Dairing at the Dressmakers Do

2016 Dressmakers Do : Party time in Melbourne town

Lace LBD

Machine knit Dairing 2/3/Four

Listening to the fabric : felted grey wool jacket

Another occasion to frock up and celebrate all things made by hand with some very talented sewists, this time at the #DressmakersDo organised by the lovely Nichola of the Handmaker's Factory and Leisl of Jorth.
I went for a textural, black and grey outfit; three separates that I know will get plenty of wear in my Melbourne wardrobe.

First up is my classic black lace sheath dress - some may recall that I made and wore this to the very first Frocktails in 2013. Yes, it's the same lace dress, and I still adore it. It has it's very own blog post here: Everyone needs an LBD 09/2013

still haunted by that flash, but what a delightful introduction it was to some lovely and talented sewing friends!

To add some warmth for my travels, I made a grey coat with the most fabulous felted wool - it will have it's own post soon.
For some interest, I thought an avant-garde top knitted in stainless steel, silk and cotton might be just the thing.
Meet Theresa Dair's Dairing top 2/3/Four.

As an overlay (also great with a black tank)

I really like Teresa Dair's design aesthetic. Textural pieces, often knitted with non-traditional threads, in non-traditional gauges, which can be worn in a multitude of ways. It's very similar to my favourite Japanese pattern designers and when made in shades of black, perfectly me ;)
And from the back in its shawl cardigan view:

Crafting friends really are the best.

I found the Dairing 2/3/Four kit in a Raveller's destash, mentioned on Instagram that I was contemplating dabbling in machine knitting to make it and received the most generous offer of a loan of a knitting machine. (thank you again x)

gratuitous dachshund shot. Yes, he 'helped'...

The hand knitters guild market gave me an opportunity to observe and meet some machine knitters, as well as to meet the talented Teresa Dair herself and get some hints on converting the pattern to being machine knit.
The machine knitters guild (MKAV) in the form of the lovely Christine encouraged and guided me through the skills required and I set to work.

For anyone who, like me, has never dabbled before, it's both as easy, and much more time consuming than I had imagined. The actual processing of each row is very quick. The set up, double e-wrap cast on, troubleshooting and eventual cast off was a steep learning curve.

My swatch - used to determine the amount of stitches to cast on, and how many rows to knit.
I underestimated my sleeve length.

The machine is not unlike my overlocker - adorable when behaving but a bugger to rethread and troubleshoot - I don't 'know' it intimately enough yet, so troubleshooting has been a lot of retracing of my steps and cursing.

After 187 rows, the 2nd sleeve was done! So was the cone of thread....

I then used my sewing machine to attach the 4 pieces (Four pieces is a direct reflection of it's name 2/3/Four. I also have Two/3/4 in the same yarn/threads).
I finished it and wasn't sure if I liked it.

I then had to unpick the left sleeve, you may see it's tight in the photo. This was painful.  It was necessary as my 'loose' cast off was still far too tight, exacerbated by the fact that I'd inserted it upside down. I couldn't move my left arm. The cuff on the left now stretches out horribly after 10min of wear, despite blocking ;( I might add a flared cuff extension to both arms, maybe...

new friends and old ;)

Updated newsflash: I do like it ;) It's missing in most of my DressmakersDo photographs as the venue was warm, and as lightweight as it is, the silk & stainless steel is warm as well. What struck me by surprise is how very soft the fabric is! I really was anticipating it being more sculptural, however it's a delightful soft top.

Project page on Ravelry is here

Photowall props for the Win!

Liberty Linden Love

Ok, so I wear, a lot, of Melbourne Black, 

and navy....

and some other colours..... 

which escape me at the moment...

One colour that's pretty much missing from my wardrobe is shocking pink.

Of course, it's the perfect colour to add a bit of brightness to my winter palette. Primarily as it can't clash with anything ;)

I'm not usually a huge Liberty print fan (sacrilege, I know), I adore the feel of their Tana lawn, but the prints don't often grab me. This is Kindle* a tonal print with subtle little florals and foliage, totally gorgeous, and, well, yes, very, very pink.

*(from the Liberty of London website): Kindle Liberty print was sketched while listening to the Elysian singers perform at The Royal Festival Hall. The final hand drawn repeat has the design Elysian woven into its sound waves.

