Minus Three and Counting

My husband, Dan, is fairly reserved. In his 18+ years working in law enforcement, he has seen the worst in people on a near daily basis and has to deal with the aftermath of a family's worst possible nightmares. As a result, Dan tends to keep his opinions to himself and strongly dislikes turmoil in his home life. In our nearly sixteen years together, he has come to view my fiber obsession as amusing at its best and annoying at its worse. He knows that I have definite stash issues and rarely comments when new yarns, fleeces, books, equipment or software programs make their way into the house. He did raise his eyebrows when I purchased a 48 x 12 foot construction trailer and installed it in the back yard as a studio for my knitting mania. But aside from a gift card to my LYS on my birthday or Christmas, he doesn't contribute to my addiction. And to put it bluntly, he thinks all the sheep plushies I have been given or collected over the past 15 years are just plain silly. So imagine my surprise when I came home Monday night and I discovered this sitting on the television set in the bedroom.

Just when I think I've got him totally figured out, he up and changes the rules of the game. And the sheep is seriously cute.

I am in the process of getting ready to head to Washington State. Kenny and I will leave on June 30th. We will be driving my car and pulling a small U-Haul trailer. Going along with us for the ride are our four Schipperkes and Kenny's Ring necked Parakeet.

Since I found the missing skein of Sublime, I decided a good project to take up with me is the vest I have been working on. I now have enough yarn to complete the bands for the arms and neck. This is the front of the vest in its pre-blocked state.

And this is the back. I hope to have them blocked tonight so I can post the "before" and "after" pictures for a comparison. It never ceases to amaze me the difference blocking makes.

My final play toy is the new software for my sewing and embroidery machine. I like to embroider designs onto knits, particularly children's clothing. I haven't installed it yet but if the reality is only fifty percent of the hype it should make digitizing patterns much easier.

One Step Closer

I am always amazed at how fast tomatoes and corn grow once they are planted, fertilized and watered. The tomato plants already have fruit growing. We should have fresh tomatoes within the next 30 days. The potato plants have spouted and and are about 8 inches tall. The corn plants are 15 inches tall and we have already picked the first ripe strawberries. The only thing that has not fared well are the zucchini plants. They seem to have some sort of blight that has whithered the leaves. If they don't perk up by next Saturday, I'll probably replace them.

On the way home from my Saturday knitting group I stopped at Jo-Ann's and picked up the twill tape I needed for the sleeves on the blue dress. The twill tape is basted into the armhole to prevent the knit from stretching out of shape from the weight of the sleeve. Once the twill tape was in place, I set in the sleeves and sewed them into place.

Although most of the dress is now complete, I still need to finish the sleeve cuffs and hems. I like to finish both the cuffs and the hem with an ultra suede trim so I will be cutting out the pieces later this week. Hopefully, I will be able to complete the dress by next week. I'd like to wear it for Mother's Day.

Back to the Blue Dress

For the past two days I have not been able to upload images on Blogspot. Apparently, the site encountered a glitch when they updated their system which affected their ability to upload or view images on a few blogs.

Since I wasn't able to post, I decided to work on the blue dress. First, I cut out neck pieces from ultra suede. Next, I sewed the zipper into the opening which I had previously cut out. Once the zipper was solidly in place, I positioned the ultra suede pieces into the neckline and sewed them into place. I then completed the neckline with top stitching.

While I was working, my 11 year old son, Kenny, joined me just to watch. He brought Ricco along. Ricco is an India Ringnecked Parakeet, named after one of the penguin characters in the children's film "Madagascar". Ricco can say his name and does some tricks, such as putting a gold ring into a bowl. As you can see from the picture I took, Ricco absolutely adores his boy.

I wanted to try to set the sleeves in place tonight but discovered that I was out of twill tape. I won' t be able to get to a sewing notions store until Saturday so the project will be on hold until then. I guess I'll work on the Sublime vest instead.

Family Court -- You've gotta love it!

I have learned to expect the unexpected when it come to practicing Family Law. Today was no exception.

