Gabrielle Stanley Journal

A Hat Using Garment Designer

2011-12-10T06:03:00.001Z

Someone recently posted pictures of a sweater and matching hat. They had designed the sweater using Garment Designer, but I misunderstood and thought they had designed the hat too. While I was corrected about this, it got me thinking about whether it would be possible to make a hat pattern using Garment Designer.

I opted for a simple 6-segment design, but you can change the number of panels easily.

First I took my measurements. Around my head from the nape, over the ears and across my temples I measure 22in. Over the top of my head from the nape to my forehead measures 14in, but from earlobe to earlobe measures 16in. I therefore decided that the segments should measure 3.5in wide (to allow for a little stretch) and 8in long.

I decided to use ‘shapes’ to develop this design, so the sloper size used is not important. I went into the Display Pieces dialog box and turned off all the standard garment pieces.

For the hat, I selected Shape 1 from the Extras menu, and set the shape to be Triangular, Curved-Medium. I also displayed dimensions.

I selected the bottom line of the triangular shape and dragged it downwards until the height measurement was 8in for the upper section of the side.

I selected the point at the centre of the bottom edge and moved it upwards until the measurement for the height of this segment disappeared completely, then adjusted the curve control points until they completely flattened this bottom line.

I selected the outer point of the bottom line and brought it inwards until the width at the bottom was 3.5in (i.e. 2x1.75), then adjusted the top of this line segment and its control points until the line at the edge looked ‘right’. In my case this proved to be a line that is 5.66in high (from the statistics on the bottom left of the window), perpendicular to the bottom edge at the base, and with only a very small curve inwards at the top.

The final step is to reshape the curve at the top to flow more smoothly from the lower section.

If you are sewing, add seam allowances now, print the pattern and cut 6 identical pieces from fleece with the greatest stretch going across the pieces.

For knitting, you will be making either a circular or flat piece that is 6x the width of this pattern piece. The shaping at the edge of the pattern piece will be accomplished by decreasing at the 1/6th marks. You may want to manually stagger the left and right edge decreases so they don’t appear on the same row.

You can see from this short tutorial that you could adjust the sides any way you want to get your desired shape of hat.

Craft Fair Pictures

2011-11-22T06:48:00.001Z

So the craft fair happened last Saturday, and my friend Carla took some pictures. Here they are:

An overview of my space

The table with sock monsters and upcycled fingerless mittens

The clothes rail with upcycled t-shirts, sweaters and jackets

Chrstmas Craft Fair

2011-11-03T07:50:00.002Z

New Directions Reading is holding a Christmas Craft Fair on the 19th November.

Students and tutors will be selling hand made crafts, and there is also a fabric sale. I will be there selling my upcycled garments.

Details here:

Two Cowl Neck Top Designs

2011-11-03T06:43:00.001Z

Here are two interpretations of the term 'cowl neck top' using Garment Designer

Cowl Neck Top – Type A, a bias draped cowl at the front.

I decided to use a contoured top with cap sleeves, so I picked these options. The semi-fitted Top Style is the least fitted of the contoured options.

Top Group: Contoured Top Style: Semi-Fitted Shoulder: Sloped Neck Group: Boat Neck Style: Modified Darts: None Sleeve Group: Cap Cap Style: Angled

As I consider the waist and hip still a little too fitted, I selected those segments and moved them to a more pleasing position. I also made the cap not so wide, and the armhole shallower. I also raised the shoulder point slightly.

To make the cowl, I selected the centre front neck point and dragged it outwards to make the neckline longer. (Not forgetting to turn off F/B symmetry before doing this.) I also used the curve control points on the neck to straighten it out. Then I selected the centre hem point and dragged it slightly out, and downwards to increase the centre front length. I used the hem curve control points to make the hemline a better shape.

To complete the pattern piece, I created a facing for the neckline. When printing the pattern, print the pages with the facing a second time and cut it out separately, then flip it over and attach it to the neck edge so it forms an extension to the pattern piece. It will make a V shape at the shoulder. You may want to cut this out so it is wider at the centre front rather than parallel to the neckline for its whole length, as the inside of the neckline may show when worn.

