Happy Seamstress » Tutorials

A Last-Minute Handmade Christmas

Joanna — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 21:35:05 +0000

10 Quick handmade gifts and decorations to brighten your holidays

I’m a firm believer in handmade gifts versus store-bought for lots of reasons (but especially for the avoidance of crazy mall crowds, cheesy holiday tunes, and crappy mass-produced merchandise), so I combed the net for some quick handmade gift ideas. If you’re starting late like I am, or just now realizing that your house needs to look more festive, read on for a bunch of wonderful gifts and decorations you can make yourself in an afternoon or two of crafting. And, I threw in a yummy cupcake recipe because life’s too short to not eat sweets!

Bath Fizzies

I don’t know about you, but my favourite way to relax is by soaking in the tub with a glass of red and a good book, and bath fizzies are always a welcome addition. These look really easy to make—you basically just need baking soda, citric acid, cornstarch, and whatever essential oils and colours you want to add. I think I’ll make a batch of these bath fizzies from Martha Stewart for myself, and if I’m feeling generous I just might make extra for gifting. But, in all honesty, I’ll probably keep them all for myself!

Upcycled Christmas Lights

From the Craftzine blog comes this brilliant idea to transform old burnt-out Christmas lights into a delightful sparkly bowl-filler. Anything that’s cheap and cheerful and satisfies my magpie-like tendency to collect shiny things is good in my books!

DIY Gift Bags

Learn how to make your own gift bags with this tutorial from Waterfall Creative. Lots of possibilities for reusing wrapping paper, posters, and other paper goods combined with ribbon or yarn.

Recycled Gift Bows

Another recycled-paper gift-wrapping idea, this time from Lines Across My Face. An easy tutorial for making those classic star-shaped gift bows we all know and love!

Rum-Spiked Eggnog Cupcakes

Oh, Bakers Royale, you already had me at eggnog! And then you went and sweetened the deal with spiced rum. The hubby’s birthday is coming up, so I’m definitely going to whip up a batch of these cupcakes to celebrate…and I’ll probably make another batch for Christmas, too.

Cinnamon Ornaments

Another great idea from the Martha Stewart blog, these cinnamon ornaments look great and will fill your house up with a lovely spicy holiday scent. I would love to try these with sparkles mixed into the dough.

Tea Lights

Another great upcycled thrift-to-gift idea from Georgica Pond—turn a pretty teacup and some old candles into a unique home decor piece. Head over to your nearest thrift store and stock up on cute teacups to make a bunch of these, and you could take care of a good chunk of your gift list in one fell swoop!

Felt Rose Scarf

This free tutorial for a flowery scarf comes from Watch Me Daddy. It looks ridiculously easy to make, with impressive results. I’d love to make one out of felt from thrifted wool sweaters, or some luxuriously soft 100% wool felt in a few coordinated colours.

Peppermint Foot Scrub

I love a Christmas gift that helps you recover from Christmas! This foot scrub recipe from The Idea Room is cheap to make, too—you just need sugar, olive oil, and essential oil. I love the idea of doing a peppermint scrub for the holidays, but you could use any essential oil you like.

Yarn Ball Ornament

If you have a bit of scrap yarn, skewers, and large wooden beads, you can quickly whip up one of these yarn ball ornaments. This one is by Phoenix Fire Designs, based on this idea by appleshannon on Crafster. I think it would make a great gift for any knitters on your list, or just make a bunch to cover your own tree!

Two-Colour Brioche Stitch

Ilana — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 05:49:48 +0000

Brioche stitch refers not to the french pastry, delicious as it may be, but to a family of stitch patterns that include slipped stitches knit together with yarn-overs to make a squishy, stretchy and extra-thick fabric. What I will show you today is called the two-colour brioche rib, also known as the Shaker rib, English rib, or Fisherman’s rib. It resembles regular knit one, purl one ribbing, but the purl stitches are in a different colour than the knit stitches. It’s great for hats, scarves and sweaters, and when done in two neutral colours, it’s a great stitch pattern for men’s garments. Though I have not read it myself, I hear that Nancy Marchant’s Knitting Brioche is an excellent reference, with a good bit of history, a thorough description of the technique, and some really nice patterns.

The technique I’ll be showing you here is for flat-knitted pieces, but it’s easily converted to patterns knit in the round, and I’ll explain how at the end. Also, I will refer to the two colours as the main colour (MC) and the complementary colour (CC). In the photos, the MC is green and the CC is purple.

