Procrastination for the win!

What does the good student do when she's supposed to study for her exams? Why, she sews, of course! Or prepares for sewing, anyway. I mentioned earlier that I couldn't remake my regency dress until I had some proper undergarments, which I intended to drape like American Duchess. But then I read this amazing blogpost by Kleidung um 1800, in which she also provides several patterns for free (go check it out if you haven't clicked that link yet, all her posts are amazingly detailed!). She even asks people to try out her method to see if it works for everybody. I got giddy to try it, and finally had some time (and materials) to try it. I scaled the pattern tonight, and who knows, if I manage my time just right, I might even get some sewing done this weekend. Wish me luck! :)

Scaling... drawing squares can get pretty boring ;)

The scaled pattern. Who knew that math could
be so usefull while sewing...

The finished pattern. I just can't wait to try it in fabric!

Stole

So, after flunking not one, but two exams this week (and pouring sweetened tea all over my keyboard, making the keys stick and stuck something aweful) I decided to do something productive that I can hardly mess up: another blogpost! (Oh, and my friend keeps bugging me about it, so there you are, you're welcome :P)
I wanted to tell you about the stole I'm working on. I chose this project because I wanted to have a shawl that works for several epochs of fashion, and because it's a great and stylish way to stay warm. Also, I like easy knitting projects you can do on the go (I spend a lot of time in busses and trains ;) )

I just love those gigantic shawls on victorian women

As I said, I wanted to knit my shawl (believe it or not, it relaxes me) and wanted an easy pattern so that I could knit on the go without having to carry around the instructions sheet all the time. I also wanted it to have kind of a lacey pattern because plain knitting just seems so boring for an accessory... after some searching, I stumbled unto this site (Sorry it's in German). Being in an impatient mood, I only went through the first two pages until I decided to combine two of the patterns to create a v-shaped pattern. Lots of fiddling and a couple of curses later, I had a pattern I was happy with:

Trying to make up a pattern...

Here's the one I finally went with, plus the trial-piece

After going back to the website for my sources I just realized that they actually have a v-shaped pattern, so I probably could have saved myself at least some of the troubles.
Then again, maybe not, because I wanted a triangular shawl. Here's how you do that: Cast on 4 stitches, turn, then purl all stitches, turn again. Knit one stitch (I never bothered with borders, I just knitted/purled them depending on if I was in an even or uneven numbered row), wrap thread around your needle (you just created a new loop), knit two, wrap around once more, knit the last stitch. On your way back, always purl every loop on your needle. That way, you gain two stitches every second row, and get that triangular shape!
This is my pattern:

You only see every second row because the backrow is
always purling

The circles are knitted Sitches, the U stands for "wrap-around" ("Umschlag" in German); The upside down-V's mean different things, depending on what side they're on (an lean to ;) ). On the right side, just knit two stitches together, very easy. But on the left side, you have to pull the loop off the left needle as if you were going to knit it, then knit the stitch after that, then pull the first loop over the second. You'll see that this technique creates a mirror-image of the stitches you knitted together on the right.
One more thing: Everytime you start a new "V" with a wraparound in the middle, you suddenly have an uneven number of stitches. I tried several ways to work around this, but the most regular result I got goes like this: when you get to the wrap-around on your next knitted row, you are going to knit one regular stitch - just don't pull the loop off the left needle yet. Bring the thread in front of the needle, and you can get another stitch out of the same loop (same movement as purling, I think). I indicated this on my pattern with the little "2" just above the U.
Other usefull tips: use a stitchmarker to mark the middle. I use a safety-pin, but you can use just about anything you can slip over your needle. Make sure you place the stitchmarker between the double-stitch I explained in the last paragraph!
Also: don't get desperate, I had to redo practically every second row when I started (which is particularly annoying when you're knitting, because you have to work backwards instead of just pulling the thread like in crochet), you'll get the hang of it in time.

The humble beginning. I'm much further now, just ran out of yarn.