When you cut out the fabric, the centre front should be cut so it is on the bias, NOT the straight grain, or the cowl will not drape correctly. (Unless of course you are using a knit fabric)

(Unfortunately, this pattern adaptation only works for sewing. I think you should be able to knit something with the front in one piece, but as the centre front is not at 45 degrees to the vertical, it is not possible to generate shaping instructions for this pattern piece with the centre front as a vertical line. There may be a way of doing this by moving the points for the shoulder and side seam instead, but I have not worked this out. )

It is the dragging of the neck point out and down, then cutting it on the bias, that creates the cowl, so here is a picture of an alternative cowl neck garment to give you the idea.

Cowl Neck Top – Type B, an exaggerated roll collar.

For this, I am going to look at the neckline only. For this reason I am not displaying the sleeve, but of course you will want to include it if you are creating a sleeved garment.

I selected a round neckline, and opted for the Wide Deep style. From the Extras menu I selected to have collars Joined At Back. This activates the Collar Group selection boxes. I changed the Collar Group to Full Roll.

The bottom edge of this collar will fit the neckline. I want a much deeper collar, so I selected the neck edge and moved it downwards until I got the collar depth I wanted. (You should display dimensions to help with this, but I have left them off to make the pictures easier to see.)

To make the outer edge looser, drag the outer points outwards.

For sewing, I would cut this double with the outer edge along a bias fold. Although the Full Roll collar is not available in a ‘joined at the front version, I would use a back seam for the collar. Do not make the outer edge too large or the collar will look strange.

For knitting, I wouldn’t use the shaping instructions as generated, as this will produce a strange neckline shape. Instead, I would look at the number of stitches to be increased from the neck to the outer edge, and the number of rows deep. I’d then decide how many increase points around the circumference of the neck, and divide the number of stitches to be increased by this, to determine how many increase rows I would need. For example, if I need to increase 36 stitches, and I decide to have 6 increase points, I would need to increase 6 stitches evenly around the row 6 times. With 30 rows, my increases would need to be every 5 rows (probably starting on row 2 or 3 then every 5th row 5 more times, then straight to row 30.

Pool Cover-up Jumpsuit

2011-10-19T02:48:00.001+01:00

I am now a dealer for Garment Designer software in the UK. Contact me if you are interested in this software.

In the meantime, here is a tutorial about how you can use this software to make a pattern for a pool cover up strapless jumpsuit.

A client brought a strapless jumpsuit to me for alteration recently. It has shirring at the top and at the waistline. When I mentioned it on the Designer School Yahoo List, someone asked how such a garment could be made using Garment Designer, so I put together this tutorial. I hope it will be useful, or at least interesting for you

Start by selecting the following:
Category: Top Plus Bottom
Top Group: Basic
Top Style: Semi-Fitted
Sleeve Group: Sleeveless
Armhole: Standard
Darts: None
Shoulder and neckline are not important as they will be cut off.
Subcategory; Pants
Pants Group: Women’s Template
Pants Style: Straight Low Crotch
Waist Treatment: No Treatment
Darts: None

Because there will be shirring at the waistline, I moved the point where the side seam meets the waist on the pants over to the side seam. This will show the point where the shirring will be added.

To add ease I grabbed all the points making up the side seam and moved them over (you could switch dimensions on to see how much ease you are adding, or use the gridlines.)

I also added some ease by moving the crotch point down, and the inseam over

Because we are making a strapless top, the armhole depth needs to be reduced to match up with the depth on the sloper. I selected the two points forming the underarm part of the armhole and moved them upwards.

Next I added extra length to the body to allow for some blousing. I did this by selecting the whole of both the front and back tops and moving them upwards. I used the Shift key when clicking the 2nd piece to make sure I had them both selected.

To draw the line for the top of the garment, I needed to see how long the side seam is, so I turned on Dimensions. I selected the hemline of the top and used the Additions menu to add a facing, setting the width to the same as the side seam length.

