McCalls M6175 and a bit of knitting too

I gave myself a deadline yesterday, due to my abject failure at actually finishing any sewing projects so far this year - as we were going out to see The Great Gatsby in the evening, I decided I would finish my practice trench coat in time to wear it.  And I did (although this involved some rather quick finishing with less attention to detail than was wise).  However, I was very happy with the result, slung over a patterned summer dress for a breezy esplanade walk at Redcar pre dinner and film:

This was entirely a "process" sew for me, as I have never made such a complex garment before (and in fact it is not that complex as has no buttons!)  It is McCalls M6175:

rated "easy", and actually it was ok, although there are a lot of steps, and I did find the collar tricky (although it was a first for me, so for those who have done one before it would probably be fine).  I did View D, which is the yellow coat on the cover, I cut a size 12, and used stash fabic from a charity shop for both the beige/brown poplin outer and the viscose patterned facings.  I did the facings in contrast fabric as I did not have quite enough of the brown poplin to complete them.  It is unlined, so a very lightweight jacket (particularly for the north of the UK), but works well in high summer, and would work on holidays to warmer climes.  The pattern is actually written for vinyl, but also allows for lighterweight fabrics.  It is fastened with only a sewn belt.

I did not cut as well as I would have liked, and will work to improve my cutting in future sewing projects, and made some rooky mistakes (attaching the collar the wrong way first time, scorching the viscose lining while pressing, twisting the belt as I sewed, not doing quite an invisible enough job on sewing the facings in etc), and I probably have about another hour or so of sewing to just tidy things up a bit. 

But - wearable, flattering (according to the husband, who is a good critic of my handmade things) and rather vintage-y - my practice trench coat might get some wear after all!  I also have some vintage upholstery material set aside for the "real McCoy" later in the year.

Next on the sewing list?  Well, I am behind on the challenge I set myself at the start of the year, but have a skirt to finish (or rework) and underwear to finish as well.  I would like to sew a navy dress to wear with the trench coat this summer, and a Chanel jacket out of some lovely wool fabric I have in stash.  I also have my eye on a summer top.... finishing the trench has been a much needed boost.

As for knitting - this week saw me finish the Rustling Leaves Beret from Coastal Knits, tucked away until autumn (I hope!), and continuing with a pair of summer socks:

and the Gatsy-esque cardigan (Berocco's Stella) off, and on.  More about these as I work towards finishing them.  I've also wound skeins and added two pattern repeats to my handspun Rocky Coast Cardigan, although need to tink a few rows back tonight as lost a stitch somewhere.

Leiden and other progress

This weekend found us in Holland, attending a friend's beach wedding (absolutely lovely, if rather chilly, on the North Sea coast at the Hague) and I did, of course, manage to fit in some yarn shopping as well.

Ribbels is situated in the centre of the pretty, bustly university town of Leiden, and features an exquisite wall of yarn which I found hard to drag my eyes and hands away from!  However I did manage to long enough to discover some Dutch hand dyed yarn - dyed in Holland, yarn from Slovenia.  I purchased a generous skein of laceweight in the colour "Mittenacht" (middle of the night), with thoughts of the star shawl I have heard about on the Knitmore Girls podcast.

There was clearly a history of wool trading in Leiden with street names like this:

(Wool Alley), and fantastic decoration (a little hard to see in this photo, but they are skeins of yarn!) on the old wool trading building:

And much inspiration generally in the pretty Dutch towns we visited (Gouda, Leiden and Den Haag):

And what projects did I have in tow?  One of my newly cast on ones, since blogging last - the Rustling Leaves Beret from Coastal Knits.  Nearly complete, its combination of soothing repetition with just enought to do to be interesting is perfect.  I have chosen a vintage-look dark green and plan to complete it in front of the TV tonight.

Other knitting?  Well, on my few days off before travelling to Holland, I worked some more on my Rocky Coast Cardigan - spinning up a little more yarn on my drop spindle - here is a small skein ready to be wound:

 and working another few inches of the body:

My self-imposed deadline on this project is this autumn (2013), and though it goes quickly when I work on it, my progress is in fits and starts.

I also cast on a Gatsby-inspired project - this is the beginnings of Stella, a Berrocco gold lace cardigan design, and I am using Deep Stash from the dawn of time - unmarked gold aran weight yarn which I think is Patons.  I am in two minds about it; the yarn is not nice to the touch and I was considering donating it; it might still end up at a charity shop, but the pattern is easy and rather addictive so I keep adding repeats.  Also, someone at the wedding was wearing a gold lace cardigan and I thought it looked rather nice, so that has inspired me to keep it in a project bag for occasional picking up and working on...

Although I have been relatively monogamous lately with my projects it is a nice feeling to have a few on the go!