Sweater Design

It's been a crazy semester, and to be honest, I haven't been doing too well. I am working two jobs, and classes are hard--but they're always hard--and getting things together for our fashion show has been a little overwhelming. Or a lot overwhelming. Breakdown-worthy overwhelming. More than anything, I can't wait until I graduate (a grand fourteen months away). Maybe then, this tight ball of stress will no longer be a permanent fixture in my stomach. Maybe I'll be able to fixate more on family than on homework. Maybe I'll be able to sleep. And breathe.

Gosh, this is a depressing post. Anyway. I designed and made a sweater! I'm taking a Knit Design class, and bought a beautiful knitting machine at the beginning of the semester to make sure I could get everything done without going into lab. It's the best part of my week, being able to go to this class. Feels like playing, seriously. I used Knit Pick's Wool of the Andes sport weight yarn in Mink Heather... of course I had to have wool. What can I say, I was raised to be a bit of a fiber snob! Gimme some protein fibers and I'm a happy camper.

Now I'm working on portfolio pages for the project. Above is my first try at a more organic style sweater flat. Can't wait to pull out the pencils and markers and start coloring away!

P.S. Disregard my angst. It's senioritis come early, coupled with an inclination to take far too much on and an inability to say "no". This is how we learn our limits, I guess!

Mercurial Knitwear Collection

 Hello hello from snowy Minnesota! This is a four-piece knitwear collection I made in my cut & sew knits class this semester. The class was pretty easy, for the most part... I've been sewing knits for years (remember those t-shirt reconstructions?), so I got to find new ways to challenge myself by using interfacing, pairing fabrics with different stretch ratios, and inserting all kinds of pockets. It was all kinds of difficult to find proper fabrics--in fact, it was probably the hardest part of the class. Surprise, there's not much to choose from in the middle of nowhere, Wisconsin!

I did find some gems, though; most notably, this beautiful printed rayon/spandex lofty blend. It is a total dream to wear! These are my portfolio pages, following. We do this in pretty much every class,  and it only makes sense to present the work we've done in a concise fashion. Ignore the empty boxes where my fabric swatches go! These are just the electronic version of the pages... in the actual pages, I cut out the squares and under-mount the swatches.

 
 It is very important for these to clearly be technical pages. Thus, we add pattern corrections, fit alterations, sewing call-outs, and pattern development.

I am crazy about this hoodie and these leggings. Honestly, I wear them ALL THE TIME. More than I should. So comfy, so not sorry.

 I think I am going to put this jacket in the fashion show. I'm not positive, because I don't know what else I'm making, but it's a nice piece and I'm not letting myself wear it, just in case. It was my most difficult garment in the class--getting the zipper in and clean finishing it with the bottom band was near-impossible, rather head-ache inducing, and required a lot of finagling.

Aaaaand sequence of operations, pattern manipulation, call out of using the coverstitch machine, a beautiful fancy industrial machine with an air compression system (!) that just whirred like it couldn't be happier. Can you tell I loved it?

It's been an insanely busy year, and next year is shaping up to be even crazier. I'll have two jobs in the spring, classes like Functional Clothing Design & Knit Design Technology (knitting machine, here I come!), and an incredible summer internship coming up. And after that, I begin my senior year of college. How time flies.

Thank you for checking this stuff out. What do you have planned for the holidays? I'm home as usual, with the family, looking forward to staying cozy by the fire, and perhaps venturing out for some cross-country skiing. Whatever you have planned, have a Merry Christmas!

Lately...

Welcome to my life lately. All Illustrator & Photoshop, all the time. I sewed for about three hours yesterday, finishing a project, and now it's back to the computer screen. In-progress portfolio pages for Cut & Sew Knits, and CAD boards.

But life is really good. I think I say this every year, but this is my hardest semester yet. Balancing homework, classes, work, friends, and a boyfriend has been almost overwhelming.... but totally worth it. I've also been making a solid effort to still have fun, something I didn't always do.

For example, playing (and winning) darts on my birthday, and making time to sew a polka-dot birthday dress.

Besides all of this, I feel like real life -- that is, life after college -- is looming right in front of me. I'm getting ready to register for spring classes, and seeing that number of credits needed is both terrifying and exciting. Important interviews, landing an internship, career path discussions, and difficult decisions have been the themes of this fall.

I've been prioritizing my life, nothing new, and sadly, blogging just isn't up there for me right now. I miss it, I have such a backlog of things to post, and I wish I could catch up on everyone's archives for the past, I don't know, forever... but when it comes down to it, I need to focus on school. And what else would I have to do over Christmas break but catch up on the blogosphere? :)

Summertime

This summer has been quite family-oriented for me, and I couldn't be luckier. I don't know if you know this, but I have a really cool family. They're all quite funny (understatement), enthusiastic, and very hardworking. But we play hard, too! Jumping on the instagram train, here is a photographic summary of the last month:

Croquet at Gramma's        -     My aunt's crazy little dog

Excellent campfire                                  -          Reading Shel Silverstein by the fire



I made a chambray shirt!      -           Polka dot pants DIY



We have great sunsets on my lake...          -     And sometimes we see bears swimming.
Follow me: @addie__marie

I have a lot of creations to post, still. I'll try to get on that! On Monday, I'm headed back to school--classes don't start until the 5th, but I am moving into my first apartment (!) and decorating is a priority! 

How's your summer been? Any highlights?

Transparent Rain Jacket

Forever ago (really just January), I made this clear vinyl raincoat. I'd seen a few on the internet, and thought it would be really fun to do for a local fashion show. The fashion show was a smaller scale thing, and I asked my lovely friend Lindsay to model for me. It was a good show, fun stuff, good experience, but honestly, it was so long ago that I guess I don't have much to say about it!



Here's a photo of me and Lindsay (isn't she pretty?) after the show, courtesy of Lindsay's mom. Lindsay's wearing a quick dress I made, and I'm wearing another dress I had made. My dress unfortunately shrank a bit--just in the length, not the width, even though I prewashed the fabric. Ugh. I'll see if I can find more pictures of it, though... it was pretty cute! I think it was an accidental too-hot temperature setting or something that did it. Does this ever happen to you guys?




Anyway, today we had a bit of a torrential downpour so I asked my mom to quick take pictures of the raincoat in action! It was so nice of her to help me out, as she had just been out in the rain herself, without an umbrella. We watched the storm on the porch and it was too cool. We got an inch and a half of rain in just half an hour!



It was a ridiculous thing to make--there are special things you need to do to sew vinyl, like taping your presser foot and machine plate, and selecting the right needle--but that wasn't even the most difficult part. The challenge was moving the large, partially constructed garment around when the vinyl stuck to everything. It would just get caught on any plastic or metal surface and stick like a window cling.






I sewed every seam and then covered it with bias tape to hid to seam allowance. So every seam is bound and it's comfy to wear (well, as comfy as plastic can be), and it blocks out rain pretty well even at the stitch lines! And then I added those twisty things on the side panels just for some visual interest.



Goofy. So there it is! A clear rain coat!