Step 1Casting on

Cast on an uneven number of stitches onto a double-pointed or circular needle with the MC yarn. This will allow you to have a selvage stitch at each end so you don’t have to do yarn-overs at the end of a row, which can be awkward. The reason that you have to cast on with a double-pointed or circular needle is that you’ll essentially be knitting each row twice with each colour, and so will need to push the stitches to the end of the needle every other row.

Step 2Attaching the CC

Turn your work and knit the first stitch with the CC. Bring the yarn to the front of your work and then slip the next stitch. You will then do a yarn-over, but it will be placed in such a way that it is draped over the stitch you just slipped (see picture). Knit the next stitch. Continue in this manner until all the stitches have been worked.

Step 3Working the first row with the MC

Now, push all the stitches to the other end of the needle, where the MC is hanging. Knit the first stitch, and then purl together the slipped stitch and yarn-over. Bring the yarn to the front and slip the next stitch (this is the CC stitch that was knit in the previous step), and then do a yarn-over in the same manner as in the previous step. Continue in this manner to the last stitch, and knit it.

Step 4Continuing the pattern

Turn your work. Now working with the CC, slip the first stitch (to make a nice selvage edge) and slip the next stitch and yarn-over, as was done for the previous row. Purl the slipped stitch and yarn-over together, and continue this pattern to the end of the row, knitting the last stitch. You can now start to see the pattern emerge: on this side of the work, the MC appears in knit columns while the CC shows up as purl columns. On the other side of the fabric, the opposite pattern emerges.

Now, slide the stitches to the other end of the needle, and with the MC, slip the first stitch and knit the next slipped stitch and yarn-over together. Then slip the next stitch and yarn-over. Again, continue in this manner to end of the row, knitting the last stitch.

Step 5The right side for the CC

Turn your work, and with CC, slip the first stitch (I knit it in the picture, but that shouldn’t change much), and slip the next stitch and yarn-over. Then knit the next slipped stitch and yarn-over together. Work in this way until the end of the row and knit the last stitch.

Slipping all the stitches to the other end of the needle, pick up the MC and slip the first stitch. Purl the slipped stitch and yarn-over together, and then slip the next stitch and yarn-over. Continue the pattern to the end of the row and knit the last stitch.

Step 6Working the pattern to completion

Repeat steps 4 and 5 until your piece is as long as you want it to be. If you forget where you are in the pattern, look at the rows below the one you’re working and determine if you’re on the side where the MC or the CC appears as knit columns. If the MC appears that way, then you’re on step 4 and if the CC appears that way, then you’re on step 5. Also, remember that for each row, you knit with the CC first, and the MC second.

Step 7Binding off

Binding off is as simple as it would be for knit one, purl one ribbing. Work in pattern to the end of the row with the CC, but when you slip the stitches to the other end of the needle to work with the MC, instead just knit the knit stitches and purl the purled stitches, binding off normally (by working 2 stitches and then passing the first stitch over the second). That is, work the slipped stitches and yarn-overs together normally, but instead of slipping the next stitch and doing a yarn-over, just knit or purl that stitch, depending on where you are in the pattern.

Taking the technique further

After you’ve completed your inaugural brioche stitch scarf (or maybe just a swatch), you’ll probably want to try some more advanced techniques.

I mentioned at the beginning of this article that it’s also possible to do brioche stitch in the round. To do this, you must cast on an even number of stitches (instead of the uneven number as when you knit flat) and join them in the round on double-pointed or circular needles. After the set-up rounds, you then only work step 4, and forgo the selvage stitches. This Two-Color Brioche Hat by Yana Ivey shows off this technique quite nicely, and also shows how you can do decreases with brioche stitch.

Once you’ve mastered the basics, it’s also possible to do much more intricate designs, as can be seen in Nancy Marchant’s Rodekool, a cute little keyhole scarf. Here she uses increases and decreases to create something like “brioche lace”, and the contrasting yarn colours make the design really pop. She also uses the “separate but connected layers” quality of brioche stitch to create the keyhole. It’s a very interesting construction! This pattern also shows how amazing brioche stitch can look with yarns that have long colour variations.

I do hope you try out this very fun technique, and if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Pinchy Coin Purse

Joanna — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 21:52:54 +0000

Make this cute little coin purse to use up your fabric scraps

I was working on my computer today, like I do most days, and felt the familiar stirrings of fabric withdrawal start to well up. Usually I can keep that at bay by procrastinating on Pinterest for a few minutes (…a few minutes, who am I kidding?) but this time I had an itch that could only be scratched by crafting! I had no idea what I wanted to make so I just went into my sewing room and started looking around, hoping inspiration would strike. And lo and behold, it did! I came across a bag of internal flex frames I bought a few years ago back when I used to make a lot of handbags, and thought I’d make a pinchy coin purse for old times’ sake.

