Another skirt!

Fall is here.  I am not talking only about the leaves that are starting to drop in the yard, but also about the fact that days are definitely getting shorter.  I completed both this skirt and the barefoot sandals 1 - 2 weeks ago and put off posting them due to lack of daylight pictures.  I had a lot going on on the weekends, and during the week, I unfortunately came home too late when there was not much daylight left.  In the end I gave up and took photos of both in the evening.  Could have posted sooner!

I completed this skirt ~ 2 weeks ago.  It has the same construction as the other skirt I made earlier this month.  I actually figured out how to make the stitches on the sewing machine longer just as I finished this skirt.  They are still microscopically short in this skirt, but now I know what to do going forward.

Not much else to say about this, other than saying that I really like the pattern on this fabric!  I suspect it's actually quilting cotton, but I don't care - it's beautiful!  I think this will be it for these skirts since there is no need to have more.  I now have to decide whether I want to actually learn how to sew or not.  There is still a lot I have to figure out with my machine.  First and foremost - my bobbin winder doesn't work!  I changed the rubber band, but it still won't budge.  I have some quilting squares that may be good for making a few simple draw string bags for practice - I just have to decide if it's something I want to pursue.  Maybe in the winter when there is generally more time to do such things.

Barefoot sandals

No comments on my chipped nail polish please.  I decided to go harvest eggplants right after painting my toe nails...  

I recently finished this pair of barefoot sandals using TotusMel's pattern.  I lover her creativity and I had wanted to make a pair of barefoot sandals since she first made her pattern available.  I have also seen many other pairs of barefoot sandals that other tatters have made.

I started making these last summer (I think) and was almost done when I put them down before summer ended.  I had the best intentions of finishing them over the winter, but it was hard to motivate myself to make something called barefoot sandals when there was a lot of snow outside!  When I picked them up again a few weeks ago, I saw how little I had left to do.  Basically only one toe loop and the ties.  Granted the toe loop was painful to make, which is why I think I put them down to begin with.  I also for some reason didn't sew in the ends as I went along (which is my typical practice) so I had a lot of ends to sew in.  I spaced them out nicely and finished them over several evenings while waiting for dinner to grill.  I made sure not to have too much wine while doing this!

When making these, my husband asked what I was making and I just replied "something silly".  He never did quite figure out what I was making until I modeled them for him.  To his benefit, I don't think he has ever seen a pair of barefoot sandals before.

Initially I wanted to title this post "tatting jewelry I will never wear", but figured that would come across as really rude and would totally miss the point of what I am trying to say.  Although I think they are very interesting, it is just not my style and I can't ever see myself wearing these.  I never go barefoot anymore.  That's not to say I like to wear socks - I don't, I just prefer to wear either sandals or flip flops in the summer.  Come to think of it, I may wear them to one of our friend's house where they have an informal no shoes policy...  These are kind of like some of my crazier make up looks that I come up with - very fun to play with, but not something I would wear outside the house.  I definitely enjoyed making these though!

They actually don't look too bad with shoes.  Still not sure I will wear them.

Some general comments:

1.  As almost anyone that even semi-regularly reads my blog knows, I like working with fine thread.  Working with size 10 thread was very painful!  On the plus side, I did manage to open a ring when I forgot to add a picot.  I know how to open a ring, but most of the time with small thread it's easier to cut out a mistake than to try and open a ring.  Although to be honest, most of the time I try to ignore the mistake and move on.

2.  I made another mistake in one of the chains.  By the time I noticed I would have had to cut out several rings and chains which I did not want to do.

3.  Related to thick thread - I think adding more thread really shows and I tried to avoid it.  I add thread by tatting over the ends of the new thread I add.  This is the main reason I did not cut out the mistake mentioned above.

4. The toe rings were the most painful to make.  I think this is a case where needle tatting works much better.  Somehow I managed to get the first toe ring nice and tight.  Unfortunately my luck ran out with the second one.  At one point I thought I would even snap the thread, but luckily it held.  I am not comfortable enough with needle tatting to switch over though.  In the end, the larger toe ring works better though, since it fits over my toe ring.  With the smaller loop, I would have to take the toe ring off, put on the barefoot sandal and then put the toe ring bak on.  What a hassle!  Having said that the fact that the two don't match does not sit well with me either...

5.  The ties could stand to be longer.  I would prefer to cross them in front once more and tie in the back.  There is a lot going on now in the front with both the pattern and the dangling ties.

Definitely a fun (and different!) project.  Most of my tatting ends up in a box anyways, and this was certainly a nice change of pace.

No. 7

A small pattern from one of my Japanese books.

I was very intrigued by the overlapping chains.  Looking through book it seemed easy enough to do and I guess it is, if you work with larger thread.  If I recall correctly, the book used size 20 thread and it looks like a shuttle can pass through with no problem.  When you switch to size 80 though, that is no longer the case!  I tried various things with no success and finally had to break down and order one of these celtic shuttles from Handy Hands.  Not that I really mind an excuse to try a new shuttle!

