little Bu, which I made while I was avoiding homework.

Man, I get so much done when I'm avoiding homework.

This is McCall's M6983, but instead of doing a facing for the top, I went for a lining.

And there it is. The lining is a copy of the outer dress, making it almost reversible, but not quite. I had to really think about the construction, but I'm really pleased with the lining and think it'll wear better than just facing.

She picked out the polyester gingham to for the lining and I happened to have a pink zipper in exactly the right size. The pockets are faced in gingham, too. 

I'm very proud of this zipper. It zips all the way to the top and looks very tidy. 

It's machine sewn to the seam allowance, but hand finished. 

Remember the time I matched plaids? I managed to match this one up pretty tidily all around. The back seam matches up nicely and the yoke matches up nicely to the skirt. 

Heck yeah, skills!

(I didn't bother matching the lining, which is fine. No one will see it.)

Jump!

She's pretty happy with it, too. I have another one planned in a heavier fabric which I hope is not too heavy and I want to do some cute little shirts for her, too, but haven't got a pattern for one yet. She's grown out of the shirt patterns I have. Next time I'm not doing homework, I'll probably be looking for kids' shirt patterns.

What was June for Again?

Making garments is the answer and I'll be making several little things for Miss Bu this month. I've just finished washing and drying the fabric for a couple little jumpers and some shirts. Baby girl is growing and needs new clothes.

That's a lot of potential sewing right there (not counting the other two pieces of fabric not pictured because my undies are hanging up just to the right as well) and these are some darn ambitious goals, but I thrive on ambitious goals. Even if I fall a bit short of my intentions, I can still manage something awesome. DaVinci Disorder*, FTW. And, in addition to this, I'm planning on doing a shirt for the Outfit-a-long and, at some point later in the year, I want to do up a Suffragette costume.

This is the pattern I'm using for the Outfit-a-Long and I'm strongly considering the V-neck short sleeve for its versatility, though I really like the slash-front 3/4 sleeved one, too. Nothing saying I can't make both, but for the purposes of the OAL, the V-neck is the way to go. I'm considering a couple different yarns to use for the knitted portion of these adventures, namely Alisha Goes Around: Walk of Snipes in a gorgeous blue that would be awesome as a lightweight cardigan of some kind. I've also got some Quince & Co.: Finch that I really want to try and that would look really great as a cowl. I'm leaning cardigan in the blue, but I think I might have to go pet my yarn and find a pattern I like. I'm going to do Vitamin D eventually, but I think that's going to be an intentional project during the Hyperborean (basically winter) months.

Anyhow, between the end of the school year and the beginning of summer, I've been busy and have been neglecting the ol' blog, but lots of knitting and other crafting is still going on in the background. In addition to the usual stuff, I'm working on an alternate teaching certification program and doing my best to help both kids be as awesome as they can be (which is pretty darned awesome). The former involves regular, concentrated work, the latter, well, gifted kids are a particular challenge. We just got the little one's IQ score back and the psychologist who showed us the number was nearly speechless. It was a really big number.

See? I'm knitting!

All that aside, I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things and to start posting regularly again. I miss blogging and I miss how it was helping me focus on my crafting life. I'm pretty regular on Instagram as DelphinianJess, so if you miss me here, I'll be over there with a fair amount of regularity.

*Not a real disorder

FO: Starstepper Fitbit bracelet

 My Fitbit bracelet broke this morning, so I needed a replacement. I grabbed a scrap of fabric and some wide grosgrain ribbon, stitched them together, and turned the whole thing right side out. There's a slit in the side so I can take the sensor out to charge and one little pearly button. Embroidery keeps the sensor from shifting around. It's simple, comfy, and functional.

Piecing April: Half Square Triangles

Aaaah, the good ol' HST. It's easy to put together into a variety of patterns either by itself or with other shapes. It's a quilting standby and rightly so, being that the right triangle is fine upstanding citizen of the Pythagorean realm. 

I'm doing a quilt for Miss Bu, since her elder sister's is closer to completion and if I don't get started, I won't finish hers before she goes off to college. 

Sure, it seems like I have a lot of time now, but I thought that about Iris' quilt, too. Best get busy on it. 

She's a shining star.

For Iris, I decided on a rainbow quilt. Iris means rainbow, hence rainbow quilt. For Phoebe, which means "bright and shining," I'm doing stars. There's a lot of potential for using different techniques using star-themed blocks and one of the simplest is the HST.

The simplest HST block is the pinwheel, which to me looks like the rays of a sun. It can also be used as a component in other blocks, so I thought I'd get a little practice in on this.

