Category: crafting

I’m work work working away at the store for a bunch of days in a row this and next week. I’ve been taking some of my giant tour de fleece bag, and I actually got quite a lot of spinning done today – I really like the woolee winder we’ve got on a wheel there! I’m still thinking that I won’t actually finish spinning it. Maybe I’ll revise to just spinning all the singles, and not include the plying. Did I mention I didn’t actually official sign up for the tour? Just a personal challenge, really.

(Speaking of spinning, I could use some more students for my drop spindle class at lettuce knit August 7 and 14, 6-8 pm. It’s fun! Call me to sign up – 416 203 9970.)

Anyway! Here’s the other FO that was peeking out from that ponchette photo.

I had a hankering the other day to sew up a wrap skirt, and this is what I produced. I didn’t really use a pattern – I started with a circle skirt and sort of forced it (with scissors) to become a wrap skirt. Then I made a waistband in a roundabout manner, my very first buttonhole on the machine, and a quite uneven hem, and I was done. This is what happens when you sew on the fly! I think the next skirt might be from a pattern.

I’m actually quite pleased with how it looks, at least! I really like the fabric – it’s just cotton from Fabricland, but it’s very light. Too light for a single layer skirt, which is why I went with the wrap. I got lots of compliments on it the other night, too. I know the dressform photos are kind of a cop out, but my old tripod can’t handle the dslr! I’ll figure out a way to take full length self portraits somehow – anyone got any tips?

At any rate, you can see it on me in the second photo from Megan’s shower – I gave megan that log cabin blanket she’s holding, knit from my handspun.

The skirt’s a little big; I need to make a second buttonhole a little further back. But then it’ll be perfect! I’m getting into the sewing swing; I want new clothes but don’t really have much in the clothing budget. Hey! Wait! What about all this fabric I’ve been hoarding forever? Could that become clothes?

Now all I have to do is start sewing my own tshirts and I’ll be all set!

Ooops, I almost forgot to come back and post about it! Usually when I upload photos to Flickr I blog them right away – this time I uploaded photos then ran out of time to blog, time passed…and now here I am.

This dress is AWESOME. It was the first time I made it, and it still only took an hour! Most of that time was cutting and figuring out how things go together.

Just the Facts:
Pattern: Infinity Dress
Fabric: unknown mixed fibres (probably something like cotton/poly/lycra), stretch, $2.99/m from Fabricland, 3.5 m

After reading the entire thread on Craftster about this dress (warning: it’s over 120 pages long!) and seeing all the fantastic versions that people have made, I took the plunge and headed out to my local Fabricland. I found this fabric as a discounted end for just $2.99/m, so it was a great steal. I’ll admit I wasn’t totally sold on the print when I bought it (but hey, it was cheap) but it’s really grown on me and now I love it!

This was my first time sewing with stretch, but it was surprisingly easy – I used my normal machine and zigzag stitch and was just careful not to distort the fabric while sewing. This fabric wasn’t super stretchy or slippery, so everything went quite smoothly. And no hemming, because knit fabric doesn’t fray!

The dress is super simple and is just composed of a skirt, two long straps (each of which is wide enough to cover a boob) and a waistband to finish the back of the skirt. You can make the dress with just one seam if you have enough fabric – I made a circle skirt out of two half-circles, so my dress has two extra seams in it. But this is seriously the easiest, best-fitting, and most flattering dress I’ve ever sewn. Okay, so I haven’t made many dresses, but that’s mostly because when I do and they don’t fit, I get discouraged!

To wear the dress you just pull the skirt on up, however high you want, and use the straps to wrap around you any way you want! For many, many more photos check out that Craftster thread – you can click on “images only” to see just the posts with images (more than ten pages’ worth!). This is definitely my favourite way to wear it, I think, because it’s got some sleeve going on and full coverage in the back.

It’s super comfy too! Ask Dr. Steph, we swapped clothes at knit night this week because she wanted to try it on :P The straps can be a little fiddly, but it’s really fun to try various ways of putting it on! I’m sure at some point I’ll try actually wearing it out with a more…shall we say risque look.

I love this dress so much, I’m already planning on making more. Starting with one in black…

P.S. Sadly I did not take any photos during WWKIP Day/Stephanie’s Birthday party/Franklin at lettuce knit. But Amy’s got some great ones!