Missing perhaps, but certainly in action. Sorry for the long silence, I’ve been a bit under the weather and I just haven’t got around to taking the pictures. Trouble is I have forgotten what I’ve shown and what I haven’t, so I am having to go back into my archives to have a look myself!

Whoah! I just realised what a rubbishy post the last one was! A medal to anyone who bothered to read it. I was certainly mean with my explanations, had I been reading it on another blog I would have been very miffed as I like all the details with other peoples’ makes. So if you can bear it I will briefly fill in, otherwise we will be here all day.

First up, the dishcloth cotton knitted short sleeved jumper;

It is of course the easy-peasy Sea of Jeans pattern once again [ check on Ravelry, my Ravelry ID is Creatifcrafts – it really is easy]. It really is dishcloth cotton too, that washed up to a lovely creamy white and very soft fabric.The patterns were taken from a Treasury of Stitches, The Knitters’ Bible “Stitch Library” – sorry to mislead, this is a much better collection i.m.h.o. They and are ‘Twist Stitch Chevron’ and ‘ Nosegay’. Both have 16stitches, so the stitch count had to be adjusted to accommodate the patterned panels and the stocking stitch panels in between.. As can be seen, I put the Chevron as side panels, I also just did three panels of Chevron in across the back, as I didn’t fancy the bobbles at the back.  The only difficulty I had with that was the two patterns had a differing number of rows, which I solved in a very basic way; -pencil and paper. I wrote down the corresponding row numbers in two columns and ticked them off as I went, rather like a school register [if you remember that far back!]

Hopefully these are more informative pictures. The top and skirt;

The top really is just a sleeveless shell. It just slips over the head, no problem. I used to put a zip in the side underarm seam [upside down, so the open end was at the hem]. This is how good RTW used to make them in non-stretch fabric for fitted tops, but I realised after a while there was no need in these looser boxier tops. The only difference with this particular one was that I had to piece together odd pieces out of the remaining scraps of the material to make up the front and back which makes for seams in odd places as can be seen in the above photo, but it all adds to the charm! As I said in the previous post, the skirt is a straightforward [‘scuse the pun] straight skirt. Just three main pieces and I added side seam pockets. Instead of darts I made tucks as in this grey polka dot summer skirt, blogged previously. .

Now,  here’s a list, just to remind me of the pictures I need to take for next time – these are the items made recently but not blogged or shown;-

1. ‘denim’ blue short sleeved cotton blouse; 2. white art silk sleeveless top; 3. beige/cream patterned cotton jersey tee; 4. plain beige cotton jersey tee; 5 plum coloured soft plushy-wool type skirt with front mock slit pockets; 6. charcoal grey Italian wool jacket with bow/press-stud fastening and 7 a black cotton jersey tee. The three tee-tops are from the Alabama Chanin pattern that came with this book  and all the patterns are incredibly simple, straightforward and well fitting relying on embellishment to make it something out of the ordinary. However, I still haven’t got round to making a proper stencil

and having a go at the real deal [below]; [photos from Alabama Chanin website]

My own freehand attempts below – blogged previously are as far as I have got on this one. 

My head just hasn’t been in the right place, although I did draft the pattern for the charcoal grey jacket this week, which I am secretly quite proud of! [not so secret now though]. That is a tale all of its own but more of all that later when I’ll try and catch up a.s.a.p with the photo’s – promise.