Moneta Dress & Sewing Confidence

I wrote the following blog post back in March, just before full on lockdown. It seemed so trivial at the time to post it… so it’s sat in my drafts until now. I’m on holiday, it’s peeing down outside & I’m feeling a little reflective of what I’ve achieved over the year project wise & how lockdown has effected my creativity (I’ll probably write another post about that). I wore my Moneta dress for the first time today, now the weather has turned, so it seemed appropriate to share my post now.

I’ve finished the first of my Make 9 projects for 2020 (beginning of March). Definitely off to a slow start, given we’re almost a quarter of the way through the year, however I’m still feeling confident. I have many of the projects in progress so maybe, just maybe I’ll get some complete by the end of the year!

I bought the fabric to make my first Moneta dress, by Colette patterns, in the middle of last year, it’s been washed and ready to go for a while, however I had just started the Zadie dress, pieces are cut and stay stitching complete and I thought I should complete that first. However I was feeling overwhelmed by how many pieces there are to the Zadie dress that I thought starting something slightly simpler was a better way forward, and help build some much needed confidence.

This project was probably one of the easiest I’ve done, in that I’ve already had a little experience working with knit fabrics so that wasn’t so daunting and even with a completely new technique involved; sewing in elastic, I had a wobbly start, but second time was a charm. I was excited rather than daunted by the task and really enjoyed it and because I was working with knit fabric I did not have the same sense of dread when it came to trying on the finished garment that I get with items made with woven fabric as I knew it’d be forgiving if the fit wasn’t quite right.

I was right not to worry about the fit; I have learnt to not only go by the sizing guide on the pattern but also measure the paper pieces and hold them up to my actual body to gauge the appropriate size. I usually have to take at least 2 cm out of the body length (short torso) which I did and I tapered the sizing out from the arm hole to the waist by one size (to accommodate narrow shoulders, small busy and wide hips). I didn’t do my usual tapering out to the next size on the hips as the skirt just flares out anyway. Having done that initial sizing work (and now getting into the habit of doing it) definitely saved me some heart ache and wasted fabric, unlike like many past projects (I’m still learning)!

This project also proved to me that I could definitely make use of my own over locker. So I bought one!!! I was so excited buying it. I bought it from Coles sewing centre in Nottingham, on the last day of their February sale (just by coincidence) and you also get a free workshop included – a day of getting to know your over locker! I can’t wait! I shall still be visiting Sew at 174 for my cover stitching though – definitely can’t justify getting my own….yet!

I used to be scared of working with jersey fabric and its unpredictable stretching and curling up, but now I’ve had several, slightly more involved, successful projects I will definitely be using it more, especially since it’s so wearable and fills some gaps in my wardrobe.

Thanks for reading, Steph

Simple Knitting as an effective break

Sometimes simple is what I want, especially after a long, fiddling or slightly frustrating knit. I chose to knit the Be Simple shawl after I’d completed my Puffin Jumper. It hadn’t been difficult as such but there was a bit of faffing regards lengthening the sleeves at the end, which you can read about in a previous post.

I also needed something that I could keep knitting until I ran out of yarn, as the lovely Eleanor of Knit Nottingham gifted me one of her first batch of hand dyed yarns, it was a 4ply (Cotton/wool blend, we think, neither of us could quite remember after the fact), but that didn’t matter, Eleanor had used colours she thought I’d like & it had turned out wonderfully!

A mixture of grey turquoise and blue, it knitted up nicely with colours pooling and striping, I’m curious as to how the yarn would have worked in a pair of socks, though at the time I was not back into knitting socks. The shawl was a simple and enjoyable knit and I love the end result. for some time I had felt each new knitting project I selected had to be more complex and intricate from my previous one to challenge myself and improve and learn. I still like to challenge myself, but I also like to relax and just knit something from time to time, and that’s ok!

Still looking and feeling a bit awkward in photos – at least a shawl is easy to model 😛 

I’d finished my be simple scarf/shawl at the wrong time of year, just as it was nicely warming before summer, so it got put away ready for Autumn, which actually is lovely to do, it’s like a little gift to your future self. It turned out to be the perfect indoor scarf to wear at work which can be rather chilly being in a beautiful Victorian building.

I wouldn’t hesitate to knit another simple shawl for a relaxing project and I’d definitely knit more of Eleanor’s yarn, I’ll just have to be fast, she usually just dyes yarn for special shop events and if you’re not there when doors open you might miss out!

(Since writing this I have started knitting sock again and managed to buy more of Eleanor’s yarn at the shop Birthday event)!

Thanks for reading!

Steph