Category Archives: Crafts

← Older posts

Sewing Project: Audrey Hepburn-style Summer Dress

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Tressa

White floral Givenchy dress of Audrey Hepburn (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lately I’ve been dipping my toe back into sewing with some small projects, like the tote bag and quilted sleep mask, but now I think I’m ready to try a bigger project – a dress!

About 6 or 7 years ago, I bought this Butterick 4443 pattern (see below) because it reminded me of the Givenchy dress Audrey Hepburn wore to the Oscars in 1954 when she won Best Actress for Roman Holiday. I love that fit and flare shape and I especially adore bateau necklines. Also, that 50’s silhouette is pretty flattering on me too! I had bought a lovely cotton/poly blend fabric with a black and white floral print from Joanne’s that would be just perfect.

My husband and I are going to a wedding this Saturday and I thought this would be a great excuse to make a dress – and give me a deadline so I couldn’t procrastinate. I started it over the Memorial Day weekend and well, today is Tuesday, and I thought I’d have finished an awesome, swingy dress to brag about by now. Not so much.

I first made a muslin version of the dress last week, just as a run through so if there was anything I found confusing in the instructions, I could work it out on the muslin. Also wanted to make sure I was the same size as I was 7 years ago when I first cut out the pattern!

So good news/bad news – the good news is that I have to take in the bodice a little bit. Bad news is that I’m not sure how to go about it. I made the rookie mistake of thinking I could do all the alterations on the real fabric instead of testing it on the muslin. Argh! I may go back to the muslin version to figure it out before ripping the bodice apart.

This afternoon, I decided to look up the pattern on PatternReview.com and lo and behold, there are over 40 reviews of this pattern. And wouldn’t you know, the biggest complaint is how big the bodice is and how the shoulders are designed for a linebacker. Awesome!

I’ve got my work cut out for me. So do you have any sewing alteration tips? If so, please share! More to come…

Share this:
Share

Posted in Crafts, Sewing | Tagged dress, sewing pattern | Leave a comment

On the Needles: Clapotis Scarf

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Tressa

Along with practically every knitter in the known knitterverse, I’ve jumped on the Clapotis (pronounced “clap-o-tee”) bandwagon. This wildly popular free scarf/pattern was originally published on Knitty in Fall 2004 and it’s still going strong nearly 8 years later. Some fun stats:

Google “Knitty Clapotis” and it comes up in 366,000 search results
The Craftster knitalong of the Clapotis has 178 pages
On Ravelry, 15,388 users have completed the scarf, 1,975 are currently knitting it and there are 2,252 blog posts devoted to the topic

So why is this pattern so darn popular? For one, it’s gorgeous. For another, it’s a pretty straightforward pattern. The recommended yarn is multicolored wool/silk blend from Lorna’s Laces, however the skeins are pricey at $32-$40/skein (pattern calls for 4 skeins). But, many knitters have found other yarns at a lower price that are just as nice, like Noro Silk Garden (which I’m using) or Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend.

I originally printed out the pattern in late 2006 and added it to my pile of future knitting projects. Finally this March I bought the yarn and started to knit. Woo-hoo! I got a little tripped up on a couple of knitting terms though, but now that I’m halfway through the pattern, I’m pretty comfortable. Here’s my little tutorial so you don’t have to look them up.

K tbl (Knit through back of loop)

This stitch is used before and after each knit stitch that will eventually be dropped to create the lace effect of the scarf. It twists the stitches so that the scarf keeps its body. Instead of knitting into the stitch through the front loop as you usually would (see picture above left), you insert the needle into the back of the loop instead (see picture above right).

Kfb (Knit into front and back of stitch)

This term comes up a lot in the pattern. It also appears in the beginning of the pattern as “Pfb,” or purl into front and back of stitch. Both stitches are used as an increase method.

Knit into the stitch
Before lifting the knitted stitch off the needle, insert needle into the back of the original stitch and knit that as well — just like k tbl.

Now you have increased by one stitch. For Pfb, use the same technique, except purl instead of knit.

Yarn Choice

As far as the yarn I’m using, Noro Silk Garden 320, it’s OK. There’s a lot of very dark sections and for some reason I thought the color would be more pastel-colored. The transition from light to dark is pretty drastic, but that could be because the pattern is so wide. I’m sure it will look fine to wear in the fall though.

Also, dropping stitches with this yarn is difficult. The mohair in the yarn makes the stitches “stick” and I have to pull the yarn a lot to get the stitch to drop to the bottom of the wrap. It’s a little irritating, to say the least. If I were to knit pattern again, I’d probably choose a silky blend without any mohair. Kind of missed that little detail!

All in all though, it’s a fun pattern. Using the multicolored yarn makes the pattern look interesting while I’m knitting and I’m finding that it knits up pretty quickly. I’m now in the middle of the pattern in the dreaded “straight rows” section. Six more repeats to go and I’ll be onto the decrease section. Yay! Maybe I’ll complete this in the next couple weeks…before I get distracted with another knitting project!

Share this:
Share

Category Archives: Crafts

Sewing Project: Audrey Hepburn-style Summer Dress

On the Needles: Clapotis Scarf

K tbl (Knit through back of loop)

Kfb (Knit into front and back of stitch)

Yarn Choice

First Blog Award!

7 Things

Versatile Blogger Nominations

DIY: Rockin’ Coffee Sleeve

Vogue Magazine: A Cover Stitchover