Double Book Reveiw: Yeah! I Made it Myself & Lovely Things to Make for Girls of Slender Means

 Yeah! I Made it Myself and Lovely Things to Make for Girls of Slender Means are both by Eithne Farry and are two books that take a different view to sewing than most books on the subject (at least I think they do).  They are written in an informal style which makes you feel like you are just having a chat with Eithne.













Between them the books contain around 150 projects which are mostly sewing with a few sections with felting and knitting projects (none of which I have attempted yet).

Yeah! I made it myself (or DIY Fashion for the Not Very Domestic Goddess) is split into eight chapters with an introduction and an epilogue.  The first two chapters are devoted to the equipment and the basic techniques for both hand and machine sewing. The rest of the chapters are each themed towards a different type of project, like bags, skirts, dresses and even designing your own fabrics. The epilogue has a humorous attempt at making a draught excluder in the shape of a sausage dog taking seventeen weeks.

Lovely things to make for girls of slender means (or Having Champagne Tastes but a Lemonade Budget) has almost 100 projects divided between four chapters and based around each season. The book has the same introductory chapters on equipment and techniques as in Yeah! as well as an epilogue but instead of the lengthy sausage dog draught excluder tutorial there is instructions for making a dress covered in live scented sweetpea plants.

The books are very similar in terms of the style as the methodology of the projects are laid out in paragraphs rather than a list of steps and include high levels of encouragement to diversify taking the way you dress completely into your own hands.

The way that Lovely Things differs from Yeah! is the more complete images of the finished projects allows you to see what you are aiming to make. If it does go awry then you can use the images see if what you have can be salvaged or made into something completely different. The images in Yeah! are partial shots of the finished projects that don't give you any idea as to what you are trying to make. This is the only one of a few problems I have with the otherwise really good books.

A large chunk of my problems with the books are the inaccuracies with the instructions for the knitting projects. The instructions tell you to use a pair of No.4 needles with Double Knitting yarn (a US size 4 needles are 3.5mm and a UK size 4 is 6mm) however, Eithne is not American and has used metric measures for all her other instructions and so I assume she means 4mm needles. This is a tiny problem that would only cause problems with an inexperienced knitter who had inherited needles but it never fails to annoy me when reading the projects. The only other problem I have is that some days I just want the instructions to be given to me straight no frills or whimsical anecdotes.

I bought both of these books in a Waterstones Store I got Yeah! for £14.99 and Lovely Things for £12.99.  They can also be found on Amazon Here and Here

Book Reveiw: Tips for Knitters

There's a stack of sewing and knitting book that I have amassed over this year that might be a little helpful for anyone doing similar crafty things to myself.

Tips for Knitters by Debbie Bliss is a great book for any level of knitter as it has instructions for the most basic aspect of knitting (knit and purl stitches) all the way through to advanced (and rather scary) decorative lace borders.

The book is in full colour with clear well defined pictures of what the instructions should produce. The instructions themselves are clear and concise. The beginning of each section and at the start of each technique has a small paragraph introducing it and giving a bit of explanation as to the qualities if it and why it is used.

It includes a section on yarns and fibres and here is where I tend to get annoyed with the vendetta that the entire knitting community seemingly has against acrylic and other man made fibres. Aside from that there is good, easy to understand descriptions of the most commonly used natural fibres as well as weights and textures. (I like acrylic as it is cheap and can be found in brighter colours than natural fibres, but I tell people that it is good as it is completely vegan and no animals were even involved in the making of it... sorry to any vegans offended by this)

I bought my copy from Mandors in Glasgow for around £8.99 but it can be found on amazon here and sometimes in larger bookshops

Products of a productive week

I made the skirt and mini cape that I was talking about in the last post.

I love it bits I'm not entirely sure that the pattern in G&LB is correct. The only usable clear picture they have with a model wearing it is useless as she is sitting down! grrrr.

 Here's a quick reminder of the fabric used (just in case you missed its cupcakey awesomeness).

And here's the finished skirt

It's also fully lined. This adds to the volume and protects the seams from fraying.

The minicape

Front

 Back

 Inside

It is finished enough to wear but still needs to be given a going over with an iron to set the shape and the small gap at the back of the neck stitched up.

Can you tell I had fun arranging the ribbons for the pictures?

I'm now on the hunt for translations for the patterns in the Japanese G&LB vol 37 (autumn 2010) specifically the BABY, Angelic Pretty and Peace Now patterns if anybody knows of a website or even has translated them I would be very grateful for a link or message.

Knives Chau scarf update: 1.39m so far (that's about a yard and a half for the people who don't use metric)

Fabulous Fabric

It has taken me some time this year to get  started on my projects for the summer but now that I have time and the materials I can get a move on with making stuff and blogging about it

A little while ago I got the urge to make clothes and began to look at fabrics in shops. Two weeks ago I bought some from Mandors.

 Isn't it just all cupcakey and awesome! (measuring tape is in cm) I have a pattern for a skirt and mini cape from the English version of the Gothic and Lolita bible (winter '09) by innocent world and mille fleurs and I'm going to use this fabric for it. If I'm careful with the pattern placement then I should have a fair amount of fabric left over to make accessories with!

I never realised Ikea did fabrics until last week when my sister sent me to buy some for her she wanted two in particular Britten Nummer and Charlotta Teckning.

Measuring tapes are in cm to give an idea of the size of those prints as they're HUUUUGE.

to finish off does anybody have any ideas what to do with these they are all 54x54cm (21in) squares that I have had in a drawer since last year.

Any ideas would be a help.

New toy!

I got a new bit of kit in the post today.
A flower loom!

it's from clover and the instuctions are a little confusing (read: not there) for the more complex bits like borders for the square and hexagonal looms.
all that aside the results so far are really pretty (I'll post some pictures when when I have made some more)

 Picture update!
I have a pile of these somwhere but I accdentally invoked murphy's law by looking for them so theres not as many pictures as I would like.

these were made with DK weight yarm on the largest circular loom the mesuring tapes are in inches at the top and centimeters at the bottom to give an idea of proportion.

these were done on the medium circular loom the one in the middle is made from aran weight yarn and the others are made from curling ribbon.