Lots of ta-dah moments!

I’ve had such a lovely week this week!

Last week, I told you about the t-shirt that I was planning to sew and I really appreciated your good luck sent my way, and the helpful tips.  I’ve got something to show you … 🙂

Before I got stuck into my t-shirt though – and I confess that I was more than a little nervous about cutting into the fabric so I procrastinated for quite some time – I had promised to shorten some trousers for big daughter.  She’s off to India shortly for some yoga and breathwork training and needs comfy pants to sit and travel in.  We’re not super-tall in our family so often we find that trousers are a bit long – sometimes you can get away with it, but big daughter would have been skating on the bottom of these trousers so some alteration was required!  I thought it would be a good way to start.

So, I got the sewing machine out, my scissors, thread, tape measure … and then had no idea how to actually hem the trousers properly as I really didn’t want to get it wrong!  There’s a bit of a difference between these and my hanging-around-the-house joggers 🤣  Fortunately, I found help in the shape of this YouTube video and I was off!

Big daughter was very impressed – and so was I!  It was easier than I’d expected as I ended up just cutting off the old hem and then turning the trousers up from there, but I was still very pleased with the results.

So that was the weekend, and I was itching to get on with my t-shirt, buoyed by my trouser hem success.  I kept reminding myself that I’d bought the yarn to cut, there was plenty of it, and if I took my time and went slowly then everything would be fine.  I had my expert sewing friend at the end of phone and I had access to the internet.  It was all going to be fine!

I discovered within a few minutes of getting myself set up to cut the fabric that it wasn’t going to be that easy.  The jersey was rolling in at the edges and I hadn’t been able to get any spray starch at the supermarket (thanks for the suggestion in last week’s comments, Fi!) so I decided I would pin the fabric straight rather than try to wrestle with the rolled edge.

Fortunately, my apprentice was on hand to keep the fabric flat for me …

and before long, I had cut out all the pieces the right way round (hooray!) and I was ready to start sewing.  Another delay as I realised I had bought hand-sewing ballpoint needles instead of machine needles, but that was quickly sorted.  The fabric wasn’t actually too difficult to sew once I got going.  The cut edges didn’t curl and jersey doesn’t need any extra work to stop it fraying so I made good progress – until I got to the neckline.  The pattern assumed that I knew what I was doing (I didn’t), but Tilly and the Buttons came to the rescue with a handy tutorial.

My next problem came when I tried to sew the cuff of the sleeve.  It didn’t matter which stitch I used, it just didn’t look right.  I tried zig zag, straight stitch, a combination of both, and still the fabric puckered and looked awful.  There was a LOT of unpicking!  More Googling and consultation with expert Donna, and a twin needle arrived on a fast delivery.  Oh my goodness, what a game changer that is!  I was very excited, it made my sewing look so professional!

And then my t-shirt was finished.  Ready to see?

Ta-dah!

It’s a bit of a fuzzy selfie taken at the top of the stairs where the light was best that day, but there’s no mistaking that I am feeling very pleased with myself – and I’ve made a wearable t-shirt!

The pattern is Luna by Desipah on Etsy, and it comes with three sleeve lengths so I could make longer-sleeved versions too, if I wanted to.  I’m definitely feeling very confident at about starting my next t-shirt (I have been smiling all the way through this process because I’ve felt myself echoing the sock knitting beginners in my Facebook group) and I need to do that sooner rather than later so that I don’t forget what I’ve done.  I have definitely learnt new skills making this t-shirt, and I’ve also learnt more about how my sewing machine works, what sort of needles work with different fabrics and even about needle sizes.  It’s been lovely to learn something new!

Back to something familiar and I’ve got another ta-dah … my Laughing Hens socks!  Phew, I am glad to have these off the needles now, they were feeling a bit neglected in my project bag and I don’t like it when my socks get to that point.  I took them to the Winwick Knitters knit group on Tuesday, sat in the sunshine, chatted and knitted … and suddenly my socks were done.

I didn’t have to mess with the yarn for the toes in the end (I thought I might run out last week) because there was plenty of the right colour and there’s plenty left over too.  No yarn chicken for me!

I’ll need to find a new Emergency Sock to cast on.  I do have another ball of Laughing Hens yarn that I was going to keep for myself (it’s the purple one in this photo), but I’m thinking it might do for my husband.  He’s more short of “proper socks” than I had realised and stripes are always a quick knit.

The colourways for all the Laughing Hens socks are:  my recently finished socks, shade No 21, Celebration; here – left is No 13, Seymour and right is No 14, Cleves.  You can click to see all 24 colours of the Laughing Hens Super Sock yarn, and this is an affiliate link.

Finally, on my ta-dah list for today is something that’s been sitting unfinished for quite some time.  It’s a polo t-shirt that I started making in July last year and never finished because firstly, I didn’t get it done before the weather started to turn colder, but also because the sleeve caps were designed in such a way that they were quite difficult to sew in.  The decreases created steps which are very hard to sew smoothly into a curve!

Fortunately, another talented friend was on hand to help me solve the problem.  Lynne Rowe of Knit Crochet Create is one of those people who just seems to know everything about knitting garments (she’s pretty good at socks, too!) and I knew that she’d know the answer.  We met up for lunch last week and I warned her that I’d be picking her brains!

It turns out that she did know how to solve the problem (slipping the first stitch of a row before decreasing smooths out steps – I had no idea!) and here’s my new smooth sleeve cap ready to be sewn in.  It’s a half-way ta-dah before the full thing, and I’m hoping I’ll have the finished polo shirt to show you next week.

This has been quite a long post but as we’re nearly at the end of February, I want to include a last few outdoor photos as I like to remember myself and reading my old blog posts brings all the memories back!

This is pretty much the same photo as last week – same field, same dog – but the sun is shining and everything looks so much better.

The whatever it is that’s growing in the field has grown taller too, but that’s hardly surprising given the amount of rain we’ve had.  Walking back home again, the sun was setting.  We’ve had to try to time our walks around the rain this week – it’s been a case of “Quick, it’s not raining!” and then dashing outside before the rain starts again.

Doesn’t the sun look huge? It’s a bit like a Tellytubbies sun but without the giant baby face in the centre 🌞  (Tellytubbies is an old British children’s programme from the 1990s – you can see the sun rising here.)

And within a few minutes, the sun had disappeared and we were walking into the most wonderful sunset.

We walked past an old greenhouse and I loved the reflection.  I’m looking forward to the sun coming back again, I’m done with the rain now!

 

Right, it’s lunch time and I need to go and make something to eat.  I got these tomatoes in our veg box the other day – I’ve never seen ridged tomatoes like these before!  They taste lovely, proper tomatoes, which is the great thing about having a veg box delivered straight from the farm.  I think there’ll be a few of these on my plate today!

Have a lovely weekend.  I’m planning to spend mine in the garden, weather permitting, and I hope you’ve got something fabulous planned too! xx