Sewing in a zip can be a bit of a pain. I tend to avoid it when I can, because of the hassle of remembering to buy the right length. And often they don’t sell the colour I want.
But sometimes there isn’t a way round it. For those times, this post on three easy ways to sew a zip is useful.
And while we are on the subject of zips, here is a post about invisible zips.
Today, I’ve got a collection of posts about dressmaking with a commercial pattern to share:
Flax is a beautiful delicate flower. And it produces a fibre that has been in use for many centuries. I wonder when people started to turn against it just because it creases easily? Must look into that.
Anyway, a great deal of work goes into producing linen, as this flax timeline demonstrates. Those of us who are not in Sweden will have to adjust the plan, obviously, but quite a lot of it can be done outside, when the weather is nice. I don’t think I will be giving it a try yet.
This video from the Victoria and Albert museum is also interesting.
If you are knitting a hat starting from the top of the crown, or a sock starting from the toe, this might help.
The stitches for both sides are cast on at the same time, so there is no seam to do later.
If you are an Elizabeth Zimmerman fan, you might want to try knitting a top down jumper with this cast on at the shoulders.
Here is the link for Judy’s magic cast on.
Collars are important. Not only are they one of the main features in garment design, setting the feel of the garment, but also people tend to focus on them, as they are so near your face.
You cannot afford to mess up your collar.
So this list of 10 top tips for sewing collars is a good thing to read.
Although it isn’t as comprehensive as the diagram on the left. That is a whole different story.
Have you tried dissappearing nine patch quilt blocks? The basic idea is you make a nine patch block by sewing squares of fabric into three rows of three squares each, so there are nine squares in your square block (hence the name).
Then, instead of sewing the block to other blocks, borders, etc, you cut it up, move the pieces around, and sew them back together in a different order. This is an easy way to produce a much more complicated pattern.
The picture in this post shows the idea. It is the back of my not quite quilted yet dragon quilt. I cut out fairly large squares of fabric, and after sewing groups of noine together, I cut the block in half in both directions. You can see from the picture that it produced different squares and rectangles in a pattern that would be a bit fiddly to sew.
So that is the easy version. This post shows the possibilities of cutting your nine patch diagonally.
I’m not sure I am brave enough to do that. All those bias cuts would stretch quite easily. I could get into a right mess with that…
Here are some more pictures from my visit to the National Centre for Craft and Design in Sleaford, Lincolnshire. This time it is Eszter Bornemisza’s City Skins.
From a distance, it looks a bit like a kimono. It is made from newspaper, synthetic organza, silk floss, and plexiglass tubes.
Here is another group project from the East Yorkshire Embroidery Society’s exhibition Hopes and Dreams in Stitch, which is at Beverley Minster from 10am to 4pm every day until 10th May.
Participants were given a square of fabric, and asked to create a small panel in any technique. The results were then strung together into this rainbow panel. Get there quickly, it closes tomorrow:
Recently I’ve been sorting through some experiments from my City and Guilds course. We had to find pictures, use them to inspire our knitting, and produce a sample to go in our A4 files. I knitted a mangrove swamp. Unfortunately, it is now too squashed to take a decent photo. Perhaps one day I will restore it.
Then I also remembered the way my Mum used to do Jacobean embroidery. She would make a basic tree outline from chain or stem stitch in a variety of colours. Then the leaves and flowers would then be added, using a range of shapes that were filled in with various crewel work stitches.
So I thought I would try to combine the two ideas and knit a plant with knitted stems and leaves, and then embroider flowers. I reckoned that starting at the top would allow for not knowing how the tension worked out for width and length. I started leaves etc in random places, and after knitting down for a while I decided that I had a basic design, so I started moving the stems toward the centre of the piece.
Once the knitting was done, I embroidered flowers in french knots, bullion knots, lazy daisy stitch, and straight stitches. Here is the result:
When I did some multicolour scrunch dyeing recently, I used the leftover dye to create plain scarves to use as a basis for something else.
The yellow and red scarves were surprisingly bright, considering the subtle results obtained when the colours were combined, so I decided to put them in the indigo vat. Before I did, I used the Japanese arashi shibori technique, which involves wrapping damp fabric round a pipe (or in my case an empty plastic bottle). The fabric is held in place with rubber bands, and then pushed together so that only part of the fabric is exposed to the dye. You can see the indigo vat in the background of the picture where the fabric has been scrunched up.
You can see the results below. I am much happier with these scarves now. The original colour was much too brash, but these are more interesting.
