Burda Style for Spring

Earlier this week when I popped into my local fabric shop to get a few more zippers for bags,  I was surprised to find a leaflet advertising new Burda Style envelope patterns for spring.  I hadn't ever seen one of these before, so I brought it home and decided to share it with all of you.  I think there are some really cute patterns in here!

And just in case any of you are interested in these, I'm captioning the pictures with the pattern numbers, reading from left to right, top to bottom.

7082

7111

7078, 7079, 7065, 7077, 7077, 7120, 7107, 7082, 7070, 7117, 7077, 7078

7071, 7080, 7189, 7062, 7083, 7069, 7081, 7067

7081, 7067, 7074, 7052, 7069, 7074, 7072, 7073, 7076

7066, 7065, 7063, 7070, 7064, 7073, 7075, 7189, 7080

7087, 7092, 7091, 7093, 7086, 7088, 7090, 7089, 7093, 7088, 7116, 7088

7056, 7047, 7053, 7052, 7050, 7051, 7049, 7054, 7054, 7052, 7050, 7052, 7056, 7048

7101, 7099, 7100, 7103, 7094, 7100, 7059, 7061, 7060, 7061, 7219, 7059

9467, 9467, 9460, 9470, 9462, 9464, 9465, 9458, 9466, 9496, 9461, 9462, 9460

7066, 7117, 7083, 7085, 7067, 7083, 7063, 7117, 7075, 7064, 7062, 7072, 7062

7110, 7113, 7110, 7112, 7115, 7115, 7111, 7111, 7114, 7113, 7113, 7109, 7109, 7109

7189, 7062, 7064, 7062, 7083

Spoiler alert:  I've already purchased five of these patterns!  And there's a good chance I'll be picking up at least a couple more.  I'll show you the ones I chose soon!

Goal Bustin'

I've been slowly working toward accomplishing one of this year's goals*:  finally making my Anouk dress.

The weekend before last, I taped my trimmed copies together and traced out all my pattern pieces.  I had thought I would start the dress last weekend, but as we now know, Bag Frenzy took hold and I made a little detour.

On Wednesday I had some free time, so I used it to cut out, mark and interface all my pieces.  And today I finally started sewing.

Somehow, I'm happy to be working on this in bits and pieces, rather than try to finish the whole thing in a day or two.  I'm starting to suspect that this would be my preferred way of working, but I'm hindered by not having a sewing room.  (I know, I keep harping on that!)  Because I have to haul everything from the guest room upstairs to the dining room downstairs every time I want to sew, I always feel like I need big chunks of time and maximum output.  But with this project I'm happily taking my time.  That could also have to do with the fact that it will be months before I can wear this, as I'm doing the sleeveless version, so I don't feel any great urgency.

One of the factors that put me off starting this dress over and over is all the small bits:  the pieced bodice front, the pintucks, the gathering.  You know - all the details that make this design what it is!  I always had another project on tap that would be quicker or easier.  Lately though, and thanks to quilting I think,  I'm finding these details a lot of fun to execute.  I had never done pintucks before, and I really enjoyed them - I was a little sad when I finished them all!  And it was really fun moving my pattern pieces around on my printed fabric to find just the spot for making the chevron.  I'm really happy with how that turned out.

I looked back at my account on Fabric.com where I bought all the materials for this dress.  The print is Anna Maria Horner's Mixed Signals Striking voile from her Innocent Crush line.  I ordered it on February 6 of last year.  I ordered the magenta chambray and the black voile I'm using for the upper bodice a week later.  My plan is to get this done before this UFO becomes one year old - very doable, even at a slow pace.

*To keep my goals in front of me, I transfered them from the original post to a page up top.

Divertissement

Over the weekend, I finally got around to doing something I've been wanting to do for a long time:  making zippered pouches.

I've been pinning various tutorials for different styles of bags for over a year, but I kept putting off actually making any.  They always seem to have so many steps, and I don't always have the mental energy to follow along.  Sadly, I wasn't able to figure it out on my own - and believe me, I spent a fair amount of time trying to do so!

Last Friday I finally got some time to sew, and decided I wanted to make something small rather than start a garment.  So I looked through my pins, and pulled up all the tutorials on zippered bags.  Bad idea - I was quickly overwhelmed!  Finally, I decided to just pick one website and make one bag to start with.  I picked Noodlehead. 

