Remember when I mentioned the gingham jumper dress I was making in sewing class before?
Well, after much work and even more wasted thread from repeatedly ripping out seams, I can now proudly present to you my very first machine-sewn garment!
I love it.
When I first put it on I knew it was truly a jumper because it was so fun that it made me want to JUMP!
The ribbon and the fabric were a completely perfect match, and the pattern was simple and nice to make. For you overly curious people, I used McCall’s pattern M5313 in view ‘A’.
The only thing that didn’t go very smoothly was that the sizing on the pattern was a little messed up. Before I chose a size, I measured and checked and then remeasured and rechecked, just to be sure. Then, a few days ago when it was almost finished, I tried it on and it was WAY too big, even for being worn over a short- or long-sleeved shirt. So, I had to take off about 1 1/4 inches on each side, and now it fits a lot better. I learned a little about alterations from that, though! I also learned how to gather, sew in a zipper, do darts, and all kinds of things! This really seemed to be a perfect pick for my first serious project.
Now I’m can go on to a big, pretty hobo bag in some even prettier brown variegated corduroy (which I didn’t even know existed until I went to Fabric Depot and discovered it).
I carved a pumpkin on Monday.
Here’s what it looks like in the daytime:
And here’s what it looks like in the dark.
The little holes on the side were an attempt at spelling my name out with a tiny hole-punching tool, but it didn’t work out too well. Other than that, I (sadly) didn’t do much for Halloween. My friend Eva had a party last Saturday, where I made up a secret agent costume out of what I could find in the clothes I have (including the then just-finished Purl Beret). I didn’t look very much like a secret agent next to Austin, though, who came in a tuxedo and sunglasses. I didn’t really do anything on the actual day of Halloween, though, except hand out candy to the TWO trick-or-treaters we got. Two. Why is it that even though there are so many kids in our neighborhood, they never come around to the nearby houses? The upside of that is that we got to keep all the extra candy for us.
My week has been pretty slow, and I stayed home sick from school the past couple of days, mostly sleeping. I’ve been feeling a lot better most of today, though, and felt like baking something, so I made some banana bread.
The recipe I used was from the Extending the Table cookbook, which has recipes from around the world. This particular one is from Jamaica, and it has raisins and walnuts in it.
I’ve also been knitting sporadically on the Cloud Bolero. I bound of the sleeves yesterday and I think somehow I ended up with the wrong number of stitches because I’ve frogged the same row about three times now, so I’ll have to do some counting.
Somewhat to my surprise, I actually kind of like doing lace patterns in chunky yarn. I still think I prefer working with lighter-weight yarns and smaller needles, but for now it’s alright. The Cascade Ecological Wool is also nice to work with, and it’s doubled in this pattern to get gauge, which makes for a nice, squishy fabric. Now I just have to find either some ribbon to tie the top or a nice button.
