Which Way Shawl

Posted on February 27, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

Here’s another project that’s jumped up the queue again. It’s perfect for tv knitting.

The pattern is called Which Way. It’s by Stephanie Shiman, and here’s a Ravelry link for the pattern. I’m knitting mine with the solid colour rows in garter stitch – that means 1 row is knit on the way back instead of purled.

Which Way shawl on the needles, knit by Deborah Cooke

The solid-ish yarn was purchased on our trip to Maine a few years ago. It’s a bundle of gradient mini skeins from Dirty Water Dye Works. The yarn is called Lilian and the colourway is Mulled Wine I bought two of them. (That link is to the Dirty Water Dye Works website.) I try to buy local-ish yarns when travelling and these bundles of mini-skeins were dyed in Boston or thereabouts.

I’m always fascinated by mini-skeins and love gradients – the challenge is deciding what to do with them. I had a good yardage for stripey socks, but the yarn is 100% merino. A shawl it would be. I started with the darkest colourway and will work to the palest one, then back out again.

Dirty Water DyeWorks Lillian in Mulled Wine

That variegated yarn is Thede from the Yarns of Rhichard Devrieze, a localish dyer to me. The colourway is Malahide and I bought two skeins. (That’s a Ravelry link.) I chose the colourway because it had all the gradients in it, and because it wasn’t a usual choice for me. That’s also why the project stalled for a bit. I wasn’t sure I liked it.

I’m into the second mini-skein of the solid-ish yarns and the combination is growing on me.

This shawl grows symmetrically, then the center decrease begins to move toward one edge. That gives it kind of a triangular shape, or maybe an arrow. (You can see it better in some of the projects on Ravelry.) I think I’ll keep increasing until I’ve used one bundle of mini-skeins, then change direction as I work my way back from lighter to darker.

I have more yardage than required, so this might be a huge shawl. The pattern calls for about 700m in total between the two colours – I have that in Thede and another 500 in the Lillian. The Thede is a superwash with 20% nylon, so it could become socks – maybe with stripey cuffs in Lillian. OTOH, big shawls are cozy.

We’ll see how it goes.

Wild Grass Pullover

Posted on February 25, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

Finally, some knitting! I had a sort through my incomplete knitting projects over the holidays and made a plan to get some things finished up. First to jump into my lap is this one, a mostly top-down pullover. The yoke is knit up and cast off at the neck, then the stitches at the bottom of the yoke are picked up to knit the rest down.

Of course, I’ve done the fun part of knitting the yoke, and now there’s just a million miles of stockinette stitch to be finished. This picture is from 2020 and is pretty much where I stopped, right after dividing for the armholes.

Wild Grass Pullover by Asja Janeczek knit in Swans Island Washable Wool by Deborah Cooke

It’s been waiting on me for five years!

The pattern is Wild Grass by Asja Janeczek – here’s a Ravelry link for the pattern. My yarn is Swans Island Washable Wool Collection Sport, which I bought at Swans Island on our trip to Maine a few years ago. Here are the yarns on their website. It looks as if this one has been discontinued or possibly renamed. (?) It’s lovely yarn – the colours are very saturated and it’s very soft and squishy. The teal blue is a bit darker than it appears in this top picture. The fiber is merino wool.

The yarn also has a kettle-dyed look, so I’m alternating between skeins for the body. It will be a bit stripey no matter what I do, but that’s part of the charm of hand-dyed yarn. This is my TV knitting this winter – round and round – and here’s how far I’ve gotten:

Wild Grass pullover in progress, knit by Deborah Cooke

The colour of the blue is more true in this shot. You can see how I changed the ribbing pattern on the neck, so that when it’s folded over, it looks consistent. It’s a 3-1 ribbing, but I wanted the top edge to look like the bottom one when it was folded over. You can see that I reversed the stitching partway up the neck, before the fold, in the top picture.

Here’s how it looks folded over.

The edge of the turtleneck is a cast-off edge, so I cast off with a larger needle to ensure that it would stretch. I think I’m going to take it back and use a smaller one – right now, it’s a bit frilly, a good sign that I used TOO large of a needle.

