cold shoulder

Told you I’ve had a pretty productive couple of weeks!  Between us, my mum and I made this top from start to finish in less than 4 days, and I love how it’s turned out.  Kate Gilbert’s design is equal parts clever and simple: a winning combination, if you ask me.  Unusual, modern, designs are what I think is helping knitwear shake off its stereotypical boring and conservative image, which is definitely a step in the right direction in my book!  I’m currently having a wee bit of an obsession with cool necklines too, so this unique idea caught my eye when flicking through old Interweave magazines.  Mama kindly obliged to do most of the knitting for me. :D  To keep it from falling indecently I may have to crochet around the edge to tighten it up a little, but that’s probably because we used a weighty bamboo-based yarn.  I’m still really happy with the finished result!

Ravelry project here.

Unfortunately the shorts are not quite so handmade!  They’re from Miss Selfridge (where clothes never usually fit my tall frame brilliantly), and they had a quite a wide gaping back when I tried them on.  Anybody else always have this problem?  I have to buy a size 10 to fit my hips/bum, but even an 8 is sometimes too big around my waist.  Problem with having a fairly extreme hips to waist ratio I guess!  The majority of shorts/jeans/bodycon skirts don’t fit great, but I’m guessing I’m not the only one with this problem!

Anyway, I digress.  I decided to get crafty and make the shorts fit, because who doesn’t need a pair of well-fitting-cobalt-blue-snakeskin-print shorts?  They didn’t have a waistband and were faced on the inside instead, so I thought the whole fit could be improved by taking some excess material out of the back.  Unpicking and reattaching the waist facing was a slightly fiddlier than I expected, but taking in the (already existing) darts at the back wasn’t too difficult.  I tacked and handstitched the darts into place, then cut the facing and reattached it overlapping.  That probably doesn’t make sense at all, but I’m no expert on this fabric tailoring business yet!  Knits are my comfort zone, and I’m trying to learn more and more about sewing and tailoring.  Telling you guys what I get up to along the way, of course. 😀

Much better!

Hope you’ve all had a lovely week and are set to make the most of this long weekend!  Hopefully the sun will give up on its ‘now you see me, now you don’t’ game and hang around until Monday.  I’m heading out for pizza with the girls tonight, but don’t think I’ll trust myself to wear this top anywhere tomato sauce is concerned. 🙂

lily kate x
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