Craft Archives - Page 21 of 77 - Violet LeBeaux

My First Cable Knit Cardigan! Finished Project!

by VioletLeBeaux | Jul 1, 2013 | Clothing-Tutorials, Craft, Tutorial

This is the feeling of having finished your first cable knit sweater project:

I have wanted to learn to cable knit for years but it looks so complicated so I was scared off. I was given a lovely birthday present from my friends Dino Slippers and I used it to bite the bullet and purchase yarn and cable needles to try it out.

Of course I didn’t try a small project first, I made a gigantic cardigan XD

After a little trial and error I found some good online guides including this one on cable knitting and just kind of went with it. I’ve never knitted a cardigan or jumper before so this was a big project for me.

I didn’t have a pattern, I pretty much just winged it!

cable-knit-cardigan77

I did the arms first, they had a 2 strand cable up the middle and were stockinette stitch either side. I can’t remember how many stitches I used so I will give estimates for everything. Obviously do test swatches and see how many stitches you need. I used 7mm needles and 8ply yarn for a loose finish.

Arms- make 2!

Knit 10, purl 2, 2 strand cable, purl 2, knit 10.

Once it’s long enough to reach your arm pit, decrease one at the beginning of each row until you have only the cable and purl stitches left. Cast off.

Back – make 1

Knit 9, purl 2, 2 strand cable, purl 2, knit 5, purl 2, 6 strand cable, purl 2, knit 5, purl 2, 2 strand cable, purl 2, knit 9.

When it reaches your armpits decrease one at the start of each row until you think it’s long enough. Cast off.

Front pieces- make 1 then make one in reverse.

Knit 9, purl 2, 2 strand cable, purl 2, knit 5, purl 2, 6 strand cable, purl 2, knit 3.

Knit until you reach your arm pit. Decrease 1 at the beginning of each row until it’s as long as the back piece. It can get a bit tricking decreasing with the 6 strand cable. When you get to that section just decrease and entire cable and continue with it as a 5 strand cable. Cast off.

Sew all of the pieces together. I added a collar by picking up stitches from around the collar area and doing a knit 2, purl 2 rib along the edge.

All done!

I was really surprised how easy it was to cable knit. If you can plait or braid it’s really easy to see where the strands of knitting need to go next.

I had a great time making this cardigan and I really want to try another one in a smaller gauge so you can see the pattern!

What do you guys think? More cable knitting? I’m totally obsessed XD

About Overlockers and Sergers! Sew Fun!

by VioletLeBeaux | Jun 27, 2013 | Craft, Sewing 101, Tutorial

Ok back into sewing this week and I think it’s time to learn about the other machine that some of your may or may not have: the overlocker (or serger if you’re in the USA).

So what is an overlocker?

Basically it’s a big fat sewing machine which uses 3-4 threads and seals the raw edges of fabric. It usually has a little blade arm which cuts the edge of the fabric as you stitch along it so it makes a really neat perfect edge.

The purpose is to seal edges so they don’t fray but also overlocked seams are neater and more sturdy because they have 2 lines of basic stitching and 4 threads rather than the 2 of a regular machine.

The basic line of stitching that an overlocker creates is 2 regular lines of straight stitch with two other threads which zigzag between them and around front to back. Most of the time overlocking is hidden inside the garment but occasionally you can use an overlocker to create very tight visible stitches on unfolded hems. This is usually done of fabrics like chiffon where hems are a pain in the butt but also for visual effect on others.

Have a look at the inside of one of your dresses, you’ll see thicker seams which are overlocked.

So do you need one?

If you’re planning on selling the clothes you make or want a really professional finish then I think it’s a great tool. It’s not 100% necessary but they are really good to have and I find them to save a lot of time. If you are wanting to save time you can always overlock fabric pieces together rather than edging each and then sewing together. Not technically “correct” in sewing theory but it saves a lot of time and effort!

Overlockers are also more expensive, require more maintenance because they have a lot more moving parts and mechanics. They are harder to thread and generally harder to wrap your head around. That said if you put in the initial effort they are totally worth it.