So read on, and learn to make one of your own! This is a great project to make when you only have an hour or two to spare for sewing, and don’t really feel like sinking your teeth into a big, intense project. And with the holidays rapidly approaching, it also makes a great gift on its own (or as something to hide a gift card in!). It takes next to no fabric to make, so it’s perfect for using up those scraps of fabric you can’t bear to make yourself throw away.

What You’ll Need

Basic sewing tools
Sheet of letter-size paper (scrap paper is fine)
Pen or pencil
1A small scrap (at least 5″ x 12″) of medium or heavy weight fabric for the outside (such as denim, wool suiting, or corduroy).
2An internal flex frame, 3–4 inches wide.
These aren’t that easy to find in stores, so unless you have a really great sewing or craft supplies store nearby I think you’ll have more luck finding one online. A couple places you could try:
- Ah Kwok Buckles They’re also great for other hardware and findings. You have to buy a minimum of 10 frames though, and these will ship from Hong Kong so you may have to pay customs.
- eBay
3A small scrap (at least 5″ x 12″) of light or medium weight fabric for the lining (such as cotton broadcloth).
4Some pretty decorative bits to adorn your pouch, such as buttons, beads, lace, or ribbon. (optional, sort of!)
Thread to match
Pliers
Ruler (preferably a clear ruler, gridded in 1/8″ increments)

Step 1Make the pattern

Not all flex frames are the same, so here I’ll show you how to draw a pattern to match the exact size of your frame. But don’t worry—it’s basically just a rectangle with a couple markings so it’s really easy to do!

Measure the space between the hinges of your flex frame. This will be the final width of your coin purse. Draw a line on your sheet of paper the with of the frame between the hinges, plus double your seam allowance. From both ends of this line, square a line down a few inches long (you’ll end up with an open, three-sided rectangle. The height doesn’t matter at this point).

Measure down 2 1/2 inches from the top edge and mark a notch at both sides. This marks the bottom edge of the casing where the flex frame will go, and is important for when you sew the pouch.

Decide how tall you want your finished coin purse to be. You could make it about 3 to 4 inches tall for a standard coin purse, or much taller to make a pencil case, case for your glasses, or pouch for your knitting needles. Measure the height down from the hinge markings, minus 3/4 inch (or however wide your frame is) plus the seam allowance.

Step 2Cut the pieces

Use the pattern to cut two pieces of main (outside) fabric, and two pieces of lining fabric. Snip a 1/4-inch notch into the fabric at the hinge markings.

Step 3Embellish (optional)

If you’re going to embellish your coin purse, do it now before the pieces are sewn together.

Step 4Sew the pouch

Pin the outside pieces right sides together, and sew the sides and bottom from notch to notch. Clip the corner pieces at a 45° angle right up to the stitches (be careful not to cut through the stitches). Do the same with the lining pieces.

Step 5Clip

Carefully clip both hinge notches right up to the stitches.

Step 6Slip main fabric into lining

Turn main fabric right side out, and slip into the lining. Match top edges for both front and back, and pin.

Step 7Sew main fabric to lining

Starting at the notch, being careful to match up with the end of the existing stitch line, sew around the sides and top of the front flap (see left side of photo). Do the same for the back flap, but leave an opening about 2 inches wide (see right side of photo).

Step 8Turn and press

Turn the pouch right side out through the opening, and press flat with an iron (be careful not to damage your embellishments with the iron). When you’re done, it should look something like this.

Step 9Sew the casing

Fold the flaps to the inside, and pin. Sew about 1/8″ from the bottom edge. When you’re done, it should look something like this:

Step 10Insert frame

Insert each side of the flex frame into one a casing, both sides at the same time.

Step 11Insert hinge pin

Hold the open end of the frame closed, and insert the hinge pin through the hinge. Be careful not to let the hinge pin slide out (you may find it helps to take the pliers and close off one of the tabs before inserting the pin).

Step 12Close the hinge tabs

Use pliers to close both hinge tabs. If you find this difficult, use the pliers to bend the tabs downward first, then squeeze both tabs together.

You’re done! Step back and admire your handiwork (and give yourself a pat on the back and/or round of applause, if you’re so inclined).

