Sewing sewing sewing weaving....

Oh, I've been having fun.  I've been sewing for the pattern stash contest.  I will never win the most made but I have made quite a few items, some of which worked for me and some of which were disasters that shall never be repeated..  So here are a few pictures to show what I've been up to:

The good stuff:
McCall's 2772
Bathing suit.

Fabric:
3/4m polyester lycra swimsuit fabric;
1/4m bathing suit lining, nude
Notions:
1" swimwear hook
 1/2" bathing suit elastic for waist and for lower bodice edge
3/8" bathing suit elastic for everything else.

I made this exactly as the pattern suggested (strange), and it looks like the pattern, too!  Only issue was that the band is loose on me, so I've taken out about 2" total on the back by adjusting the hooks.  This one is going to get made again for sure.

Dress:
Textile Studios 1407 Barcelona dress

 Fabric:
I eeked this out of 4 m of 45" rayon batik, and I mean eeked.  I pieced the back to get the full swing of the drape of the skirt. (It is supposed to take 3.25 m of 60 fabric).
Notions:  
none except thread, gotta love that!
Time--about an hour, all together.  Fast and silly, but totally comfortable.  Maybe not the most flattering dress I own (particularly this long and in this almost glow in the dark print print), but it will work as a bathing suit cover up.  And it is comfortable.  

Tshirt
Ottobre Designs 303 Women's best tops

Fabric: 1.2 m of cotton stretch lace
Notions: thread
Comments:  I'm sad this one is not in print any more--it is a fabulous pattern.  If they have back issues of the magazine it is in, I would suggest you run and grab one because it is totally awesome.  Only change I made was to add 1 1/2" to the bicep measurement to give me some ease there.  And the usual shorten 4", since I'm short.  Otherwise, totally easy and quick and perfect.  I like the ottobre block. 

Shown with another yoga skirt, this time shortened about 4" to make it fit the piece of fabric that I had left.  Um, and the waistband was pieced, too.  I had a 4" square remnant when I was finished.

Sweater: 
Christine Johnson Swing jacket 519
 
 

 

 Fabric:  2 m lightweight rayon poly lycra, black.

Notions: thread :D

Comments: I shortened the sleeves 3 inches but didn't do anything else.  Next time I'll shorten above the waist by an inch so the pockets don't hang so low, and I will shorten the bottom by about three inches because this hangs to nearly my knees. It works great as a bathrobe! And it is wrinkled because I had to drag it out of the bag I had stashed it in because I've been wearing it non-stop since I made it last week.  For the win! 

And now, for something completely different:

Weaving! 

Warping...

 

 

In the beginning, there was just a little bit...

 

And then some more

And then an awesome 2 m long shawl!

 This is my very first weaving piece on my 'newish' rigid heddle loom.  The loom was a story all by itself, and I will share it, dear readers, another day.  Suffice to say, I was very happy to find out that the Knitter's Loom Heddles fit this, my 20" garage sale bargain! 

My shawl came out just over 2m long, and 15" wide after washing and blocking, and the edges are actually very even, which, for a very first project is just...Awesome!  Squee!  

Warp:  cotton fingering weight, burgundy, 160 threads, far too long in warp length (I cut off another 130" from the end of this after I realized how long the warp was!)
Weft: acrylic fuzzy cream, fingering weight mystery cone yarn (gotta love the Romni basement bargains!)
10 epi heddle
Even weave technique.