I then added a 2nd facing this width plus the amount I wanted to turn down as a hem at the top, and also a global seam allowance.

The final step is to turn off the dimensions and sloper and display the final pattern.

When printing this, ignore the portion above the ‘facing’ lines. Appy shirring above the pant waistline and at the top edge after sewing the garment together using your favorite pant construction sequence.

Dramatic Shawl Collar Jacket

2011-10-14T15:31:00.001+01:00

Chiffon Jacket With Dramatic Shawl Collar
Someone recently asked me about this chiffon draped jacket, so I thought I would put together a tutorial on how to create a similar garment using Garment Designer.

I started with a Standard Top, using the Oversized style with Sloped shoulders. The neck is Shawl Collar, Basic Shawl. I used sloped shoulders. The sleeves are Attached, Kimono 2.

I first adjusted the curve of the kimono sleeve to get a smoother line where the sleeve joins the body by nudging the curve control points.

Before going any further, I switched off F/B symmetry. I also checked my dimension units in the Project Options – I will be using Inches, Decimal for this project.

To make a deep inverted box pleat at the centre back, I selected the centre back seam and added an Extension of 3 inches.

I then switched my attention to the centre front, moving the centre front seam outwards to make a very wide collar. I displayed dimensions so I could watch how wide I was making it, adding 15in to the width of the hem. The shawl collar became a very strange shape but I ignored this for the moment.

I checked the seam length of the back neckline and the collar, then made the neckline vertical by moving the point at the top of the collar, keeping the seam length the same. (I got a warning message during this operation to remind me that the two seamlines needed to be the same.)

I then adjusted the collar itself to give me a straight front edge and a right angle at the top. This involved moving both ends and both control points for the shawl collar.

I decided I wanted the length of the jacket a little lower than my hipline so I adjusted the Top Length to 32. I dragged the bottom point of the centre front down to get the dramatic point at the bottom of the collar.

I added seam allowances all round both pattern pieces – I will make a folded and topstitched edge around the edges. As the pattern pieces are so wide, there will need to be a centre back seam. Before trimming the back neckline from the printed pattern, remember to fold the box pleat in place behind the neckline and trim all 3 layers together

I used French seams on my chiffon, though this isn’t suitable for the back neck/collar seam. This can be clipped then bound with a bias strip instead.
Sew in this order:

Two fronts at the centre back of the collar.

Stay stitch and clip the corners where the collar meets the front shoulder.

Make a tuck in the collar at right angles to the centre back seam This is 2in wide, i.e. 1in finished width, and is centred 3 ¼ in from the back neck edge of the collar. (You can use a facing on this line to mark the position if desired). It should extend across the back neck and about 2 in in front of the shoulder.

Two backs down the back.

Two backs at the centre back to waist level, making the box pleat. The box pleat is sewn together to about waist level, but is supported from the neckline rather than trimmed away.

Sleeve/shoulder/back neck, catching the box pleat and the bias strip into the back neck seam.

Underarm/side.

Sew loops on the front points at the hem, and put buttons on the centre of the shoulders to allow for draping of the fronts.

The story of a cardigan

2011-08-29T10:29:00.002+01:00

The story of a cardigan

On holiday a couple of years ago, I wandered into a yarn shop and fell in love with a colourway of Noro Blossom. I bought up what the shop had in stock, even though it was not enough for a complete garment, then sourced some more from a couple of online sites. I felt with such a variety of colours in the yarn, a mismatch of dyelots would not notice too much.

After researching the available patterns, I did not like any enough, so I looked at pictures of other garments, and finally decided on a sidew

ays knit cardigan with an asymmetric front opening.

Since the yarn is self-striping, I decided I would need to ke

ep the widths of the pattern pieces fairly even to reduce the amount the stripe widths varied. This led to my choosing to design a pattern with separate sleeves, and a separate front and back. To make the garment fit together easily with the stripes, I decided on square shoulders, and for such a garment I felt darts would be unnecessary.

With such a basic garment shape I was able to use a Simple Fit sloper.

