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.

April Vest And Spring Break

So while I waited for the right time to wind yarn for the next sweater for my daughter, I cast on a vest for myself. This change of plans means that the sweater of the month, for April, is this vest. It got knit up pretty quick and had minimal finishing. Just the shoulder seams and a row of crochet around the neckline. I ran out of yarn, right at the end and used some variegated leftover sock yarn, to finish it up.

 

The pattern is another DROPS free pattern. It was an easy knit and the result is very flattering and practical. The side ribbing plus the waist shaping makes sure of that. The yarn is of unknown composition, upcycled from an old sweater.

In other news, we took a much-deserved vacation before the grind of new school year kicked in. It was our first vacation in a very long time.

We went to Murree, which is a very popular hill station near Islamabad. People go there all the time, for many it is a routine thing. But our kids got to see it for the first time.

 The timing of our trip could not have been better, it being the lull period before the start of summer season, Murree was not jam-packed with tourists.

The weather was amazing.We spent wonderful three days filled with sightseeing, shopping and dining out. It was a nice time to relax and unwind and enjoy our family. It made us determined to make vacation more of regular feature rather than once in a decade thing.

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.

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.

Spring/Summer Sewing 2014 - Part 1

 This post has been a long time coming. For the last few weeks, I have been using all and any free time I could get, to sew up some dresses for my girls. But there has been so little free time and the going has been very slow. But finally I do have some stuff to blog about.
 In this post, I will show you a couple of dresses for my eldest daughter. She got to choose the fabrics and you can see she has a thing for tiny flowers and blue color. Somehow I had difficulty deciding the patterns for these dresses. Again I went with her preferences, a full gathered skirt for both, no full-circle or tiered one for her. That narrowed down the choices and made decisions easier. Both dresses are self-drafted.

 The first one has a small floral print on black background. I made a simple gathered dress with short straight sleeves. I put solid purple edging around the neck and a purple frill around the bottom and then added a few fabric flowers on the front. The fabric is a lightweight lawn, very cool for our hot summer.

The second one is again a floral print which I coordinated with a solid teal. This one has a fully lined bodice. The fabric is pure cotton.

 Blogging about them, these seem so simple and straight forward, but these took so many days to get done. I guess motherhood is finally getting in the way of my craft time :)

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More Spring Dresses

I completed three more dresses to add to my toddler's spring-summer wardrobe. The first one was the simplest one, for which I used this tutorial. However, I was quite disappointed with the result. Just do not like the style and look of it in real life. Plus, the dull color does nothing to flatter it.

The second one was quite the opposite. I was quite uncertain about it initially, but it came out much nicer than expected. No pattern for it, per se, just put together some ideas that I had. I love this one, the color and the scallops, the pink piping and all.

No pattern again for the last one. I have memories of a orange dress with a pocket, that I had as a child. I loved that pocket, even though it was far too down to reach into, with ease. When I got this fabric, I knew it had to have a front pocket, or two!

I guess this winds up my sewing for my littlest one, this season. I am hoping to do some embroidery project in the coming days. And maybe something for my older daughter. Also I should get back to the knitting, but frankly do not have any motivation and inspiration at the moment.

Embroidered Spring Dresses

My daughters' dresses, the ones I did embroidery for, are all done. Done, down to the last button. The girls love them and can't wait to wear them.

 

I am really happy with are my improving sewing skills. I feel confidant to tackle newer things in sewing. I am already working on another dress now.

 

Spring-inspired Embroidery

 Recently, I was bitten by the embroidery bug and embroidered this for my older daughter's dress.

 It was so much fun and I had a hard time putting it down. I got it done in two days, and clearly I had not had enough, because I started a similar one for my toddler. That too was done in two days. Now, all that is left is the sewing of the dress ( I finished sewing the first dress). Sadly, it has been put on hold by a respiratory tract infection that I have contracted. Can not wait to be fever free and resume the sewing.

Sewing: Toddler Dress

 Every year, around this time, when it grows steadily warmer, I have an urge to do some spring sewing for my kids. This year too, I have found myself drooling over all the lovely clothes on Pinterest, for the last couple of weeks. Sadly, I do not have much fabric at hand and no chance to go shopping until the kids' exams are over. But still, I found a piece of plain purple cotton and taking inspiration from this top, got out my sewing machine. I was too lazy to look up the associated tutorial and did my own thing, but there definitely is a free tutorial for those who maybe interested.

 It was a quick, fun project, in which I got to expand my skills in sewing pleats. And I may have to do another one for my older daughter soon, as she wants one too, in the same color.

 

I'm back

I'm back after a break of about two months. I was not completely of the scene as I quite regulary visited ravelry and other sites but did not take on any major projects ( a child's sweater does not count as major, right) and concetrated on my household and studies. Now I have a small respite of few days, then I may have to study a little more, but I am going to catch up on things right now. Thank you to my readers who have hung around (I wonder how many of you are out there!!).

My comeback coincides with the arrival of spring so here I present to you a few colors and flowers of spring from our terrace.

This first one to blossom is jasmine which flowered in february when the days were still a bit cold.

I don't the names of these but do love the colors.

And the latest arrival was this pink rose which flowered just today on our littlest rosebush.