I do love the colour combination.

Now that the body is off the needles, I’m going to knit the sleeves before putting those stitches back on the needles. That way, I’ll know how much yarn I have left for the body. Maybe I’ll be able to make it longer. We’ll see. In the meantime, ’round and ’round I go!

Foxtail Cross Body Sling

Posted on February 21, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

Here’s something a little different today. Last year, I attended a presentation on bag-making given by the founder of Blue Calla, and bought one of her kits. It’s the Foxtail Cross Body Sling.

Here’s the pattern for the bag on the Blue Calla website. (Clicking on the picture will also take you to this page.)

I don’t see any kits on the site now, but I do recommend a kit for your first bag. It’s a good way to make sure you have all the parts, especially the hardware.

And here’s my Foxtail:

Foxtail cross body sling by Blue Calla patterns, made by Deborah Cooke from a Blue Calla kit

I’m really pleased with how well it came out, and it wasn’t very difficult. I really like that fabric, too. (The inside is an abstract print from the same line, with a light background, just the thing for a bag interior.) The instructions were clear, though I had to read them through a couple of times – since bagmaking is comparatively new to me, I tended to overthink it all. I should have just done what I was told and not worried about it. 🙂

The only thing I had to redo was the strap – I put it on upside down the first time, so had to unpick the stitching at the one end to redo it. That actually makes sense, since I routinely attach bra straps upside down. This is a similar technique, with a loop so that the strap length can be modified.

One thing I didn’t consider was which way I sling a crossbody bag. I always put the strap over my left shoulder, as shown in this pic of the bag from Blue Calla’s site. But this means that all the zipper tabs are at the left and the compartment along the left side is a little tough to reach.

Now, imagine the bag is slung over the right shoulder. It would tip to the right then, and all the zipper tabs would be front and center.

I think I’m going to make a second one that’s the mirror image of this one that I’ve made. That way, when I put the strap over my left shoulder, all the zipper tabs will be readily accessible. This one, I’ll wear over the right shoulder.

One thing about making bags is that it’s addictive. I had started a bag years ago and wasn’t sure I had all the right pieces so put it aside. I’ve dug that one back out to finish it up, and ordered all the parts (I hope) to make a different Blue Calla bag. They also offer a free pattern, the Clematis Wristlet, and I’m going to try that one, too. Oh, there are some kits available for that one, right here.

Have you ever made a bag or a purse?

Danielle Two-Piece Dress

Posted on February 14, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

Barbie Mode: Dresses for Classic Barbie Dolls by Kate Mitsubachi

It’s been a bit crazy around here lately. I apologize for the silence here on the blog. I have a number of posts queued up that need pictures. Today, I’ll make a start on finishing them up to be shared.

First up, I finally got back to Kate Mitsubachi’s books, Barbie Mode. Previously, I made the Double-Breasted Suit and the Soirée evening gown from Kate’s other pattern book, Stylebook for Dolls. I had an idea when I first got these that I’d make every garment for the girls, but life happened and I was distracted by other projects. In December, I dug back in.

Both books are in Japanese, but the instructions have illustrations and are easy to follow. I have a print copies of the books, but you can buy scans of them on Etsy.

The third garment featured in Barbie Mode is a two-piece suit called Danielle, which is shown in red and black. At left is the picture from the book.

I made mine in a linen and cotton blend, because it looked to me as if the sleeves would hang better in a lighter weight of fabric. I lined mine with white voile, and it came out pretty well. I haven’t made the hat and am not sure I will.

Here’s mine:

Danielle two-piece suit pattern from Barbie Mode by Kate Mitsubachi, sewn in a linen blend by Deborah Cooke

I like the seed beads on the front of this one. I think the belt in the book is made of satin ribbon, but I made this one of belting that’s available for dolls. I thought the sleeves might be softer in such a fine fabric, but they’re still a bit structural.

One change I made was to add some top-stitching to the jacket. I find that princess seams on a jacket lie flatter in doll-size if they’re sewn down. I pressed the seam allowances away from the centre, and trimmed one to 1/8″ inch before pressing then top-stitched on the outside of the seam, catching the seam allowances underneath. It would have been tidier if I’d sewn a little more of the jacket hem before turning it and handstitching the rest, but overall I’m pleased with the result.