So the choices were:

Top Group: Basic

Top Style: Average

Shoulder: Straight

Neck Group: Round

Neck Style: Standard

Darts: None

Sleeve Group: Separate

Sleeve Type: Drop Shoulder

Combo: None

Armhole: Standard

Sleeve Shape: Tapered

Sleeve Length: Long

Looking at the on-screen pattern, my first thought was that the sleeve was too wide at the top, so I changed the armhole depth by selecting the underarm point and nudging it upwards using the up arrow key.

Next I worked on the front opening. Changing the L/R Symmetry to Give/Take, and switching off F/B Symmetry so I didn't affect the back neckline.

I selected the centre front segment and moved it to the right using the right arrow key. When I had moved it so the left neckline was almost straight, I changed the Display to Actual Size and was able to nudge the line using the arrow kes until I completely got rid of any jagged sections of the neckline. (I often change the display scale to get an exact measurement or straight line.)

I then turned L/R symmetry off completely, made sure I only had the right frontís centre front segment selected, and moved it further over to obtain an overlap for closure.

My cardigan was now ready for the yarn information. I hand knitted a test swatch on the needles recommended on the ball band, measured it, and recorded the information:

Next came the conversion to sideways knitting. I generated my Pattern Pixel-Per-Stitch Graphics.

Selecting each front piece in turn, I pressed 'Z' once to rotate them clockwise.I then selected the back piece and pressed 'Z' 3 times to rotate it to the same position as going anticlockwise. The sleeve did not need rotating as I planned to knit it in the conventional direction.

I now changed from displaying Dimensions to displaying Stitch Counts.

Because I was planning to knit by hand from the left side, I set the cast on points to be the bottom left of the fronts and the top left of the back, by clicking on the numbers at these points. I also decided to work the sleeves top-down to allow for easy length adjustment, so I set the cast on point at the top right of the sleeve.

The shaping instructions were fairly straightforward. In order to work a moss stitch edge, I needed to manually add instructions to start and finish a moss stitch portion around the neckline as well as the opening edges at the fronts and the bottom edges of all pieces. I also needed to manually add the buttonhole.

I started knitting with the left front, so I could check my tension, and also weighthe finished piece to determine the stitch count by weight to determine if I had enough yarn.

I finished the cardigan with a large button at the top of the asymmetric opening, and press studs down the rest of the opening to prevent it flapping open.

I recently wrote a guest blog for Cochenille Design Studio detailing how I used the software to design one of my cardigans. They graciously allowed me to repost the blog entry here.

To see the Cochenille Design Studio blog, visit http://cochenilledesignstudio.blogspot.com/

Teal Frankenstein cardigan

2011-02-27T05:37:00.006Z

The Thames Valley Offcuts sewing group met yesterday. I took a stack of charity shop sweaters along to do something with. I started with 2 cardigans and put them together, then when I tried the result on, I decided there was no need for any more, it worked as it was.

Thanks Gill G for taking these pictures, and thanks to all who were there for their input.

I'm going to wear this today to Unravel.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with the rest of the deconstructed sweater parts.

Sockmonster

2011-02-20T14:34:00.004Z

I made a small sock creature in preparation for a workshop I'm teaching tomorrow - if enough people enrol.

Some knitting projects

2011-02-10T06:27:00.003Z

A couple of knitting projects I've just finished - Firstly the Southern Lights Hat from the latest issue of Knitty: http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEw11/KSPATTsouthern.php

And second, a garter stitch baby kimono for the new baby of a knitting friend. The pattern is by Joji Locatelli, available through a link on her blog: http://www.jojiknits.blogspot.com.

Miyake shirt

2011-01-05T21:28:00.005Z

A shirt I made from a vintage Issey Miyake Vogue pattern. It has an interesting welt breast pocket.

Christmas present creation

2011-01-02T13:35:00.004Z

I made this bag as a Christmas present. I used a Susa Glen pattern.