As I waited my turn to go through the metal detector on my way into the Fresno County Courthouse this afternoon, three deputies stepped forward and moved toward a tall, bald man standing near the front of the line. When he realized the deputies were heading for him, the man suddenly tried to jump over the metal detector and run. The deputies didn't take kindly to his attempted imitation of an Olympic hurdler and started after him. But before he was able to make his escape, Baldy was tackled. Immediately the fight was on! You could almost see the fur flying! No wait ---- it wasn't fur, it was hair flying --- in fact, huge clumps of hair were landing every which way as the would be escape artist fought the deputies and screamed at the top of his lungs for "Sweet Jesus" to come and save him. Apparently, "Sweet Jesus" decided not to intervene. The man was finally handcuffed and led away, leaving many puzzled bystanders, (me included) staring down at numerous piles of human hair scattered all over the lobby of the courthouse.

The mystery was solved when I got to the Family Law Department. It turns out that our bald bad guy had apparently decided to visit his children at their school earlier that morning. Normally this would have been fine except for the fact that a pesky little restraining order had been issued barring him from being within 100 yards of the children or their school unless the visit was supervised. The school officials were not amused by his presence and called the cops, who arrived just in time to see Baldy driving out of the parking lot. He ignored the red lights and siren and spent the next hour in a high speed pursuit all over Fresno. Somewhere along the way, he managed to shake his pursuers.

But does our bad guy find a place to lie low for a few days? On no....you see, there was a settlement conference set for 1:30 p.m. in the family court. No way would he allow his soon to be ex-wife gain a possible advantage so he decided he had to attend that conference.

But how to disguise himself? Hey, what if he was bald! That should work, right? Apparently our hapless felon thought so because he bought a razor at a nearby convenience store and shaved his head, stuffing the leftover locks into his pants pockets. Needless to say, his disguise didn't work and all the hair fell of his pockets and scattered onto the lobby floor in the ensuing melee.

People never cease to amaze me!

On a positive note, I was able to do a little sewing on Easter Sunday, I sewed bust darts into the dress. I also was able to cut out a collar from ultra suede, sew it into place and add top stitching. I took this picture and uploaded it. For some reason, the dress looks more green than blue in this picture. But since I'm at work, and I don't what to drive home and take another picture, here it is. Hopefully, I'll set in the sleeves later this week.

More on the Blue Dress

It has been a busy two days. Spring has definitely arrived in Central California and we are experiencing unseasonably warm weather. Today it was 86 degrees Fahrenheit. On the plus side, my perennials are gorgeous this year. My irises, roses, pansies, and allium are all in full bloom.

I decided I had better plant the garden if I wanted fresh vegetables this summer. So I rototilled the soil, raked and leveled the loose soil, went to the garden store and bought flats of veggies, returned home and planted them, put in drip lines, fertilized and watered. Hopefully, we will have tomatoes, corn, potatoes, squash, beans, peppers, radishes, cucumbers, strawberries and lettuce in a couple of months.

In between working on the garden, I worked on the dress. I basted the dress together and sewed up the front and side seams. Since I want a zipper in the front, I measured the zipper and marked its in the dress front.

The pattern calls for a pleated sleeve. Now that the shoulder and side seams had been stitched up, I measured the arm hole, calculated the width of the pleats, and pinned them into place. If all goes well, I will be able to baste them into place tomorrow.

A Blue Dress

We are back in California. I have been working in the Sublime vest but decided to work on another project I started last December. My favorite hide-away in California is my fiber arts shed. Actually, it is one of those trailers that you see at construction sites. Five years ago, I drove by an auction and saw the trailer had been marked as an auction item. I bid $2500 on it and was surprised when I was the high bidder. The former owner agreed to deliver it to my property. Once it arrived, I moved all of my fiber arts and crafts into it (much to the delight of my husband and boys -- suddenly we had closet space and a kitchen table again!)

The trailer is 700 square feet divided into three rooms, all paneled and carpeted. It has both heat and air conditioning. I have outfitted it with my sewing machines, knitting machines, steam iron and ironing board, looms, blocking boards, craft books, entertainment center, and even an easy chair.

The trailer allows me a place to work undisturbed and not worry about putting the project away so my family can use the kitchen table for such mundane pursuits as eating. It allows me a place where I can work on a variety of projects and not feel rushed.
Such was the case now. In December, I had knitted fabric for a dress pattern that I particularly like and have previously made before. The dress, once it is made up, looks good in court and can be worn with a variety of the blazers I own. The dress pattern is an adaptation of a dress designed by Manon Salois. I have modified the pattern by adding a gathered waist and longer sleeves. I have also modified the hem to allow a slit up the back. I knitted the material on a knitting machine from a Superwash Merino Wool from Silk City.

