WIP Wednesday: Knits and Stitches

Thank you to everyone for the wonderful feedback on the RainbowRainbow shawlette! It's been so encouraging to know that it's been well received - I may even design more patterns! 

Well, it's cold season again, and I don't just mean the cooler temperatures! Unfortunately I've been battling a rather horrible cold - boo! However, all that resting time has meant that I've got some exciting new WIPs! Although I originally said I wanted to finish all my other works in progress first, there have been too much inspiration on Instagram and on blogs not to cast on a few new things.

One such project (inspired by the jumper knit by @onecraftymumma ) is this lovely all-in-one preemie jumper! I have been meaning to knit some preemie things for the Nottingham QMC for a while, and this pattern seemed perfect!

Also on the needles - some preemie hats!

Recently I've also diverged from my usual yarny path and taken up some hand-piecing... I've had a few patchwork projects on the go for several years now, and felt it was time for me to dig them out of hibernation! This bear paw block is the latest one to be worked on - I have been saving up pretty batik fabrics, but now it's time for some sewing!

Now, I know I probably have enough WIPs, as those in this post are not the only ones I have on the go. But I couldn't resist starting another...

This is the first block from a sampler that my mom designed, and my friend and I have both decided to make our own and we are calling them our friendship quilts!

So that's all that I'm working on at the moment! What's on your needles?

Bekah Learns to Sew (Part 2)

And so the story continues... a girl with a dream of patchwork jeans, attempting to face the big scary sewing machine... part one to this story was pretty dramatic - brace yourselves for part two!

Aren't those colours pretty? Yesterday afternoon was declared sewing time - tunes were on, had some trusty snacks on hand (because Jelly Beans make everything better!)

Everything was pinned into place, and off I went! :-D Sewing the strips onto the foundation fabric proved to not be that difficult (remembering to iron in between seams)... especially since everything was pinned within an inch of it's life - the pile of pins after half a seam to prove it...

After sewing, pressing, and squaring up, I ended up with two rather lovely cuffs for my jeans, and ended the day very happy with what I had managed to accomplish :-)

The drama all began this morning... I woke up feeling very positive, thinking I had but 4 little seams to go, and then I would be done! Little did I know...

I joined each cuff in the round, and then began to pin it to the jean leg... but alas, disaster! It was too small! I knew it would be a tight fit (the rotary cutter, ruler and I were not very good friends - I had to battle them all the way through!), but not as much as this... I just knew I would end up with puckers and so many issues, that I decided that there was only one solution - add more fabric! Out came the seam ripper, and they once again reverted to how they were in the above photo... I figured out what size piece I needed (including seam allowances), and cut it out using a template I made. I was so stressed out with the rotary cutter and ruler by this point that doing it the old fashioned way seemed to be my only hope...

The additions...

I only realised after I joined them that lime green may not be the most co-ordinating of fabrics, but left them, thinking they were a quirky reminder of all the work put into these cuffs!

It was only now that I could truly enjoy the feeling of having 4 seams to go! I joined them in the round, pressed them into place, and sewed them to the jeans... 3 years after first starting to piece the cuffs, I am quite pleased with them!

And because I like to make more work for myself, I also did a bit of hand-stitching around the top of the cuffs and the pockets...

As much as this project has been stressful, and taken a few years to truly complete, I am quite pleased with the result, and have learnt a few things about myself too:

- Whereas hand-piecing makes me feel like I am in a Jane Austen novel, I feel more like something from a Stephen King novel when machine sewing!
- Never have I ever talked to myself (or my project) more than when working on this - "Please work, please work, please work!"
- I think I better leave sewing to my mom... yarn and I have a better relationship than I do with fabric!

Hope you've enjoyed reading about my sewing adventures!

Bekah Learns to Sew (Part 1)

I warn you, this is an epic tale of fabric... and not a lot of sewing... read on at your will.

As many of you know, my Mom is awesome at patchwork, meaning that I have always grown up around fabric and sewing. And yet, try as I might, I've never been able to work a sewing machine without supervision. I find it incredibly intimidating!
I can manage handwork - templates and hand-piecing? Yep, I can do that. Curved piecing? Yep, I managed to figure that one out too. Paper piecing hexagons? Yep, done that too.

Working a sewing machine? Still a mystery to me.

So a few weeks ago, I decided to have a go. "How hard can it be?", I asked myself. After all, I am my mother's daughter, and so must have inherited the natural ability to do it, right?

Umm... not so much.

I'd already had some strips of batik scraps sewn together to make some cuffs for a pair of jeans that were too short, so I decided to carry on with that. I'd decided to make them a bit like crazy-patch, with a foundation underneath, as this would give them the weight they needed. I figured I already had the pieces for the top, I just needed to cut some fabric for the foundation.
I cut out a couple of pieces, the way I thought I should (I had completely forgotten about the internet - I perhaps should have looked it up first...oops!) and ended up with what I thought was the right size and shape - yay!

Then it dawned on me - I'd forgotten to allow enough room for seam allowances! Nooo!!!

Out came the cutting mat and the ruler again, and this time, making sure I made it the right size, I cut out some more fabric. I thought it was perfect this time - I then layed it out on the floor, and... well... I saw that I had ended up with a rectange of fabric with an elbow.
(I have no pictures... I was too busy weilding my rotary cutter, thinking "how can I fix this?")

I must have stared at it for about 10 minutes, and could come up with nothing. Next option? Phone my mother. "Sewing is really hard!", I complained. And of course, in her motherly way, she gave me some sage advice about measuring twice, cutting once, and to remember to line my ruler up. I'm sure it was more technical than this, but I'm not that technically minded, and so can't remember.

So after battling with my little cutting mat and my ruler, I tried again. This time, I ended up with something the right size and less elbow-y.
By this time it was lunchtime, so, throughly exhausted, I left it at this:

Two foundations with two rows of batik scraps each, and then a band of white that will only be visible from the inside of the jeans...
I didn't dare get out the sewing machine. I'll save that adventure for another day!