Jewellery class

2010-12-31T10:09:00.007Z

I've been attending a jewellery class recently. We have been making polymer clay beads, and also stringing beads and doing a little wirework. Here are some pictures of items I've made.

Noro Blossom Cardigan

2010-05-19T14:50:00.003+01:00

This cardigan/jacket in Noro Blossom yarn was inspired by the pattern Country Weekend by Joanne Clark. The pattern is for a sweater, but I adapted it to make a jacket, and used a different method to join the panels.

What a shame it is too warm to wear much straight away, but I expect to get a lot of wear out of it far into the future.

Button necklace

2010-04-08T06:02:00.003+01:00

While I was raiding the charity shops for tee-shirts to combine, I found a linen top embellished with a large number of mother-of-pearl buttons. I have a weakness for these buttons so I bought the top and removed the buttons (the top is still wearable so I will donate it again). I threaded the buttons on doubled upholstery thread and attached a hook and loop closure to make a necklace.

Productive Easter weekend part 2

2010-04-08T05:48:00.008+01:00

Linen trousers using the Sewing Workshop Plaza Pants pattern. I had cut these and the skirt out before the Easter
weekend but did not have time to sew them.

This skirt was made with the leftover piece of fabric from the trousers. I folded it into 4 and cut diagonally across. Then I joined the two 'skinny' triangles so I had 4 equilateral triangles. I worked out where the combined width measured the same as my waist, and cut away the points from the top. I then added the top triangles to the bottom of the truncated ones as godets, and joined the resulting panels into a skirt, using a concealed zip. With a half lining and a waistband I have a skirt and very little waste fabric.

A sleeveless top from a Burda WoF magazine

2 more tops using the Tessuti Favorite Top pattern I have used before. The animal print fabric was left over from a project from about 10 years ago. I knew there was enough for a top but one end of the fabric was not straight, so until I tried this pattern it kept coming up too short.

This fabric is so nice (bobbin embroidered with a wild yarn) I didn't want to cut away any more than I had to. The Tessuti Favorite Top is very economical. I have decided I like the back neckline for both front and back.

Productive Easter weekend part 1

2010-04-08T05:40:00.003+01:00

I had a prooductive Easter weekend sewing for myself. Firstly, here are 3 more 'Frankenstein' teeshirts. The pink one incorporates a hood from one of the constituent shirts.

Two of the shirts in this red one were overdyed with Dylon machine dye in Tulip Red.

Scarf finished

2010-04-08T05:17:00.004+01:00

Lai's Cowl pattern free from Ravelry, but made longer into a scarf. I used Debbie Bliss Pure Silk yarn that I dyed myself using Quick Color microwave dye.

Fleece and silk tops

2010-02-09T06:16:00.010Z

Green silk crepe de chine top. The fabric wasn't quite wide enough to make a kimono sleeve top so I pieced it to add 'cuffs' to the sleeves.

Another top from the same pattern as the green one, but as it is narrower it looks more like dropped shoulders with sleeves. The silk habutai is what was left from the lining to the shibori dyed silk/viscose velvet from a while back.

A single sided fleece animal print. I copied an existing bought garment with dropped shoulders, a wide roll neck, and pockets.

All three garments were very quick to make, I cut them out one weekend and sewed then the next.

silk/linen knit tunic

2010-01-25T06:17:00.002Z

A tunic made by combining the two Marcy Tilto patterns used for the turquoise tops poated a few days ago. It looks rather boring in the photo, but the fabric is a subtle tweedy colour seen close up.

Drapy waistcoats

2010-01-23T06:24:00.007Z

Two waistcoats wih drapy fronts. The brown (rose?) one is from a Marcy Tilton jacket without the sleeves, the green one from the Japanese Unique Clothes My Style book.

Silk tops

2010-01-22T19:22:00.004Z

Two silk crepe de chine tops. The yellow one is the Sewing Workshop Shapes Plus One Tunic, and the green one another example of the Tessuti Favourite Top from my previous post.

teeshirts

2010-01-19T18:14:00.011Z

The two turquoise teeshirts are from Marcy Tilton (Vogue) patterns. The first pink one is a Sewing Workshop pattern inspired by Miyake (Teagarden T), the other is the Favourite Top from the Tessuti blog.

