How to make single welt pocket

Season is certainly my favorite source of inspiration. That time I wanted to make white summer trousers using slightly transparent fabric from Mood's bag. Since the fabric is transparent everything inside should be perfect. So I was searching for a tutorial how to make that wonderful pockets with all edges sewn inside which usually belong to menswear. There are a lot of tutorials around, but their authors simply use serger to finish edges. This was not what I wanted.

Only topic about really accurate pocket which I found was this one. But it contained a question, but not the answer. I carefully read all comments, made additional research, found few antique books, but all instructions were incomplete. So I collected experience and created my own.

Tutorial is available at SlideShare Captions are both in English and Russian. Enjoy!

"Project Runway"-style shopping

Looked at photographs from my last visit to NY and found this one with a bag, full of fabrics, bought in last 45 minutes before a train to the flight home. And I have only limited amount of money to spend. Quite similar to those which are given for the designers though. Picture was taken in the JFK airport.

Black mohair top and circle skirt

Once upon long Russian winter I came to a shop, which was selling knitting and sewing supplies and saw this black mohair with thin lurex thread. It reminded me Christmas Tree (which actually is New Year tree for children born in Soviet time) and all that fairy-tale atmosphere which usually accompanies it. I acquired two skeins of yarn with plan to make a pair of leg warmers. I made them, but mohair is very thin thread, so I still had one skein.

What can it be used for? Winters near the sea can be cold enough, so I wear wool jacket, leg warmers and mittens while typing something on my balcony. And sunny enough to wear tops without sleeves. Black mohair top with tiny sleeves is just for such a winter. I knit it as one part from top to bottom. Endings are my favorite Italian cust-on and bind-offs.


I made skirt myself too. This time this is Soviet vintage pattern. Pattern looks very easy: take a square of fabric, cut circle, then use rest of fabric as a yoke.



Skirt made from rayon fabric 90 cm width. I didn't make zipper or buttoned closure, but instead explored the fact that bias-cut fabric is more flexible, so I simply used ribbon to fix the belt. Skirt is very comfortable and I like it, but it is very demanding for companions. Intuitive summer companion like tank top or t-shirt makes this skirt look cheap and I always have a challenge to find a clothing to wear this skirt with.
 

Belt bag

Belt bags are usually attributes of sport or sport casual styles. But at the same time they are very convenient to use for those who prefer walking to public transportation and a bike to a car or taxi.

For me issues is that while I use bike at least 300 days in year I cannot wear sport uniform all these days. I can get up in different mood and this is not always "wearing tight fitting synthetic sport cloths" mood. I wear civil cloths independently of transportation I use. So I need accessories which fit this style. Belt bag is still very convenient and must have thing.

After spending few years trying to find one which can fit civil cloths I realized that the only option is to create such a bag myself. Question was: which material to choose for such a bag? First option can be leather, but I don't sew leather. Also leather is not good option for using a bag on beaches when it can be in contact with salty water. I need something which can be easily washed and better if I could use my machine.

Crocheted texture can have very beautiful look while being less flexible than knitted texture, so I decided to use tunis crochet which usually adds even more stability. Still I needed strong support. I have chosen denim fabric for it.



Details:




I wear it with many cloths I have, but want to show pictures of most unusual variations: with a dress and with a skirt.

And, to finish this post, I want to tell funny story about this bag. Last year I took few Coursera courses. One of them was design course. First task was to create a design, tell a story what is new about it and show a picture. I could simply draw a picture and nothing more, but I could not, because I have almost no artistic talents. So I decided to show this bag which I just finished. I wrote why I made it and placed a picture. This text was supposed to be reviewed by peers, so week after I received feedback, saying that "your idea is nothing unusual, there is even design object for your idea exist, I saw it on the picture you provided." Damn, I created it myself!

Dark blue shawl

I am in love with wool fabrics usually used to sew costumes for men: they are very responsible to iron, easy to clean, cool and at the same time warm enough to wear during whole year. I am also like to use unconventional materials. So when I had a piece of fabric, left from my trousers, I decided to make a project which is not typical for it: a shawl.

But simple hemming can look boring and I decided to place embroidery on my feature shawl. Embroidery should not be technically difficult, because I did not want to spend years on these one and half meters of the fabric, so I drawn curvy lines and chose very simple chain stitch which presents on many folk embroidery pieces and can be sewn using either a needle or crochet hook. I decided to use crochet.



I did not use embroidery hoop to achieve folding effect. Ending for this shawl is very easy: crocheted arcs and fringe.

Infinity dress

When we moved here we did not bring sewing machine with ourselves. But I wanted to sew something! I was not brave enough that time to create complete hand sewing project, so wanted to make something simple, with only couple of seams. Thus my choice was Infinity dress



I acquired  rayon fabric which is very popular in this area, sew those two seams and stayed before choice of hand-stitching meters of edges! Well, this is not something I like too much and I decided to create endings using crochet (this is very popular in this area too, although my crocheting skills are much, much worse than those which local women have!)

I used pattern from Boutique knitting magazine for the skirt and improvised small version of this pattern for all other sides.





