Doily challenge progress

Well it's four months since I started the doily challenge, and I have completed 23 doilies. This averages out at about one and a half per week. I haven't blogged all the doilies so far but I will. The main thing preventing me is my terrible lack of blocking. As you can see from the picture below, blocking is not something I am good at, even though it is badly needed. I do feel that if a doily is going to have a post all to itself it needs to be photographed in its best light.
At this rate, I should achieve my goal of 100 doilies in around a year. My doily making is going quite a bit faster now that I have decided to make each doily twice, immediately after each other.  This means that any problems I encountered on the first doily will be fresh in my mind for the second one, so I am less likely to get stuck on the same bit again.

Later I will need to make some design decisions so that the variety of sizes and patterns works for my project, but for now i'm going to try any and every pattern that takes my fancy.

Hearts desire doily

Doily name Hearts desire doily
Pattern source www.redheart.com
Thread Anchor size 8 pearl cotton. 
Hook 1.25mm. 
Finished doily diameter 11cm
Finished doily weight 6g
Comments  Instructions were easy to follow. This doily took me about 2 1/2 hours.

28-50 soft lace motif doily

Doily name 28-50 soft lace motif doily
Pattern source http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/28-50-soft-lace-motif-doily
Thread Anchor size 8 pearl cotton. 
Hook 1.25mm. 
Finished doily diameter 15 x 20cm
Finished doily weight 6g
Comments  I really enjoyed making this doily. Each little flower is so easy, I was soon able to make them without looking at the pattern. Each flower. Only takes me about 15 minutes to make, so it's a bit addictive to see how many more I can squeeze out of little bits of spare time. The main downside of this doily is the number of loose ands which need to be hidden.

Doily project - Rosette doily

Doily name Rosette doily
Pattern source http://www.crochetpatty.com/patterns/thread/rosette_doily.html
Thread Anchor size 8 pearl cotton. 
Hook 1.25mm. 
Finished doily diameter 17cm
Finished doily weight 7g
Comments  I found these instructions a tiny bit confusing as they seem to start each row with the last stitch of the previous row. However this was only a tiny thing, and overall this was a nice straightforward doily to make. 

The other doily in the photo is the tiny cluster doily. It is only 6cm across, and is made of clusters of five treble crochets.

Evening stars

The reverse side of C & R's quilt features evening stars in three sizes- 6", 12" and 18". Using this as inspiration I drew the layout on graph paper and numbered the stars so I knew how many of each size to make. After all the stars had been made I took over the living room to design the quilt. I don't have a wall big enough to lay out this design. I try to get a balance across the quilt of the colour values. As well as staring at it a lot, I took photos on my ipad, which helps to get more perspective. Converting the photos to black and white helps to identify areas that stand out.

After I had decided the final layout, I labelled every star on the floor, and on the graph paper. See the little white tabs? This meant I could sort the stars into piles, and had a key to follow, releasing the living room to normal use while I sewed them together.

Doily challenge

Doily name Crochet 19

Pattern source onlycrochet.blogspot.co.uk 

Thread Anchor size 8 pearl cotton. 

Hook 1.25mm. 

Finished doily diameter 26cm

Finished doily weight 8g

Comments  This was the first charted pattern I tried.  Initially I struggled, but I found it much easier once I used highlighters to distinguish between the rows, and ticked them off by pencil as I went.  It was also my first attempt at blocking, and there is obviously a lot of room for improvement.

Ditzy dress

This is my first ever foray into dressmaking. It has been a very, very steep learning curve. I had thought that the transition from patchwork to dressmaking would be easy.  Sewing is sewing, right?

Little did I realise that there are actually two distinct skill sets involved with dressmaking: sewing (which is surprisingly different to patchwork), and fitting. The dress is McCalls m6959, and is classed as "easy". I struggled with every process in making this dress, and re-sewed several of the seams in order to get them pattern perfect. Then I tried the dress on, and it was awful! It fitted like a sack, and made me look totally tubular! Also the sleeves were far too taut, and I couldn't lift my arms away from my body without the whole dress feeling like it would rip across the middle.

So, having painstakingly sewn the whole thing so accurately, I took my dress along to class where the teacher pinned, and tucked, and adjusted until every single seam had to be re-sewn again. The mistake I had made was to cut the size corresponding to my largest measurement (waist). This meant that the bust and back darts all needed adjusting to bring the dress back in. What I should have done was to cut according to bust size, and adjust outwards at the waist. You live and learn. 

I'm not sure whether the arm problem was due to poor pattern drafting, or my physiology. It wasn't due to picking the wrong size. Although the circumference of the sleeve fitted neatly around my arms, and looked great with my arms hanging by my side, there was no movement at all. To solve this, I followed these tutorials (here and here)  and flattened the sleeve head. This would have meant that the original crescent shaped sleeve would have ended up very short. To counter this, I had to change the bottom of the sleeve from a concave to a convex curve. To give even more movement, I made this curve slightly longer than the original, thus increasing the diameter of the sleeve for more ease .

The third adjustment I made was to the length of the skirt. I added two inches to the original pattern, and this fell at mid knee. In the end I felt this was a bit frumpy, so cut an inch off again. I'm not entirely sure this was a good move, as although I prefer the shorter skirt, it now ends at just above my  knobbly knees, which is not such a great look either.

So, here is the final dress. I am very pleased that it looks like a proper dress. I am happy with my fabric choices. But, I'm pretty sure it won't turn into a favourite. Despite the arm adjustments, it is still annoyingly restrictive. The skirt is also a bit hit and miss. Because of the fullness, it has a tendency to flare up in the wind. Despite a safety pin holding the wrapover together, I had several Marilyn Monroe moments on a breezy seaside stroll. The other problem is that the fullness in the skirt has a tendency to all gather over my backside, which is not an area where anyone wants to add bulk.

I started this dress in January, and it was finished in mid April, just in time for some spring sunshine. So, one item crossed off my projects list this month, and a good dent in the fabric stash.