Sirdar Peru cardigan

2010-01-18T09:24:00.007Z

Cardigan knitted in Sirdar Peru. For a change, I made a pattern in the recommended yarn, however I did need to adjust the size, so it wasn't totally straightforward.

I finished it on Christmas Day, so it came in handy to keep me warm during the snowy weather.

Alpaca socks

2010-01-18T09:22:00.001Z

Some alpaca socks (toe up, short row heel) made during a coach trip in Spain.

Crochet scarf & wristwarmers

2010-01-18T09:18:00.005Z

As I was scheduled to teach a beginners crochet class, I made a crochet scarf to use as a demonstration piece, and with the leftover yarn I made a pair of wristwarmers.

Catching up 2

2010-01-18T09:10:00.003Z

A feather and fan knitted 'shawl with sleeves', based very loosely on Jane Thorney's Ripenings Shrug.

I used a 'magic ball' of about 20 different yarns, the colourway was inspired by mother-of-pearl.

Catching up 1

2010-01-18T09:00:00.006Z

I have been knitting and sewing since my last post, but I have been lazy about taking pictures and loading them. I'll start with another frankenstein teeshirt. I look a bit fed-up but I'm actually happy with the garment. The teeshirt with the stars printed on it had shoulder frills, and one of these became the collar. The plain one has a small loop at the hem, so I put a sliver of starry fabric through it, and used the waist ties to make a neck closure.

More of the same

2009-08-23T06:12:00.016+01:00

Some more 'frankenstein' teeshirts, and I'm still on a roll. A couple had V-necks that I didn't want to keep. For the brown/cream one I used the back of the patterned tee (in fact a wrap front garment) as the garment back, and the back of the plain tee as the front. The teal one I used the back neck of teeshirt 2 to fill in the neck of teeshirt 1 - this one also has a scattering of swarovski crystals to liven it up. I have a stack more tees from charity shops to continue with in the future, but I have other things to do that I should get on with before I get back to them!

Frankensewing and charity shop 'fabric'

2009-08-09T05:41:00.008+01:00

Frankensewing - to make a garment using two or more existing garments, usually making use of some existing garment construction.

I recently had a flurry of garment making based on charity shop purchases, mostly 'frankensewing'.

This tee-shirt makes use of 3 tee smaller tee-shirts. The plain and striped garments had long sleeves and were used to make a wider, flared body and two-tone sleeves. The thrid shirt was sleeveless and had a front printed design. When that design was cut out, the rest of the fabric was cut into strips for a frill at the bottom.

The pink tee-shirt was made from two tee shirts and a tie. One shirt was originally a plain grey, and the other white with pale blue stripes. I overdyed them 'flamingo pink' with Dylon Machine Dye. After spliicng the main body sections and using the sleeves of one to lengthen the 3/4 sleeves of the other (with uncorded piping in one of the seams) I made godets with the leftover scraps, embellished at the points with tie fabric. The cut away neckline from the striped shirt makes a feature on the plainer top part of the garment, and the remaining tie fabric forms a frill around the neckline, and a small bow on one sleeve.

A plain green tee shirt was combined with a striped one with some green in it. Godets of the plain fabric were inserted into the striped one to make it into a larger size. I also inserted gussets under the arms. I used a small amount of pink tee-shirt fabric to embellish the points. I felt the green looked too stark so I used some dimensional fabric paint to embellish the garment.

Two small indigo-dyed sleeveless tops were spliced to make this larger garment.

This shirt was a charity shop find with a matching scarf. It had frayed collar and cuffs and a small hole near the centre front on the buttonhole side. It was a more wishy-washy pale blue, beige and cream spotted design. I dyed the fabric flamingo Pink with the tee-shirts above, then removed the main part of the collar to make a mandarin neck. The scarf was used to patch the hole and make 2 godets at the sides to increase the garment size. Finally I removed the existing cuffs and used leftover scarf to bind the ends of the sleeves which are now wide and loose instead of tightly cuffed.