I actually had a shopping cart open on The Fabric Store's NZ  site when the word went out that it had landed in the Melbourne store... I blame Instagram (you know who you are... yes ... you... and yes, you too....)

And yes, a family trip was made the next morning so I could feel it IRL and once patted, it came home with me.
It's very perfectly fleecy, and even more so after a trip through the washing machine.

Essentially it is a woven though. I considered making another drop shouldered top, in the style of my much adored black wool awesome thing:
And then my love for my new vintage wool woven Linden won out and I made View A.
This is the size 8, with 2cm taken out of the back raglan seams, reducing to nothing by 7cm.
The sleeves are simply turned and stitched. I know much has been discussed of the long arms of the pattern as drafted and I didn't include the cuff. I do like warm hands however and would use the same arm length if I made it again (with added cuffs)

Silliness prevails. The weather conspired against this photoshoot for nearly a month.

Removing 4cm from the back neckline has brought it in nicely as well, as drafted, the Linden is a tad wider than I prefer in a rounded neckline. The boatneck on my black top is just a bit wide for many layering options and I wanted this top to be a non-drafty winter staple.
I felt very indulgent as I cut my neckline on the bias - such an inefficient use of fabric! It was worth it though. I had previously stabilised the entire neckline with iron on stay tape (yes, I love it!) and after carefully stitching the bias on, it was 'sticky-uppery' ;( I nearly cried.

I do love the cross over of our fibre arts though, I channelled my inner knitter, went into blocking mode and ignored that I wasn't playing with wool . I simply saturated the neckline pieces and patted them back into shape. After some steaming with my iron, the neckline was perfectly snugged - yes, I'm rather chuffed with my neckline.

The hip hem is taken straight from my black jumper. It's a piece of straight grain fabric, the circumference of my hips, folded and sewn to a slightly gathered bottom edge of garment. It keeps out any winter breeze and allows the top to blouson over a belt or winter padding.

Silly poses aside, it's the first top in a while to have elicited random unsolicited compliments - although, they were mostly on how lovely it was to see me in pink....

*For a hint on my previous (BL, Before Liberty) pink aversion, I mentioned a pink 80's windcheater with koalas in my 2014 black post...

Autumn 2016! : Woven Linden for the win

My most loved and frequently reached for winter top is the black/grey boxy felted wool top with the cool tree design.

This is a lighter weight and colour alternative to keep it company. It's also a test for me of the well loved Grainline Linden that took the sewing world by storm on it's release in 2014.

This is a straight size 8 Linden, view B in non-stretch woven fabric 

Sewn with 70cm of opp shop sourced vintage wool, washed (read as mildly felted & pre-shrunk) & slightly itchy. It's all good though as I love the speckled wool and it's a layering piece, part of my armour against the winter winds that come straight off the Antarctic.
*Update after wearing this almost every day for the past 5 weeks - it's not itchy IRL! And the neckline lets everything layer well, I adore this SOOO much!!

I was pleasantly surprised at the swiftness of putting it together and of the fit straight from the pattern. I've knitted a raglan sleeve cardigan, but never sewn one, being of the belief that they 'don't work' with forward shoulders. News flash, they do, and I can't believe I've dismissed them for so long! The sleeves are 3cm shorter than the view B pattern to fit on my wool remnant, and in this woven fabric, they'd not have worked any longer without darts and shaping.

I did take in the back raglan seams by 2cm at the neckline, grading to nothing by 7cm. Amanda gave the heads up on her rad quilted Linden & back breeze from Antarctic wind is not welcomed down here anymore than it is in Canberra. It also has snugged the neckline nicely, so I'll continue with this for the next version.
*photographic evidence is in the pink version, up next!

Such a gorgeous paisley match

I used a lovely vintage Liberty to face the neckline, it came from my $10 bag at the first Phillips Shirtmaker sale.
The sleeves and split hem are simply pinked, turned and hand stitched, invisibly in the wool, giving me the option to adjust them if I wish.

Woven vintage wool = swing!

A wildly pink Liberty in Kindle, view A, is up next to brighten my winter.
Yes, you could say my sew-jo is back ;)

More mad and crazy antlers in the next Linden post!