Get dressed in the Dark Sweater

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My Get Dressed in the Dark Sweater 

I found this pattern on Ravelry. It's from Denise Chevalier Designs.  I made a few changes when I made mine.The sleeves are worked from the top down rather than bottom up from the pattern directions. My arms are short and this way I could alter the sleeves. At least 4 inches were removed! I also added a mock rib hem to the bottom and cuffs.

I have been looking for patterns to adapt to my knitting machine, a Brother KX-350 Home Knitter. This one was all knitting machine made. The yarn is Paton's Classic Wool on clearance for 3 dollars  a ball. Not bad for 18 dollars.

Three Little Duffers

 Three Little Duffers

I've been wanting to try the Duffer Slipper pattern from Ravelry. When I first read the directions, I could not figure out how they were made. I run into this with a lot of patterns. They don't always make immediate sense from the directions. Once on the needles though, it comes together. I made these pretty quick but the last pair I messed up somewhere and one slipper was larger than the other. I think that I made the increase row every row instead of every other row. I bought more Bernat Felting and had to make another. Thank goodness this one was a match. 

For mine, I used stashed Paton's Classic Wool and the kids I bought Bernat Felting, a roving type yarn. They came out "hairy" from the felting process. A quick "haircut" with scissors tidied them up. I think I'll stick with worsted wool for felting.

Now I want to make the the two color ones!

Using a Cut Up Tshirt with Pamelas Patterns Perfect Tank Top Pattern

Using a Cut Up Tshirt with Pamelas Patterns Perfect Tank Top Pattern

I bought some 3X size plain white men's tshirts and cut them up as in my previous post. I can use XL shirts for my kids patterns but wanted to see if I could get enough fabric in larger size shirts to make something for myself. Here I used the Pamelas Patterns Perfect Tank Top pattern, #105. I bought at the American Sewing Expo in Novi, Michigan in September.

Here's the shirt from the previous post. I'm not using the logo, the pattern pieces are arranged around it.

Here's the 3X plain shirt. I have more fabric with the larger size and enough room for a strap.

Even the sleeves can be used for the smaller pattern pieces.

The plain shirts give me more room for laying out pattern pieces.I've been dyeing plain shirts and using shibori techniques. I've used purchased shirts and shirts I've made. The fun for me is deciding how I want to fold the shirt and picking the color. I've been brave and even tried using Procion Mx dyes.
In my next post, I put up a gallery of the shirts I've dyed so far.

How to Get More Fabric out of a T-shirt

How I Get More Fabric Out of a T-shirt.

I've been using tshirts for sewing for a couple of years now. I made tops from my too small tshirts for my girls. They were from Hawaii and so cute I hated to throw them away. I cut the front from the back and cut out the patterns from those pieces. My patterns were full size pieces and not halves.

We spend summer weekends in northern lower Michigan.  A local screenprinting shop sells their extras and seconds for 94 cents! These are good quality XL tshirts that often have quite a bit of blank fabric. I've used them to make the girls clothes, drawstring bags and even tops for me. I wanted more fabric and flexibility to cut out patterns from them. I made tiedyed items from them and the thread used to sew tshirts doesn't dye with Procion dyes.

It occurred to me that if I cut up the shirt differently I would get more room to layout patterns. Often there are parts on a shirt that you may want to avoid as well.

Here's what I do:

First, cut off the ribbed neckband.

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Open out the neck and cut open the shoulder seam.

I cut off the the sleeve, leaving the seam with the sleeve.

This is it cut up, I open out the shirt and match the armholes and the front and back are folded in half.

I've now laid out my child size pattern pieces, front, back, sleeve and neckbinding. Since most tshirts don't have side seams I can put short sleeves here or,

use the cut open sleeves for that.

I don't use hems on shirts that I plan to dye. The thread used isn't cotton and won't dye with procion type dyes. I do use hems on shirts that I'm not dyeing.I hope that this tutorial is clear.

My first post!

I've been reading other blogs for years and they've been a constant source of inspiration and motivation for me. I've tried projects and techniques that I didn't think I could do. I hope my projects will inspire others too.

                                                                        Burda 9577

I've made this once before and the girls looked really cute. This time I used plain white men's XL t-shirts for the fabric and sewed them with cotton thread. I then pleated the bottom part and tied tightly with string.

I used Dylon permanent fabric dye (the denim blue color) to dye the tops. I was really pleased with the final result and the girls were too!

                       

I use men's t-shirts a lot for sewing. Its hard to find knits in stores. I do use mail order but sometimes I want to make something without having to mail order it.These shirts are seconds from a screenprinting shop that sells them for 94 cents. I get lucky sometimes and find plain ones. I look for shirts with a minimum of printing to get the most fabric. These are heavy weight jersey knit and feel really soft. I've made tops for me but it usually takes 2 or 3 shirts to get enough fabric.