Thursday, July 09, 2015

Multiple Options

Our nephew’s wedding on Tuesday was lovely! Too bad more family and friends couldn’t attend. The mid-week timing was problematic for a lot of people and even his Nana couldn’t make it because she was in Haida Gwaii. However, the garden venue was perfect, right down to the dancing dragonflies. We will definitely enjoy welcoming another member to the extended family!

Yes, I got my dress finished just in time. I opted to sew the Mizono V1410. This is a deceptively simple dress: only two pieces. I added big patch pockets but the bias binding that I had cut for the neck and armholes didn’t work out because it would have been too thick to lay flat. I just serged the edge, turned it under and topstitched and it looked just fine. This black rayon/poly has absolutely no stretch so it didn’t even need stay-stitching. For the cord, instead of elastic I used a rayon cording from the stash and a black plastic cord lock. I sewed repurposed shirt buttons at the lower two of the three placement spots on the inside side seams. The highest one was in the way of the pockets so I didn’t use it. Besides it would have looked quite silly.

And here she is at the longest length:

MizonoDress_long

Glad I shortened it by 2 inches. I hate really long skirts. And buttoning up to the dress length:

MizonoDress_med

And here’s tunic length:

MizonoDress_tunic

FYI, I have shorts on underneath! But you can’t see them in the photo. There are a few wrinkles though from wearing this for most of a very warm day but not bad at all. I do like how well my modified shoulder, armhole and neck area fits. No bra straps peeking out. I can imagine this dress/tunic is going to get some serious wear because it’s so versatile. I’ll also be on the lookout for some more suitable fabric to make it again too. It’s too great to only have one of them!

In knitting news I’ve struggled with both of my current projects. The Periwinkle Necklace Cami was a bear to knit the cabled “necklace” part but I finally got it done. Picking up the stitches for the back section went relatively easily and then a straight knit down to the bottom of the armholes. But picking up the stitches for the front went badly – several times. I finally got the side gussets down and am knitting across the front section to match up to the back. After it’s joined it will be smooth sailing round and round! I was concerned about the fact that the width which is perfect for my bust wasn’t going to accommodate my hips. But I was inspired by another Ravelry version that had a hem split at either side. Perfect! I want this longer than the pattern anyway so I can keep going after splitting at the hip to exactly the right length. Problem solved. I love Ravelry.

The other knitting project, the Red Tide Vestigan, also gave me fits. The parts of the lace yoke were pretty much knit twice each and one side of the back is still slightly larger than the other. Sheesh. I had trouble with the older handspun yarn not quite matching gauge or colours and it has somewhat thicker and thinner areas. This pattern (Low Tide by tincanknits) has you block the beejeebers out of the yoke pieces which has the undesirable effect of stretching the neckline. As everyone has figured out by now, I have very narrow rounded shoulders and this sweater is definitely too wide for them! So another helpful hint from a Ravelry knitter: crochet a slip-stitch edge all the way around to snug it up. Yay! You have to crochet buttonholes anyway so I might as well keep going. Oh, and speaking of buttons, I found some perfect small ceramic ones in my stash, handmade by Esther Grav, a fibre artist from Belleville, ON. She doesn’t do ceramics anymore so these are a treasure.

Anyway, I’m currently cruising down the body on this sweater. It’s quite relaxing to knit with wool as opposed to the Periwinkle’s unforgiving rayon. I will stop to knit on the little cap sleeves very soon so that I can just continue on the body as long as I can with the yarn I have available. There is no more of this handspun wool in the stash so that will be it.

The weather has still been hot and dry. We’re on even more restrictive water rationing but we can at least continue to water the flowers and veggies by hand. It was slightly cooler yesterday (by about 3 degrees Celsius, aka not much!) so we managed to get out in the garden for more than just the endless watering job. We actually did a bunch of cleanup and weeding before we both wore out. There are now some empty patches in the veggie garden which may or may not be filled. If we plant new seeds they only have about 5 or 6 weeks to get established before we leave on our annual long vacation. And who knows what will happen to them before we get back? They won’t be getting any mollycoddling that’s for sure!

As far as the smoke from the province’s many forest fires goes, we’re still getting the occasional whiffs but it’s not bad. Not like Sunday and Monday which were horrible! There’s not much you can do about it anyway but endure. And wait for the weather to change. It will eventually! Probably just about when we’re scheduled to go on a family camping trip to Manning Park a week tomorrow, right?

5 comments:

Sharon in Surrey said...

Pretty spiffy there Old Bean. And the legs are pretty good too. I like that dress - too bad its BLACK. Gad. All in all, it's still a good dress for you.

Louisa said...

Such compliments from you, my dear, they positively go to my head! Ooh. Yeah, sorry it's not more colourful but the next dress is. And I AM wearing a red scarf and metallic sandals to at least partly counteract the black.

Audrey said...

I was impressed to see how elegant, chic and unique this dress looks on a real person. Perfect for an outdoor wedding during a heat wave.

Heather said...

You look smashing in your dress - lovely fit and very artsy looking in the most elegant way. I was just reading your last few posts - such energy you still have in the wilting heat.

Louisa said...

Welcome, Audrey! I don't believe you've posted here before. And thank you and Heather for such kind comments. Always appreciated!