Prom Dress '09

 

Here's this year's Prom Dress. There were many extra African American Quiz Bowl t-shirts this year, so I was able to get 3.

This was created by measuring for the bodice. It's a really simple shell with bust darts. The skirt is made with 2 shirt bodies with plenty of pleats for fullness. The skirt also has a kangaroo pocket concealed within the pleats. I created the waist panel with a doubled t-shirt hemline.

I dyed the finished piece with a procion dye. This should have produced a completely matched piece, but apparently the thread in the shirts and the thread I was using both contained too much polyester. They remained white. The flowers were sewn on afterward by hand. They each have a vintage shank button as the center.

It's totally customizable. I will definitely be making more of these.

the ultimate neglect

Here are the few things I have done since February, which I have already ripped out. Even with my new policy of only pulling out legitimate mistakes I managed to accomplish almost nothing in 3 months.

 

This is the third iteration of this sweater. Still too short and misshapen.

 

Here is the base of an alpaca lace sweater that I already knit up and ripped out 3 times. I was totally winging it, and it took a lot of experimentation to find a suitable lace pattern. This particular version created strange gaps between the lace repeats. Later versions were lacking sufficient positive and negative space.

 

It was also a little too scalloped at the bottom. There was no real focus on scallops in the pattern, so it mostly just resembled a mistake. So I treated it like one and ripped it out. Since sipping out two more versions, I'm almost done with the current usable one.

One redone

This is the image of me a year ago right before I took apart this sweater. Since then I've completed all but one and a half sleeves. Hopefully this means that the new version will be more wearable.

Some of the changes:

• better raglan shaping means I can lift my arms without the sweater rising up
  
• longer body means it will reach my waist
  
• longer body ribbing provides better shape
  
• v-neck should prevent a lot of the bad wool reaction I was having
  

I didn't do any of this over the summer. Now that I've picked it up again, I'm using my new rule: no changing my mind. As long as it fits, I will consider it done.

Handmade Happy Hour

This is the beginning of the menswear line. I'm keeping it small. There are plenty of ideas that I never make because the motivation for their construction just doesn't exist. The driving cap was fun to create because it allowed me to use interesting pieces of fabric that were otherwise too narrow to make into other things. I also got to use my French curves to draft the pattern.

I sold my first one at CITYCRAFT. I'll be listing more in my etsy shop.

giotto top new yarn

giotto top new yarn, originally uploaded by hairycarrot.

This is the perfect match I found to complete my Giotto top. Even though I know I said it was finished, I hated the back. Now I can change it. The yarn is mission falls 1824 cotton.

Remember this?

It got worked on today. The back has been ripped out, and replaced with the lovely 1824 cotton. I was contemplating a lace panel, but I didn't like what I was seeing. The yarn didn't look like it matched as well with yarnovers. The last three rows of Giotto were knit with 2 strands of yarn together, and then the switch to just he cotton. The match really shows up well, and I expect to be finished tomorrow.

Twilight Market

Twilight Market, originally uploaded by hairycarrot.

1. go team pittsburgh!, 2. farmer's market, 3. new clothing rack, 4. satisfied customer

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

The Twilight Market is a great time. The nice thing about farmer's markets is that they are open for the season. I got incredible vegetables for a great price, and they were so much nicer than the store's. This is the only thing as good as shopping at Wegman's.

I bought a bunch of dill, and used it to make pickles. Since I have 6 cucumber plants I have a lot of cucumbers. They are just regular ones. I will never need to buy cucumbers.

It's a great time. The farmers are there every week, and we get to be there on alternating weeks.

I'm planning to be there.

I sold 2 items, which was about 15% of what I brought, so I'm happy. I also have some great inspiration for new items to make for next time. I haven't solved my hanger problem, which is that I need some with clippies. My sewing room is almost finished after I moved it from the basement to the spare bedroom. Double inspiration is that I have some company coming.

Bikini Experiment - Failed Hypothesis

Well, the bottom is just not the right size for my butt. The pattern clearly warns about butt cleavage, but it doesn't account for the fact that I hate things coming up really high in the front, so even though I almost avoided the back being too low, the front was just way too high and the legs buckled at the crotch.



My first attempt at fixing it was to pull the front panel apart starting at the leg taper. I had already altered the pattern order to start at the leg tapering so that I could work the crotch from front to back and then pick up stitches to knit the body in the round. This meant I would be ripping the piece from the wrong end, which is usually more time consuming that is worth it. If you rip a piece from the starting point instead of the ending point, each row will end with pulling the entire length through the turn. This is tripled with the knit two together stitches.

Of course after I did that I still wasn't satisfied. The legs still buckled and the front was too high. So i took it apart and started over from scratch. At this point there's really no part of the original pattern in my bikini bottom. I'm starting at the crotch with the front leg tapering. I knit through to the back and then knit short row extensions of 35 stitches over 10 rows before picking up the front panel. Then it's knit in the round for another 10 rows. This makes a bottom that comes up significantly higher in the back and lower in the front, without the buckling at the legs.

The band is cast on in contrast and purled, then it wraps from the back to the front around the elastic. I'm using a kitchener stitch that matches the purls and knits which also gives the illusion of running stitch from the contrasting colors.

