Spring Knitting And Sewing

The spring in definitely in the air, here in Islamabad. The winter chill is gone and we have days at a stretch, of warm sunshine, interspersed with spring showers. My latest projects suit this change in weather.

My old reader might know that I have a thing for girl dresses with knitted bodices. So, I recently got hold of two balls of cotton yarn, in light fingering weight, to make a couple of spring dresses for my 6-year-old. I bought the yarn online and was a bit worried about running out. But in the end, I managed two get both bodices done, using down to the last inch of both yarns.

Next, I went to shop for matching fabrics and thankfully found some suitable ones quickly. It took one evening to sew up the dresses and another to sew on the buttons.

I love these part-knit part-sewn dresses and would love to test some other stitch patterns in the futre, insha Allah.

In other accomplishments, I did an early spring-cleaning of my craft closet and it has made me resolved to use up some of my stash. I'm still undecided about what to cast on next, socks maybe, or a stole.

New Ventures

It has been more than a month since I updated the blog. It has been tiresomely hectic. In addition to the mundane affairs of domestic life, the summer has arrived with quite a literal bang. We are having a few problems. These problems are not unfamiliar to my compatriots, and the old readers of this blog must also be familiar with electricity load shedding . It has been the norm for the last many years and worsens during the hot weather. The new twist to this old demon, this year, has been power surges or sudden fluctuations in voltage, which have fried a number of electric appliances at our home, over the last week. Our computer and modem have had to be fixed twice in this time period, and a fan and couple of lights have required replacements. In addition to this bewildering state of affairs, is a long-going water crisis. Islamabad has been in the grips of this poorly-managed water shortage for a couple of years now. This too, has worsened with the rising temperature.

All these day-to-day stresses tend to cloud one's creativity, as one figures out a triage of washing, cleaning, cooking and laundry with the limited water, and keeps an eye out for any unusual electrical activity. Alhamdolillah ala kulli haal.

Needless to say, it is still too hot for knitting my cardigan and I find myself little inclined to start some lighter fibre project. Instead, I have been exploring some new ventures.

I have been trying my hand at handlettering. I have wanted to do this  (as well as some water color practice) for a long time and finally started last month. I have been posting some of it on my instagram.

The other thing I really went into, was jewelry-making. It has been so much fun and I made so many earrings and bracelets. Even my kids joined in the circus hobby.  I have bought some new supplies and still have many ideas to try. I will probably get a few Eid gifts out of these.

And as if beads and wire were not enough, I tried some resin craft as well. And made a load of fridge magnets. This too is very addictive and I am afraid our fridge is going to run out of display space soon. I am thinking of doing a couple with buttons, as well.

Then, it is the time of the year when I sew Eid dresses for my girls. I have started on them and hope to get a major portion done before Ramadan, inshaAllah

So you can see how our summer problems have had an adverse ( or is it perverse ? ) effect on me and spurred me onto newer crafts. 

Eid Dresses

Here is the promised post about the Eid dresses I made for the girls. It took a few days to get cool and dry enough weather to get a photo shoot. The fabric for all three dresses was the same, though I used only two color schemes. (Could not find a nice enough color for the youngest, so used the same color scheme for her as the oldest). Fabrics are diamante chiffon for the tops and dupattas and jamavar for the bottoms. And gota trim on the shirts (kameez).

For the younger two, I sewed Kameez with shalwar/straight pants.

Now for the interesting part, and the star of my sewing _ the gharara. My nine year-old has recently developed in traditional flouncy pieces, so I offered to sew her a gharara. Gharara is a traditional dress of the Muslim women of the indian subcontinent. Although no longer part of our day-to-day wear, it is one of the staples at weddings and makes a fashion come-back every now and then, with a modern twist. This year happens to be one of those years.

It is essentially a pair of extremely flared pants, the lower part of which is cut on bias and gathered at the knees. The seam at the knee is adroned with some trim or embellishment. It is worn with a short (and sometimes long shirt and a dupatta/stole). Its construction is quite complex and tricky. At least it was for me, as it was my debut attempt. The slippery fabric made it all the more challenging. And I had no idea how much yardage I would need. All things considering, it turned out quite satisfactory. 