Knit Button Placket

Joanna — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 16:40:30 +0000

Since releasing my Legend of Baby Link pattern a couple of years ago, a bunch of you have written to me asking for help with adding the button placket to the back of the tunic. Message boards about the pattern on Ravelry include more than a few comments from people generally confused about the pattern, but especially about adding the button placket. Well, what can I say? It was the first knitting pattern I ever wrote. Looking back now I can see how it would be easy to find some of the instructions confusing. Well, I love you guys and want you to enjoy using my patterns, so I will be re-releasing a new-and-improved (and still free!) Baby Link pattern soon. The new edition of the pattern will be written more like a standard knitting pattern, will be easier to follow, and will include better instructions for some of the trickier parts.

In the meantime, I’m posting this tutorial for the button placket. You could also use this technique for any garment that is knit in the round…it doesn’t work for flat items knit back and forth, and would also not work if you want to insert a placket above the point where you divide for the neck or sleeves (although you can, of course, divide for a neck or sleeves after establishing the placket overlap). I don’t know that this is an “official” technique for creating button plackets; it’s just a technique I came up with myself while making the original Baby Link outfit. I like how it keeps everything in one piece and without any need for seaming a separate piece. That being said, if you have a different way you prefer to make button plackets that would totally work too!

Step 1: Establish the placket strip

Let’s assume your button placket will be 6 stitches wide (as it is on the Baby Link tunic). When you get to 3 stitches away from the center of the button opening (i.e. half the width of the placket) purl for 6 stitches (or however many stitches wide your placket will be).

Step 2: Turn and work the wrong side

At this point, you will no longer be working in the round. Turn your work, and purl all stitches (or if you’re not making the Baby Link tunic, work a wrong side row in keeping with your knitting pattern). Keep going until you reach the first stitch you purled in the last round, in Step 1.

Step 3: Pick up stitches for the underlap

While you’re still on the wrong side of the piece (after completing Step 2 above) pick up a stitch from each of the original placket stitches you purled in Step 1. To do this, just purl into any part of the original placket stitch from the wrong side.

When you’re done, you should have two lines of stitches overlapping each other, like this:

Step 4: Work the right side

Turn, and work a right side row. Work all the placket stitches in garter stitch (or whatever stitch pattern you’re using for your placket)

Step 5: Keep working back and forth

Keep working rows back and forth, with the placket stitches in garter stitch. Remember to add a button hole on the overlapping placket every few rows! After a while, you’ll see the placket start to take shape:

Fall Crafting Inspiration

Joanna — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 22:41:15 +0000

10 Warm and fuzzy things to chase away the end-of-summer blues

It’s officially fall (and already feeling very much like it) which is a little sad for someone like me who loves summer and all of the lazy outdoor lounging it brings. But whenever I start to dread the inevitable colder weather, leafless trees, and birdless skies that are just around the corner, I remember that this means I get to wear more wonderful warm and yarny things, and that always puts a smile on my face! So I spent the last few days online procrastina-…I mean researching cute and cozy handmade stuff and sure enough, I’m almost looking forward to waking up to that first frosty morning, just so I can wear/use/cuddle more things made of wool. Well, these put a smile on my face so I thought I’d share these with you all and help you usher in the new season.

Got any favourites, or any other bits of fall crafting inspiration you’d like to share?
Let us know by leaving a comment!

Scrummy Pumpkin Cupcakes

I thought I’d start the list off with this delicious recipe from Eat Live Run for pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese icing. If there’s one thing I love about fall, it’s all the yummy pumpkin stuff (soup, pie, etc.) you get to eat around this time of year. And of course you need your sugar energy before you can do any serious crafting, so bake yourself up a batch pronto!

Sweater Bangles

From leftcoastknits on Ravelry comes this wonderful idea to use scraps of yarn to create a beautiful fall/winter accessory. Unfortunately no pattern is available, but she does mention she started out with a provisional cast on. I think making these would go something like this: grab some cheap plastic bangles (try Forever 21, Claire’s, or a dollar store), cast on enough stitches to go all the way around, knit any stitch pattern until you’ve reached about double the width of the bangle, then graft the edges together around the bracelet.

Adorable Owl Hair Clip

You may recognize this owl from the hugely-popular owlet kiddie sweater (thankfully also available in a grownup version!). This cute hair clip is made of one motif from the main stitch pattern, and would be a fantastic quick-to-make gift that anyone would love to receive.

