Spring Wardrobe?.. Oh Look, There's Some Bread!

My Spring Wardrobe plans are going a little lot slower than planned. For some reason I thought teaching myself how to do an FBA would be fast and easy? Not so much. I think I need to split the honking massive dart I end up with into two darts, make them a little shorter, shift them slightly... By the end of a week of pattern wrangling, I felt my sewing mojo fly right out the window. I think some skirts are on the menu this week, since they tend to be just fine on me without alterations. But tonight I needed some sewing down time... So I baked my first ever loaf of bread.

Yum!

Nothing too fancy, basically a giant rye scone. I used the Rye Soda Bread recipe from Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson. I love this book, and am slowly working my way through most of the recipes in it and Super Natural Cooking. Heidi also shares tons of great meals and photos on her blog. I try not to visit too often though, because I want to make everything she posts, and I'd never make it out of the kitchen. All of her recipes are vegetarian too.

Do you want bread yet?

A nice wedge of soda bread with goat cheese and a bowl of homemade veggie French onion soup makes for a nice dinner. Now if only I could bake some new tops...

Tiny Pocket Tank

I finally finished altering my tiny pocket tank to accommodate seven inches of difference between my full and high bust measurements. It involved a few mishaps, but seems to have worked out in the end.

See those red lines? They make up the GIANT dart I needed for a two inch FBA (my first!). My pattern looks a bit like Frankenstein's monster at the moment, and I'm a little nervous about cutting into my fabric with it. Luckily my test run is some $2/yd poly/cotton I bought heaps of.

I'm a little behind on my challenge, so I'd better get stitching!

Handmade Wardrobe: Spring 2012

1&2: Tiny Pocket Tank from Grainline Studio; 3&6: Scout Woven tee from Grainline Studio; 4: Meringue Skirt from the Colette Sewing Handbook; 5: Tulip Skirt from Stitch Magazine by Jenny Gordy

Last week I mentioned Vancouver Emma (not to be confused with this Emma. Yep, I have two Emmas) and I were doing a Handmade Wardrobe: Spring 2012 challenge. During March we are both sewing four garments towards a mini-wardrobe for Spring. For me, part of this challenge is to use more solids in my sewing. I tend to gravitate towards bright and crazy prints. You might have noticed.

For the March challenge, like Emma, I will be making two of Grainline's Tiny Pocket Tanks likely without the pockets, and a Colette Meringue. For my fourth I will either make one of the other three garments in my Spring plan, or something else entirely. I just have to start by trying my first ever FBA on this tank pattern. Now you know why I mostly sew skirts and sack dresses... no bust fitting.

Sneak Peak

Anna Maria Horner Lou Lou Flannels stitched up into a 9-patch quilt with just four blocks. 30" square finished sized. The AMH flannels are SOooooo soft. I originally picked these up as a fq bundle to be a lap quilt for my sister Lucy (couldn't resist the name). There's still more than enough left, and I didn't even use all the prints, so there's full fqs of some of them. I took these photos right before I basted the top to some cotton batting and a fun pink cupcake print flannel. On top of a table cloth. Yeah, I don't always think things through.

I'm planning on quilting it with big, loopy circles in each square, but I'm not completely set on it. Any thoughts?

February Round Up

February was a little... embarrassing in terms of fibre intake. Although I finally picked up my knitting needles again and cleared a couple projects, one of them a long-term UFO, I only managed one single yard skirt on the sewing front (pictures soon!). Of the fabric that came in, 5.5yd were quilting cotton, 4yd were a $2.50 goodwill find that will be perfect for backing quilts, 4yds were two vintage sheets for yet another quilt, and 1.75 were vintage sheet fat quarters from Vintage Sheet Variety on Etsy. Lest you think I'm just sitting on a giant pile of fabric, I've already taken a pretty big dent out of the stash in March. Hopefully that will make up for some of it. The rest should be helped along by a little sewing challenge me and Vancouver Emma have going on to coincide with Grainline's Handmade Wardrobe Spring 2012. More on that soon.

To the numbers!        

          Out           In         Year to Date

Fabric:   -1yd       15.25yd      +14.25yd

Yarn:    -107g        0g             -107g

UFOs:   -1             0               -1

  

Angora Turbanite

A rather large hat...

One of my last very overdue Christmas presents has finally been completed! This was a super fun pattern to knit up, though a bit of a brain teaser. The other Ravelry reviews really helped me figure out how it went together, and other than a couple confusing bits the pattern was well written and blissfully errata free. Also a fast project, finishing up in two evenings. Fun was had all around.

...on a rather small neon head.

As you can see my neon head is still waiting for a fresh coat of paint. Perhaps today is the day?

I still need to take a few photos before I do my February round up. There was an embarrassing dearth of finished projects, and an equally embarrassing influx of fabric. Oops.