Amend: Party Frock

I bought this dress from Apricot at New Look for Christmas last year. I had the choice of a size 10 that was a bit too tight across the bust, or a size 12 that was large almost everywhere else. I decided that making a large size smaller for be the easiest option!

The three noticeable areas for amendment were arm holes, waist and belt loops.

Starting with the arm holes, this was the same kind of amendment as my blue maxi dress that I wrote about in July. I put a dart in both sides, trying to prevent the gaping.

Next up, the waist band. In needed to take about two inches out of it. One option is taking it out of the side seams, but that can pull it out of line, so it doesn't hang straight. I decided to put another two darts in here, on either side on the front of the dress. I left the bottom of the darts open, to keep the fullness of the skirt.

And finally, the belt loops. This is similar to the grey dress that I also amended, because the loops were very big and stuck out really obviously to either side. I unpicked the bottom of each loop, snipped a bit off, and hand-sewed them back on.

And all this was done just in time for the main festive event. And you can't even tell from the outside that I had to make all these changes - success!

Make: Tetris Blanket

One each of Bright Pink, Jaffa, Sunshine, Bright Green, Turquoise, Royal and Violet.

Three Black and three Charcoal.

One 4mm crochet hook.

Thousands and thousands of double crochet, single crochet, chain and slip stitches.

Nine months of evenings and weekends, train journeys, episodes of CSI, lazy mornings.

But now, my Tetris blanket is finally complete!!

I've already gone over most of the resources, techniques and design behind the blanket. So in this post, I'm going to just revel in the fact that it's complete, and I love it. This is one blanket that I am properly proud of.

 

Make: More Ruffle Scarves

We've got our Christmas charity sale at work this week, for which I have been working on some more ruffle scarves similar to the one I made for my mum in September.

One scarf uses pom-pom wool, which I've never tried before. This is Rico loopy yarn, 75% acrylic / 25% nylon. The knit-up was very similar to the normal yarn, except this one has an inside edge, where you pick up the stitches, and an outside edge, with the pom-poms.

I also used some colour change yarn to make several more ruffle scarves. This is Rico Creative Can Can yarn, 100% polyacrylic. I used two 200g balls to make four scarves, two in each colour.

Hopefully these will be snapped up at the sale, to make some money for Save The Children!