Mobius Wrap

This pattern from Interweave Knits looks super cozy, gorgeous, and really easy to make. Knitting this out of a lace weight mohair yarn held together with a sequined thread yarn such as Lazer FX would make for a beautiful evening wrap to wear to office holiday parties and such. I’m always tempted to buy lace weight mohair yarn for it’s prettiness, but never know what I want to make out of it. So this is perfect, now I have an excuse to buy a few skeins!

Cargo Scarf

A brilliant way to keep yourself warm and your stuff safely stashed away at the same time, for those days when you don’t feel like carrying a purse around. Check out this tutorial on Instructables and make one for yourself!

Pretty Pumpkins

A really simple and pretty idea for carving pumpkins. I would love to make a bunch of these to put in a group in my garden, and just sit outside for a cozy hot-chocolate evening with friends.

Yellow Jacket

I love, love, love Anthropologie, and as usual their fall collection doesn’t disappoint. If you’re adventurous and are comfortable with altering commercial sewing patterns, I think this design would be easy to make yourself (no tailored set-in sleeves to worry about!). Just find a sewing pattern for a jacket with raglan sleeves (try F2548 from Marfy, or 2149 from Simplicity) and alter the collar pattern pieces—I suggest extending and widening the left side to make the half-bow, and adding a loop to the back of the right side to pull the bow through.

Fuzzy Felt Balls Tutorial

A pretty and simple way to use wool roving to create colourful decorations for around the house. This tutorial from Painted Threads Projects is specifically for large balls that would be great to fill a bowl or create hanging ornaments. I think you could also use this technique to make smaller felt beads for necklaces and other jewelry.

Chunky Lap Blanket

Who wouldn’t love to cuddle up with a nice book under this cozy and sparkly blanket? It’s made out of Pixie Dust yarn (a thick/thin yarn with a delicious blend of wool, mohair, and sparkles), so you get both warmth and bling at the same time. I love the slubby texture created by using the unevenly-spun yarn. I think this could be a really nice gift for someone special, if it wouldn’t be so hard to give away…

Whiskey Hot Toddy

What better way to end a crisp fall day (and a list of fall crafts) than a warm, spicy, boozy drink? This rendition of the classic Hot Toddy from Verses from my Kitchen uses rye instead of whiskey or bourbon, brown sugar instead of granulated, and includes cloves, cardamom, lemon peels, and a cinnamon stick. It may not chase away the sniffles, but it will sure make you feel better and is bound to fill your house with delicious autumn-y scents.

New Debbie Stoller videos!

Ilana — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 22:55:48 +0000

Because she is awesome (and possibly to promote her books), Debbie Stoller has posted some free knitting videos online. The first one is for absolute beginner knitters: it demonstrates the long-tail cast-on and the knit stitch using the English style of knitting (with the yarn in the right hand for right-handed knitters). It would have been nice if she’d also explained how to bind off, so that you could start making squares of garter stitch right away, but I suppose that gives you an excuse to buy her book. Below you can see a screen shot of Debbie showing us how to do the knit stitch.

As you can see, the funky orange background makes the video extremely visually appealing, and also makes it easier to see the yarn. I really enjoyed the fun, lighthearted nature of this introductory video, and the camera shots make it very easy to follow what Debbie is doing. I also really like that there’s a lot of text that flies by to highlight the important points she talks about. It really helps reinforce the learning process.

The second and third videos are all about knitting lace. One shows us how to do a yarn-over (see above screenshot) in both English and Continental knitting styles, and before both a knit stitch and a purl stitch. She also explains that lace knitting is only putting holes in knitted fabric, and so it shouldn’t be as intimidating as it looks.

The final video is all about decreases, and it covers right-leaning decreases, left-leaning decreases, and double-decreases. Even though I’ve knit some very complicated lace patterns (this, for example), I still learned something from this video. One issue I’ve always had is figuring out which are right-leaning and left-leaning decreases. However, Debbie explains this quite clearly:

Whichever stitch you put your needle into first is the one that’s gonna end up on top in the decrease.

It seems obvious when I think about it, but for some reason, I just never did! She also explains how these decreases work with lovely pictures of ballerinas:

To sum up, these are some really great videos. Debbie Stoller’s incredible ability to make knitting seem so easy and to give extremely clear instructions really come through, not just because of her explanations themselves, but also because of the style and editing of the videos. I certainly hope we can see more of them soon!

