Sally Sews in 2021 (and knits and quilts and folds and cuts and contrives)

Hi, there! I hope to post when I do stuff. Other than that, my productivity is a function of my health. I look forward to seeing your work, too.

Sally

Welcome! Looking forward to seeing your stuff. What kind of needle work do you do?

ETA: OH - Just noticed it's in the title. DUH!

Hi Sally! I look forward to seeing what things you'll be making.

Nice to see you are joining us this year, Sally.

First, I promised to show the fisherman's cardigan I was making for my husband years ago, the one I designed myself. Here's one side of the front, with a combination of cables I took from a book:



You can tell that this has not been blocked, and also see the remnants of the stain I was not able to remove completely, which is why this was never finished. Sad, I think. I still like the design.

You should be able to see, also, the traveling cable that is at the periphery. That was how I made the sleeves get wider and wider, by increasing and using the traveling cable to integrate the greater width.

Next, I promised to show the project that took me away from LT late last year. I was making a group of dresses for my granddaughters Alice and Lyra. They were all by the same pattern, which was meant to be a jumper, so it could be worn over a t-shirt or any other shirt, and leggings or pants for warmth. Although they look like sundresses, they were really huge on the girls to accommodate a potentially thick underneath layer. Each girl had several that were identical, and then each had one dress that was unique to her. They were't complicated to make, but 10 dresses is a lot, especially with the hems done the right way--not by machine.

I'm not sure why, but each girl chose to immediately don the dress that was unique to her on Christmas morning, even in the middle of opening presents. (This was all over Zoom, of course.)

First, the set-up over Zoom, with me in the foreground, and my granddaughter in her dress, then next, a close-up on the dress. I loved this fabric, with pairs of cherries, some of which were hearts.





This child is Alice, and in the background are her Mom and her little brother Zev.

Then here are the other fabrics, each shown in the bodice as it was being made.

The first is of llamas on pink, with some cactus, mountains, and other cartoons of scenery. The buttons on this one were wooden daisy heads.



Following is a sea-life dress, with buttons in the shape of sea creatures. The scene is cartoonish again. The background color is more aqua than blue.



Next is a parchment-colored dress with outline drawings of cats, all very bright colors. One has these red buttons, and the other has cookie-shaped buttons, which look iced and dotted with colors.



Here, then, is a white dress with tiny scattered dark-pink blossoms.



The last one is the unique dress of my granddaughter, Lyra. I loved that fabric, and I wish I had had enough of it to make both girls one of these.

I did finish the scarf for my brother Tom, and gave it to him on his birthday. He liked it a lot, and I was thrilled with that. I never did take a photograph of the complete scarf. It was long, and by the time all the length was in the picture you would not have been able to see it very well. This is the last photo of it. It did block very well, though.

Wow. I am in awe! Everything is so beautifully made and I really appreciate the time you took to load all those photos. The dresses are super cute and what a wonderful keepsake for your granddaughters. I admire your use of traveling cables on the sweater sleeve. For my Aran, I'll be taking an easier path using filler stitch. 😀

Glad to finally see your work, Sally. It's wonderful. The dresses are adorable. I used to make a lot of clothing for my children and I sometimes miss it (and I still have all the patterns!) But, I have a very new granddaughter so she could inspire me (I have two older grandsons). Your knitting is wonderful.

Those are cute dresses. I like that you used fancy buttons. I made some pillowcase dresses for some of my great-nieces a few years ago. Lots of fun prints to choose from.

Your projects are all beautiful, and I love those sweet little dresses! Well done!

Thanks to every one of you for stopping in and commenting. This is not false modesty: knitting is pretty easy, and those dresses were the easiest patterns. It was almost assembly-line construction. Both girls love to wear dresses, so it was such a pleasure. It may be a while until I finish anything else, but I have more dresses planned, in the next-up size. I also want to knit a sweater for my little grandson, Zev. I haven't made anything for him, yet, and I've hardly seen him. I haven't held him since March, either, when he was one month old. That's just practically a crime, and I know so many of us have had a similar experience.

Lovely dresses, and no wonder the girls wanted to wear them at once.

I really like the scarf - that's a nice pattern that I can't recall having seen before.

>13 sallypursell: I made a lot of dresses for my girls when they were small (PJs and nightshirts for my son); I haven't thought to make anything other than quilts for the grandsons, but 2020 brought me my first granddaughter so I will have to think about it (her mom is rather picky so might or might not work).

Alice's mother is a chemist, and I'll have to show you the neat fabric I found for the first of the Spring bunch of dresses. It is covered with little-girl chemists and other scientists, along with some of their tools. I love it. I thought I was finished making their dresses until I saw this, and it started me up with a whole new batch. This first one will be a traditional shape; I want the fabric to be the stand-out.

I want one of those pink microscopes, and the orange glasses on the seated microscopist!

>17 sallypursell: That's cute fabric, and the pattern is lovely.

Oooh, I love that fabric! You will make a dress worthy of Ms. Frizzle!

I love Ms. Frizzle!

I wanted this to look a little less frilly, and a little tailored. So I put some piping around the collar and near the hem of the sleeves. The piping wasn't in the pattern.

Oh, by the way, you can see the ghost of the marking at the seamlines where I used chalk. It will come off, of course. I forgot what a pain it is applying piping around fairly tight curves.