What a great choice!  This lady has a bunch of very easy-to-follow tutorials for designs I find useful.  She also has some lovely PDF patterns - I'm likely going to buy the Envelope Clutch pattern.

One of my goals in making these bags is to use up some of my scraps, so I started out with the Scrappy Makeup Pouch.  And scrappy is right - these bags can be pieced with very small bits of fabric.  Since I also have a lot of quilt batting leftovers, I used that instead of interfacing.  (Actually, this bag calls for batting.)  I used bits of fabric of random sizes to piece the front and back, but did cut them to the dimensions given in the tutorial.  Here's my first finished bag:

Perfect for holding my crochet hooks!

Chuffed by my success, I decided to make a second bag, so I got out my last bit of velveteen left over from the skirt, and some magenta corduroy.  I decided to get all fancy and add a D-ring and handle.  This one also used batting instead of interfacing.  Boy, did that take a herculean effort to sew through all those thick layers!

Same construction as the first bag, but not pieced.

On Saturday, I did indeed work on my quilt, but I couldn't leave well enough alone, and decided to try out the tutorial for the Open Wide Zipper Pouch.  Anna has made a really great chart showing three sizes for this bag, and even the sizes to cut the pieces for a constrast bottom!  I love this bag - it is perfect for knitting projects, as the top really does open wide!  For this one, I used fusible fleece to give the bag more structure.

I made the medium size, which uses a 12" zipper.

Sunday, I got up bright and early and headed off to JoAnn's to pick up some heavy interfacing.  When I got back, I tried out the Lil' Cutie tutorial.  This is such a practical little bag - just big enough for some cash and your keys, and a phone if it's not too big.  My phone is too big, so next time I make one of these I'll make it about an inch bigger each way.

This whistle keyring was the only one I had in the house!

I really had a blast making these bags, and I know I'll be making a lot more of them in the future.  I'm also very glad to have finally gotten over my apprehension about it.  Once I did it, it really made sense and now I feel kind of silly for being scared of these little projects!  It got me to thinking about how what is easy for one person can be confounding for another! 

Those of you who sew, have you ever made any of these?

Knitwear Extravaganza

Today I had a coffee date with Alicia, and before I left I managed to finish my Aura scarf.  Good thing, because when I stepped outside this morning it was only 20 degrees (F)!  A great excuse to pile on the handknits.

I started out with my Northern Lights dress.  I don't get many opportunities to wear this, so I was actually kind of glad it was a cold day.    All the while I was knitting my scarf, I kept thinking how good it would look with this dress, and I was right:

Then I reached for my orange thrummed earflap hat:

I made this about three years ago, and I always wear it when it gets very cold.  It really does do the trick!  I mostly wear it like this, to keep my ears nice and toasty:

The pattern is from Cocoknits:  the Fleeced Earflap Hat.  It was a blast to knit.  The fleece is merino sliver, broken down into bits and inserted between knit stitches.  After it's all knit, you "felt" the fleece with a hairbrush.  So fun - definitely a recommended pattern!

OK:  teal dress; check.  Neon green scarf:  check.  Orange hat:  check.  What else does this outfit need?  Hot pink puffer coat!

Yep.  I actually go around Chicago looking like this. 

Rowan

In the last week, I've added three issues to my collection of Rowan Knitting Magazine:

On top is issue 53 - for spring and summer.  This one is causing something of a kerfuffle on the Rowan Love ravelry group.  It contains a large amount of intarsia patterns with dropped shoulders, which is making folks kind of grumpy!  On my first pass I found exactly one pattern I might consider knitting.  Rather a disappointment.

I've been slowly adding to my collection over the last couple of years, in hopes of making it complete.  A couple weeks ago, I found two early issues at a relatively reasonable price, and went ahead and ordered them:

Rowan 4, from 1988

Rowan 8, from 1990

As you'd expect, there's a whole lot of oversized, drop-shoulder action going on in these two issues, as well as intarsia and stranded knitting which contains more than 2 colors per row.  Example:

Yikes!

Not super useful at the moment without a lot of alteration.  But a collection isn't really about being useful, is it?  I did fall in love with this ski sweater from issue 8 though:

I've been subscribing to Rowan since issue 21 (1997), and have managed to fill in over the years to the point where I'm only missing 6 issues:  the extremely elusive numbers 1 and 3 (when it pops up on Ebay, #1 sells for well over $100), along with numbers 5, 10, 12 and 14.