So what about variations? Plain rayon is not elastic, therefore I use only limited set of them: only those, which can fit me secure and don't interrupt movements at the same time. Here are two my favorites:


And few details for the second look:

White dress with blue crochet endings

I got this fabric from my mother-in-law's collection. It was common for women in USSR to collect fabrics and quit sewing when borders were open in 1990-s and shops became full of all kinds of clothing.

First idea which comes to mind when you decide what to sew from such a fabric is a blouse in peasant style. But I had one already. And creating such a blouse would be very trivial project. So I decided to start different one.

It was a dress, published in a Soviet magazine in 1960-s: thanks to popularity of vintage. I suppose authors of this dress had in mind fabric with a print when designed it. And I had to create a dress which does not look like a lingerie. This is how idea of crochet endings came from. When I designed pattern of the endings I decided to repeat geometrical motifs of the fabric, but not to repeat them literally. This is how circles were converted to triangles.

Technical part was easy: I acquired blue and white "Altın Başak" cotton yarn, took crochet #1.25 and knitted it. Fitting was easy too: crocheted trims are flexible and I simply stretched and eased when needed.

Lace blocked top with beaded straps

I can be very sentimental. And ready-to-wear cotton top, made in color blocking style which I acquired years ago was still my favorite cloth even after its straps stretched and fabric became so thin, that it had few holes in several places. But even sentimental persons say "good bye" to their lovely things. So did I, but before I copied a pattern and decided to re-implement it in.

I could sew same top, but it would be to easy to just copy without thinking! And I decided to knit. Knitting allows to choose not only color, but also a pattern of the fragment. I choose two lace patterns, stockinet stitch for the top of the front, still only color and called this technique "lace blocking".

Front shows two patterns: lace and stockinette stitch, third one is on the side:

On the back I used same lace pattern as on the bottom of the top. Back part of the straps made from bead.

And, finally, three views: front, back, beaded straps, - of the top itself, without me inside =)

Blue sky jacket

About one year ago I purchased yarn and even created a sample for this jacket. I finished it for this winter season. I wish I could create blog posts in time =)

Inspiration for the jacket was a tree which has beautiful magenta flowers in summer and very picturesque without leaves in winter:

Another effect, unfortunately, cannot be seen on the photograph, but the tree looks wonderful when sky has bright cold blue color. Having this picture in my mind I created a pattern and knitted it on the back of the jacket.

Such a noticeable pattern requires simple silhouette and I choose one of my favorites: jacket, inspired by medieval East Asian clothing. Centers of its back and front are knitted with reverse stockinette stitch while side sides are knitted together with sleeves using stockinette stitch. All edges are finished using i-cord. Buttons and holes are made from i-cord too.

Jacket also has zipper beneath decorative closure. I was considering about making its front simple without decorations at all like on this picture of the wrong side, but I decided not to create such a noticeable contrast with the back.

Jacket also has chain on the back low edge.

Embroidered tree, hiding wrong side of the pattern.

Pattern for the embroidered tree was made from the same picture as knitted one.

Technique is pretty simply: only back stitches, slightly offset-ted from each other.

Trouser Cuffs

User -= Stryukhaus=- at club.season.ru showed a trousers which Salvatore Ferragamo was wearing while he presented one of his models to the client to demonstrate a way of how not to make trouser cuffs.

On this picture, which can be found at "Museo Salvatore Ferragamo" website, is clearly seen that trousers were not tailored with future cuffs in mind, therefore we can observe small folds which don't look like intended.

I don't know history of these trousers and why really we see these folds, but I want to keep this picture as a reminder to always think about this effect when crafting a pattern for cuffed trousers.

Pick stitch

Sewing this dress I did pick stitch first time. Actually I don't think this was real first time, but this was surely first time when I did it for finishing edges.

Best description of the stitch was, as always, at club.season.ru by Burlakova Frosya Also very nice instruction and picture is here Although Russian method describes how to sew it, so left side of the stitch is visible on sew allowances only.

Here is a picture of my sewing "in progress":

And the stitch on the face side:

No stitch on the left side of course, everything inside the garment:

I trimmed this way neck, waist, scarf (never would do it again!) and sleeves. I am very happy how this stitch fixed sleeves.

Kniting fuzz together

Don't know if fuzz is right English word, but in Russian we have separate one for fibers like cashmere or angora.

I am reading interesting discussion about Orenburg shawls at one of Russian forums. A lot to study, but now I want to save a remark from this post: cotton, knitted together with fuzz, destroys it after. Better to use silk.

Not sure if I would try to knit Orenburg shawl, but this advice can be good for any similar fiber.

Blue Sky jacket started

Right before New Year I got a package with Louisa Harding Ianthe yarn (50g Ball, 50% Extra fine Merino 50% Cotton, Meterage: 100m) First impression: very nice soft yarn.

I am going to create a pattern from a photo. Technique would be a mix of Jackard and Aran knitting. Something like in this example, although motive is different, this is just a technique try:

I knitted in 2 plies using needles #6.5 Stockinette stitch 15 sts X 18 rows, picture - 20 sts X 18 rows.

Next step is to create a pattern and implement it.

Happy New Year!

First post, yay!