new things

Warning! Picture heavy post.

First up...

Sewing.

I took this old dress from college and made it into a skirt.

I cut it just below that lovely decorative top. Folded it down to make a casing. Threaded some elastic through there and now I have a beautiful skirt. I need to think of something to do with the top portion. It is just too gorgeous to let go to waste. But the dress was just too boxy for me to wear. So a skirt is more practical. Any suggestions for the top portion?

Here is some of the detail around the bottom of the skirt.

Don't mind my son eating his cereal in his undies in the background!

Next, I took this rummage sale men's size Medium shirt ($0.25) and made it into a more girly looking blouse. NOTE about shirt: When I went to remove the front pocket, I found $12.00 in it. So I made money on this!! HA HA!

What my husband called a maternity top and forbid me to wear.

Ok. Looking at this photo, I think that he has a point. I am thinking of making it into some kind of cropped top. What do you think? The top and sleeve portions are just too cute to let it go to waste.

Cut a rounded neckline. Added pleats. Sewed neckline done about a cm all around. Added a pleat to the back to bring the shoulders in.

Cut a slit in the bottom trim of the sleeves and threaded in some elastic for slightly poofy sleeves.

And now for some spinning.

This is some left over of the big patch of 2-ply that I made (pictures of that follow). This is some roving that I traded for on ravelry. It is wool but that is about all I can remember. Here's the info:

3-ply

Navajo plied

color : ambrosia

weight : dk (guessing)

yardage : about 66yds

fiber content : wool

spun: on my Louet S10

This was my second attempt at navajo plying on my wheel. I think that it came out great. I think that yarn looked much better as a single though. Now the colors seem to washed out. But the pictures of it came out great.

Close-up of the twist.

Big batch of yarn.

2-ply

color : ambrosia

weight : fingering (again guessing)

yardage : 577 yards

fiber content : wool

spun : on my wheel Louet S10

All this fiber came from about 8 oz of roving. I am amazed at how much it made! But again I don't really care for it too much. I have put it up for trade on ravelry, if anyone would like it let me know.

Close-up on its twist.

A view of the big batch.

On the knitting front, I am almost finished with the Sleeveless Tuxedo Tank. I have one more placket to do and then I have to see how well I can crochet. It has a crocheted trim all around and crocheted loops for the buttons.

I am using Southwest Trading Company Bamboo. It feels great and the color almost matches the one from the magazine perfectly.

Also working on my own design. I cross between the Olive shirt and the Coral tank from Helga Isager. I love both of those tops. I like the neckline on the Olive so what I am going to try and do is make the neckline rounded like Olive but make the body of the tank like Coral. I am doing this by just looking at the pictures so we will see how it goes.