Before I show you the other ones, I feel it's necessary to pause for a public service announcement:

Bias distortion is real. If you or a friend has experienced bias distortion, don't despair. There is a solution. 

When you are cutting HSTs, the sides that form the right angle are often on the grain and the cross-grain. That is to say that those cuts run more or less parallel to the vertical and horizontal threads that compose the fabric. Therefore, the long side will be on the bias. The bias is stretchy and goes all wonky (that's a technical term) when you stitch it, meaning that your squares will go off-square.

What I want to have to solve this problem is a walking foot. I do not have a walking foot. I do, however, have junk mail. A bit of paper under the seam keeps the feed dogs from stretching the fabric out and tears away easily. It's not an ideal solution, but it's better than nothing. Tear-away stabilizer would work fine too, I imagine, but I didn't have any of that, either.

This is the friendship star, which is just a 9-patch using HSTs and plain ol' squares. It has a satisfying star shape and is easy to assemble. The whole square is mean to be 9", finished, so 9 1/2" unfinished. Each of the smaller squares, then, is 3" finished and 3 1/2" unfinished. For the HSTs, make a square that's the desired finished width plus 7/8, and cut it corner to corner to make a triangle the correct size.

You can fancy it up with fabric choice and by changing up what you're doing with the smaller squares. 

I'm fond of the wee little mini-9-patches. This brown one was a practice piece and will become something that is yet to be determined. They might be large potholders or a table runner or something else. The fabrics were a recent gift from a friend (Thanks, Robbie!) and I'm super tickled to start using them with some of my old stash. 

The last one (below) is my favorite of the whole batch and I'm infinitely pleased with how it turned out. 

There are more HST blocks to be had, but for next week, I'm going to do some more difficult geometry. There might even be trapezoids; you don't know what could happen!

February is for Finishing: Taking stock

As you have likely noticed, I've finished a whole whack of neglected projects in the past few days. February is for Finishing is a fine tradition here at House of M and something I've done with my two dearest friends, Bekah and Koren, for some years. Usually, it's knitted things, but this year, I wanted to look very honestly at all my soft arts projects and see if I couldn't get some things out of my sizable pile of projects in progress.

The first thing to do is to tidy up.

To the left and below are what my crafting areas looked like a couple of weeks ago. I don't generally like to show my messes, but these are the result of rampant creativity.

I have lots of ideas, lots of inspiration, and it all just kind of physically accumulates in these two spots.

Before February began, I made a concerted effort, not only to clean up, but to list every project in these piles so that I know what, exactly, I have going on.

I found my end table.

I've also discovered that I can actually put my coffee there and I can put my computer there when I want to use my sewing machine (off camera to the right is my desk where both computer and sewing machine sit).

My other desk is a fold-up number, which is super handy for a small space, but not when it's so full of stuff that you can't actually fold it up. 

Once that was done, I had a complete list of every project I'd started or gathered the materials for and ended up with thirty-one. The greater majority of those are only in the planning stage, but I'd gotten as far as collecting the materials for the job. One or two were only in the idea stage. 

Four, as you've likely seen, have been finished since the beginning of the month and two pairs of socks have been frogged to reclaim the needles and to start again at a later date. That leaves me with twenty-five total projects on the pile, approximately half of which are in progress. Following the tradition of the Annual Airing of the WiPs, they are as follows:

1. A 9-patch pastel quilt that has several blocks sewn, but not enough. 
2. Stjarna, by Karolina Eckerdal. My goal is an even dozen stars for purposes of Yule ornaments and I have two finished.
3. Laurelhurst by NW Foraged. This is the second hat in this pattern that I've made, the first was for 25000 tuques and this one is for me. I'm just to the bottom of the color work pattern.
4. The art jeans. You've seen me work on these off and on. I don't expect to finish any time soon. 
5. Ballet Bear's steeked cardi. This is an experiment that is no skin off my nose if it fails. It might take a couple of days to finish. I haven't steeked before and a tiny cardigan for a bear seems like the way to go for experimentation. It isn't wool, though, and may be doomed to failure.
6. Crocheted Bed Scarf, inspired by the architecture of Chicago. I've done a goodly stack of blocks, but have a fair amount of yarn that I want to put into still yet to go. I might make some progress this month, but don't plan to finish.
7. TARDIS bag, which is a lot of fiddly stitching, but will probably look awesome if I ever finish it. I probably won't get to it this month.
8. Blackwork Bird Pillow that I started last month during the Month of Mending. I'm well into the snowflake border and the center is sketched out
9. Two small blackwork samplers, which were started at the same time as the pillow. One is nearly done, the other sketched out.
10. White silk spinning. All but about an ounce has been spun up into singles. This has a high likelihood of getting finished since I like to spin a little just before bed if I have time.

