A little chart I made to facilitate the making of the Epic Scarf for Erik.
Click to view full-size, then right-click to download
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
Skirts!
I have not been lazy. In fact, I have been very busy, so a few posts are overdue.
Over winter break, it was nice to have the time to work on a few ruffled skirts. Ruffled skirts are dead easy, but tend to require some time. The first one I finished was a 10-yard skirt for bellydancing; the other was a skirt I started ages and ages ago for the PEERS Jane Austen Picnic Dance, finished all but the waistband, and then for some reason abandoned. Probably lack of time or motivation. I am instead planning to use it for the Valentine's Victorian ice skating gathering, along with a salvaged petticoat.
10-Yard Skirt
One of the more convenient paradoxes of the 10-yard skirt is that you only need about 4 yards of fabric for it (for my height and willingness to do some piecing), or just a little more if you're taller and less concerned with using as little fabric as possible. I made mine with four tiers, where the top was twice as long as the others, but you can also do it with all tiers being equal length. Another really convenient thing is that 8 widths of 45" wide fabric make up the 10 yards of the bottom tier, so you don't have to do a lot of tiresome measuring.
The new thing I tried with this skirt was twin needle gathering, because I thought it would make my life oodles easier. In reality, it made my life sort of in-between for single-thread and double-thread gathering. For one, it only required me to stitch once along the top of the ruffles for gathering them, and made the bobbin thread zig-zag really easy to pull out. On the other hand, it's about as stable as single-thread gathering, so a little more patience was required to make the gathers stay even and line up nicely with the edge of the higher tier before you stitch them down. All things considered, not bad. Still, however, I am now utterly convinced that I need a gathering foot.
Skating Skirt
This is another very ruffly skirt, and in principle even easier than the 10-yard, although more time-consuming.
It's very likely not period Victorian, I haven't bothered to check, but there will be no period police where I'm going. It's meant to have a bit of a petticoat worn with it, which in my case comes salvaged from a relatively ugly 80's prom/bridesmaid dress I once bought for $15, wore a few times, and then ripped for parts.
This one consists of a skirt made with 2 widths of broadcloth and gathered onto a waistband, with 4 layers of ruffles made of 4 widths each, gathered onto the skirt at regular intervals. Simple enough.
Current projects
Over winter break, it was nice to have the time to work on a few ruffled skirts. Ruffled skirts are dead easy, but tend to require some time. The first one I finished was a 10-yard skirt for bellydancing; the other was a skirt I started ages and ages ago for the PEERS Jane Austen Picnic Dance, finished all but the waistband, and then for some reason abandoned. Probably lack of time or motivation. I am instead planning to use it for the Valentine's Victorian ice skating gathering, along with a salvaged petticoat.
 |
| Tucked up all nifty-like |
One of the more convenient paradoxes of the 10-yard skirt is that you only need about 4 yards of fabric for it (for my height and willingness to do some piecing), or just a little more if you're taller and less concerned with using as little fabric as possible. I made mine with four tiers, where the top was twice as long as the others, but you can also do it with all tiers being equal length. Another really convenient thing is that 8 widths of 45" wide fabric make up the 10 yards of the bottom tier, so you don't have to do a lot of tiresome measuring.
The new thing I tried with this skirt was twin needle gathering, because I thought it would make my life oodles easier. In reality, it made my life sort of in-between for single-thread and double-thread gathering. For one, it only required me to stitch once along the top of the ruffles for gathering them, and made the bobbin thread zig-zag really easy to pull out. On the other hand, it's about as stable as single-thread gathering, so a little more patience was required to make the gathers stay even and line up nicely with the edge of the higher tier before you stitch them down. All things considered, not bad. Still, however, I am now utterly convinced that I need a gathering foot.Skating Skirt
This is another very ruffly skirt, and in principle even easier than the 10-yard, although more time-consuming.
It's very likely not period Victorian, I haven't bothered to check, but there will be no period police where I'm going. It's meant to have a bit of a petticoat worn with it, which in my case comes salvaged from a relatively ugly 80's prom/bridesmaid dress I once bought for $15, wore a few times, and then ripped for parts.
Current projects
- Hats! I'm knitting about a million of them. A post to come when I have enough to show off.
- Epic scarf commissioned by a friend.
- Baby clothes for the plethora of office babies being born in the next few months.
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