More Fabric Shopping

So, I said I wasn't going to Abakhan for a while but yesterday I really felt like getting out of the house and DH didn't want to go anywhere so I went off and had a little retail therapy on my own. I think I must have been a little more down than I realised as I looked down and saw I had a basket almost entirely filled with black fabric!

After sorting through and replacing some that I liked but probably wouldn't use and a piece that, despite trying to convince myself otherwise, WAS actually too small to do anything useful with, this is what I brought home



left to right is some black synthetic jersey with polka dots on it, I wanted to make a skirt from it for winter from Simplicity 4237 but I couldn't get the waistband on the fabric, however I have since decided to do the waistband from the black jersey I bought (didn't bother to take a photo of that!) which I will also use for the front 'pouch' of the black maternity trousers I'm making soon and a black maternity t-shirt, the fabric actually worked out cheaper than buying a machine dye and dying stuff I had, can't beat that! Next is 2 small pieces of Alexander Henry skull bandana print cotton. I don't know what I want to do with this, I'm thinking maybe a bag, perhaps a handbag as that would be an unexpected print or maybe a tote bag, I have about a yard of it, the first tote pattern I looked at needed almost 2 yards so I need to have another look or find some nice contrasting fabric for the lining. The right hand piece is a lovely drapey brown cotton mix, the only fabric I bought off the roll, I got a metre and a half to make some sort of shirt from, I really like this fabric a lot.



The left hand fabric is actually white but the sun was going down when I took this photo. It has black line drawings of flowers and patches of black scribble type print. I spent a good 5 minutes going through my patterns last night looking for the Built By Wendy Simplicity pattern I wanted to use with this fabric only to realise I haven't got it yet! The middle fabric is some cord type fabric for a pair of Built By Wendy trousers (I do actually have that pattern!) and the red fabric is for another slash neck 3/4 sleeve t-shirt, I adore the print and think something simple will set it off best.

As most of this fabric went right into the 'sew now' pile I'm not feeling too bad about buying it, it's always nice to find fabric or yarn and know right away what it's meant to be. I also got out a stack of t-shirts with 3/4 sleeves to start making for fall (I never normally sew ahead so it's new thing for me to plan!).

I picked up more zips for my collection too as I like to keep a bunch on hand (realised I came home without a grey one for the trousers but I may just stick a black one in), plus I stocked up on white bias binding as I seem to be using a lot lately and 10 metres of green bias binding for an apron I'm going to try and make as soon as I figure out what 'apply binding' actually means, anyone point me to directions as to how bias binding should be applied? I'm thinking fold it in half and sew it on, is it that simple?

I finished off my Simplicity 4237 View E pants on Saturday and I really really like them:



Sorry about the bad photo, I think you can just about see what they're like. They're very baggy in a good way and they come about 2 inches above my ankle. The fabric is black linen that I've had in my stash for ages and ages but have never found the right project for. I hate to waste fabric and several patterns I found would have left me with half a yard of the fabric which was annoying, and trying to find cropped trouser patterns for 2 yards of fabric didn't work out either, but this pattern used up almost every last scrap! I have another piece the same length in a dark purple-ish shade so I may make another pair. Oh, and I figured out why they were too big, I was making my old pre-diet size when really my waist is now 3 inches smaller than it used to be, must remember to make the *new* size! lol

I got 2 Amazon packages over the weekend with some great treats in them, the second Yarn Harlot book was in one and in the introduction she reminded me how much I love knitting and how recently I've not been having a whole lot of fun with it. I went and cast on for the Diamond Fantasy Shawl right away, I have been putting it off thinking that I had enough on the needles blah blah blah but I think I really needed something I love to knit, I like everything I'm working on but that pattern and the lovely Motomo yarn I'm using is a wonderful combination and it is really great to knit. I had to knit the first chart twice as I dropped a stitch and it unraveled way down before I could catch it but I now seem to have the hang of it and have almost finished my first pattern repeat, 9 left after that!

I have one more increase row to go on the Picot Picovoli, I just realised that this project never even made it onto the WIP list! I *think* I will have enough yarn, it's going to be very close. I decided earlier that when this is cast off I'm going to try and finish up everything else that is lying around bugging me, it's going to be a completion month for me, my list of stuff waiting:

- second Spine Stitch Sock (just the foot to knit)
- second Vine Stitch Sock (heel and cuff to do)
- seam up and finish Jenny
- finish first front and then knit second front of Arisaig and sew up

The Shoalwater Shawl is a longterm project and I will carry on working on that here and there as usual as well as the Diamond Fantasy when I need a break. I still have several short sleeve or sleeveless things I want to knit this summer, I think all of them can be worn over a long sleeve t-shirt though so I will keep making them, now I'm done with some stash topping up it's time to start working through to empty the drawers of projects in waiting, I may even finally get up the nerve to cast on for Mariah!

I guess I will wait for Joanne's to have a pattern sale! I so adore new patterns! :o)