Hello Sailor (wink, wink)

Ahoy Maties! Finally finished up this sweet blue, white and grey nautical-inspired sweater-coatie. I had a lot of fun with this, especially loving the whimsical blue and white stripes of felted wool.


Of course my version of a "sailor collar" came out feminine and flouncy, with asymmetric pieces of this light navy blue layered and circling the neckline.

Added to this mix is one piece of the striped blue and white, so there's a lot going on to catch the eye. The top of the sweater is a lovely grey merino wool. I really like using merino for the tops of these sweaters because they just look so classy and the drape is wonderful and flattering. The middle section here is made of more of that sweet light navy blue, only this time in cableknit, which I've cut to flare out from the low waist to give some room for hips (and so that when you spin it will shiver your timbers).

To finish, I've made coordinating blue and white striped front ties, and a lovely and feminine striped flounce, so that you get some stripes on the top, middle and bottom. Three of my signature "freckle flowers" dot the upper left shoulder.

And as an extra special detail, I put a tiny striped pocket on the right sleeve (just the right size for a tiny, hidden treasure.)

Sakura: Cherry Blossoms in DC

Well, Friday was the first day I'd had off in many weeks, so I decided to head down to The Mall with my bike. It was such a gorgeous day. What I'd forgotten (don't ask me how) was that it was not only Cherry Blossom time, but Cherry Blossom FESTIVAL time here in DC, which means The Mall was a mob scene. Still beautiful to be sure.

This is my third spring in DC, and I am always awed that the festival planners--who begin planning the festival a year in advance--always manage to get it just right, holding the festival in just those two weeks when the blossoms are at their peak. I took a few pictures (really, you can't help it), because I knew it would only be a few more days until the blossoms were gone. Sure enough, today it will be nearly 90 degrees and the blossoms are "melting" off the trees.

Of course this time of year always inspires a flower-maker like myself. So I'm including a couple of pictures of "blossom" hats I finished today. Enjoy the spring!

It's Springtime, A-Ding-A-Ding Time

So this week I've been working on this flounce-front Sweatercoat Cardigan.

I started with this awesome lime green, teal blue and grey striped wool and went from there. Of course the original striped sweater was pretty cool, but it was sort of a bit much. I find with prints and stripes, a little goes a long way. So I used this crazy vibrant sweater as a "jumping off" point or "foundation sweater", knowing I was going to use it as the flounce down the front of my coat.

After playing with a dozen or so sweaters to try to find a couple that looked good and would work for the various parts of my "foundation sweater", I decided on a gorgeous "gem" green merino sweater that didn't exactly "match" anything in the stripes, but coordinated with it nicely, for the top of the coat. I also found a really nice creamy warm grey merino wool that I thought would work well for the mid-section of the sweater. I also managed to find a nice set of grey buttons, a shade darker than the grey I was using for the mid-section, that helped to "pop" the look.

I decided a bright green thread would do nicely to pull everything together. So I cut and sewed the top and mid-sections (so that it would flare out a bit from the waist to flatter and accommodate a woman's figure). Next, I draped everything on the dressform (the top and mid-section of the sweater, the flounce and the buttons) to see how it looked. For awhile I played with the idea of making this a longer coat, adding some more sections to the bottom, and finishing it with a straight hem made from sections. After staring at all of this for a day and trying various ideas, I decided to keep the coat shorter and go with a larger flounce to finish the bottom. Sometimes I think this is too much flouncing, but here it seemed to really pull everything together, especially on this shorter-length coat.

Once all the decisions were made it was just a matter of making the bottom flounce (also with coordinating inserts) and sewing everything together.

When that was all done, I looked at the coat again for a day before deciding to add a handfull of appliques to the back.