The magical wonderful world of double-knitting

Ilana — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 02:49:54 +0000

I won’t beat around the bush: colour work in knitting terrifies me. I have nightmares about tangled bobbins of yarn, and of spending hours on a fair isle sock, only to find out it’s too tight when I try it on because I didn’t make the floats loose enough. Double-knitting, for me, is the only exception. This technique’s virtues are too numerous to list, but I’ll give it a go anyway. First of all, you end up with a double-thick reversible fabric, which is great for potholders (I’ve designed some real nerdy ones on my blog), hats, scarves, and even jackets (M’lou Baber’s book Double Knitting: Reversible Two-Color Designs has some gorgeous ones). Next, since it’s a double-sided fabric, you don’t have an ugly wrong side where you see all the floats. Finally, the most useful aspect is that it’s still really stretchy because the yarn is always knit, and never carried behind for more than a stitch, which is especially ideal for garments.

The following is a tutorial on how to get started with double-knitting, so that you can take any knitting chart and turn it into a double-knit masterpiece. I must admit that there are alternative methods for casting on, binding off and doing the double-knitting itself, but I will present my favourite techniques, that is, the ones I think work best. Now, on to the knitting!

Step 1: Casting on

There are two ways to cast on when double-knitting. The first is to cast on with both colour yarns, and the second is to cast on with only one colour of yarn. I prefer the latter simply because it creates a neater-looking edge.

Cast on as many stitches as you’ll need for your design (or a few more if you want some extra space on the sides). Your life will be much easier knitting the next row if you cast on really loosely, so I prefer using both needles to cast on.

Step 2: Working the first row

In the first row, we introduce the second colour. This is done by working both colours into each stitch.

Keeping both strands behind your work, first knit the brown yarn in the first stitch. Then, without pulling the stitch off the left needle, move both strands of yarn to the front of your work and purl the blue yarn in the first stitch. Let the first stitch slip off your left needle.

Continue in this manner for all the stitches, bringing both yarns to the back for the knit stitches and to the front for your purl stitches. You will have alternating stitches of knits in the brown yarn and purls in the blue yarn. The knit stitches will make up the design on the side facing you, and the purl stitches will make up the design on the opposite side.

Step 3: Working the pattern

For this tutorial, I’ve chosen the above very simple diamond chart. The filled in squares represent a knit stitch in the opposite colour that you’ve been working for the background. For example, if you’re on the side where the blue stitches are knits, for the background (or white) squares on the chart, you will knit with the blue yarn and purl with the brown yarn, and when you get to the pattern (or filled in) square, then you will knit with the brown yarn and purl with the blue yarn. This can be confusing, and is probably best illustrated with a photo:

The above shows the background stitches being knit and purled, and the below shows the contrasting pattern stitch being knit and purled.

Remember to always bring both yarns to the back when knitting and both yarns to the front when purling. The first row of the pattern should look like this:

On the opposite side, brown is now the background colour and blue is the pattern colour.

Continue in this manner until you’ve knit the entire pattern. You will have a blue diamond on a brown background on one side, and a brown diamond on a blue background on the other side.

Step 4: Binding off

When you’ve completed the entire chart, it’s time to bind off. As with casting on, you can bind off either with one yarn or both yarns. Again, I prefer the look of binding off with one yarn, so that is what I’ll show you.

Begin by knitting the first knit-purl group together, and then knitting the next knit and purl stitches together. Then, simply pass the first stitch over the second as you would for a regular bind-off.

This gives a fairly clean bind-off edge, though you will have a purl ridge on the opposite side.

And you’re finished! So go forth, and fear double-knitting no longer!

Picking up dropped stitches without a crochet hook

Ilana — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 17:41:14 +0000

Imagine the following scenario:

It’s a beautiful day in late spring, and you decide to take advantage of the lovely weather to do some knitting on the patio of a trendy cafe. You’re in such a hurry to get out of your stifling apartment, that you quickly grab the nearest knitting work-in-progress, stuff it in your purse, and head out the door. You settle into your favourite outdoor spot and start happily knitting away when all of a sudden, you drop a stitch! Of course, you’re using a gorgeous, but slippery, silk-bamboo blend and the dropped stitch falls down several rows. You quickly catch the dropped stitch with one of your earrings to prevent it from falling further, but what to do now? Your crochet hook, which you would have normally used to quickly fix the problem, is safely stowed away in your notions bag all the way back home. You don’t want to cut your wonderful afternoon of outdoor crafting short, but you can’t continue until this pesky dropped stitch is fixed! What ever will you do?