My machine cost around $600 in 2005, it was a birthday gift, it’s a “Lock 1034D” and I haven’t had it serviced it the 8 years I’ve had it (out of cost and laziness). It’s broken a few times since I’ve owned it but each time either James or I have been able to just take it apart and find the issue. Can’t complain!

I’m not really going to go into detail with the mechanics of threading an overlocker because each one is dramatically different but here is how mine works:

Two of the threads are threaded through the two needles like you would a regular machine and then the other two are threaded inside the actual machine and come out under the foot.

Close up it looks something like this:

From the top it looks quite complicated but basically you have 4 spools of thread and then holder clips and tension wheels for each.

On the side there is a handwheel, foot lift, air vent and power button.

And then on the other side there are levers to control the stitches and the cutter.

You machine will probably have completely different levers.

Overlockers usually have a front panel which slides down to reveal the mechanics.

The two underneath threads are threaded through a series of metal loops and little metal pull out pieces which push into place and thread the inside.

Most modern overlockers actually have instructions colour coded on them so you can just follow the numbers to thread it. Be extremely careful when you are threading not to have your foot on the pedal. There are so many moving parts in there which could easily catch fingers!

So really the most important thing to do if you’re considering an overlocker is try them out in store to find one you like the feel of and make sure it comes with really thorough instructions. Most places that sell sewing machine offer free classes so you can get to know your new machine, they are definitely worth checking out if you have the time. My overlocker came with a VHS (which was completely outdated even then) instruction video and in this day and age a lot of companies have specific beginners videos on getting started.

My top tips for working with your machine when you get it:

Practice threading… a lot in the beginning, it will save you time later when a thread snaps and you’re half way through an outfit.
Overlockers go a lot faster than sewing machines.
Make sure you clean out the insides often. Bits of thread, dust and other crap gets inside the machine easily and it can clog up the mechanic causing more expensive damage. Clean it out regularly to avoid that!
Practice on a lot of scrap fabric because the cutting blade can be a bit hard to handle.
Practice doing curved edges too, it can be difficult to get the hang of because you have to consider where the blade is.
Don’t be put off by how complicated it looks, once you have played around for a while it’s so much fun!

Hope this was a useful post and let me know if you have any questions and I’ll do my best to answer them next time!

Knitted Headband Tutorial – Quick Project

by VioletLeBeaux | Jun 18, 2013 | Craft, Hair-Accessory-Tutorials, Tutorial

I’ve been a bit sick this week so today’s project is something nice and quick that you can finish while watching a movie on the couch.

It’s a very simple cute little knitted headband.

I used some green yarn I had left overs of to clear out some of my stash. It’s around 8ply and 4mm needles.

Cast on 15 stitches.

Knit using garter stitch until it’s long enough to wrap around your head comfortably. Cast off and then stitch the ends together.

Gather the seam and pleat it like a bow shape.

Tie some extra yarn around it to hold it in place. You could knit something to go around here if you preferred.

Done! Now that I have an obsession with cable knitting I want to make one with that too!

James suggested that this could be used in a more saucy way because and I quote “It’s not called garter stitch for nothing!” …. -_-‘

I’m not sure if there will be a Sew Fun this week or not because staring at the machine is giving me a bit of a headache at the moment but I’ll see how I go! I think I need a new prescription for my glasses >_<

Let’s Sew A Simple Lolita Skirt! Sew Fun!

by VioletLeBeaux | Jun 12, 2013 | Clothing-Tutorials, Craft, Sewing 101, Tutorial

You guys voted on the topic last week and the winner by a long shot was a simple ruffled Lolita skirt for our first big project! Fantastic choice guys, you’ll learn some really great skills in this project which you’ll be able to transfer to other projects.

So before we get into it, let’s have a look at the finished project being modeled by the lovely Miss Quinn ;D

Before we start, let’s look at the features of the skirt we’re going to make.