I’m ready for a break from pink, though.

Quilting My Pink Pineapple Star

Posted on January 27, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

Around the beginning of the pandemic, I planned to get several of my tops quilted at the shop with the long-arm quilting machine. Since they were closed because of Covid-19, I popped this one onto the frame and began to hand quilt it. I don’t know if I’ve shown this one to you before.

I love pineapple quilts and picked up this book some time ago – Pineapple Stars by Sharon Rexroad. It was published in 2005 and I’m not sure when I bought it, probably at least ten years ago. (I’m also not positive that I know where it is now.) I remember that it has clear instructions and lots of inspiration, although I could have read more about contrast and fabric selection before diving into the creation of mine. 🙂

This is the central medallion of mine:

Pineapple star quilt pieced by Deborah Cooke

I squared off the corners and added a border. It’s very bright and I love it.

That floral print is a Kaffe Fassett design called Kimono. By the time I realized I needed big squares of it for the corners, it had been discontinued, so I pieced those blocks. You can see the diagonal line in one big peony this corner where I seamed the two triangles. It’s not an absolute match.

pineapple star quilt made by Deborah Cooke

I started to quilt in the center with lime embroidery thread and worked my way out past that lime hexagon. There are still two corner squares that need their quilting finished.

This past week, I bound the outside edge with self-made bias. I was amazed that I managed to find the dark pink from the middle of the star in my stash.

Here’s how it looks now:

It’s interesting how the contrast looks different in the photo than in real life. The green star tips don’t fade out of view as much IRL, probably because the lime is more vibrant than it appears here, more like the octagon in the middle.

As I was taking this picture, my dog decided to lie down in that bit of sunbeam. She didn’t settle in, though, so I didn’t get a pic of her there – even with the quilt, the floor is harder than her bed on the other side of the room, but her opportunism made me laugh.

Another Knitted Ballgown for the Girls

Posted on January 24, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

#619 Blue glitter dress from Stickatillbarbie.se knit in a mystery glitter yarn by Deborah Cooke

You might remember the Blue Glitter Dress from Stickatillbarbie.se (pattern number 619) that I showed you in December. Here’s a Ravelry link, and here’s the link at the Wayback Machine for that page (patterns #601-650).

Here’s that post.

I made another one in plain black. This is an acrylic fingering yarn that’s labelled as baby yarn, that I bought at Walmart for a couple of bucks. I liked how soft it was, but (of course) that means it’s splitty, too.

Here’s the finished dress, which looks much better in plain black than in that glittery stuff:

#619 Blue glitter dress from Stickatillbarbie.se knit in a black acrylic yarn by Deborah Cooke

I knit this one longer, so it would fit the Silkies, and that turned out to be a good thing. Even though the stitch counts and needles are the same on the bodice of both dresses, this one is much skinnier. Only the Silkie girls can wriggle into it. This time, the hem wants to roll, even though it’s in garter stitch. The acrylic yarn won’t take a block, so I sewed a line of beads into the garter stitches to weigh it down. That didn’t actually work – I had to fuss with the hem to get this picture and it flipped up again right afterward – so I’m thinking I might thread some wire into the hem to hold it in place.

Otherwise, I’m quite pleased with it, though – and I’m done with knitting ballgowns. They take forever!

McCalls 8544 Enchanted Evening

Posted on January 22, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

I showed you this new-ish sewing pattern from McCalls for the girls, McCalls 8544. It’s for three ensembles that are close copies of vintage official Barbie outfits.

I made the ballgown, which is similar to Enchanted Evening, this month. This dress reminded me why I hate sewing polyester satin, although it came out well enough.

I haven’t made the gloves yet, or dug out a pair from the wardrobe.

The pattern calls for that swishy addition to be lined as well as the bodice, but not the skirt. I modified that and lined the skirt, too, which made construction a bit more challenging than might have been ideal. (Bemberg rayon and polyester satin together. Yikes.) I like the result, though.