My daughter had a great time wearing it, so it was all worth it. She still wants a ready-to-wear lehnga (traditional flared maxi skirt) for the next Eid. (Losing interest in your mom's handmade stuff has to be the first sign of growing up, I had to bribe her with a matching hand-sewn clutch).

In knitting news, I am just starting on the sleeves of the July sweater and hope to get it finished soon.

Summer Sewing

Ramadan, our favorite month of the year, is down to its last 11 or 12 days. We had a wonderful start to the month, when we were able to sight the Ramadan crescent ourselves.

Since then, it has been all business, fasting, the suhoor (pre-dawn meal) and iftaar (the break-fast meal) and adjusting to a different sleep routine. On top of the hot June weather, we had to deal with a viral fever, which took all four kids in turn. That made the start of the month especially full.

I have had little time or inclination to do any craft work. Here I am sharing the sewing I did a couple of months ago, for my eldest daughter. These are a couple of lawn fabric tops and a dress.

The first one is a chevron print sewed into a Japanese-style top, inspiration for which abounds on pinterest.

The second top is a floral peasant blouse with raglan sleeves.

 And lastly, there is the multicolored polka-dot dress with a circle skirt. All these were my own drafts.

This summer has been very productive sewing-wise. I have sewn a lot of things, most of which do not make it to the blog. The most ambitious of  all was the sewing of Eid clothes for the girls _ glittery, shear, hard to manage fabrics, turned into cute, fun traditional dresses. I do hope to share them here after Eid.

In knitting, I have an almost done sweater front, with lace details, to share. In the next post, insha Allah.

Sewing: Multi-zippered Bag

Recently, at our home, there arose a need for a particular type of bag, with a good number of pockets. This was the perfect chance for me to pursue my ever-expanding pinterest board for sewn bags. After successfully  gleaning inspiration from there, I set forth to sew this bag.

 Sewing was simple enough,  except for the fact that I broke three needles in the process. That was mostly due to my trying to rush the sewing machine through thick wads of fabric and zipper. I learnt after many tries, to tread more gently. The fabric was some leftover bed linen.

Anyhow, the bag beautifully fits the role intended for it, and has gone into regular use. It is so useful, I think I just might make some more of these at some point in the future.

Sewing: Clothespin Bag

After completing my last project, which was that pair of upcycled gloves, I promptly started another knitting project _ another sweater for my son. This one is far simpler than the cabled one I finished at the start of this year, and I have made considerable progress. However, all this time, I had been having a craving for a quick sewing project, some sort of bag. Finally, I got out my supplies and sewed up this clothespin bag.

It was done in two sittings. First I selected the design (from this tutorial ) and drafted the pattern. The next morning, I did the actual sewing.

 All the fabrics came from my scrap bin. It was my first time doing an appliqué and I quite enjoyed it.  And it makes a nifty home for my clothespin, which were earlier housed in a makeshift pillow-case.

Eid Sewing

 

 The only sewing project I did this Eid was a dress for my eldest daughter. She wanted something fancy, with glitters, sheer material and whatnot.

  She chose the style herself while I got to pick the materials. The sewing itself was pretty straight forward. A simple bodice out of sequined fabric and a full skirt made of tulle panels with a lining. The bodice is lined too. The brown ribbon at the waist brought everything together.

 

 Needless to say, she loves wearing it.  And I love that twirl.

Belated Spring Sewing 2015

My excuse, for neglecting this blog for a month or so, is my being out of sorts. The burn-out left me with little inclination for craft of any kind. However, I had managed to do a few sewing projects prior to that and also cast-on a small knitting project. I will share to sewing projects here. I sewed a couple of tops for my eldest daughter. No pattern, nothing fancy, just a couple of simple cotton tops, embellished with some trims.

 The second one has a gather below the front placket and a box-pleat at the back.

 And, because I had some fabric leftover, I stitched a top for the youngest. (A similar pattern/tutorial pinned here.)

 I am working on another dress at the moment. Hopefully, I have enough fabric to complete it.

