BrambleStitches

Lately I have been sewing on my 1955 Singer 99K. It is a straight-stitch machine, so if I want buttonholes, I have to do them by hand. I made a 1940s-inspired skirt lately out of vintage fabric and buttons, so I thought the hand-stitched buttonholes would fit right in. They’re certainly not the most beautiful buttonholes I’ve ever seen, but they work and are mostly hidden by the big buttons anyway.

I’ve put together a photo tutorial on flickr, but I don’t have time to add captions until this evening.

Click here to watch the tutorial as a slide show.

Pattern: Kasia from BurdaStyle

Fabric: 36″ wide corduroy from my Baba

Buttons: 1″ buttons found behind the cabinets during my parents kitchen remodel (score!)

Sewing, Techniques & Tutorials

I finished Erik’s neck warmer thingie the other night, and I want to show you how I made the top hem (the cast-off edge) look identical to the bottom hem (the knit-in one). There are plenty of tutorials on the web for the knit-in hem, so I won’t go into it here, but I haven’t seen the identical sewn-up version anywhere, so here you go. As always, you can click the photo to see it larger.

Here is the knit in hem, as viewed from the front.

Here is the knit in hem, as viewed from the back.

Now to set up for the sewn-in version, knit your garment to the desired length, knit your turning row to match your knit-in hem (if you have one), and knit your hem to the desired length LESS ONE ROW. You will be sewing your final knit row. Finally, cut your yarn with a very generous tail–at least long enough to go around your work four times. Better to be safe, than too short. Thread your tail onto a blunt needle, and proceed as follows:

Step One: Pass needle through first stitch as if to knit. Take the stitch off the knitting needle, and pull yarn all the way through.

Next, fold up hem and stitch up through back of matching stitch.

Third, stitch down through adjacent stitch to the left, and purlwise back through first knit stitch that you removed from the knitting needle. Pull yarn all the way through, and repeat from first step, moving one stitch to the left.

Tada!

It looks identical, because structurally it IS identical. Yay for twins!

Knitting, Techniques & Tutorials

Cast off edges are together, right sides up. We will call the lower piece "front," since it will be closest to you while you work, and the other "back."

On front, bring your yarn needle up thru the center of a "V".

On back, insert needle to side of "V" and come out the other side.

On front insert needle thru the same hole you started in, and come out thru the center of the next "V."

Continue alternating the last two steps…

…and you’ll get this. I worked the second half of the row in a matching color so you can see how well it blends.

And from the back it looks like this.

Knitting, Techniques & Tutorials

Olga needs a swim suit, and I’m not about to go spend $30 or more for a quarter yard of fabric sewn into some mini-hussy bikini with Dora all over it. She’s still in diapers, too, so I would also need a swim diaper. But I can sew, right? Why not make Olga a swimsuit? And why not make myself one, while I’m at it?

I did a little fabric shopping, and came up with a couple of wonderful swimwear fabrics from Fabric.com, and then I ordered some swimsuit lining, fold over elastic, and findings from Fabric Depot. I also ordered some white PUL (that’s polyurethane laminated fabric, a waterproofed fabric very popular in the cloth diapering world) from Sherrie Daigle, who runs the Sewing Supply Co-Op. I used Wild Ginger’s Child’s Play pattern software to draft a halter-style top, and I’ll use Catharine’s Chloe Toes diaper pattern to make a swim diaper.

Using just the swimsuit lining fabric and my printed out pattern, I basted together a muslin of the top. Olga has a toddler tummy, so I knew I would have to lengthen the center front a little bit. The muslin allowed me to see about how much. I lengthened the center front about 1.5 inches and tapered to nothing at the side seams. I left the back unchanged. I pulled out my basting stitches, cut a new front, and sewed it to the back for the swimsuit lining. Then I cut the front and back out of the swim suit fabric and sewed the side seams together. I decided it would look really cute with a contrasting ruffle at the bottom edge, so I cut a strip of fabric about 3 inches wide and 30 inches long (I eyeballed the length), sewed the two short ends together, and gathered one long edge with long basting stitches. I pinned it to the bottom edge of the swimsuit, fiddled with the gathers until I was pleased, then basted it on. To attach the lining, I pinned the lining and the swimsuit with right sides of the fabric facing each other and the ruffle sanwiched in the middle, then stitched around the bottom edge. When I flipped it inside out, the seam was hidden.

I should have taken more construction photos. To bind the edges, I used FOE (that’s fold-over elastic). First I bound the top front edge. Then I decided I didn’t want this to be a halter top, I wanted the straps to cross in the back, and be adjustable. So I figured out about how long to make the straps, then starting at the front side edge, sewed the FOE all the way around the back of the swimsuit and back around to the top edge, leaving enough FOE "tail" to make the other strap, like the photo above.

To make these straps adjustable, I used some findings, which I purchased at Fabric Depot (link above). These are 3/8" rings and sliders. I also have a little scrap of FOE about 3 inches long.

I cut my FOE scrap in half, so I had two 1.5" peices. The length isn’t important, but I needed a little extra to hold onto while sewing. I folded the FOE in half along the fold line, then threaded it thru one of the rings, and pinned it in place on the back of the swim suit where I wanted my straps.

After I had them both positioned where I wanted them, I sewed them on, then trimmed the excess.

Below are photos outlining the completion of the adjustable straps.

I’m pinching together the loop where I stitched.

Here’s what it should look like on the outside when done.

And on the inside it looks like this.

All done! (Tanks, Mommy!)

Adjustable straps!

Sewing, Techniques & Tutorials

This is the best ribbing bind off, but it only works for 1 x 1 rib. You will almost certainly need to click on the photos for a better view.

Top of the sock, still on four needles. I like to put the sock on two needles, before I work this bind off, but it’s really a matter of personal preference. Leave a tail of yarn long enough to go around the sock at least four times. Thread your blunt needle.

Begin with a knit stitch. Insert your needle as if to purl (from back to front) thru the knit stitch.

(A different view of the step above.)

Next, insert your needle as if to knit (front to back) thru the next stitch, which should be a purl stitch.

(A closer view of the step above.)

* Go back to the first knit stitch (the one you "purled" thru) and run your needle front to back thru this stitch, then slip it off the needle.

Next take your yarn in front of the purl stitch you’ve already worked, and insert it back to front thru the next knit stitch. Snug up your yarn.

Go back to the purl stitch and insert your needle back to front and slip it off the knitting needle.

Next is the tricky part. Take your needle behind the knit stitch, then between the knit stitch and purl stitch…

… so you can insert it front to back in the purl stitch, like this.

Repeat from * After binding of a few stitches, this is what it will look like.

After binding off all the stitches, this is what it will look like.

Knitting, Techniques & Tutorials