Wednesday, January 19, 2011

It is finished!

The bridesmaid dress is finished and the wedding is in 3 days! We are all so excited! I'll be back next time with pictures of Ellen wearing her new dress.

Happy Sewing,
Ruth

(Flickr pictures)

Monday, January 10, 2011

Why Wrist Warmers?

A reader asked this question:

"I hope this doesn't seem like a weird question but why wrist warmers? Don't your fingers get cold? I like them but I'm not sure when to use them."

I used to wonder the same thing..."why wrist warmers?" until one day when I was playing my oboe and my hands and fingers were cold. It was one of those aha moments and I decided to make some fingerless gloves, aka wrist warmers. That was several years ago, but I never made any until this month.

Yes, my fingers still get cold, but not my whole hand. You'd be surprised how warm fingerless gloves actually are--I was. When your hand is warm, your fingers don't feel quite so cold.

Basically, fingerless gloves cover the wrist and hand but yet allow the fingers to have ease of movement for playing a musical instrument, sewing, crafting, typing at the computer....things you cannot do with gloves or mittens.

So, there you have it. Wrist warmers are great!

My 18 year old son bought me some Tofutsies yarn (I love this yarn!) for Christmas...and I've been knitting. Right now I have 2 pairs of socks on the needles that I hope to show you soon. I decided I need to finish a few UFO (unfinished objects) knitting projects before starting the Tofutsie socks.


On the sewing front, I've been hemming 2 bridesmaid dresses. Two of my daughters are bridesmaids in two different weddings in two different states on the same day. One dress from David's Bridal has over 6 yards of chiffon at the hem....let me tell you, chiffon is ten times worse to sew than satin! Somebody, please tell me, just what is the best way to hem yards and yards of chiffon fabric?


While I'm on the topic, how do you suggest hemming a satin dress that is knee-length? I had thought about doing a narrow machine-stitched rolled hem, but now I'm having second thoughts. I have no experience sewing formal garments.... Seriously, I hope somebody can help me decide what is best.

Ruth

Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Been Knitting

Been knitting.... thought I'd share a few pics of the wrist warmers I made for Jessica and then for myself. (I liked hers so much that I decided to knit another pair for me!) These things are great--never thought I'd like "gloves" without the fingers, but these really are warm while allowing fingers to be free. :-)

The pattern: Hand/Wrist Warmers from the book Last-Minute Knitted Books that I checked out from the library


Yarn: Lion-Brand Wool Ease for the red pair and Stitch Nation Full 'O Sheep for the black pair

Needles: size 5 double pointed needles

The pics: Ellen took one picture and then another and another and another...with little regard to my protests. Goofy girl...we had fun...she's a sweet, fun-loving, soon-to-be-fifteen (sixteen days!!), loving daughter.

Happy sewing (and knitting),
Ruth