McCalls 8544 sewn for Barbie by Deborah Cooke

In terms of future mods, I think the front skirt is a little wide – that rose ends up a bit further back on the left hip than would be ideal. I’ll take a teensy bit out of the centre front next time. I also don’t love that folded piece at the top of the bodice, much less how it overlaps at the center back. It’s cut on the bias, but I think I’ll modify the piece so that it tapers toward the center back. I also want to trim the backs so that the main fabrics end at the CB and there’s a tab of lining to tuck under one front for the snaps. I think that makes a cleaner back.

It is a teensy bit long for vintage B, but the perfect length for the Silkies. I’ll have to take more out of the CF in both the skirt and the bodice to make one for the Silkie girls.

The fur stole isn’t supposed to have a brooch, but I found the perfect buttons. There’s a hook and eye holding it closed and it’s lined with the same pink satin.

The pink is lovely but I’m looking forward to making a couple of these in jewel tones for the girls. I saw one in red on a Silkie on Facebook and it was just gorgeous.

Enchanted Evening was a fashion offered for Barbie in 1961. Here is the reproduction, with doll, from 1996. You can see that in the promo shot of B on the stairs, the image has been reversed and the gathers are on the right instead of the left.

Barbie Enchanted Evening reproduction 1996

Margot Robbie also wore a version of this dress to the première of the Barbie movie in London. You’ll find lots of images of that online!

Simplicity 9913 – The Mondrian dress

Posted on January 20, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

I have been finishing up some projects this month, but haven’t been good about getting pictures taken. This week, we’ll catch up a bit.

This pattern features designs from the 1960’s. It’s not currently available new, so I bought a digital download on Etsy. It’s Simplicity 9913.

I wanted to make the Mondrian dress, inspired by the Yves St. Laurent model on the right. Because I didn’t trust the download’s sizing, I made one in a solid color first. It actually came out reasonably well – the one difference is that I added a button band to the back closure to keep it tidy. I tried both hats but didn’t have much luck with either, maybe because my model’s hair is thick. They just perch on the top of her head, which looks silly.

My model today is a new girl here. She’s Barbie Looks #20 (that link will take you to the Mattel site) and was discounted on Cyber Monday. I’ve been wondering how the new articulated bodies differ in proportion from the other dolls in my collection so bought this one. The main difference in proportion is that her bust is smaller. She’s probably closest in size to the model muse body sculpt.

Her hair, btw, was not like this official picture. The ends were frizzy and it was very bulky – there was some product in it that made her ponytail as big around as my thumb. So, she had a boil wash and a trim. It’s still not like this picture, but is an improvement.

My idea was that she could be my sixties girl, instead of a Poppy Parker, so here she is in the test sew of the YSL shift. I made the dress in one color, with the purse. I used a 10″ square of orange quilting cotton (used it all up!) and lined the dress with cotton voile.

Test sew of YSL Mondrian dress, sewn by Deborah Cooke and modelled by Barbie Looks #20

It’s a little bit loose for her in the front bust. It fits the vintage body sculpt perfectly through the bust.

She doesn’t seem inclined to be a sixties girl, maybe a contemporary girl who likes vintage fashion, as you can see from the Blundstone boots she’s chosen. She is very posable, which is fun, although I think her knees and elbows look odd.

Next up, the YSL dress with the color block. The black is done with a narrow ribbon topstitched to the dress, which is clever.

Wiki says there were six variants of the YSL Mondrian dress, though it’s tough to find pictures of them all online. Here are a couple of images from the September 1965 issue of Vogue, which featured the dresses. The one on the cover is the one you see most often.

YSL Mondrian dresses in Vogue magazine, September 1965

This pattern is for the dress at the back in the right picture, probably because the front is symmetrical and that’s easier when you’re working small. There was a series of three Yves St. Laurent Barbie dolls released in 2018, including a Mondrian one wearing a replica of the front dress with the blue shoulder. You can see them all in this blog post at The Fashion Doll Chronicles.

I was also trying to find a picture of the back. The pattern has the back in pieces, making me think the middle panel on one side or the other must be in a color, too. I can’t find it, so I just decided to make one of them blue and put some yellow on one shoulder.