The pattern for the knit is a stockinette stitch but is knitted alternating the stitches between two cones of yarn --- knit one stitch from one cone, then next from the next cone, then another stitch from the original cone, and so on. This gives the end product a little more weight without sacrificing drape or the look of the finished product.

I backed the fabric with an iron on interfacing then pinned on the pattern. I marked the pattern by basting the pattern outline with contrasting yarn. Once completed, I cut out the outline of the pattern and serged the edges. I did the same for the other pieces of the pattern, including the sleeves, the back and the other front.

The pattern calls for a zipper front and suede panels. I have found a near perfect match in suede. If all goes well, I will start to assemble the dress this weekend.

The Homestretch

It was with a sense of relief that I finished beading the last butterfly. It had taken me roughly eight and one-half months to complete them all. The beads added a new dimension to the knit fabric. The facets of the bugle beads caught the light and sparkled each time the jacket moved. The sequins reflected light and added more sparkle. I was very pleased with the overall effect, but, as I stated before, the sheer number of beads added a surprising amount of extra weight to the jacket. Because the back of the jacket had the most butterflies (and therefore most of the weight), I had to find an additional way to prevent the back from stretching. I solved the problem via the lining.
Vogue pattern 2218 calls for a lining. I chose to use blue silk and a piece of the same color turquoise ultra suede. After I cut all of the pattern pieces out for the lining I set the back piece to one side. I then drew a shallow arc midway up onto the pattern with a french curve, used the altered pattern piece to cut an additional upper back piece from the ultra suede. and joined the lower blue silk back piece to the upper ultra suede piece. For flash of color, I used a brightly colored fabric the delineate the border between the silk and ultra suede via a seaming technique known as the"Hong Kong Finish".

At about this same time, I purchased a Husqvarna Designer SE sewing matching with embroidery unit. My nine year old son, Kenny, insisted that I embroidery some butterflies onto the lining.

Off we went for "an adventure". Kenny had a wonderful time at our local sewing and notions store. He carefully studied the displays of the various embroidery companies, finally settling on three disks that had butterflies which he deemed were "the perfect ones". Once back home, Kenny and I spend the afternoon templating the patterns and mapping out the colors were wanted to use in each butterfly. We then cut out the templates and pinned then onto the lining. This allowed me to check both the placement and the orientation of each butterfly. We used a computer software program to modify the colors of the butterflies so that they blended together.

Embroidering the ultra suede yoke was a challenge. Embroidery machines tends to fill in colors with densely placed stitches. On fabric, this is not much of a problem. But on ultra suede, densely places stitches can literally "punch" out the design and leave a butterfly shaped hole where the design should be. I solved this problem by embroidering the design onto water soluble stabilizer, dissolving the stabilizer, the using the sewing machine to applique the design into the desired position. Once all the butterflies were embroidered in place, I used a built in "fancy stitch" to create free form trails of a butterfly's flight path. I then added a handmade label and basted the lining into place. The jacket was nearly done.

Ultimately, I embroidered seven butterflies onto the lining in colors which matched the colors found in the fabric I used for the Hong Kong Finish. I was in the homestretch. All that was left was the addition of my buttons and hemming the sleeves and lower edge of the jacket.

The First Cut is the Deepest

Contrary to what I believed, the Earth did not open up at my feet and swallow me, nor did the yarn immediately run and destroy weeks of knitting when I made the first cut. It turns out that the process of blocking the knit had stabilized fabric and it behaved same as any yardage I had purchased from the fabric center.

Because I intended to add beads to the knit after it was constructed, I had to add extra stabilizer to help hold the weight of the beads. It is quite surprising how heavy beads become when sewn on and the weight can distort the fabric. I solved this dilemma by fusing black iron-on stabilizer to the back of the knit pieces. Once it was fused, I used black thread and "stitched in the ditch" at two inch intervals with the grain of the knit. I then serged around the outline of each piece, carefully following contrast thread. The serger cut away the excess fabric as I serged and tied the stabilizer to the knit piece. That completed, I sewed the individual pieces together and pressed the seams flat.