Has this ever happened to you? Do you have nightmares about this sort of thing happening to you in the future? If so, the following handy tip will be perfect for you!

Step 1

Place an earring, paper clip, safety pin or whatever else you have on hand through the dropped stitch to catch it and prevent it from dropping further. For future reference, I will refer to the strands of yarn above the dropped stitch as rungs in a ladder.

Step 2

Put the left needle through the dropped stitch and under the rung of the ladder immediately above the dropped stitch (the first rung).

Step 3

Put the right needle through the dropped stitch and then slip it over the first rung.

Step 4

You’ve now picked up the dropped stitch one row and you have one less rung in your ladder.

Step 4

Continue in the same manner with the subsequent rungs in the ladder, being careful not to get the strands mixed up between rows.

You have now picked up the dropped stitch with a minimal amount of pain and panic! To pick up dropped stitches on the purl side of a stitch, simply turn your work so that the knit side is facing you and follow the above steps. You can even pick up stitches in a knit-purl pattern (such as seed stitch) by turning your work each time you pick up a stitch so that the knit side is facing you.

Now you can enjoy panic-free outdoor knitting!

Peekaboo Lace Heart

Joanna — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 01:08:53 +0000

Add a Peekaboo Heart to your Hipster Undies

Since it’s almost Valentine’s Day I thought it would be fun to switch up my Hipster Undies pattern with a cute peekaboo lace heart. With a bit of stretch lace and knit fabric, this is a quick and easy way to make a romantic handmade prezzie for your significant other, or just spoil yourself!

What You’ll Need

Hipster Undies pattern
Materials needed to complete the Hipster Undies pattern (see the materials list here).
A scrap of stretch lace, as big as the heart you want to make plus at least 1/2″ all around
A piece of paper
Sharp scissors, preferably small

Step 1Cut a heart out

Cut a heart out of paper, and cut out a piece of stretch lace that is at least 1/2″ larger than the heart all around. Place the lace and paper heart on the undies wherever you like, but at least 3/4″ away from the edge.

Step 2Zigzag around the heart

Using a narrow and short zigzag stitch, sew all around the paper heart template being careful not to stretch or distort the fabric as you sew. Don’t stitch through the heart template—make sure the needle just barely touches the paper.

Step 3Cut the heart out of the fabric

On the wrong side of the undies, cut the heart out behind the lace right up to the edge of the zigzag stitching. Be careful not to cut through the lace or stitches.

Step 4Trim the Lace

On the right side trim the lace all around the heart, right up to the stitching. Be careful not to cut through the fabric or stitching.

Step 5Finish the Undies

Continue following the pattern instructions to complete sewing the undies, and you’re done!

Easy-Peasy Bound Buttonholes

Joanna — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 04:18:30 +0000

Add couture quality to any jacket with these tailored buttonholes

Bound buttonholes look great and are very durable, and are the sort of detail you rarely see in store-bought clothing. Like gourmet cooking, it takes a bit longer but the results are well worth it—think of bound buttonholes as gourmet sewing. You wouldn’t put ketchup on a filet mignon, so why would you put flimsy zigzag buttonholes on a beautiful suit jacket you spent many hours lovingly sewing?

Bound buttonholes work best on tailored garments, especially jackets and coats. Shirts, blouses and other lightweight clothing don’t really suit bound buttonholes very well. As you’re following along with your jacket or coat pattern, start making the buttonholes before you put in the facing and lining, following these instructions up to Step 12. Then complete your jacket or coat and finish the buttonholes on the side of the jacket facing, following the rest of the instructions.

If this is your first time making bound buttonholes, I recommend trying it out using scrap fabric first so you can get a feel for it before you move on to the real thing. It’s easy to do, but it does take accuracy and a bit of finagling.

What You’ll Need

A jacket or coat, without the facing and lining put in yet OR a scrap of fabric and scrap of fusible interfacing to practice with
Sharp scissors
A clear ruler gridded in 1/8″ increments
(a regular ruler will do in a pinch, but a clear gridded ruler is much, much easier to use)
A small amount of fabric to bind the buttonholes (you will need about a 2″ by 1.5″ piece for each buttonhole you make, but the amount will vary slightly depending on the size of your buttons). You can use a piece of the main fabric to bind with, but I often like to use a contrasting fabric—you’ll be putting some extra effort into making these buttonholes, so let them stand out a little!
A ballpoint pen or sharp pencil
A small sharp hand sewing needle
The width of the buttons you plan to use

Step 1Interface the Fabric

Interface the front and front facing pieces of your jacket or coat with a lightweight fusible interfacing. Do this to both the left and right sides, as both the buttonholes and buttons themselves will benefit from the support. If you’re following along with these instructions using scrap fabric, interface your scrap. Also apply interfacing to the small piece of fabric you will use to bind the buttonhole.

