Completed items and work in progress

Completed aran waistcoat

This past week has been quite busy. I finished the waistcoat and have been wearing it around the house. Nice and cosy.I decided to start a second one. This pattern is another one I have had for some time. Since the 1990's, I think.

The next project - a shaped waistcoat

I am knitting this in a deep sage green green. The shaped bottom of the fronts is what attracts me most. The cable pattern is proving to be quite challenging. I have resorted to writing out each line of the pattern so that I don't get muddled.

Completed shirt

I managed to get both of my shirts finished too. Both have been worn and are very comfortable and nicely warm for the wet and windy weather we are currently experiencing. I now have five shirts to this same pattern. One of them is fitted whereas the rest are not. I like both versions of the pattern, but am especially grateful that I remembered to add the extra couple of inches to the length of both the sleeve pattern piece and also that for the body. This makes all the difference.

Another completed shirt

I haven't progressed any further with the quilt this week, working on other projects which I cannot show you at present.

Sewing continues.

Completed pin cushion in use.

The past few days have seen my workroom busy with different sewing projects. The first to be completed was this pin cushion which I showed in my last post. This now houses my fine glass headed pins. So useful for my current project - the shirt which I shall show you later. 

Alternative layout 1

There have been a few developments with the quilt. I have been thinking again about the layout since I wasn't happy with the first one. So I played around with the pieces, shown below.

The collection of pieces

Until I tried turning the elements "on point". I think I prefer the second option, but will live with the idea for a few days before starting to cut up the black. I did toy with using the blue shown here as the background, but it all looked rather too bright. Definitely an assault on the eyes.

Alternative layout 2

So this is currently the preferred option. Will I change my mind yet again? Probably.

The completed pinafore dress

There was another completed project. I finished my pinafore dress, adding pockets into the side seams. Rather a comfy, warm dress. I shall try the design again as a long sleeved top using the 

dress shown to the right of the pattern. It should work well as a top. I rather fancy a warm brushed fabric.

The pinafore dress pattern.

I have already mentioned the project I am currently working on. This is the almost completed shirt I had cut out last week. The hem is pinned and ready to be sewn. Then the buttonholes. The fabric is a liberty-style cotton.

The red shirt

On Friday I went to visit some friends. We had been working on a Round Robin during the past few months and we finally got our own pieces back. This is mine. The background is a felted woollen woven fabric. The challenge now is to get our pieces completed for our next meeting in February.

Round Robin

I rather fancy turning this into a vase-like holder for some of my collection of large brushes. I haven't made anything like thatbefore, so it should prove rather interesting.

Is it possible to have too many projects on the go at once?

Freshly printed fabrics - own dyed cottons.

Spent a very pleasant couple of hours or so yesterday printing these fabrics. I started out just getting some ready to add to a quilt I am putting together. As usual, didn't know when to stop. These are mostly commercial thermofax prints. The floral design is a lovely wooden block which I bought from Art Van Go.

Quilt pieces placed before stitching starts

The photo above shows the quilt I am currently working on - most of the fabrics shown above are from Tracy Fox, The plain black, red and cream are from Ikea. The funny little "aliens" are my own dyed fabrics cut out and ready to be bondawebbed in place. The working title for this one is "African Crosses". The shapes come from a workshop I went to back in 2010 with Magie Relph. She had brought some gorgeous Tuareg and Ethiopean crosses for us to sketch. Such a delightful day spent in good company. I intend to use some of the engraved detail as inspiration for the quilting.

Did I say that there were a number of projects on the go at once? I have also cut out three dressmaking projects. The first will be this pinafore dress.

Vintage pattern from 1983

Pinafore dress waiting to be assembled

The other two projects use the same pattern - Hotpatterns HP 1052 Classix Nouveau Great White Shirt. I last made this design here. Sadly, the pattern now seems to be out of print.

Another Hotpatterns shirt - this time using some Liberty-type fabric.

Yet another Hotpatterns shirt - using up some chambray.

I use the three shirts I have already made such a lot. Such a very useful, classic, shape. You can see my first two attempts here and here.

A ribbon weaving sample waiting to be made up into a pin cushion.

This is one of those UFOs which should have been finished ages ago. I need an extra pincushion too! All I need to do is to stitch around where I have already marked and stuff it. So silly not to have finished it already.

My current knitting project - a waistcoat.

Lastly, I have made a start on the cabled waistcoat I mentioned last time. I'm not altogether sure I have enough yarn, so I'm hoping #I have enough. If not, I may have to redo the back without the cables. We shall see. I am enjoying knitting cables for a change.

Back knitting, and planning some sewing

My talk went down well last week. You can read a review of it here. They were all very kind and really enjoyed being able to handle all the quilts I had brought with me. It was good fun, even though I was really nervous to begin with.

Double knitting hat under way

Well, I have started knitting again. My hat will use up much of the yarn left over from my recently completed double knitting jumper.

Aran yarn purchased this morning

Going into Aldi this morning, I was rather tempted by these two aran yarns. I only bought one of each since I wanted to make waistcoats rather than jumpers. The trouble is, I really can't choose which one to start first and which colour to use for each design. Both patterns date from the 1970's and early 1980's. I first made the Wendy pattern around 1980 or so. I gave it away some years ago and have really missed having it around.

An old pattern from my collection

The second pattern was a lucky find in a charity shop. 

It is inside this rather lovely book:

A pattern book dating from 1979

There are some rather nice patterns which I will find myself making over the next couple of years.

I am also planning some dressmaking sessions since I really could do with some more skirts, pinafore dresses and culottes as well as shirts.

Dressmaking projects waiting to be cut out.

My only problem is that I could really do with getting some quilting done too, making books and ...... No, I won't bore you with the list. I really ought to get organised and just start.