Twigs and Willows Sweater

I recently finished knitting Twigs and Willows from Botanical Knits. This is a classic cardigan pattern with some nice yoke detailing. Mine is made with a small amount of negative ease for a fitted look. It is knit as flat pieces and sewn together, which is my favorite way to go. I changed the side shaping a bit to spread the bottom decreases out instead of doing them all in the ribbed section. I could have spread them out even further than I did. For the neckline finishing, I used an applied 4-stitch i-cord because I figured it would match the cabling in the yoke a bit better. For the front bands, I used needles 3 sizes smaller to create a denser fabric for the ribbing. Before the pieces were assembled, I was worried that the yoke cabling would be tight and pull in too much, but it turned out fine once the sleeves are sewn on. I did my own shaping for the sleeves, but I don't think it differed much from the pattern instructions. All in all, I'm happy with this cardigan.

Gifts for Knitters

This post is in the name of shameless advertising. My Etsy Shop has some fun stitch markers suitable as gifts for your knitting friends and family or for yourselves. There's still plenty of time to order them. My latest addition are these pullover yoke style sweater stitch markers. What could be more self-referential than knitting a sweater using sweater stitch markers?

Sewing: Vogue V1515 Blouse

I had sewn the skirt from Vogue V1515 and blogged about it here. Now it was time to tackle the blouse. It's a summer blouse, but I wanted to make it anyway. There were a ton of little modifications and additions that I went through to achieve the final product. Here's how it all went down:

• I had some very lightweight striped white cotton that I wanted to use, but it's too thin on its own so I would need another layer. Instead of using the same fabric for the second layer, I chose another lightweight semi-sheer cotton from my stash.
• I didn't want my blouse to be as short as the pattern's version, but I didn't just want to add some more length. I decided I would add a slightly ruffled piece onto the bottom, sort of like a mild flounce. I added it only to the inner layer. The two layers are sewn separately and attached only at the neckline and armholes.
• I used french seems for the sides of the layers, and I used narrow hems at the bottom of the outer layer and for the flounce. I used the armhole facing to finish the armholes, but it would have been easier to use bias tape.
• For the collar, I didn't attach the elastic directly to the fabric on one side. Instead, I made a casing by sewing the inner and outer layers together.
• After sewing the collar but before attaching it to the body, I tried it on and as I suspected, it was too tall and kept tickling my chin. I made a new collar that is about 1/2" shorter in height and the elastic is closer to the top.
• The back quasi-flounce piece does not ruffle as much because the top has a longer curved back but I didn't increase the curvature of the flounce piece. I'm fine with that.
• This is a very wide blouse -- I cut quite a bit from the side. It's easy to see that it's very wide from just looking at the pattern pieces.

I'm very pleased with the result, so now I just have to wait for warmer weather!