Fiber arts

Last month the Huntington Library and Gardens had a Fiber Arts Day and members from the weaving and spinning guilds from the Los Angeles area gathered in the rose garden to demonstrate. 

It was a beautiful day and the roses smelled so good too!

The spinners and weavers were eager to chat.

When I got home, I was inspired to get out my spinning wheel.

At the Fiber Arts Day I learned there's a weaving guild that meets on the second Saturday of the month and a spinning guild that meets on the fourth Saturday (and the American Sewing Guild meets on the third Saturday of the month - convenient that they all meet on different Saturdays but I don't know that I can devote nearly every Saturday to fiber arts!). I did attend the spinning guild meeting last month and made a few new friends. Tomorrow I'm going to the weaving guild meeting - my first time attending.  I haven't done any weaving since I've moved here but I think I'll start a project soon. I have an idea for a band I want to weave on my inkle loom.

I also found out about the Weaving and Fiber Festival, held every year in May, and was just in time to go to it this year. I may have made a few purchases at the festival...

Fiber to spin, yarn and yarn kits to weave, and new tools for weaving and spinning.

 Add this to the haul from the LA Country Yarn Crawl in April:

The yarn stores in the area offer free patterns and 10% off the yarn for it.
Of course they choose the luxurious yarns that are too tempting to pass up!

I have to juggle my interests, doing one for a little bit of time and then moving to another, but I still manage to do work on a little bit of everything.

The little quilt has turned from pieces...

into an almost completed project.

I'm learning to crochet granny squares using some cotton yarn I purchased in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Not sure what I'll make with it - maybe a bag or something.

I finished knitting some scarves, from the pattern book Curls by Hunter Hammersen. I'm working on a third one using some of the yarn I bought from the LA Yarn Crawl. 

Full shape while being blocked

A lot of orange!

I also have a sock knitting project, but I keep it at work for my Tuesday lunch time knitting meetups with co-workers.

And today I did some more sewing. A coworker wanted to make a costume for an upcoming Cosplay convention and I offered to help her. So she came over today and we found a pattern in one of my sewing magazines, traced it, made a muslin, made some changes to the pattern to match the character, and sewed up this vest:

She wants to be this character from a video game (it's Barbarian Armor from Zelda - I had to look it up!)

I think that brings my project tally up to date!

Another sewing project completed

Not very complicated but a new top to wear. And I did wear it, on a work trip just 2 days after I finished it. I think it will get a lot of wear.

The fabric is a brushed polyester knit, which is very soft. I think it might have been a remnant purchase from Britex, many (many!) years ago. I'd always envisioned it as a top and now it finally is one! I used the same pattern that I've used for two other t-shirts, so this made it a very quick and easy project.

Pattern used: Model #38 from Sabrina Woman (German) issue 3/13. This is the same issue as Modellina (Italian) 152, Elena Couture (France) 62, Fashion Trends (Netherlands) 11, and Tendencias de Moda (Spain) 11. 

Sizes: European 36-46. I made my usual alteration of a 42 in the bust/shoulders to a 46 in the waist/hips.

Alterations: I lowered the neckline by 4 cm

Construction: I didn't use the instructions in the magazine because this was very simple to construct.  I used fusible stay tape in the shoulder seam, and then serged the shoulders. Next I serged the sleeves - I find it much easier to put sleeves in flat on knit tops. Then I serged the side and sleeve seams and used the coverstitch for the sleeve hem and bottom hem. Finally, I turned the neck edge under and used a coverstitch.  

I'm switching gears for my next sewing project. While unpacking and organizing my sewing stuff I came across two appliqued mini-quilts I made at least 15 years ago.

They're about 12x12 inches. I had bought 12 patterns, each one representing a different month, with the plan to make a calendar. Not sure I'm going to do that anymore, but I do like having a little themed item to display. As you can see, the ones I completed are for March and April. Being the orderly sort of person I am, I decided to work on May, which has a flower and garden theme:

I have picked out the cotton prints I will use, but alas, I don't have (or couldn't find) the fusible webbing to use for the applique pieces. I might have thrown it out or given it away when my craft stuff went into storage. Amazon Prime to the rescue! A package of Steam-A-Seam 2 should arrive tomorrow.

My next garment project will be a blouse, which will also use a Sabrina Woman magazine pattern.

The fabric I plan to use was purchased in Germany at the Karstadt department store. I miss that store - I'd buy my sewing magazines in their news stand, have lunch in their restaurant, check out the housewares section (excellent German knives and cookware!) and then browse the fabrics. They had such a great remnant section and fantastic sales. If you bought the last of the bolt they discounted it - Joanns certainly doesn't do that! Anyway, the fabric is rayon (viscose in Europe).

Auf Wiedersehen!