Author Topic: Trying to make some clothes for myself.  (Read 3074 times)

Linea_Norway

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Trying to make some clothes for myself.
« on: March 24, 2017, 02:25:11 AM »
Hello.

I used to have a sweater, made by my MIL, that was made of wool dyed by herself with natural colors. I loved the colours. Unfortunately the sweater has shrunk so much that it doesn't fit anymore and I have given it away. The sweater was a nice model, with an elfen-like pointy rim on the underside. (It looked a bit like this: http://www.garnstudio.com/pattern.php?id=7950&cid=7, but then pointy instead of wave-like).

MIL can't knit anymore. Last Christmas I was allowed to take any of that same coloured wool home with me. The wool is pretty thin and a bit chunky, as MIL spun it herself.  I would like to make a new sweater from this wool. I think the original model is too complicated with all the pointy rim. MIL had also numerous knitting books with complicated patterns, but these are not for a beginner, so I didn't take any of those. I just want to make a nice, but simple sweater with the 5 different colours in it.

I have knitted 2 sweaters before, long time ago. With much thicker wool, one with extremely thick wool, that wasn't even wearable, so warm. I still have several pairs of knitting pins and a round-knitting thing.

My goal is now to find a simple, but nice pattern for a sweater and just get going at it.

Any suggestions for a pattern are welcome. FYI my body is "normal size", on the high side of the healthy BMI range.

Linda
« Last Edit: March 24, 2017, 03:00:23 AM by Linda_Norway »

Linea_Norway

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Re: Trying to make some clothes for myself.
« Reply #1 on: March 24, 2017, 02:29:21 AM »
I have also another project to be.

My DH and I were also allowed to take as many textiles as we liked from my MIL's house. I found some very soft and warm black/white textile, a bit fleece-like, but even thicker and fluffier. The textile does not have a pattern, so I don't need to worry about pattern matching. My idea is to make some kind of cardigan from it. The patch of textile is not big, so there is little room for errors.
I have a nice wooden (commercial) cardigan, that is very neatly knitted. That model fits me quite well, so I will try to draw a pattern from that cardigan and use it on the grey textile.

I don not have much experience with making clothes from scratch. 20 Years ago I made a fleece sweater, but it has one good and one wrong shoulder part.
My husband is good at sewing, so he can help me making the pattern. But he hasn't use such cloth either. So we might both learn something.
« Last Edit: March 24, 2017, 02:50:10 AM by Linda_Norway »

Linea_Norway

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Re: Trying to make some clothes for myself.
« Reply #2 on: March 24, 2017, 02:38:08 AM »

My goal is now to find a simple, but hopefully a little non-standard pattern for a sweater and just get going at it.


Maybe something like this would be doable:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/e5/bb/a8/e5bba87518bfad4e25149537a820077d.jpg

I guess I would just have to measure my own body and then find out how wide the sweater should become. Then just start knitting and checking of it becomes the right size.

I have understood that a known trick is to just knit a 10x10 cm piece and then measure how many stitched go into that length.

I also find a website where you can make your own knitting patterns for free:
http://www.breienmetplezier.nl/damespatr.html
It is in Dutch, which is my native language.

This one is nice: http://www.garnstudio.com/pattern.php?id=7671&cid=7 and would very much fit with the wool colours. It has a free pattern and has some instruction video's on the site.
« Last Edit: March 24, 2017, 03:06:46 AM by Linda_Norway »

shelivesthedream

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Re: Trying to make some clothes for myself.
« Reply #3 on: March 24, 2017, 08:54:02 AM »
You want to sign up to ravelry.com. If you already have the wool it's fantastic because you can filter search results by wool size, garment size, knitting needle size, difficulty... Some are free patterns and some are paid-for. I've bought several patterns from there for a few pounds each and they've been well worth it.

AMandM

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Re: Trying to make some clothes for myself.
« Reply #4 on: March 24, 2017, 12:15:49 PM »
That wool sounds like a treasure!  Have you measured how much of it there is?  Are you sure there is enough to make a whole sweater?

Quote
I have understood that a known trick is to just knit a 10x10 cm piece and then measure how many stitched go into that length.

Yes, it's called a swatch (at least in North America).  How many stitches it contains will depend on the size of your needles (pins).

Here is a pattern that has a hood and ties:
http://www.yarnspirations.com/patterns/hooded-sweatshirt-1.html?id=184082
The patterns on that site can also be filtered by yarn weight etc.

About the fabric for the cardigan: you have to make sure that the fabric you have has the same amount of stretch in it as the original cardigan, otherwise the fit will be much different. I have only once tried to duplicate a garment, and it did not turn out well!  If the fabric from you MIL is precious, I would feel safer buying a predesigned sewing pattern.



FernFree

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Re: Trying to make some clothes for myself.
« Reply #5 on: March 24, 2017, 01:04:45 PM »
Here's a website with some free patterns.  You can filter by skill level and garment type.

http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns#dir=asc&order=position&pattern_craft=18301&pattern_skill_level=18271

Might want to start with a scarf or something easier if you are a straight up beginner. :)

sparkytheop

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Re: Trying to make some clothes for myself.
« Reply #6 on: March 24, 2017, 01:12:35 PM »
I have also another project to be.

