Swap Diary 3-2-09 Missoni Madness

I really enjoyed helping with the packing tape dress form double class last weekend. I think the best part of it was chatting with the person I was wrapping and getting to know them better. One of the participants, Kim has posted some pictures on her blog. Warning, she is a trim young thing that looks good even wrapped up in paper.

Last Sunday, I was hoping to get in a little sewing until DH mentioned he wanted to go to a HAM Radio show and a computer show in northern VA (2 hour drive north). The computer show was .25 miles from the Chantilly G Street Fabric store so I printed some emailed G Street coupons, and reluctantly (not) agreed to ride along.

I found some very nice fabric at G Street. In particular the $2.97(dig through the crap for treasures)/yard table yielded pieces of gold and teal knits, both colors in my current SWAP. The teal was a super stretchy rib knit. I purchased them to use as possible trim pieces with a Missoni type knit I wanted to use for my SWAP. This knit was purchased from an on line vendor years ago before the “authentic” Missoni knits starting showing up on fabric sites. It is a blend, which includes a lot of acrylic. I really dislike acrylic knits. There is no recovery in this knit. I wanted to make a casual sweater to wear on the weekends, but whatever I made out it had to go under the SWAP jacket. I have been collecting inspiration pictures for this fabric. Here are a couple.

I decided to make a cross over top, and use the teal knit rib knit as binding on all the edges to keep the fabric from stretching out of shape and sagging. The style would work under a jacket because it was close fitting, and it would work proportion wise with the pants and long skirt in my SWAP. I used a basic V neck. T-shirt pattern with set in sleeves, from Lady Boutique magazine, morphed with the front cross over curves of this New Look pattern. I did modify the bottom curve of the front to starts 2 “ lower on hip than the NL pattern.
I ironed a very lightweight interfacing to all the outer edges of the sweater and the arm hole edges to prevent stretching while I sewed on the banding.

It worked great. The finished width of the bands is 1” wide, which was the same width as many of the color bands in the fabric.I did stretch the banding slightly as I attached it. Though the front “V” is a little plunging, the rib knit trim holds the edge against my skin. I will be wearing a scoop neck T-shirt or turtleneck under this sweater on most occasions.

Today was a snow day, no work or school because of a record snowfall last night. However snow days are not much fun when the electricity is off for 8 hours. This picture was taken on the deck and you can see the accumulation on the railing. I know you northerners are scoffing, but this is central Virginia, and this is a lot of snow for us. In fact my two gleeful sons have interrupted me to report that school is officially closed tomorrow also. Alas, the roads are clear so I will be expected to show up for work.