The basic shape of the skirt we are making is a bell shape. This shape is suited for cute girly styles like Lolita fashion. This shape is very easy to make but it does take up a decent amount of fabric. When choosing your fabric keep in mind that if you are using a patterned print you may need more to make sure the patterns match up well.

The top of the skirt is gathered and there is a ruffle along the bottom of it.

This skirt features a flat waist band.

On the back the waist band is partially elastic to ensure a good fit.

Keep in mind I’m going to keep this as simple as possible so we are going to cut some corners and it’s going to be a very basic skirt (eg. it’s not lined). I only sew for myself these days so I don’t mind taking short cuts because I know how I wear clothes. A lot of my techniques are just my personal preference after way too many years sewing so I would suggest looking at several different courses and styles of sewing so you can find the one that works best for you.

So let’s get started!

You will need:

Scissors
Fabric
Elastic
Sewing machine
Tape measure
Any decorations you want like lace etc

I will be using dark thread so you can see what I’m doing again but please choose a thread that matches your fabric.

First thing you need to do is measure your waist. These skirts sit on the waist not the hips so measure around the thinnest part of your waist. I will do an entire post on how to measure yourself later because that is very very important. It is very hard to measure yourself accurately so please get a friend to help if possible.

Now you need to cut your pieces out.

This project will consist of 3 rectangular sections:

The ruffle at the bottom
The main skirt part
The waist band

Here is how to measure for each piece to cut

Waist:

This is made from 4 rectangles. Two wider ones for the front/elastic back and two shorter ones for the sides of the back

Height- Twice as high as you want the finished waistband to be plus 3cm for seams.
Width- The pieces for the front/elastic back should be 1/2 of your waist measurement. The pieces for the sides of the back should be 1/6th of your waist measurement.

Skirt:

This is made from 2 pieces (it can be more or less depending on the fabric you’re cutting from).

Height- This depends on how long you want the finished skirt to be. Make sure to leave extra for seams.
Width- This should be at least 3 times your waist measurement. The longer the width, the poufier the skirt.

Ruffle:

This is made from several long strips. I used 3 but yours will depend how wide your piece of fabric is.

Height- This depends on how long you want the finished skirt to be. Make sure to leave extra for seams.
Width- This should be at least twice the width of the total skirt width.The longer the width of this, the frillier the ruffle.

The way my fabric was patterned I had to use several pieces where you could just use one if your fabric allows it. Keep in mind that this is more of a guide than an exact pattern, so experiment. I would ALWAYS suggest if you’re unsure on measurements to draw things out and use some basic math. I would also suggest pinning things together before you start sewing so you can check the fit before you go to the effort of sewing.

We are going to work from the bottom to the top so we’re starting with the ruffle first.

The first step is to seal the short edges of your ruffle pieces using a zigzag stitch or overlocker. Most of you will be using zigzag so that’s what I used too.

You will notice that some edges of the fabric have been sealed, it’s up to you if you want to bother zigzagging those, I generally don’t bother. Make sure when you do sew them into seams you sew far enough in that the edges won’t be seen.

Ok so once you have zigzagged the short edges you will need to sew the ruffle pieces together so they make one gigantic long rectangular piece. To do this, put the good sides of the fabric together and then stitch down the short side around 1.5cm from the edge. Make sure you secure the beginning and end of the seam as you go.

Repeat this for all of your ruffle pieces until you have one super long piece.

Now flatten out the seams you made by folding them in opposite directions. You can pin them in place or iron them or if you are more confident then just hold them down while you sew. When I first learned to sew we were taught very strictly to pin every single seam and then iron it in place before sewing. I would suggest doing that until you get a good feel for sewing and then you can be like me: lazy and avoid ironing at all costs.

While your seams are flattened out like that, zigzag down the long sizes of the ruffle piece to seal the sides in.

When you zigzag the long side make sure you have the seams open and go right over the top. This will hold them open permanently.

This side with the seams will now be called the bad side.

Now we need to close up the bottom ruffle in a proper seam. So fold the long edge over to the bad side. I make seams like this around 0.06cm so they aren’t too huge, this is personal preference so you can do whatever you prefer.

