Grace cardigan

Hi everyone,

In my last post I mentioned that cute little cropped cardigan to go with my Anna dress, well this is the tale of that cardigan.

Back in August of last year we decided to hold off on buying our own home to save more money and we were both quite gutted (living in a Batcave has it's advantages but space is not one of them!), the yarn for this cardigan was my little treat to myself to try and alleviate the sadness.

I bought two skeins of Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light from Meadow Yarn in Button Jar Blue, the most stunning bright turquoise colour. I had been eyeing up this yarn for some time so I went for it!

The pattern I chose was Grace by Jane Richmond due to the short yardage (I wasn't allowed that third skein ha ha) , I cast on the cardigan and set to work whilst working in my shop. I made pretty good progress and got down to almost separating the sleeves from the body when I put it all down and decided to focus on warmer knits instead.

Fast forward to yesterday when I dug this back out and thought 'I am going to whip through this to get it finished for my Anna dress' but, I bet you can see where this is going?, it didn't quite work out like that!

It turns out that I hadn't measured my gauge (I broke the first rule of knitting) and I was 8 sts out per inch! Looking at it I should have realised it wasn't human sized ha ha...

There was only one thing for it, FROG!

It was very beautiful whilst it lasted.

The next step is to start all over again but this time with a 4mm needle so I get the right gauge, not quite yet though. For now it is sat in the drawer having a rest and thinking about what it has done, we have all been there right?

Until next time,

Aimee x

My next sewing project - Anna dress!

Hi everyone,

I have my next project lined up and ready to go!

This week I will be cutting out and pinning the pattern for the Anna dress by By Hand London in a really pretty and colourful dreamcatcher cotton, which I bought from Guthrie & Ghani a few weeks back. The sewing will happen when my mam gets back from her holiday so I can ask her for guidance and assistance!

I chose this fabric because there seems to be a lot of bright and neon prints around at the moment and when I first saw it the fabric just spoke summer to me. It will be perfect with sandals and sunnies and just as pretty with some bright flats and a cute little cropped cardigan for work when it gets cooler (more on the plans for that later!)

The pattern came in PDF format and I had no problem printing it off and matching the pieces together, thanks to the very clear pattern and instructions. Now where did I put my scissors?

Until next time,

Aimee x

Introduction

Hi everyone,

You may recall a little knitting podcast called Knit.Spin.Cake, well that was me then and this is me now. A lot of things have changed including the way I spend my free time so I thought I would start a new blog following what I get up to these days.

Inspired by the new series of the Great British Sewing Bee I thought I would set up a blog which follows my somewhat amateur forays into the world of sewing, sharing with you my experiences and mistakes (of which I believe there will be many!).

At the moment I am actually without a sewing machine so my sewing time is quite restricted to when I can travel 40 minutes to visit my mam and use her wonderful machines! This is mainly Tuesday mornings and Friday afternoons thanks to now working two jobs, which means sewing time is very precious and I have to be very well prepared if I am to get anything done.

I thought to start off I would share with you my first proper, sewn by me, dress which I love so much. The pattern is Bettine by the very clever Tilly and the Buttons. The fabric is from ebay and is a swift print cotton chambray, beautiful to work with and it just goes with everything!

I loved this pattern so much that I 'comissioned' my mam to kindly make me a second one with some amazing Marvel comic book print fabric I found, this is the end result...

This one is just so perfect for all the comic cons we go to!

The pattern is very comprehensive and easy to follow, even for a beginner. I decided to jump in the deep end by adding pockets and tabs on the sleeves but I am pleased I did, they were not too difficult and yes it took me a little longer to finish but I believe that it was well worth the extra time. I did need a little help with the overlocking but this is not necessary if you're happy to use pinking shears, I just happen to have a mam who is a bit of a perfectionist and kindly offered to do this bit for me. Other than that the entire blue dress was made by my own fair hands!

I really look forward to making more of these, perhaps the next one will be in a blue stripy jersey because blue and white stripes are my new black...

Until next time,

Aimee x