The Bikini Experiment - Trial Two

I undid and reworked the front panel on the bikini bottom, to account for the weird leg tapering. It would have made sense if I wasn't scaling down the project, but since it's smaller than their small size, the shaping needed to be more abrupt.

But wouldn't you know it, I can't find my plastic needle to do kitchener stitch! I had it only a few hours ago. I think I might have mailed it out with an etsy order. I do own more than one plastic needle, but seriously. It's like I am doomed to never finish a project.

I'm going to dig out another needle and finish. This suit is getting done!

The Bikini Experiment - Analysis of the Data

Bikini Top - First Go

My bikini top was completely finished. This shot shows the band being picked up. It was the perfect width. I knitted my casing, but when I drew the elastic through it, a stitch got snagged on the interior, requiring me to reknit. No worries there, because 6-8 rows go by so fast. I triumphantly tried on my creation, and immediately decided to reknit the whole top smaller, except for the total band length. That would have to stay the same.



If you are aware of this pattern, you can see that the sizing up and down results in the band length going up and down with it. So to solve around this, I made a spreadsheet. Excel has to be the best program in the world for doing knitting calculations. Decide on your formula and fill series for size options, do calculations for pattern repeats, and generally save yourself a lot of paper.

To resize this pattern, I set up my spreadsheet like this:

Row #	# vertical st	# side st	total stitches
1	=[# vertical st] -(rounddown[Row #]/4)	=roundup([# vertical st]/2)	=[# vertical st] + [# side st]
**	**	**	**

Then, I filled series down for about 30 rows. Since I knew how many stitches I wanted to have on my needle when you make the turn in the cup, I was able to select from the rows that provided the desired number of stitches. Note that some of these Excel terms might be spelled wrong, but Excel will give you the correct spelling if you search in the help menu. These are spelled to give you the understanding of what they do. Excel is powerful. Use it.

I just finished the second cup last night at D&D. I'm picking up the stitches for the band this weekend, and hope to have it finished by Monday.

The bottom is finished, including the elastic in the casing. I'm not satisfied with the shaping in the front, so I might rip that portion and reknit.

Yesterday was the prom

and this is the story of my dress.
Making the Bacon Dress
More photoes on flickr

1. I started with the legs off a pair of bell-bottoms which I had converted into a skirt.
1

2. Match the knees, which are the narrowest part on the bell-bottoms, and pin above the waist.
2

3. Sew down the front seam. Pin and fold the bustline and darts.
3

4. Sew the bustline darts. I used a contrast thread to sew each detail. On a darker denim, I would use an orange thread.
4

5. The back needs a panel, so I used vintage material. It is pleated and pinned, in several layers. The zipper is angled to one side to keep the panel in one piece.
5

6. The back is not fitted until after the zipper is sewn into the raw edge. 6

7. Match the back darts to the edge of the original seam allowance. No fabric has been cut away so far. Sew down the edge of your dart and again next to the zipper.
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8. Another piece of the vintage fabric is folded down its center and sewn in at the bust.
8

9. Create a tube out of another strip of your fabric and press flat for the strap. Lace trim is used as the bacon fat.
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10. After the strap is sewn to the front, it is fitted and pinned to the back for sewing.
10

11. The last step is to add a hem extension with more vintage fabric. Folding it in half and pinning underneath the denim prevents the need for additional hemming and cutting.
11

Fin. Then I put it on and went to the prom.
Fin

Since I'm not effective with shoes, I wore it with pink Chucks. The students didn't mind because they all looked great. Their theme was Oscar Night, and they all dressed the part. Super cute.

giotto top new yarn

giotto top new yarn, originally uploaded by hairycarrot.

This is the perfect match I found to complete my Giotto top. Even though I know I said it was finished, I hated the back. Now I can change it. The yarn is mission falls 1824 cotton.

I don't know where my size 11 needles are . . .

Giotto top finished

I have been slowly and indecisively working on this top made of Giotto for about 2 years. I didn't have a pattern, a plan, or a goal. My only real stipulation was that it could only take 1 hank, because that was all I bought. I knew I wanted to make it like a tank top. I really had no idea about the back, and I made it twice.

This is the final product. I split the front and made straps. The back has a single center strap and the three are grafted together. The side seams are sewn together with the tails from the cast on.

I have had this yarn long enough that I don't know what the color was called. I tried to locate it on the website, but I can't identify it. I don't know where the tag went, but I'd like to know what colorway this was. I remember I picked it out because it reminded me of apool of ink, with all the light reflecting off in different colors.

Art Harvest 2007

Here is the table at Art Harvest, just before we open. We had a nice time. The people were nicer this year. There were two really nice tables on both sides of us. It's a welcome change from any show where you are flanked by an irritant. Emily made a few new bags, and the table was complete.
The music note buttons were a success, and I finally sold a skirt. I love making them, and I think I would like to just take custom orders. People know what they want, and it's usually not in their size. A woman tried on a skirt, and it fit her perfectly. She declined it, saying that it wasn't her size. My only job this week is to put size tags on all the skirts before I Made It next week.