Fold it over again so the zigzag edge is completely inside. Pin it in place!

Fold and pin for one entire long edge.

Now sew along that seam using a straight stitch.

Be careful when you go over the flat seams. You want the whole thing to be nice and straight.

Great work!

Now let’s turn this long rectangle into a ruffle!

There are a billion ways to make ruffles, I’m going to use the easiest machine one.

Turn your machine tension to the highest number. Anchor a line of stitching around 2cm from the zigzag at the top of the rectangle.

Straight stitch all the way down the side of the ruffle. You should notice that the fabric coming out the back of the machine is pulling and very slightly ruffled. This is because the tension on the thread is very high. This may not work with heavy fabric.

It is important that if you want to do this method that you use good thread. Cheap thread will just snap when you try to pull it later and that is VERY frustrating when you’re half way through several meters of ruffles.

Do not anchor the end of the stitching when you reach the other end and leave a long trail of thread.

This is what it looks like when it comes out of the machine.

Look closely at the thread, one side will be a tight straight line, this is the end you will pull if you want more ruffles.

Put the ruffle to the side for the moment so we can prepare the middle part of the skirt.

Zigzag all of the edges of the skirt pieces. As you did with the ruffle pieces, stitch the skirt pieces so they become a really long rectangle. Fold the seams flat as well.

You should have something along these lines with one big rectangle for the skirt and a super long ruffle underneath.

We need the ruffle to be… rufflier XD

Basically it needs to be the same width as the skirt piece so you can sew it on to the bottom. To make it rufflier you need to pull the tight thread gently and slide the fabric along it so it gathers evenly along the way.

Be careful as you go especially when you are pulling over the top of seams. If your thread snaps you will likely need to start this again so many people suggest using two lines of stitching at once so there’s no big strain at anyone point. I am lazy so I choose to use one strong piece of thread 😉

Pull the ruffle and arrange it until it’s as long as the skirt piece and then tie the end of the thread in a knot so it can’t un-ruffle itself.

Now let’s attach the ruffle to the skirt.

Place the ruffle upside down with the good side facing the good side of the skirt and pin it in place.

Sew down the long side around 1.5cm from the edge.

You can see there will be two lines of stitching when you’re done, the one you just did and then the line you used to make the ruffles.

When you fold the ruffle flat you can see the stitches too.

Use an unpicker or scissors to remove the ruffle stitching.

Get mad at your dog for insisting that she lay all over your projects.

Back to the point, yay you just made a ruffled edge!!!

Now we need to gather the top of the skirt so it will sit in the waist band properly. Use the same ruffle method and gather the top of the skirt.

Now we need to put the waist band together.

Zigzag all of your edges and then sew the pieces of the waist band together to form one long rectangle. The order should go: side, front, side, elastic back.

We will be folding the waist band in half and then sandwiching the skirt part inside it. If you want to iron a fold it to make it easier for yourself, now is the time. You can also run a line of stitches close to the fold if you want to.

Get the rest of the skirt off your dog again. Seriously Lottie, what makes laying on my projects so appealing?!

Put the band on the ground (bad side up) and lay the skirt on top of it (good side up)

Fold the waist band over.

And then fold the zigzagged edge of the waist band under again. This can be a little bit fiddly so do it a little bit at a time and pin as you go.

Straight stitch just next to the edge of the band and you’ve made a waist!

If you want to be really great about it, you can fold the edge of the inside of the waistband over too but this can be a little tricky for beginners so I didn’t bother.

You can see the difference of the inside and outside here:

Now we need to add in the elastic part of the skirt.

Thread the end of the elastic through the inside of the waist band. I find this is easiest when I put a safety pin on the end.

Stop threading when you reach the first seam of the waist.

Stitch a line through both the elastic and the waistband. This will hold the elastic inside.

Pull the end of the elastic so the fabric gathers on it. Make another line of stitches on that side of the waist band and then cut off the extra elastic. The elastic should now be secure inside the skirt.

Now we have one thing left to do… turn this long frilly rectangle into a skirt!