Step 2Cut a patch out of the binding fabric

Cut out a rectangle from your binding fabric that is 1″ wider than your button and 1 1/2″ high.

Step 3Draw guide lines

Mark 5 horizontal lines on the interfaced side of your main fabric, each 1/8″ apart. The middle line (#3 in the photo) will end up being the opening of the buttonhole, so keep that in mind. Mark the exact width of your button with vertical lines—these lines will determine the location of the left and right edges of the buttonhole.

Step 4Mark the Sides

Use pins to mark both of the vertical lines you drew in Step 3. Flip the fabric over, and use the pins visible from the right side to center your patch of binding fabric (interfaced side up, right sides together) on the right side of the main fabric. Pin the patch to the main fabric.

Step 5Baste the Fold Lines

Machine baste along the top and bottom lines (lines #1 and #5 in the Step 3 photo). Be careful to keep your stitching straight and accurate.

Step 6Press the binding fabric

On the right side, fold the sides of the binding along the basting stitches and press.

Step 7Sew the binding

On the marked/interfaced side, stitch using a regular machine stitch on the two lines next to the basting stitches (lines #2 and #4 in the Step 3 photo).

Carefully to stitch along the line, and use the hand wheel to start and stop exactly at the vertical lines. Carefully backstitch for one or two stitches at the beginning and end, and make sure not to fold back the other side of the binding as you sew.Accuracy is very important here—if you don’t stitch exactly on this line, or don’t start and stop exactly at the vertical lines, you will end up with a crooked buttonhole.

When you’re done, this is what it should look like on the right side:

Step 8Remove the Basting

Remove the basting stitches you made in Step 5. You may be able to simply pull the threads out. If not, use a stitch ripper and remove the thread bits as best as you can.

Step 9Cut the binding fabric

On the right side, cut the binding fabric between the stitching. Do not cut the main fabric at this point (or the sewing police will come after you!).

Step 10Cut the buttonhole

OK, now you can cut the main fabric. Cut a slit across the middle and a diagnoal snip into each corner as shown by the dotted line. Make sure that each “V” made by the corner snips is at least 3/8″ wide to make the next step easy. Be careful not to cut into the folded parts of the binding fabric on the other side, and make sure to cut right up to but not beyond the corners. If you don’t, your finished buttonhole may have a “pulled” look in the corners.

Step 11Turn the binding

Pull all the binding fabric to the wrong side, and press flat while keeping the buttonhole square (well, rectangular of course, but you know what I mean!).

Step 12Finish sewing the binding

Fold the main fabric back, and make sure the triangle (formed from snipping into the corners in Step 10) is visible. If it isn’t, it’s probably still on the other side and needs to be pulled through. Sew along the “base” of the triangle and both strips of binding fabric, as shown by the dotted line in the photo. Keep everything straight and square as you sew. Repeat for the other side.

Stop

Are you making a jacket or coat? If so, stop here. Complete sewing your jacket or coat, then follow the rest of the steps to finish the buttonhole on the facing side.

Are you following the tutorial with scrap fabric? If your scrap of fabric is large enough, fold it over to cover the back of the buttonhole to simulate a facing. If not, get another scrap of fabric to use as a facing. Apply fusible interfacing to your “facing”, and continue with the rest of the steps.

Step 13Baste the buttonhole

On the right side, hand or machine baste around the outer edges of the buttonhole as accurately as you can. If machine basting, use the hand wheel as you approach the corners in order to mark them precisely.

Step 15Clip the Facing

Using the basing lines as a guide, clip the facing as shown (the same way you clipped the buttonhole
in Step 10). Make sure you clip right up to the corners, and be careful not to cut the binding or front fabric. Remove the basting.

Step 16Fold and press the facing

Fold back the facing to match the perimeter of the buttonhole binding, and press with an iron.

Step 17Sew the Facing

Thread a hand sewing needle with thread that matches your main fabric as closely as possible. Slipstitch all around the buttonhole opening in the facing, to attach the facing to the binding. Catch only the top layer of the facing with the thread, so that no stitches are visible on the right side.

You’re done!

Now you never need to use boring automatic buttonholes on your jackets and coats every again. Woot!