After two balls of yarn, I'm only at 60cm length in the middle, so we'll see how far the third one takes me. Until then :)


Edit: As it will not let me put a link into an image description, here's the source for the pretty victorian Lady

Minion in progress

I did promise some in-progress-pictures, didn't I? So, while granting myself a free afternoon filled with watching "The paradise", I got quite a lot of crocheting done:

Eyes and mouth pinned on, arms still missing

I ran out of yellow yarn, so I haven't done the arms yet, I'll probably get some on monday. Changes I've made to the pattern so far:

• As I said, I ran out of yellow yarn, so the body is quite a lot shorter than it's supposed to be - I stopped at round 42 of 55 straight rows
• With a shorter body, I also made the front- and backpanels of the overalls smaller (left out two lines) so as to have some room left for the face.
• I couldn't get the boots to work with that strange 12 chainstiches beginning, so I started by chaining 5 stitches, two single crochets in the second loop from the hook, 1 sc in the two following, 4sc in the loop at the end of the chain - that should bring you to the other side - 1 sc in the two following and again 2sc in the last, that gives a nice-to-work-with oval shape of 12 stitches. I then doubled all the stitches (24) and then did one more round, doubling every second stich on the curves, you can do that pretty good by eyeballing. That gave me about 30 stitches. I followed the pattern again until it came to diminishing (declining? It's abbreviated with dec.) Adjusting the pattern I had (count your stitches, divide them by two, minus four) I did 11 sc; diminished 4times and did 11sc. next round 9sc, dec. 4times, 9sc. next round 7sc, dec 4times, 7dc follow the pattern again
• I also crocheted the little black buttons (4sc on a loop, pull tight, knot off, leave two long strands to sew to your overall)
• I made the goggles out of grey felt, because I had some lying around, instead of grey yarn, which I didn't. Still looks pretty cool, though, I think :)

Since I don't think I'll go into as much detail as the original pattern, all that's left to do are the goggle straps and the arms, into which I'll try to build in some wire-understructure as to make them bendable. Oh, the fun :)
 Lilly's birthday is early in september, and if I don't get bored with them until then, I'll give her this minion plus a purple, evil one from despicable me 2.  (I'll just buy two balls of purple yarn, then I can make it in the right size plus have some left over to do that craaazy hair - Oh, what fun :) )

Minions!

I recently went to see "Despicable Me 2" with some friends, and we were literally falling out of our seats from laughing at those little yellow b**tards. Needless to say, I wanted to have my own minion! I figured I'd crochet one, amigurumi-style, since they're a pretty basic shape. Still, out of boredom, I googled how to crochet minions, and found a pattern that looks pretty good. After finishing my first exam today, I decided to treat myself to some yellow (and blue, and black) yarn and start crocheting. It's going pretty good so far, although I did use a (German) size 4 crocheting hook and appropriate yarn, so my minion will probably be twice as big as intended by the pattern maker. Then again, I'm not quite sure about the size differences in German/European and American crocheting hooks (I just know there is one), so maybe it's the intended Size. We'll see. As I have more exams coming up, I'll work on this in my down-time (so as not to go crazy from studying ;) ) and post pictures as soon as I have something to show. In the meantime, enjoy this chart I found while researching ;)

Schlossfest

Roughly translated to "castle-festival", this is an event which takes place in Neuburg, Donau, every other year and where my lovely friend Lilly took me and some other friends last weekend. The entire historic city centre was converted into one giant renaissance fair, and most of the townspeople were in costume - it was incredible! Here are some pictures, like I promised:

Lovely Lilly on the left. The guys' garb was generously supplied by Lilly's family

The castle's court. The entire inner wall used to be painted like that,
they're restoring it

On the left, the wall-painting has already been restored,
while the walls in the middle and opposite still await restoration

Lilly being silly in the courtyard

I said there would be pictures of my costume, din't I?

The entire group, picture taken by a nice lady who just couldn't
for the life of her figure out how to use my camera.

There were groups like this walking through
all the streets, making music...

