One finished sewing project and some knitting

First the knitting. These are some of the projects that are occupying my needles and my time at the moment:

Circular scarf in Zauberball yarn

Socks in "Socks that Rock" yarn

More socks! This is yarn from the grocery store

A handbag. The yarn is from Knit Picks.

The oldest project is the "Socks that Rock" socks. I started them before I moved to Germany and I was about as far a long on the first sock as I now am on the second sock when I lost interest. And guess what? I seem to have lost interest again. Since it's happened twice I think I must like doing the heel and then I get bored with the leg. I'm tired of knitting the pattern too. It's not a difficult pattern but it has SSKs in it and I dislike doing those because my knitting is a bit tight, which makes SSKs a little harder to do. SSK is slip-slip-knit, which means you slip two stitches onto your working needle and then poke the other needle into the two stitches to knit them together. It's the poking part that's kinda hard for me. (If you really want to know how to do it, I suggest finding a video on youtube because I didn't explain it all that well.)

The next oldest project is the handbag. I started it last fall and I actually only have a little bit more to do. I don't know why I haven't picked it back up again. I like doing two-color work, but I think it's because the end is in sight that I stopped. I really like to knit - I just don't like the finishing work.

So in my boredom over the multi-colored sock and the handbag I cast on a new sock. The pattern is a really easy one with no SSKs. I also cast on the black and white scarf because I bought the yarn last week in a knitting store I visited for the first time. I'm knitting this scarf in continental style, which is faster than the English style I usually knit in. But because I've been an English style knitter for so long I can't do complicated stuff in continental style. This scarf is an easy rib-knit (knit 2, purl 2...repeat) and so it's going fast. In fact the picture I show here is really out of date and only shows about 1/3 of what I have knit so far.

Now on to the sewing. I finished something!

A baby jacket for my grand nephew.
The frame for my market cart made a nice stand-in for a baby-size dress form, don't you think?

A peek at the inside and the covered zipper tape.

I actually started this last November but Christmas sewing interrupted and then I just didn't get back to it. But it's finally done and packed and ready to ship tomorrow. The pattern is from an old Burda World of Fashion magazine - November 2003. Here's my review:

Pattern Description: Fleece jacket with lining (calls for flannel). Jacket has hood, pockets, turned up sleeves, zipper opening, and braid trim around all the outer edges.

Pattern Sizing: Child heights 62/68 (3 month) to 86/92 cm (24 months). Since I don't live near the recipient of the jacket (my grand nephew), I made the largest size so he'd grow into it.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? Better! You can't hardly see the jacket in the magazine photo because the baby is swamped by it. Plus they include a scarf in the photo (really? A scarf for a baby?)

Were the instructions easy to follow? Being a Burda magazine pattern, the instructions are minimal. A beginner might have difficulty. I used the book "Vogue/Butterick Step-By-Step Guide to Sewing Techniques" for help with the pockets.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? I already had the fleece, and I wanted to make my grand nephew a jacket out of it. I found this in my Burda magazine stash, and it fit my criteria.

Fabric Used: Fleece for the outer fabric and cotton for the inside lining. The pattern calls for flannel for the inside lining but my grand nephew lives in Atlanta where it's (usually) not so cold (except for this year!). I also thought flannel might "stick" when trying to get the jacket on a squirming toddler.

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made: I used a cotton twill binding tape instead of braid for the trim. I don't know if the tape is readily available in the US, but it seems common here in Germany, in a variety of colors and widths. I did have some difficulty sewing it around the rounded bottom edge of the jacket since the tape is not cut on the bias and has no stretch. If I were to make this jacket again I would square off the bottom edge and make a mitered corner instead. I also finished off the inside edge of the zipper by hand stitching a piece of the twill tape over the zipper tape.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others? I would sew it again if the need came up. I think it's a cute little jacket that wasn't too difficult to make.


What's next? I just cut out the pieces for another robe using the Stretch and Sew pattern I used for my husband's robe. But this one is for me. I found some chenille-type fabric in my stash and decided it would make a nice comfy robe. Unfortunately I had less fabric than I thought. Here's how my trial lay-out looked trying to eek out as much robe length as I could:

I'll make these pieces fit!

The pattern has floor, mid-calf and mid-thigh lengths. I wanted mid-calf but it'll be 3 inches shorter than that. I managed to get all the pieces onto the fabric except for a bit of the facing. I'll piece the bottom inch or so. I even got all the pockets on! The blank space is for the other sleeve. Oh, and I realized while (spending a ridiculous amount of time) straightening the fabric that is has nap, so I rotated some pieces and everything was cut facing the same direction...just in case you are wondering.