I hate to say it, but these shuttles are a pain to use!  Maybe because I'm not used to it, but I had a hard time maneuvering the shuttle.  More practice, I guess.

Made with DMC special dentelles size 80 in ecru.

Victorian Snowflake

Another snowflake from Vida Sunderman's book - this one is called Victorian Snowflake.

I must admit that at this point I am kind of pushing through to finish the snowflakes in the book and am not really enjoying making them anymore:(  I made quite a significant mistake on this one, but I didn't want to start the second round over.

It's hard to see in the scan, but in the bottom left, when I joined the long chain (with the clover on top) instead of joining in next to the short chain, I somehow went over it.  What's really puzzling is that I did that twice!  The first time I caught it after I made the small ring and I cut out the ring.  I somehow managed to make the exact same mistake, except this time I did not catch it until I was a few repeats past it.  At that point I didn't want to start the second round again mainly since I was worried I would run out of thread - I only have one spool of this color.

Made with Kreinik braid No. 4.

Archives No. 3

Another piece from my box of lace.  Like the others posted earlier this year, this was made a long time ago.

This flower lends itself to many variations.  I don't remember how many times I actually made this flower and how many variations of it I made.  This is probably one of my least favorite variations, which is probably why it's my only remaining piece.  Too bad I did not start keeping track of lace I made from the start!

If I recall this was a pretty quick and fun pattern to make - maybe it should find its way to my pillow again!  It is a perfect small piece to slip into cards.

Textured Snowflake

I may be done with the second round of the 25 motif challenge, but I still have a few snowflakes left to go in Vida Sunderman's book.  I thought about stopping, but I cannot bring myself to do so, especially since all the metallic thread has been ordered!

It has been a long time since I worked with metallic thread and I forgot how careful you have to be when closing rings.  I almost snapped the thread closing the first few rings...

This snowflakes includes what I think are called victorian sets.  I don't have much experience with those sets, but it definitely gets lost in metallic thread!  I suspect they would work best with thicker threads.  I also misread the initial instructions so the first chain is too long.  Since it is not all that obvious, I am happy I decided to leave it as is - otherwise this would never have been completed.

Made with Kreinik braid No. 4.

Adventures in Sewing

I have probably mentioned before that I am not big on sewing.  Despite that, it seems like a good skill to have.  I fully realize though, that similarly to knitting, I suspect I like the idea of sewing more than actually sewing.

A few years ago (3, 4, maybe even 5!) I got my hands on an old sewing machine.  It was one of those friend-of a friend-of a coworker knew someone giving away an old sewing machine.  I brought it home, plugged it in and saw that it worked.  Then it sat in a spare bedroom until recently.  I always meant to figure out how to use, but never got around to doing it.  This year with the help of my mom I finally got the sewing machine working.  In a way I'm glad I put it off for so long.  The machine is from the 50s and the instruction manual is sparse to put it nicely.  I would never have figured it out on my own.  Luckily my mom knows her way around sewing machines and was able to help me.  I've since found out that there are a lot of Youtube tutorials for old sewing machines.

I first tried making some straight seams which was incredibly difficult - keep in my mind this was my first time using a sewing machine ever!  Even my husband who normally only says nice things about my work, no matter how wonky, admitted that I could "use some more practice".  After some more practice, I decided to try my hand at making a skirt.

This is actually the second skirt I made.  Two years ago I found what looked like an incredibly easy pattern - actually more of a tutorial - and decided to try making it.  By hand.  Well, that's actually not entirely true - someone was nice enough to volunteer to hem it for me.  The pattern calls for finding fabric with a nice sealed hem so that hemming is not required.  The only fabric that I could find had print on the hem so that didn't work out too well.  I later realized that I probably bought quilting cotton, but the pattern was so cute it didn't matter.  The rest of the skirt was made by hand.

This year, with the sewing machine working, I decided to make another skirt.  Again, the only cute fabric I could find was quilting cotton so I had to hem the bottom hem.  More sewing machine practice...  The seams are very wonky and choosing white thread for an orange based fabric was probably not the smartest idea, but it will do.  I only wear these skirts for around the house anyways.

Overall, I'm happy I finished my first project although I realize I will need a lot more practice before making anything fit to wear outside the house.  That's OK though, I never had any grand ideas about making my own clothes.

Some thoughts on sewing:

• sewing with a sewing machine is much faster than by hand.  This may be stating the obvious, but again, keep in my I have never used a sewing machine and they always intimidated me  
• Many things can go wrong with a sewing machine!  At one point I had to pull out the needle when the threads got really tangled
• We could now figure out how to adjust the stitch length.  It seemed like no matter what setting we tried, we only got microscopic stithces
• The bobbin winder part of the machine does not work:(

I'm not sure how much more I will sew, but I did buy fabric for another skirt.  After that, we will see.

Minaret Metallic

To be honest, I don't really remember when I finished this snowflake.  It must have been earlier this year late spring/early summer.  Not much to say about it, other than that it looks very sparkly made with metallic thread.