This final garment is not really a 'frankensewing' project. I found a skirt in a nice viscose print, and used the fabric salvaged from it to make a loose kimono sleeved top.

Plaza Jacket

2009-08-09T05:35:00.003+01:00

A jacket using the Plaza Jacket pattern from Sewing Workshop. I used the Large rather than the Extra Large size. With the left-over fabric I made a bias tube and used it to make a bias sleeveless top. The fabric is a very slubby, irregular silk noil that I bought in Borovicks a couple of years ago. It is loosely woven and drapes beautifully.

I have put off posting this as I intended to use the pants from this pattern to make some linen trousers, but it just doesn't seem to have happened so here is the jacket and top. I have plenty of linen trousers in a natural colour anyway!

Catching up

2009-06-04T14:29:00.013+01:00

I have a few items that I have made over the last 2 months, but have been too busy to post pictures.

First, a felted bag in Plymouth Boku. I knit in the round from the top down and cast off at the bottom with a 3 needle cast off. The strap is an I-cord knitted on two double pointed needles. I felted it in a lingerie bag in my front loading machine on 60degrees wash.

I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

This is a jacket I made from silk dupion that I dyed with procion thickened with manutex, which gave a lovely cloudy effect. I adapted a Burda pattern to make it larger and longer. I used a large mother-of-pearl button.

Finally, an asymmetric knit jacket in Noro Blossom. I designed this jacket from scratch using the Garment Designer software program. The jacket is knit sideways to make the striping vertical. I used a mother of pearl button dyed purple, tied on with 3 strands of yarn left in a long tassel.

In this photo the sleeves are a bit too long - I have shortened them since.

Rowan 30th anniversary workshop

2009-04-11T07:35:00.002+01:00

Rowan 30th anniversary workshop, originally uploaded by gabriellestanley.

I attended this workshop at Missenden Abbey from 6th to 9th April. Here is the resulting cushion top using the techniques covered. I've decided to use the left over yarn to make more squares to make a 2nd top, using some different techniques and patterns.

February Lady Sweater

2009-04-10T11:02:00.002+01:00

February Lady Sweater, originally uploaded by gabriellestanley.

Finished - my February Lady Sweater

I knit it using Debbie Bliss Stella, it took about 2 months (with brief gaps to make socks).

Lace knit pidge and wristwarmers

2009-03-20T18:48:00.010Z

I just realised I didn't post pictures of the lace pidge and wristwarmer set I knit for my friend for Christmas. I used Rowan Tapestry, a yarn made from wool and soy. I used some mother-of-pearl buttons with an engraved pattern to do up the pidge, or neck warmer

Noro Stripey Socks

2009-03-19T06:28:00.002Z

DSCN5254, originally uploaded by gabriellestanley.

I just finished this pair of Noro Stripey Socks following the pattern from The Needle and the Damage Done:
http://flashbangfibers.blogspot.com/2008/11/noro-stripey-socks.html

I used one ball of the Noro Kureyon Sock yarn, split into two and knit the stripes from the half balls.

Dyeing silk yarn

2009-03-02T07:46:00.003Z

I dyed some Debbie Bliss Pure Silk yarn over the weekend. I used Pebeo QuickColor in turquoise with dark blue, and a little green & yellow. I saw a demonstration of using this dye for yarn the previous weekend at the Unravel festival at Farnham Maltings.

It didn't come out with the different colours as distinct as I would have liked, but I'm happy enough with the result to use it. I'll probably make a shawl.

Shibori Jacket

2009-02-13T09:22:00.009Z

I have just (finally) finished my Shibori velvet jacket. I dyed the silk/viscose velved using shibori stitching and tying and synthetic indigo about a year ago, as part of my Creative Computing City & Guilds course. I also dyed some silk habutai for lining in the same vat, using a twist resist method.

I used Vogue 1328 (discontinued), an Issey Miyake pattern, to make this unstructured jacket. I have used this pattern twice in the past, and am very happy with the way it drapes and is comfortable to wear.