That's not too bad of a list, really, and some of that is certainly to be worked on this month. I may even finish a couple of those things, but there is one final project that will be the focus of my efforts:

11. Iris' quilt. "I'll finish before she goes to college" is less funny when the child in question is in high school. As it stands, I have 16/81 blocks quilted, which works out to about 20%. 

It was deeply satisfying to knock off several FOs early in the month, but now that I've started back on this behemoth, that's going to slow down considerably. It's harder to take this one to work on during dance class, though, so several of the smaller projects have hope of getting finished before the month is out.

Good luck in your finishing endeavors this month, my fellow makers. By next week, I hope to have whittled down the list of WiPs even more and I'll share some pictoral updates on my progress. 

FO: Plaid Pajama Pants

I've had this pair of pants in my pile for quite a long time. Up until now, they've been mostly, but not quite wearable.

I finished the seams with a zigzag stitch over the edge, fixed a blown seam up one leg, sewed up some slashes I'd made at the side, and installed some elastic to replace the drawstrings.

The observant among you will notice there's a drawstring in them.

The fabric I used is a little heavy and, unfortunately, because of the way I put the elastic in, it doesn't spring back as much as I'd like it to. The drawstring solves that problem and the elastic plus drawstring is much better than just the drawstrings.

I now have twice as many pajama pants and one less project in the pile. I call this one a win.

FO: A bit of jeans mending

I feel like I'm batting a hundred today. 

Here's a sashiko patch in a "woven bamboo" pattern.

And some blackwork just above the patch where the fabric is getting thin. The thread matches pretty closely to the color of the jeans, so it should be mostly invisible. I'll know it's there, though.

Honestly, I'm not sure these are done-done or if they ever will be done. There are some weak spots near the pockets and belt loops that will need attention soon, but they're done enough to go back into the rotation.

FO: Two quick repairs

What better way to wrap up the Month of Mending and to begin February is for Finishing than with a couple of things that had been sitting on my mending pile for too long.

The first is a t-shirt that, by a mistake of manufacture, had a hole in the shoulder.

 Here's the inside, repaired with a blanket stitch and double running stitch to mimic the stitches of a serger.

And here's the outside. There's a slight puckering at either end of the repair, but it will be hardly noticeable when worn.

 The second repair is a pair of dress pants that Husband wears to work. There's a blown out seam at the corner of the pocket...

...and another blown-out seam in a rather more delicate place.

 The pocket was sewn up on the inside using a back stitch.

And the seam of great delicacy was sewn up using invisible stitching (blind stitch), first on the up-and-down seam and then the side-to-side seam.

Dignity now restored, these pants can return to work.

Month of Mending: The Mending Kit

I talk a little bit about why I mend over here, but it essentially boils down to wanting to have clothes for longer than they were intended to be worn. If I find a pair of jeans that I like. I want to keep them on my body for as long as possible.

Today, I shall be breaking down the mending kit. Those of you who follow on Instagram will have already seen mine. I use a tidy little plastic box that once held facial cleansing wipes and it's just the right size to toss into a bag and take with me if I need to. Mending can be remarkably portable.

This is the whole shebang, plus some, laid out in all its glory. Much of it is self-explanatory, but I wanted to share how I use what you see here.

These are the scissors I typically use for mending, though I do also have a nice set of shears that I keep at my sewing desk for cutting larger pieces of fabric.

Each one has its niche: The red-handled pair is sharp and slightly bent at one tip, which makes it good for picking out stitching. The grey-handled pair is sturdier and easily cuts smaller pieces of fabric. The gold-handled pair is excellent for taking out seams, and the silver pair is basically a glorified thread-cutter that I keep around because sometimes that's all I need.

These are the various threads I use. Much of it is in the "stonewashed jeans" family of colors, but I've got a wide range stashed away if I want something funky or if I want to match something that isn't jeans. The embroidery thread is just run-of-the-mill cotton DMC thread and the spooled threads range from 100% cotton quilting thread to 50% polyester/50% cotton to 100% rayon. Not pictured is a thicker thread used for sewing on buttons. I use the cotton and polycotton for mending that requires some strength and the rayon when I need something more delicate. 

I know you've been waiting on pins and needles for...