My DH and I were also allowed to take as many textiles as we liked from my MIL's house. I found some very soft and warm black/white textile, a bit fleece-like, but even thicker and fluffier. The textile does not have a pattern, so I don't need to worry about pattern matching. My idea is to make some kind of cardigan from it. The patch of textile is not big, so there is little room for errors.
I have a nice wooden (commercial) cardigan, that is very neatly knitted. That model fits me quite well, so I will try to draw a pattern from that cardigan and use it on the grey textile.

I don not have much experience with making clothes from scratch. 20 Years ago I made a fleece sweater, but it has one good and one wrong shoulder part.
My husband is good at sewing, so he can help me making the pattern. But he hasn't use such cloth either. So we might both learn something.

I don't have a suggestion for knitting patterns, but for this one...

Make your pattern based off the cardigan that fits well.  Make sure you add in your seam allowances.  Before cutting/sewing your limited material, but a cheaper fabric, with similar stretch if you can, and sew a practice piece.  This way, you can make adjustments to the pattern, etc, before using up the limited fabric.

Also, if the material is stretchy, use a stretch needle to sew it (your husband probably already knows this, but it does make a difference!)

RetiredAt63

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Re: Trying to make some clothes for myself.
« Reply #7 on: March 24, 2017, 03:49:03 PM »
I second Ravelry.

Also you might want to start a smaller project with similar yarn and needles, just to get your knitting skills well warmed up.  A scarf?  Mittens? Vest?  The joy of a cold country is that we can really appreciate all our knitted projects.

BrassyLass

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Re: Trying to make some clothes for myself.
« Reply #8 on: March 24, 2017, 03:51:52 PM »
I'd also recommend Ravelry. It has details of commercially available yarns including "wraps per inch" which you can compare your yarn to. Thus should help you to find a pattern that will fit!

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geekette

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Re: Trying to make some clothes for myself.
« Reply #9 on: March 24, 2017, 04:52:52 PM »
I'll third (or fourth) Ravelry.  Great site, although you might get forever lost there ;-).

The sweater you linked to (pic) is a simple top down raglan.  Knitty (another great site for free patterns) has a page on Elizabeth Zimmerman's method for knitting one using your swatch and a few body measurements.  Check it out here.
« Last Edit: March 24, 2017, 04:54:40 PM by geekette »

Linea_Norway

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Re: Trying to make some clothes for myself.
« Reply #10 on: March 25, 2017, 01:27:04 AM »
That wool sounds like a treasure!  Have you measured how much of it there is?  Are you sure there is enough to make a whole sweater?

Yes, I have 1 kilogram. According to FIL that was how much is needed for a sweater.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Trying to make some clothes for myself.
« Reply #11 on: April 13, 2017, 04:59:02 AM »
We were at our mountain cabin for a skiing holiday, but the snow was awful and we decided to go home. Today it is raining the whole day, so I finally had time and a good excuse to start my DIY project. I chose the sewing project.

The cloth is elastic in one direction. It is very thing woven knitted-like cloth, light weigth. I found a sweater in my cupboard that is a bit similar in cloth and used that fir making a pattern. My DH advised me to draw the whole sweater, but then fold the pattern paper in 2 mirrored halves and draw the final pattern in between. At least this way you get two similar halves. I cut it with a rolling knife on a cutting sheet. Great tools. Now all the parts are cut. My DH said I had to think first about the edges, like neck and arms. He told me to cut some extra cloth to fold behind it. I did that and sewed it on the end of the sleeves. I decided to make the neck a V shape and strengen it with some decorative material. Currently taking a little brake, and next step is attaching the shoulder parts and the extra cloth that will go behind it. At some point I will also need to sew the sides and arms together.

I am now using our new (2005) sewing machine that used to belong to my MIL. It is quite advanced and knows a lit of stitches. I am using some elastic overlock stitch for this stretchy material. In contrast to our old sewing machine, this machine pulls from above and from underneath at the same time. So I don't need to pull the cloth. This is a great advantage when sewing stretch.

Not so nice: the area around the dining table is a mess with threads and pieces of cloth. I like things tidy and get a bit itchy of this. But I can't keep vaccuuming in between all the time. :-)

Linea_Norway

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Re: Trying to make some clothes for myself.
« Reply #12 on: April 13, 2017, 09:57:06 AM »
Some hours later and done! Quite some work. The sweater fits. Unfortunately it looks a bit more boring than I would have expected from the cloth. And I skipped the decorative part, because it wasn't needed.
But it looks fully wearable and I have learned a lot about the new sewing machine.

Evgenia

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Re: Trying to make some clothes for myself.
« Reply #13 on: April 19, 2017, 04:26:24 PM »
I'll third (or fourth) Ravelry.  Great site, although you might get forever lost there ;-).

The sweater you linked to (pic) is a simple top down raglan.  Knitty (another great site for free patterns) has a page on Elizabeth Zimmerman's method for knitting one using your swatch and a few body measurements.  Check it out here.

+1 This is how I knit all of my sweaters. It's the only way I ever get them to fit properly. Enjoy!