...or representing the guard! It felt like a real
medieval faire as you could always hear
drumming or music out of one direction or other :)

On the second day, it was so hot and we intended to stay only for such a short time, that I couldn't be bothered to wear my costume. Still took some pictures, though:

Lilly and me, and I actually bought that parasol/umbrella!
(I was told by the shopkeeper that it could absolutely be
used as an umbrella :) )

We were all pretty tired at the end of our second day

In other news, I decided to postpone the corset making until after my exams are done (august), but as I like to have something to do, I'm knitting a stole now. Pictures and a pattern will be up soon :)

Renaissance apron the second

You can see how little of the thread was left about halfway through

My apron is done! Yay! I finished the embroidery today, more out of necessity than my free will. Firstly, the event I'm planning to wear the apron to is this weekend, so I had to finish, secondly, my thread ran out, so I actually had to finish. I couldn't quite finish the pattern I had drawn on before, but unpicked one of the flowers at the other end so that it would still be more or less symmetrical. I'm quite satisfied with the result, although there are a couple of things I would do differently if I ever did such a project again:

• Start from the middle. It doesn't matter if you're drawing the pattern on or embroidering, if you start from one of the sides, it's going to be asymmetrical. (That holds especially true if you can't be sure that you have enough thread)
• Don't start an embroidery project unless the deadline is more than a year away! Embroidering (especially an ever repeating pattern) is a long and boring task and you will come to hate it if you have to do too much in too little time 
• Read the instructions before you start. 'nuff said.

That being said, here's the finished result:

You can see the tiny holes on the left where I unpicked a flower because I simply didn't have enough thread left to embroider one on the other side ;)

 And here it is on me, completing the outfit I plan to wear this weekend:

My camera sometimes doesn't like me, so it gives me demon eyes ;)

If I get any better pictures at the fair, I'll post them :)

Victorian Corset

Have I ever mentioned that I'm a big fan of steampunk? As this is only my fourth post, probably not, but now you know. After recently talking to a friend about the subject, I decided (once again) to try to make a steampunk-costume. Any steampunk-costume needs a proper corset, and mine's going to be in dark blue brocade. Some day, anyway. For now, as I've never made a (good, working) corset before, my trial run is going to be in green cotton. I may be able to use it as simple victorian underwear, if I ever get to make a victorian gown ;)

First time pinning and tracing. I numbered the pattern pieces so I wouldn't confuse them later on

I drafted my own pattern, using this guide.  After cutting out my mock-up and pinning it together, I was surprised how well it fit me. The only adjustment I did so far was reducing the back panel by 2cm for to have a gap there at all - I could close the mock up edge to edge.

I don't have a dressform here, so this is the best I could do to try the fit

I then used the mock-up as pattern pieces on some rough black fabric I spontaneously decided to use as flat-lining (only because the white linen I had intended for that purpose proved to be too small) and cut that out.

Second time pinning (but no tracing this time ;) )

On the green cotton that is to be the outer layer I used my paper pattern pieces again.

Third time pinning and tracing. Are you noticing a theme here?

I cut once more and then had to connect the green fabric (which was still pinned to the paper pattern-pieces) to the black fabric (still pinned to the mock-up, which I'm probably going to use as my inner lining, by the way).

This pile of pieces will hopefully turn into a beautiful corset :)

More unpinning and pinning until I was ready to stick my pins into the arm of the friend who gave the idea, had he been there. Lucky for him (and our friendship, I guess) I finally got done and won't have to do too much pinning anytime soon.
The next step will be to connect all the green to all the black pieces using a basting stitch (that's flat lining for you, I hope I got it right ;) ) and then I'll be able to start to sew the respective piecces together. That'll give me enough time to buy some boning (I will try to use zip-ties, as I've read AmericanDuchess do, but I'm not sure if they'll be any good since she only boned 18th century stays with them, to my knowledge).
As I still have to go to universtity in my free time, I will leave you with this, and go to bed. I'm very excited about this project :)