In the photo of the right sleeve above, you can see the black stabilizer, the "stitches in the ditch", the serged edges, and the pressed seams.
At this point, I was ready to begin construction of the ultra suede bands. I chose to combine both the black and the turquoise ultra suede into the same band. Ultra suede is wonderful to work with because it is fairly forgiving. Unlike true leather, if you make a mistake with the sewing machine, you can simply pull out the stitching, brush it up and start over. With leather, the holes the sewing needle made will be present permanently. The best advise when working with leather is to get it right the first time.

Ultra suede has a nap so it was important to determine the direction of the nap and cut all of the pieces in the same direction relative to the nap.

The sewing pattern called for both neck and front bands. The bands had a front side and back side so the button holes needed to be set in place before the band was completed. It is also important to plan exactly where the buttons are to be placed on the band before making any cuts. Finally, when placing a buttonhole, remember that a button will sit at the top of the buttonhole when it is buttoned. The wrong placement of the button and band can skew the entire neckline.

I next pinned the bands onto the knit part of the jacket so that I could check how it lined up on the jacket. I also wanted to see how the buttons looked now that I could see the actual jacket. I liked the effect of the turquoise center band but immediately saw that my original choice of buttons (small, shiny and solid black) was not the effect that I wanted. I decided to shop for different buttons before I completed the band. Eventually, I found a set of blue and black oval buttons with a beige stripe. They were exactly the look I wanted so I bought them and was back in business.

At this stage I also tried on the jacket and marked the length of the sleeves and the length of the jacket. You can see the pins in the sleeves and on the bands marking the proper lengths.

The Blue Butterfly Jacket

Well, here goes nothing. This is my first try at "blogging" and I am still trying to figure out all the steps in creating a blog. Please bear with me as I try to make this work.

By way of introduction, I have been knitting and sewing since the mid-1960's but I never thought of combining these passions until I met Manon Salois. Manon is a wonderful fiber artist who authored "The Haute Couture of Cut and Sew", a book that focuses on Cut and Sew knits. When she offered classes teaching her techniques, I was able to attend four week-long sessions over the course of four years. I love to knit and I love to sew. Most of all, I love creating "one-of- a-kind" knits that combine all manner of fiber arts.

The Blue Butterfly Jacket was designed several years ago and combines knitting, sewing, beading, and embroidery. This jacket was my epiphany because as I constructed it, I realized the versatility of knit fabric and its endless possibilities.

The pattern was Vogue's Oscar de la Renta #2188. My favorite color combinations are blue and black. The jacket I envisioned was versatile and warm. The fabric needed to be fairly sturdy when knit because I wanted to add sequins and seed beads to the design.

Ultimately, after sampling numerous fabrics and color combinations, I chose turquoise and black ultra suede for the bands, a blue satin for the lining, and a bright multicolored cotton fabric contrast. The knit fabric is a turquoise chenille yarn and black superwash wool. The final addition was to be black bugle beads, black seed beads and black sequins. My test swatch produced a fabric that was dense, but still maintained the integrity of the butterfly design.

Because the jacket is "cut and sew" no real shaping is involved in the knit. Generally, the knit fabric simply has to be knit at a gauge that is pleasing, has good drape, and is wider and longer than the pattern piece. All pieces need to be properly blocked prior to cutting out the pattern pieces.

The first step was to cut out the pattern pieces and pin them in place. Care must be taken to line up the arrows on the patterns with a line of stitches, otherwise, the knit fabric will pull and have an "off" look. Once the pattern was pinned into place, I used a length of white contrast yarn and outlined the pattern with a long basting stitch. When I removed the pattern, the outline in contrast yarn was plainly visible. I then threaded my sewing machine with a contrasting color of thread and a stitched along inside of the yarn guide using a long basting stitch. That done, I removed the contrast yarn.

Now came the moment of truth. It was time to take a pair of scissors and cut out the outline of the piece leaving a one-half inch selvage. As a knitter who is used to shaping garments as I knit, this project was somewhat unnerving to me for two reasons --- (1) I just knew that the second I cut the knit it would immediately turn into a twisted mass of meaningless threads, and (2) I knew I was going to has scraps left over after the piece was cut which meant I was going to waste yarn. As true yarn addict, wasting yarn was a bad thing. So it was with great trepidation that I picked up the pair of scissors and poised them on the knit.