Today I decided to wear the first Rowan sweater I ever knit, from issue 21, the first magazine I received as a subscription.  I made this probably the following summer, so around 1998, and I still love it.  I remember finishing it up on our trip to Turkey, and walking to the little fabric shop with my mother-in-law to find the buttons for it.  Good times . . .

please excuse the mirror pic - it's all I have time for at the moment!

Yeeeeeeeears ago (1991) when I moved to St. Louis, there was a craft store called Leewards.  I'm pretty sure it was a chain, although I never saw one anywhere else.  It was similar to a Michael's or Hobby Lobby.  I would regularly find balls of 100% wool (even Shetland), usually German or Russian brands, for ONE dollar!  Every time I saw some in a color I liked, I would buy 15 or 20.  This sweater is made from one of those yarns.  It was a sad day for me when they closed their doors.

April, from Rowan 21

You can see from this and the first picture that this is a fairly boxy silhouette, as per the norm of the day.  I love the diamond stitch pattern, and my favorite part of this sweater is the notched collar.

So impeccable.  Any guesses as to the designer?  That's right:  Kim Hargreaves!  I'm starting to think I should make her her own tag, her name comes up so often here!

Are any of you Rowan collectors?  I'm curious if the back issues are easier to find in the UK than they are here.  It seems that the early issues that come up on Ebay are often in the UK, and it makes me wonder if they surface in thrift shops or garage sales.  Do they do garage sales* over there?  Please enlighten me!


*Garage sales seem to me to be a part of American culture, but I'm not really sure if this is true!  Over the summer, we took Niecey-poo to a garage sale, just as a point of interest about American culture.  She wasn't overly impressed!  They don't have garage sales in Turkey.  Because mostly they don't have garages, at least not where our family lives!

Velveteen/Rabbit

This morning I took some pictures of my little bunny friend.  He likes to tuck himself in between the gas meters and my garage wall.  This is the second winter he's been there, and I really like seeing him when I go out to my car in the morning.  (Yes, I'm pretty sure it's the same bunny.  Humor me.)  He is a little skittish though - as soon as I took his picture, he hopped away.

I guess nobody likes paparazzi.  Not even bunnies.

And today I'm wearing my new velveteen skirt for the first time!  So I made sure to save a couple of minutes to take some pictures.

Now, I know that I said I always wear a slip,  but today I decided to try going without.  The inside of this fabric is sticking nicely to my tights, keeping everything in place!  I felt like adding a slip would make everything all slidey - something I really can't stand, and have had to deal with a lot lately.  What remains to be seen is whether it's going to cause a lot of problems when I walk around!

New Quilting Project

Things have been kind of crazy around here the last several days, and it likely won't slow down until at least tomorrow.  I have not done a single stitch of sewing yet in 2013 - a travesty!  At least a little bit of knitting has happened.

But I didn't want to wait any longer to show my new quilting project:  Anna Maria Horner's Feather Bed Quilt. 

I first came across this design in late August, just before Niecey-poo and her family left us, via the Hawthorne Threads newsletter.  The moment I saw this quilt, I fell head over heels in love - it's what inspired me to try out quilting again after so many years.  I quickly ordered a half yard of each print in the "Patina" colorway  of the new Field Study line.  The pattern itself is a free download on Anna Maria's website.

I started my quilt about a month ago.  The first step is to cut strips of random widths across the whole 45" width of the fabric.

 

These strips then get sewn together to form a new fabric, which will get cut into the feather shapes.  Here's a picture of my first third of the pieced fabric, made about a month ago.  It contains one piece of each of the fabrics:

 
The pattern is very detailed, giving the yardages and layout diagram for each size quilt, and step-by-step instructions for piecing the feathers.

Since taking these pictures, I've finished another third of the pieced fabric.  I'm hoping to complete the final third later this week and begin cutting out my feather pieces.  I still haven't decided on a background color, but am leaning toward a cream or linen shade.

I'm not in a rush to complete this one.  I really like knowing it is there on the sidelines, waiting for those times when I feel like sewing straight lines.  My only goal is to have this complete by the end of 2013, and to enjoy the process along the way!