Stuff I Made

It feels weird sharing stuff as if everything is the same as ever. But it isn’t, is it? Anxiously reading the news. Wondering if our travel plans are going to have to be cancelled (they’re in late June so…) Wondering if the kids will have school tomorrow. If the husband will have to start working from home. I feel ridiculous because we’re a healthy family. We aren’t at risk as much as others (who need for us to stay away as much as possible). But I’m a planner. Knowing what’s coming reassures me. Making plans makes me feel safe. So this uncertainty is turning me into an unproductive and anxious mess. And I feel absolutely ridiculous but there you are. I’m trying as hard as I can to maintain some semblance of normalcy. Just to stay functional.

So here we go.

I’ve been having a hard time sharing my makes lately not only because of the lack of enthusiasm regarding pictures that I mentioned before but also because most of them don’t feel like they deserve a full post on their own.

Like, here! I made two stretch velvet dresses for the girls for Christmas! The pictures are crap because I couldn’t find that elusive combo of good lighting and coordinating background!

Details. The velvet was actually okay to work with. It was from Mood and they had tons of colors. I got the dark blue for V, as she’d requested. And this silvery blue for E because I thought it would look good on her. I was right. The pattern is Jalie’s Rachel dress. Made the same size for both girls. No mods for E’s dress but V’s dress was shortened. Looking at the pictures though, I think I could have gone up a size for E. I feel like the shoulders could be a smidge wider… They both loved the dress but V is the only one to have worn it more than once, unsurprisingly.

Oooh, I actually bought some of the same velvet for me (in red, duh) but I never got around to sewing it up. There’s always next year. And I have a lot of the other two left so the girls might get something else out of this fabric next year.

On that same Mood trip, I fell in love with this grey jersey in the wool section that turned out to be polyester. But it was so soft! So I bought some. I made myself the New Look 6644 knit top. I like it! The fabric is so soft and warm but not sweaty.

As for fit, I feel like the shoulders are maybe a bit wide on me? I get some weird rumpling at the top of the sleeve cap and in the shoulder when I push up my sleeves. The sleeves are very long, which I like. I’m 2-3 inches shorter than the fit model so I was expecting the top to be a little longer than it is though. If I make it again, I’ll lengthen it an inch or two. As it is, it isn’t cropped but I tug at it a lot.

I was very nervous about the V-neck here. The only other time I’ve done one, it was a disaster. This one is good though!

It’s not perfectly centered but it’s hard to tell. I’m actually thinking that this would look good in a sweater knit. If I could get off my butt and set up my knitting machine, I could maybe make the fabric too.

And finally, the oldest of the projects here. This is my Rhinebeck shawl. M was supposed to take pictures of me wearing it at Rhinebeck but he wasn’t feeling well and it started raining so we skipped it. And then we never got the pictures. Finally got that done last Sunday but didn’t put a lot of time into it. You see, the neighbors were also on their rooftop, their couch facing towards us. And I am so not comfortable with having and audience while I get my picture taken. So yeah. This is what you get. At least, I’m finally sharing it…

The pattern is the Drachenfels by Melanie Berg. The yarn is Juniper Moon Farm Patagonia Organic Merino, bought at String Thing Studio, my most excellent local yarn store. I loved the heathered shades.

And the yarn felt just right for Fall. I wore it quite a lot before moving on to my more wintery ones.

The cat was meowing at me during top pictures. She’d decided we should stop everything and feed her. So I picked her up. She does not like that…