Here are some pictures of the shibori patterning and of the lining.

Various knittingy things

2009-01-22T06:17:00.007Z

I have recently finished a few knittingy things that I haven't posted.

Firstly a hat in the Lizard Ridge pattern. As I did not have a self striping yarn for this, I decided to incorporate rounds of garter stitch to show off the short row pattern.

Next, a pair of toe-up gusseted socks in Artesano Hummingbird DK.

Then the Bainbridge scarf in Noro Cash Iroha

And finally some beaded stitch markers.

Embellished Jeans Jacket

2009-01-17T07:18:00.006Z

I created an embellished jeans jacket some months ago. I took a lot of photographs at the time, but have only just taken the time to write some instructions. Here it is:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/10675925/Jeans-Jacket-Makeover

Crinkle outfit

2008-12-08T07:02:00.006Z

A piece of crinkled fabric came from a fabric swap. I originally planned to make a Pleats Please style jacket, but the crinkles were on the cross grain, meaning the fabric was not suitable for this.I therefore cut the fabric into pieces. The largest has become an elastic waisted skirt. Two smaller ones are joined to make a tunic top, joined at the shoulders with beads. The final piece (cut off to make the skirt the right length) is a removeable neck-piece/scarf.

Shawl Pins

2008-12-08T06:56:00.004Z

I decided I need more shawl pins, so I used some wooden sticks (the ends of a broken bamboo circular needle, an orange stick and a bamboo skewer), painted them with acrylic paint, and glued them into the holes of some lage glass beads. Quick & easy!

Miyake cardigan conversion

2008-11-27T06:27:00.003Z

I have finally completed my Miyake knit. I bought a kit for the Miyake waistcoat by Design Club DK, but decided to use a different, much thicker yarn. I duly converted it to the different tension gauge and increased the size a little, but when I had finished I found my body was toasty warm and my arms freezing cold. I had plenty of yarn left over, so I made sleeves for it.

Having sewn in the sleeves, I found the weight of them stretched open the grooves on the body of the garment, making the shoulders fall off, so I removed a large chunk of the back, and regrafted the garment back together - luckily this was possible because it is sideways knit. I'm very pleased with the result, however now my body and arms are toasty warm, but my lower half is freezing, so I'll need a warm skirt or trousers to go with it!

The fastening in the pictures is a circular bracelet used with a hair 'stick'. I looked and looked for shawl pins at Knitting and Stitching this year but found just one, so this is my improvised solution.

New yarn & new knitting needles

2008-11-13T08:10:00.008Z

I recently splashed out on a set of Knit Picks Options Interchangeable wooden needles, and am enjoying making use of them.
While I was in the online store, I had a look around and bought myself some Noro Silk Mountain yarn. More to go in the stash for now as I have several projects already lined up!

Back to posting

2008-11-04T13:34:00.004Z

I originally set this blog up for posting pictures of garments I made for my clients rather than use my main website http://gabrielles-sewing-studio.co.uk . Then I decided I'd just concentrate on alterations, so I stopped posting. I've now decided to 'resurrect' the blog to post information about my craft projects and other things that interest me, so I have somewhere I can direct people to see what I am up to.

Barefoot bride on the beach in Bali

2007-02-22T06:34:00.000Z

This bridal outfit is in linen, a top with square neckline and armholes, and island wrap trousers.

Cotton tunic top

2006-11-06T06:46:00.000Z

This wrap front tunic is made from a 'quilting' cotton, finished with a spectacular large button from my client's button hoard.

Dupion suit

2006-11-06T06:31:00.001Z

Here is a suit in silk dupion I made for a client to wear to her son's wedding. The jacket and trousers are in a dark red shot with black, and the camisole and jacket collar & cuffs are in a brighter red embroidered with a darker floral pattern.

The jacket is underlined with silk organza to give it more body, though this is a fairly lightweight, unstructured garment.

The design was based on a picture my client found on the internet, however it is in the fabric she wanted, longer, and with trousers rather than a skirt.