I really like the orange. I had planned a paler orange, but couldn't find either pre-made piping or a piece of fabric to make it that was the color I wanted.

I like the orange. Matches the hair on that girl.

>21 sallypursell: Oh, very nice! And I like the orange, too. Just the right amount of zing for it!

This is a much fussier pattern than it looked, especially once I added the piping. I'm moving along, though. The bodice will be finished very soon. I'm just about to apply the sleeves to the main bodice.

Oh, I agree - the orange is great, and I love the idea of adding the piping!

Sally, did I ever tell you that my daughter taught science in St. Louis? It was a private school, the Mary Institute & St. Louis Country Day School. She lived on West Street, I think. I went out to visit once, saw a bit of the school, and met up with LTer "marise" (who lives in one of the 'burbs"and we went to a book store that was essentially a house full of books. My daughter took me to a Scottish pub where she worked PT and she recommended some haggis (which i thought would burn a hole in my stomach). We did the buggy tour near the river. Anywho, she moved on and lives in Virginia now (although they have bought land back here to build on).There it is, my trip to St Louis in a nutshell.

>26 avaland: I remember this story, avaland, although I'm not sure I remembered whose daughter it was. That book store has moved; it used to be in a neighborhood very near me, and now it has moved a little east. I was among the people who were grieved when they couldn't continue to stay in that old house, which was called "The Book House", oddly enough. Do you remember what time of year this was?

>27 sallypursell: Seems it was out in the 'burbs and I want to say, maybe SW of the city proper. Off the top of my head, I'd say spring....(but I could be wrong)

Well, we are definitely SW of the city proper. The Book House was on Manchester Road which is an extremely long street, going downtown and all the way out to the exurbs. It was fairly close to Rock Hill Road, and it was in the city of Rock Hill. We live a little over a mile away from where it was, straight down Rock Hill Road, and our house is on Kirkham Ave at Slocum, only a few blocks West of Rock Hill. The Book House is now still on Manchester Road, but it has moved some ways East, and is now in the small municipality of Maplewood, MO.

>29 sallypursell: It's nice they still survive.

>30 avaland: There was so much grief at the loss of the original building, which was built in 1866 or thereabouts. There was a public movement to save the building, but it was unsuccessful.

I sewed the bodice and skirt together today. Making good progress. Just the zipper, the collar, and the hem to go, then I'll make the same dress for the other granddaughter, the bigger one.

>31 sallypursell: Too bad about the building.

>32 sallypursell: Lucky granddaughters!

I have nearly finished both dresses, now. I'll be ready to show them off in a few days. I am rather taking my time, because the girls will not be able to wear these for some months--I am making a size larger than the first group of dresses. I am considering another pair of smocked dresses. I can't find my pleater, which is tragic, since I will have to pay someone to pleat the bodices for me, for money. That's why I got the pleater in the first place!

>34 sallypursell: Smart to make them a size larger. I did some smocking back in 80s. Made myself a maternity dress, a few ornaments. As the children arrived, it was no longer practical to do.

Both dresses are almost complete. I am stitching on the collars now, and only the hem will need doing. The older one likes her hems long, "for twirling" she says, but the mother of the younger likes hers just-above-knee-length, for easier active play.

>36 sallypursell: So, cute.

The pictures are upside-down again!
This is the quilt both Lois and I made (different fabrics) ages ago. Mine is in awful condition, from being mistreated, but it is still attractive, and I am sleeping under it when it is cold.

Oh, yes, I do remember this. That is a lovely quilt, Sally.

I find I have to rotate a lot of my photos from the iphone before uploading them to LT. Usually, I airdrop them to my laptop, rotate them 360º save and then upload them here. Sometimes I still like to use the 35mm camera because the colors are more accurate and those don't need rotating.

>39 avaland: The thing is, Lois, I did rotate these. Only 180 degrees, but both of the images appear upright in my computer. It is only here that they appear upside-down.

When you say that you rotate them 360 degrees, do you mean you turn them around until they face the original way? I don't understand why that should do anything, but I can try that.

I thought of this when you said you were thinking of having four prints coming together in your recent planning. This one is like that.

>40 sallypursell: When you say that you rotate them 360 degrees, do you mean you turn them around until they face the original way?

Yes, that's it. I know it doesn't make any sense. But something must happen to the file when it's rotated that causes LT to process it differently.

>41 lauralkeet: Although it doesn't happen when it is rotated 180 degrees. So it isn't the act of turning it. I'm going off to try that.



It worked, and I'm shocked.

>42 sallypursell: - I was having the same problem until Laura told me to try that. I was going to mention it but she beat me to it.

>42 sallypursell: I know, it's very weird. It's not just rotating, but rotating it a full 360 degrees, that seems to do the trick.

>42 sallypursell: I usually get it off my phone and put it on my computer. Then I use my photo editor to rotate it first to one side and then back to how it was and hit save. It seems to also do the trick.

>44 lauralkeet: My Photoshop wouldn't rotate 360 degrees so these were rotated 359.99 degrees. Even weirder.

Thanks, everyone. That makes no sense, but now I believe it.

>42 sallypursell: I do love that quilt, though!

>48 avaland: Does it resemble yours of the same design, Lois?

>49 sallypursell: Not sure, but I've certainly done one very similar in the past.