Three T's

I had a good three day weekend sewing wise, went to Abakhan and came back with a nice bag full of fabric, enough for a shirt for DH, pjs for DH, a load of tops for me, some nice stretch denim for a pair of cropped maternity trousers and a few notions. I've just learnt that Abakhan stock the tracing fabric that I like to use so I will be adding that to my list for next time!

I started off the weekend with the oh so faithful Jalie 2005 pattern. I knew when I saw this fabric that I was going to use this pattern so it was just a case of getting around to it, it's so fast to sew!



I'm really happy with the way it came out, I did have to go back and hand stitch the neck one and a half inches on each side as it came out way too wide for some reason but it's a great fit and very comfortable, I'm wearing it today!

Next I started working on my Sew Retro dress, it's about 2/3 done now. I tried it on and it's not going to fit me at all for a while, then I got confused about the next step in the directions so I put it aside and did some easy stuff! I am determined to get it done by the end of the month so I will get back to it soon.

After I got frustrated with that I pulled out another maternity shirt that I'd cut out previously and sewed it up, this one is Burda 8377



this came out huge, but it's actually supposed to be that way, it's also very long! I'm sure I will wear it though, near the end of pregnancy anything baggy and comfortable is the order of the day so it will get used! The fabric was from Abakhan and cost about £1.20 a metre (about $2.16) so it was a cheap project! The ties are supposed to be of the same fabric but they were just too thin to fold properly and after almost burning myself on the iron several times and then the stitching coming out wonky I went for white cord instead which I think looks fine. I have more Burda patterns that I'm going to make up soon, they have some nice maternity stuff, I'm trying not to go through the pattern catalogue and make a list of the non-maternity patterns I want though!

Last night I fancied making something fast so within 2 hours I had traced 2 patterns, cut one t-shirt out and made it up, I love a fast pattern! This is Onion 5022.



These patterns are Danish and some of them have been translated by the store I've linked to. If you buy a pattern that isn't translated and later on they do a translation they will send it to you for free! I bought a maternity pattern from them along with the t-shirt pattern, a skirt pattern and a trousers pattern, only 2 of them are translated but hopefully I can figure out the others using the dictionary on the website. This pattern was so simple, it had 1 pattern piece (it has kimono sleeves in case you can't see it in the photo) and the neck is finished using foldover elastic. I can see myself making many more of these as it takes less than a yard of fabric and I love the shape. I am planning on making another t-shirt from this pattern today.

So, I was pretty happy with my accomplishments over the weekend, I even went down the allotment and did some work there! I didn't do a whole lot of knitting, I have cast on and done the cuff of the first Waving Lace sock and I did the sleeve cap decreases for the black cardigan and then realised that although the pattern doesn't say it the decreases should be done every other row rather than every row which meant I ripped out all the work I'd done and I will have to go back and rip out the top of the back as well and re-knit it. It doesn't take too long though so I'm not that upset about it. I finished the first section of the Peace Shawl as well which was stars, so next it's trees, must keep pushing along at that as it's supposed to be a Christmas present and there's still a ton left to do.

Arisaig won't be done this month as I've still not looked at it at all, however I did make good progress on it by doing the ribbing and I also finished off everything else I wanted to for August so I'm pretty happy. I may cast on for something else from the chest of drawers soon I think so I have more of a variety of projects on the go, I have a list somewhere of what's in there!

I found and bought a really nice travel journal for our Oregon trip from Paperchase and I've also ordered a new digital camera and a huge memory card for it which should arrive soon. We've been wanting to get a good digital camera for ages but never had a reason or the funds, but as I've saved up money for the trip we can afford one now and will have a good reason to use it! I need to find some nice paper to print photos on now that isn't proper photographic paper, one of the reasons I wanted to go digital was to stop using products like film and photographic paper which contain geletin, but I like 'proper' pictures so I will have to work out a system of printing and cutting them out so they look neat in an album. The camera is a Canon Powershot A530 so hopefully the pictures on my blogs will improve as well, I may one day get a true representation of the colour purple, but don't hold your breath! My old camera is temperamental and also doesn't have a preview screen, which is why there are a lot of blurry photos on the blog, I just don't have time to go back and take photos a second time so I'm forced to use what I have and I don't know what I have until they're on the computer! I'm excited to play with it and learn how to use it so we can get a ton of great shots while we're away!