Fold the whole thing in half so the good side is inside. Match up the last zigzagged edges along the side.

Stitch right down it making sure to anchor well.

Snip off all of the loose threads everywhere.

Turn it right way out and you’re finished!!

The back now has a fancy elastic section to ensure a great fit!

You have officially completed your first piece of clothing, congratulations!!

This is just a very basic skirt but from here you can decorate in numerous ways including adding lace to the edges or seams, ribbons, bows, anything really!

Depending on the fabric you choose you can make a whole variety of styles. Once you get more confident with sewing and understanding how different pieces work with your body, you will be able draft patterns like this easily and whip one up in an hour or so!

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial, if you have any questions make sure you leave them in the comments and let me know if you give this a try. I can’t wait to see all of your finished skirts!

How To Crochet A Crazy Faux Cable Hat!

by VioletLeBeaux | Jun 6, 2013 | Clothing-Tutorials, Craft, Tutorial

It’s getting quite chilly and wintery here now so I’ve been going through a knitting/crochet binge. I tend to do this every time it gets cold XD

I’ve been trying to dent my yarn stash a bit and one of the projects I came up with to use up scraps was this fluffy faux cable crochet hat. I like to think it’s so ugly it’s cute!

So let’s get started!

For this guide you will need to know the basics of crochet eg. stitches, decreasing, beginning,ending etc.

You will need a few balls of yarn in various colours. I just used my scraps up and when I ran out of one colour I started the next. I used a 5.5mm crochet hook and doubled over the yarn for a chunky look. All of the stitches in this hat are double crochet, you could use single crochet but you would probably need to double the number of rows.

This technique is basically cabling for people who can’t be bothered to actually cable, it’s good for beginners because there’s less thinking to do while you’re stitching!

Make a foundation chain and form a circle, the circle should be a bit bigger than your head. The number of stitches will depend on the size of your head but make sure it’s divisible by 8. Here I used 80 stitches. When we add the faux cabling it will pull the hat in a bit so it’s better to add a few extra stitches and have it a bit loose for this style of hat.

Double crochet 2 complete rows.

Now for the faux cabling!

Crochet little tabs in a different colour, they should be 4 stitches across and then 4 rows upwards. Continue making these little tabs until you run out of places to put them.

When it’s all flared out it should look like this:

To make the actual cabling (or rather faux cabling) you just need to weave the tabs together and then tie/stitch the ends together.

It looks like this when it’s done.

And here’s a better view of the actual weaving. The arrows show the direction that each piece is going and then the scribble represents where the two pieces are sewn together.

Now double crochet another 2 rows on top of that. For the first row you’ll be picking up stitches from the woven bit which can get a little confusing. Don’t worry about it too much but again try to get a number of stitches which is divisible by 8. You’ll notice that the hat as cinched in a little bit and the rows up the top kind of look like a zigzag because they are taking the line of the woven cable.

Now repeat the tab process and weave them together for another row of cabling. It will pull the hat even more at the top.

Now add a row of your other colour. In the next row decrease every 3 stitches. After a few rows of that you’ll run out of stitches to decrease so tie it off and you should have a hat 😀

Now add some ear flaps! Here start with 15 stitches for the first row then decrease 1 stitch each side for ever row. This will make a nice rounded ear shape.

Lastly add some pompoms! I decided to edge the whole thing with white to match the pompoms more. To do this I just did a single crochet row around it all then plaited some long pieces together for the pompoms to hang on to.

Cuuute! And perfect for this chilly weather!

Hope you guys enjoyed it and let me now if you make one!

Vote For Our First Big Sewing Project! Sew Fun

by VioletLeBeaux | Jun 4, 2013 | Craft, Sewing 101, Tutorial

So far we’ve learned some basic sewing skills and seeing as you guys preferred to learn skills inside actual projects it’s time to vote on our first major project!

The first 3 that I’ve picked are roughly the same skill level and have mostly the same techniques used.

See the options below and then vote using the form beneath that. Let me know if you have any suggestions in the comments too!

Explore…