My Princesses

This project further proves the point that one does not think straight when in the throes of maternal love. At one such moment, I promised my daughters dresses inspired by Elsa's, of the animated movie Frozen. Soon afterwards, I realized the rather tall order I had set up for myself and tried to wiggle out of it, by using the well-known tact called procrastination. I hoped the girls would forget about the promise or move on to something simpler. But the "Frozen" bug is particularly tenacious at our house and it outlived my excuses for procrastination.

 Still, I took my time with these dresses, gathering supplies in February, sewing these up in March and getting to blog about them in April. The girls were very patient (which again shows the hold, the bug has on them) with me and even enjoyed the process, as the dresses evolved.

 

There were a few tears at the end though, when Amma (that is I) played Scrooge over the sequins. In my defense, I was finally trying to hurry things along, and hand-stitching that many sequins is both time- and labor-intensive work. More sequins got stitched on and we had a happy ending.

As for the dresses, my older daughter helped me pick out the materials.I looked around Pinterest for ideas and inspiration.The dress draft was my own. I decided on a detachable train, as I suspected it would be too cumbersome to have a train at all times.

 

 There are already requests for some more dresses, but I have successfully dodged them for now.

Knitted Yoke Dress

 Appropriate to the changing seasons, this project is a knitting/sewing hybrid. I used about 100 yards of this cotton/nylon yarn to knit a yoke and then sewed it into a dress.

The multicolored yarn does not give much stitch definition and may not be the best choice for a yoke, but this was the most practical project, I could think of, for this yarn.

 The dress fabric is cotton with a cotton trim and a satin ribbon for embellishment. It is sized to fit an almost four-year-old.

Upcycled: Cardigan to Strawberries and more

The little hand-me-down cardigan was worn by at least five little girls, including three of mine, mashaAllah, over the past decade. The tag on it, indicates it was originally a 18 month size, but with innumerable

 washes over the years, it shrank and felted to be a six month size. It also got misshapen.

So, when I needed some red felt for a project, it was time for this cardigan to be sacrificed. And some time later, I had a little strawberry pincushion. (Picture tutorial pinned on my pinterest board here.)

And because the little strawberry was ridiculously easy to make and cute, I made another.

 My kids wanted in on the action, so we made a couple more.

Now we had a complete harvest.

And I did not have the heart to throw away the embroidered part of the cardigan, so that got made into a case for my scissors.

I still have quite a bit of red felt remaining. Who knows what it will turn into some day.

On a serious note, I bumped my head into a preschool swing set, a few days back and suffered a mild concussion. The dizziness and headache still persist. I do not feel like taking on any new projects, (to be honest, daily housework is hard enough) until I feel better. Soon, inshaAllah.

Spring / Summer Sewing 2014 - Part 3

The clothes for my 6-month old are done. I managed to get them done, before the deadline I set myself. The first one is a dress full of ruffles. There are ruffles at the bottom as well as at the armholes. It is a heavily modified version of one of my tried and tested pattern, from an old Burda magazine. You can see the my earlier project with same pattern here (the baby dresses).

 The second one is a two-piece outfit, a top with coordinating bloomers. This one is self-drafted. The yoke could have been neater, but it is still cute, nevertheless.

This post rounds up my sewing projects for this summer. I also sew a couple of shorts for my son, which saw a lot of rough use before I could do a post about them. And a few outfits for myself but those do not make for an interesting post.

Spring/Summer Sewing 2014 - Part 2

Our DSL connection has been out of order for a week now and shows no signs of getting in order despite repeated complaints. So I have had to borrow my husband's laptop and WiFi to write this post.
Today, I will show you the two dresses I made for my three year old.

 

First up is a dress with tiered skirt and fabric flowers at the waist. The bodice is lined. the fabric is cotton. Again the pattern is self-drafted. I made it a bit larger so she can grow into it over the summer.

The second one is the one which has the chicken scratch embroidery I mentioned in a previous post.

 Again, it is self-drafted with a lined bodice and a contrasting ruffle at the hem. The fabric is cotton. 

 This one is my favorite of this year's sewing.

 

Part 3 of Spring/Summer Sewing  2014 is under progress. I have just started on a couple of outfits for the baby. InshaAllah, I plan to have them done and blogged about, before the start of Ramadan. (Ramadan starts at the end of June.)