It's Curtains for me....

Nope fooled ya.  It's actually a bedspread that I'm using/wearing for my latest project  :  ).  Remember Scarlet and her drapes and Lucy and Ethel in their very stylish burlap bags in Paris.  Well, when practicing your skills or just when in a pinch for something to wear we crafters get thrifty and make do with what we have.  There are plenty of fabrics out there in your local thrift that can function as either a practice run fabric or the material that makes it as the final wearable creation. So here is the 5th in a series of fittings.  The first 3 test samples were out of gingham fabric that I bought at the thrift.  Once I had cut that all up I started eye balling my bed spread and it was so perfect for this project since it is an Indian print and this top is a kurti/kurta type garment.  My friend Pattie was nice enough to humor me with taking my picture in this get up.

So here you have the front and back of this fitting.  One of my favorite things to do is to safety pin a garment together for a fitting.  You can take it on and off without getting stuck by the pins.  Here you see the sleeve cap with the safety pins used along the seam line.  So the whole garment is safety pinned together along the seam line and then you can try it on and alter it if needed by just moving the pins.  I'm thinking this may need a bit more length at the bottom.  In drafting the pattern from the class taught by Cal Patch on www.creativebug.com she gave info on how to include a dart in the top pattern as well.  I didn't include it in this top since I wanted more room and with this patterned fabric I'm not sure it would work. Now I have to decide on how to treat the neck opening with a placket of some sort.  I've already drafted a stand collar using 3 different techniques and will show that later once I decide on the way to do the placket/front opening.

 Here is a pic of the gingham versions that preceded the purple bedspread version.  The fit was too tight on these but it is a great basic shell that could be used for knits.  I'm pleased with the fit and the sleeve came out better than I thought it would.  The nice thing about using a bedspread/sheet etc. is that you can work with pattern layout and line up the hems on the already finished edges of the fabric and avoid having to do any hemming.
  My challenge for 2015 is to take this pattern into many different versions of itself basically to morph it into many other garments and see where I can take it.  Hopefully I can avoid being overly critical of myself and just have fun with it.  Often I find myself getting bogged down by the, It's not going to be perfect enough, critical talk and find myself never finishing anything.  So here's to 2015 the year of getting it done and having fun : )

It's 2015 already!

Where has all of 2014 gone?  The holidays seem a bit of a blur.  Business has been booming and has left little time for, adding to the pot, so to speak of Craftspacecontinuum.  Not to mention the time taken off for the holidays, mom and I both being sick and then having to play catch up after having to take off so much time it has just been one big ole, how do you git er done-palooza, ACK!  But there have been many small increments of time that allowed for bits here and there to be added to the pot of creativity.  Lets see whats in the pot.

 Here are a bunch of knitting samplers that have been helping me make it thru the dark bleek nites of winter.  creative bug is where I took a class by Debbie Stoller (famous author of the Stitch and Bitch knitting books) on knitting a sampler and it was the perfect thing to help me unwind at the end of the day.  They were fun to make and I learned so much that I now feel confident that I could design something myself with the knowledge gained from making these samplers.  These are all pinned to what is my favorite craft tool of all.  Its a foam core board that is covered on both sides with felt.  One side is a brite yellow very much like the sampler on the lower left of the board and the other side is this medium gray colour.  All I did is take the board lay it on one of the pieces of felt cut out the felt with a generous boarder and then fold over the edges and duct taped them down then turned the board over and cut out the other piece of felt with a generous boarder and folded back the edges and just used glass head pins to secure it to the other side so that you have a two sided board for pinning and displaying your work projects.  Then there are all the experimental knits that I worked on just because I needed something to do.

 Ack, this knitted pile of stuff has gotten out of control.  Its a basket-o-hats with a few UFO's in there.  I'm not exactly sure whats in the bottom of this basket.  On the to do list for 2015 is to deal with this.  Every time I turn around there is this staring at me (pic below), ACK!  Another pile of started, finished, to be started projects to be dealt with.  When it gets cold out, its raining and not very sunny then stuff starts to pile up and get undone.  It just lies around like snow waiting to melt away till the next ray of inspiration strikes :  ).  Here's wishing everyone a GREAT 2015!