Tweedy Textures

How is March almost over?!  It may officially be Spring, but one day I get to pull out my Summer wardrobe and enjoy an insanely warm day, and then there are gray, chilly days when I still feel like hibernating in a sweater.

And that is my excuse for still being allowed to post sweater projects to the blog that are probably going to be put away for the season very soon.  Or perhaps the weather will turn rainy and damp again (one can only hope for a little more precipitation or California is going to be in real trouble) and I will once again be living in tweedy knits and turtlenecks.  But it was in the mid-eighties a couple of days ago, so most likely the heavier knits will be tucked away.

But for now I am enjoying my hand knits.  I go through phases where I don't wear them for some time, and the next thing I know, I want to live in them.

Oh, and you may have noticed, those fabulous velvet platforms from the late 90s that I was wearing have suddenly disappeared.  Turns out, shoe glue gives out at the most inconvenient of times.  In this case, right in the middle of a photoshoot, I stepped right out off of the entire bottom of the shoe.  And a few steps later, the other one joined its mate.

They are still in a time-out while I figure out if I am going to fix them myself or take them to a proper shoe repair.  My Royal Vintage (now American Duchess) shoes filled in for the day, but I was rather irked at my fickle shoes.  Sure, I have had a heel cap pop off in a sidewalk crack or even in a lawn, but this was a little bit extreme, and certainly rendered the shoes unwearable for the time being!

In the last couple of years, short skirts paired with colorful tights have been bringing me joy.  I am even thinking about making myself another short skirt with more of a flared silhouette, but it may have to wait until the end of the year as the time for wearing tights in Northern California is nearing an end.

While writing this post, I am reminded that I haven't been doing any knitting lately, and I probably need to rectify that situation.

Of course, I have a few projects floating about that need to be finished, but I am also feeling the urge to jump into a fresh new project with some soft squishy yarn.

Or perhaps I should stick with my hand quilting for the moment.  I will have to see how I feel with my spare time this weekend!

There is a rumor that we may have a bit of precipitation this Sunday, so the knitting may win out.  What is it about a wet day that makes me crave sitting on the couch, drinking tea, and knitting the entire day away?!

Sweater:  Made by me, "Cherie"  by Kim Hargreaves
Skirt:  Made by me, Vogue 1247
Shoes:  Chinese Laundry / Royal Vintage "Greta"
Earrings:  Vintage

Mini Me

Now that February weather has turned frigid, I am going through more weather appropriate photos in the backlog of projects to be posted to the blog.  In the last couple of years I have found myself drawn to easy to wear long sleeved sweaters that fall at mid-hip.  The only issue is, whatever shall I wear with these sweaters?  Actually, this is a common problem for me . . . I spend many hours making a sweater that I love, only to discover that I don't have a matching skirt to wear with it.  Whoops!

So when I started working on this sweater, I decided that I would also make myself a new skirt, thus eliminating the problem of finding a matching one.  

My pattern of choice was Vogue 1247, made with fabric that I had initially purchased to make drapes.  I love the fabric, but since completing my quilt, I felt like there were too many patterns in the room to add yet another busy print, so the drapes were put on hold, and the fabric put to the side.

My challenge for this project was to use what I had on hand - no purchasing new items for this skirt allowed!  For an underlining, I rummaged in the bin that holds solid colored cottons and found this maroon sateen. 

I also had a suitable invisible zipper on hand, and plenty of seam binding to finish all of the raw edges.

I have since found a few other separates that work quite nicely with the tweedy top, but I am also excited to have an excuse to pull out some of my colorful tights to wear with these new short skirts that have been added to my closet in the last couple of years!

Sweater Weather

Every time I hear the phrase "sweater weather" I immediately think of this Saturday Night Live sketch.  It's fabulous, and it makes me laugh out loud!

And even though sweater weather is quickly coming to an end in this neck of the woods (or at least sweaters of the wool/warm variety)  I have a few knit projects that I want to share before it gets really warm!

This project came about because I stumbled across this KnitPicks yarn.  It's fuzzy, it's one of my favorite colors, and I just had to have a sweater made out of it!

It was more difficult to find a basic turtleneck design than expected, but I eventually found the "Vanilla Bean Turtleneck."  It has raglan sleeves, an oversized neckline, and a little bit of shaping through the torso; basically, your standard turtleneck sweater.  Which is what I was looking for!

Then I decided that the final remaining scraps of my black and white floral brocade needed to be made into a skirt to pair with my new sweater.  There wasn't very much of it left, but I was able to cut out Vogue 1247.  I have been meaning to try out that famous pattern for years, and it was finally time.

The silhouette is a departure for me (this is the length of the given pattern pieces, and it's short!).  Then again, if the skirt was any longer, I wouldn't have had enough fabric, so there you go.

And it's fun to change things up every once in a while.  

I have also rediscovered my collection of tights, which has been neglected for a few years.

I may not have leftovers of my black and white brocade, but I think I have enough leftover yarn (not sure why the sweater pattern called for so much) to make myself another cropped sweater from this lovely pink stuff.  

And I may have already cast on that project . . .

Sweater:  Made by me, "Vanilla Bean Turtleneck"
Skirt:  Made by me, Vogue 1247

Short Stuff

And now for something completely different.  It's contemporary (well, sort of), and it's short.  These descriptors are not usually ones I use in reference to my wardrobe.

But actually, the second of those things is the reason I was able to get a fourth item out of this brocade fabric.  I have a pencil skirt, a full skirt, and a cropped jacket, and now this skirt.

Here is another example of me using a much longer zipper than is necessary.  But it's easy to shorten, and it means I always have the length if it's needed.  And it was the only black invisible zipper on hand, so that's what I used.  Don't use your good sewing shears for this purpose, use those craft scissors instead to cut through the plastic coils.

If you go this route, I highly recommend covering the cut end since cut zipper coils can be sharp.  It also looks a whole lot nicer than a ragged cut end.

This brocade fabric likes to fray, so binding the seams was a no brainer.

This is the length of the skirt per the pattern, if you can believe it.  It's SHORT!  Actually, it would be even shorter if I took up the recommended 2" hem.  I would have lengthened the pieces, however, I didn't have the fabric.  In order to get as much coverage as possible, I drafted a facing and used a 3/8" seamline.  Taking turn of cloth into account, that gave me an extra 1.5" in length.

I decided to forego the lining since I did not believe that this fabric would cling to a pair of tights.  Also, a bemgerg rayon would drape completely differently than the skirt, and I decided it wasn't worth it in the end.

And, of course, I added a ribbon hanger at each side seam along the waistband.

I am planning on pairing this with an oversized sweater that I recently knit.

It was a very quick project using what I had on hand, which always feels good.  And I finally made the incredibly popular Vogue 1247!  It's a great skirt, although it's really, really short (by my standards, at least).  I could see adding another version to my wardrobe, although next time I hope that I have a little bit more fabric to pull that hemline down another inch or so!