Category: Crafts

Two hand-wound balls of yarn with shades of pink, green, and purple sitting side by side on a white counter

Somtimes Things Don’t Work Out Like You Think They Should

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And when it comes to yarn, that’s ok because you can just frog it and start over.

I went into The Altered Stitch a while back to get some more Eucalan, and found out I still had a credit from finishing a project for the owner last year. So of course I walked out with a couple skeins of yarn.

Specifically Witch’s Honor on Classic Sock by Rebel Yarn Co. I had the ambitious idea of creating a sock weight version of the Trellis Tee by Mother of Purl, which would be a super simple undertaking since the pattern is written to your measurements instead of by sizes.

A small strip of in-progress knitting in shades of pink, green, and purple lays on a blue chair

And for the most part it was simple. Even with some “I don’t want to sew” modifications, It was working up quick. So quick that I didn’t notice I was running out of yarn until I did, about 3 inches away from the shoulder seam.

An in-progress piece of knitting lays on the edge of an iPad open to a page of an eBook with white text on a black background.

See, I made my original Trellis Tee with a giant skein of Ice Cream yarn by Lion Brand, with plenty left over. And the original used two skeins of the yarn they used. So I thought (without taking the weight of the yarn into account) that I could get away with the two.

A piece of in-progress knitting in shades of pink, green, and purple lays on top of an open book on a white woman's lap in front of two sleeping dogs, a small dachshund curled directly in front of the woman and a larger gray dog with brown spots wearing a cone collar at the edge of the bed.

I could not, and whenever I am able to actually make one I know I need at least 300 grams of yarn to do so. But now I know, and this yarn is getting turned into something else in the meantime.

A piece of in-progress pink, green, and purple lace knitting laying on a carpet with similarly colored squares and rectangles

Finished Object – Firefly Bralette

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I was looking to make another sports bra/bralette, and the Firefly Dress and Top from Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop dropped into my email on sale with a bralette option, so I figured it was meant to be.

Pattern pieces of a bralette cut out of gray fabric with Pikachu printed all over and a strip of black elastic laid out on a white counter.

I had just enough of this Pikachu fabric to cut the outer pieces, and I had a bit of plain gray fabric to match for the lining. Instead of the 1-inch elastic that was called for in the pattern, I had this 2-inch waistband elastic, so deviated from the pattern slightly in the finished product.

The front view of a bralette with a printed pattern of Pikachus all over and a band of black elastic at the bottom on a white counter

All steps of this, from taping the pattern pieces to completely finished garment, took less than 3 hours (spread randomly throughout the day). The instructions are very easy to follow, and the finished piece fits so well with no runaway bra straps.

The back view of a bralette with a printed pattern of Pikachus all over and a band of black elastic at the bottom on a white counter.

I used the stretch stitch on my Singer Fashion Mate (stitch 14 if you have the computerised one) for everything except the one line of basting you do before attaching the elastic. You could also use a twin needle for the top-stitching, but I like the look of this stitch on the outside.

Finished Object – Tern Tunic Dress

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This finish is from March 2023. I can actually wear this one in the heat, but these pictures are from when I finished. Hence the long leggings.

A white woman wears a crocheted dress with a tighter fabric on the bodice and a lace stitch on the skirt, facing away from the camera. The bodice of the dress is made in an aqua color, the sleeve edging and top of the skirt are in light blue, and the bottom of the skirt is in dark blue.

This is the Tern Tunic Dress by Made by Hailey Bailey. I was once again using yarn from an abandoned project, which is where the color blocking came from. Also the reason I made the front and back neckline the same (still only barely won yarn chicken with that one).

A white woman wears a crocheted dress with a tighter fabric on the bodice and a lace stitch on the skirt, facing the camera. The bodice of the dress is made in an aqua color, the sleeve edging and top of the skirt are in light blue, and the bottom of the skirt is in dark blue.

I love the construction on this one, basically from the middle out. You work the bodice from the bottom up, then add the skirt and sleeves, making it very easy to customize the length of both.

Close up of the lace pattern on the skirt in both the light and dark blue yarn.

I thought I took good notes, but apparently all I wrote down was that I used 146g of the Marlin Comfy fingering weight in the bodice (about 3 skeins).

Close up of the shoulder and sleeve edging.