Sewing With The 'Good' Fabric and Some Scraps

It was so cold New Years Eve day that once I got home from work, I felt no need to go out again. So New Years Day was spent inside sewing.

I've made three cowl neck sweaters from Sewaholic's Renfrew pattern. The cowl necks have turned out much better than the summer band-necked ones. I can apparently manage the cowl but not the neckband.

This is version number 2, a rayon/wool blend from Hart's Fabrics. It isn't as fluid as version 1 and I didn't quite get my swayback adjustment right, but I am still happy with how it turned out.

This is version number 1. A very drapey merino from the Fabric Store USA. They don't have an online shop, but they will happily mail you swatches and fabric. I dealt with Allison and she was great. I feel kind of guilty ordering from the States, but I can't find any local wool knit. Sorry, Mitchell's Fabrics carries brown, but I need colour even more in the winter than in the summer. Gala Fabrics in BC is also rumoured to carry wool knit, but they don't have an online shop yet, and I haven't gotten around to telephoning to see if they'll do mail order.

laundry wrinkles

 And version 3 of the same rayon/wool from Harts.

 I made the cowl and neck opening a little smaller and it pulls slightly above the arms because of this but the sway back adjustment is better and I am happy with it as well.

And I think I may have figured out how to work with the Renfrew top neckline. Barbara has this link in today's post. I like the wrap collar so I may try that next.

In other news, The Geek spent New Years Day creating things too. Her hand would get cold while using her computer in the sunroom so she made a mouse pogie. You can see it hanging on the door knob in the pictures of tops 1 and 2.

This is the pattern. She used a 3-d modeling softward to turn a 2-d image into something you can draw flat (sorry about the crappy explanation. I don't understand it, which is why she is the Geek and I am not.) She plans to post the instructions on Instructables so you may want to watch for it there if you are curious. She goes by the name 'berserk' on that site.

This is the paper mock-up. I think it looks kind of like a horseshoe crab.

And her is the fabric prototype. She used a two-sided scrap of fleece I had in the stash.

I think it looks more like a mouse house, so that is what I call it.

I have no idea how well it works since she managed add water to the boiler (there is a problem with one of the auto-flow valves) and bleed the radiators so the house is actually quite warm in here at the moment. Yay!!!

I also made a dog boot for a friends dog from another fleece scrap. He had lost one of his red-with-black-trim mittens, and since my red fleece bits did not match the originals, I decided to make it out of fake leopard.

This may be my only contribution to Jungle January as I am trying to sew from my stash, and it's still too cold to venture out of the house on any frivilous ventures.

This is a rather dry post, but I am a little under the weather and all the snow shovelling is getting me down.
Keep warm!!