Here’s the finished dress:

YSL Mondrian dress for 12" dolls from Simplicity 9913, sewn by Deborah Cooke

I’m not much for clear yellows, so the only yellow fabric in my stash has tiny white dots. I think it works just fine. I do wish I had a mod girl with flat feet to model the dress. She could wear flats (as the YSL girls did, with big buckles) or white go-go boots. The dress would also fit her better in the bust than the Silkie girl, as the made-to-move dolls had proportions more similar to vintage Barbie. Another girl? Hmm. I don’t know…

Done!

Posted on January 3, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

Finally, I finished my Hebrides in black Kidsilk Haze. I’d finished the pieces in October and it’s been waiting to be sewn up. On New Year’s Day, I thought “enough!”, turned on a bright light and threaded up my needle.

It’s done.

Hebrides cardigan in Rowan Kidsilk Haze in black, knit by Deborah Cooke

We’re having snow today, so the light in the house isn’t very bright. I tossed the sweater into the snow outside for this pic.

Hebrides is a pattern from Rowan 52 by Lisa Richardson. (That’s a Ravelry link.) It was originally knit up in Rowan Kidsilk Haze Stripe, and I’ve knit two in that yarn.

Hebrides by Lisa Richardson knit in Rowan Kidsilk Haze Stripe by Deborah Cooke

Hebrides by Lisa Richardson knit in Kidsilk Haze Stripe by Deborah Cooke

It’s a great basic jewel-necked cardigan. The Kidsilk Haze is both light and warm – that green and purple one has done a lot of travelling with me. It takes up almost no space in my carry-on and always looks great.

I’m not sure the pattern is available online anymore. Rowan changed the name of it at one point to Belle and the sample was in a solid colour of KSH. (Another Ravelry link.) The Ravelry link for the pattern on the Rowan site goes 404, but most of them do since the Rowan site was redesigned. It looks as if it’s available in more publications, though whether those are downloads or print editions is something you’d have to check out.

Will I be making another one? Hmmmmm. Maybe. But it won’t be black! LOL

A New Year for the Girls

Posted on January 2, 2025 by Deborah Cooke

As mentioned yesterday, I have a lot of unfinished projects on my sewing table, and many of them are for the girls. It seems that I fiddle endlessly with the cheap pattern downloads from Etsy – the ones that are scans of older commercial patterns – getting the printed size right, then messing with the fit. They really aren’t that good of a deal in the end, considering the time involved. The plan is to just stop with them.

To that end, I found some new resources. First of all, the big four commercial pattern companies have introduced more patterns for 11/12″ dolls, and they’re selling digital downloads of them. This is a very cool development, since they always print out perfectly at 100%. Here’s a new one, McCalls 8544, which includes versions of three familiar vintage Barbie ensembles. The pink dress is Enchanted Evening, the checkered coat and dress is Poodle Parade, and the blue poof dress is Gay Parisienne.

Simplicity 9869 is one of the patterns that features a decade of fashion. This one is for the 1970’s. I wish they’d make the others available, too, having spent a chunk of time in December fiddling with a scanned version of the 1960’s one. I’ll show you that next.

Here’s the page with the PDF patterns for doll clothes. It’s a mix of patterns for American Girl and Barbie, but there are more fashion doll patterns than has been the case for a while. There are often sales on this site, so keep a look-out. I got the digital downloads of the patterns I bought for just $3 each in December.

If you’re a fan of the vintage Barbie outfits and would like to reproduce them yourself, I found another site for you. This designer has patterns for many of the vintage outfits, available as PDF downloads. I haven’t tried any of them, but it looks like a great resource. His site is called Tailored Doll Patterns and there are patterns for Barbie and other dolls. Here’s his site.

Here’s his pattern for Enchanted Evening, for example.

Stylebook of Doll's Dress for Barbie by Katie Mitsubachi

I’m still searching for the perfect suit for the girls, so I’ve gone back to my Japanese pattern books by Katie Mitsubashi. I’m making a test version of one from this book now and will show it to you when it’s done.

Alive & Knitting

Knitting and other tangled webs we weave