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Mostly Knitting Blog

Want to find the new stuff on Knitting-and.com, or read about my latest projects and discoveries? This is the place.

Still Breathing :)

I know it’s been several months since I last posted. It’s amazing just how much time running around after a baby can take! It’s also amazing how much mess a newly crawling baby can make whilst roll/crawling around the living room with a teething rusk

Baby Charlie

but I digress…

I have a new overlocker!

Isn’t it beautiful? It’s a Pfaff Creative Coverlock 4874. It’s a 10 thread, 3 needle overlocker. I decided I wanted an overlocker 10 years ago and I finally got around to getting one when I realised that drafting your own sewing patterns isn’t brain surgery 😛

I learnt to sew when I was in highschool but always hated using commercial patterns because they never fit properly and it seemed so fussy to have to alter every pattern every single time you wanted to make something, even when you’ve spent $17 on the pattern itself.

Years later I started buying fabrics from the local op shops and decided to have a go at drafting patterns that are a bit more complicated than elastic waisted skirts (ahem), and it all fell into place. My daughter has 4 new skirts, the baby will soon have 21 new pairs of day/night Summer/Winter pants and I have projects lined up until the end of the universe 🙂

Here’s the next one’s before picture.

(missing pic)

My daughter bought this jacket from the op shop. First I removed the sleeves and shoulder pads, and then pinned the sides in above the waist to make it a more fitted shape. I still have to sew the sides, after which I’ll refit the sleeves and add a gathered broderie anglaise style lace to the cuffs, replace the buttons and give it a good wash. Next time I’ll wash first, lol.

As for the overlocker, it’s incredibly easy to use. Easy to thread, easy to engage and disengage the upper looper and knife and super easy to understand. The only thing I would have liked to be different is to have better threading guides in the instruction book so I don’t have to go to the computer CD animation when I haven’t doe something right. It’s so easy to thread that I pull all the threads out when I want to change them instead of tying on the new thread and pulling it through 🙂

Finally I had some exciting news in my mail yesterday. Clover have re-released the Hana Ami Loom! It’s the Rolls-Royce of flower looms and I suggest everyone should go and buy one right now before they go out of production again!

Hana Ami loom by CLover

A Very Basic Wizard’s Cloak

The topic of sewing a wizard’s cloak came up on Ravelry this morning and I thought it was worth posting my reply here as well, since there are stitchers who don’t knit or crochet and might want to know how to make a basic wizard cloak for their kids.

The question was how to sew a simple wizard cloak for a quick costume. Thanks to an old library book on Elizabethan costuming, I knew the answer 🙂 This is a slightly expanded version of my reply to the original poster.

Wizard cloaks are made from a circle.

Big circle with the radius as long as you want the cloak to be. Fold it in half.
Cut a hole in the middle of the circle for the neck.

Cut down the front of the circle for the front opening.

Cut slits for the sleeves, making sure that the bodice is wide enough for the chest measurement with a bit of ease.

Sew sleeves and side seams and hem everything else. Stick a button and a buttonhole on the front. Or ties.
Basic Wizard Cloak Diagram

To make a better finished cloak you can add facings to the neck and front opening.

A fancier cloak might have pockets in the side seams for holding the wizarding essentials (wand, toad, vial of goo etc), or a hood.

A hood can be made of two pieces of fabric shaped like this

Wizard Cloak Hood Diagram

Sew them together along the top and back, hem the front and sew it to the neckline. Or sew it to the neckline and then hem the hood and the front at the same time (I think that might work).

Bows, bows, bows…

My “sewing stretch-knit fabric without a serger” tutorial has taken a backseat due to a broken light bulb so I’ve been working on the samples for my Clover Bow Maker video tutorial instead.

I’m hoping to do the filming tomorrow but in the meantime, please enjoy some photos of my samples. I’ve given them the “I’m so addicted making bows that I’ve used up all my ribbon stash”* seal of approval.

* I did, and then I went and bought some more 🙂

The three sets of bow makers

Clover bow makers

My sample bows

Bows made on the Clover bow makers

Check out my flickr “needlework gadgets” album to see each bow with the bow maker/s used to create them

For the “Looms to Go” Weavers on Ravlery

and anyone else who wants to make their own patterns for a 4 x 4″ weavette loom

This is a blank chart that I made for making up my own designs. Please feel free to use it for personal use only. You may use it to make charts to share for free.

Leave a comment if you’d like more instructions on how to use it.

Weavette grid for designing your own charts