The pins and needles. (I think I'm funny)

Here we have:

• Sharps for regular hand-sewing (sharp tip, small eyes). Good for medium to lightweight fabrics
• Embroidery needles (sharp tip, long eyes) for heavy fabrics and embroidery
• Assorted yarn needles (blunt tip) for repairing knits
• Glass-head pins for holding work in place
• A handy wooden needle case with assorted sewing needles in

I'm not sure of the provenance of the needle case, but I love it. The little cap fits on nice and snug and it's compact and safe storage that I can toss into my kit. The yarn needles usually go in my knitting kit and I don't usually have more than a couple pins in the actual kit, but those are here for purposes of thoroughness, since I do sometimes use them for mending.

Some assorted tools:

• A small crochet hook (usually found in my knitting kit)
• Seam ripper
• Plastic thimble
• Needle threader

That particular seam ripper is dull, so I usually use the gold-handled scissors above if I have a seam to take out, but I keep it in the kit anyway. I almost never use the needle threader. When I thread a needle, I do it the manly way with a near 100% success rate. The thimble is essential. If you're to have a mending kit, you need a thimble. Nobody wants a perforated finger. It took me some years to settle on this one as my favorite and for your kit, I suggest you try different ones to see which you like best. There are lots of different kinds.

And finally: Stuff that was tossed into the kit and forgotten about.

From left to right:

• A connecter-y thingy that was meant to repair a problem with a car I no longer own
• Stitch markers on safety pins that really belong in my knitting kit
• A blob of wax that I sometimes, but not always, use to keep thread from tangling

And that's it! Next week, I'll be talking about blackwork embroidery and how it's used in mending. 

Last year's Project Make shenanigans are up for sale on Etsy at my shop. Hop on by if you're feeling froggy. 

Year in Review

 This year has been wild ride and I'm really rather pleased with the amount of making that's happened in a mere 365 days.

I got some big projects done from start to finish. The Sheep of Unknown Provenance was one of my biggest spinning projects to date and I learned a lot about how to process fleece, dye wool, and spin with color.

 Some projects were abandoned entirely and I'm not a hundred percent sure why. It could be that they were too fiddly or that I was distracted by something shiny or that it just wasn't what I wanted to be doing.

 Simple, but well-made seems to make me happy. I loved the challenge of learning new things like matching plaids and incorporating that knowledge into something I could share.

I knit or crocheted over 7,600 yards this year, which is the most I've done since I started keeping track. I couldn't tell you how much I've spun, but I'd wager it's more than I've spun in the past. I feel productive... and warm.

My baby has gone from a toddler...

...to a little girl. (Cue sentimental Mama sobbing).

And my big one...

A beautiful young woman. (Cue more sentimental Mama sobbing).

I've learned a lot, made a lot, been lots of places, worked hard, hung out with friends, and generally have had a lovely time of it. Parts of this year were difficult, but I'm surrounded by a lot of love. 

I've changed my mind and moved toward more compassion and more love. Just when you think there couldn't possibly be more room for that, more room is just there. 

Thank you for making me better.  

In 2016, I look forward to more challenges, more beauty, more making, more love, more focus. I look forward to the new shape of Project Make and to learning more about what I can do and what I can be: Faster, higher, more betterer. 

It's gonna be great. See you in 2016.

P.S. The Etsy shop is open now, if you want to take a look. 

P.P.S. Just a reminder that January will be the Month of Mending for the new and improved Project Make: a year long -along of -alongs.

FO: Winter Jammies

A couple FO's that were actually finished last week before we left for Chicago.

Both are Simplicity 8488, D, in size 3 with no alterations to size or fit.

I did do a couple things to make them special, though. The Snow Jammies have a bit of ribbon at the front and hand-tatted snowflakes made by my very own sister specifically for these jammies. She did the hard work, I just sewed them on. You can kind of see them in the picture below and I love that they're subtle, but add dimension and puffy heart love from Aunt Erin.

Fairy Jammies have an added sparkly tulle netting over top of the top part of the bodice and a line of beads hand-sewn across the chest.

Both are comfy, easy to put on and take off, and should be sturdy enough to pass on to other certain little girls that may grow into them after Miss Bu has grown out of them. Both were made completely from stash, excepting the bias tape around the neckline.

Slow fashion is harder for little ones who are growing like weeds, but I can at least make something that can be passed on and used and loved by more than one kid. I'm most likely not going to be making all of her clothes and I have bought her a stack of much-needed new things, but a couple pair of Mama-made winter jammies is a nice addition to a little bitty's wardrobe.