Crochet Mishaps and the Goldberry Shawl

My, it has been a while since I wrote. I have recently upped and moved sticks AGAIN, this time back to good old England. Paris is no more my home (small sob). This means lots is changing, generally for the better, and yip yip, I will be getting a kind of studio complete with Orla Kiely wallpaper plastered in all its mustard glory on one wall.

But most recently I have been on a crochet mission. I discovered a beautiful wool shop in Bath called "Wool" and bought some super yummy Debbie Bliss Fine Donegal wool in a (yup) mustard, and decided to make a shawl. I have never worn a shawl before but a lot of some seriously cool people (in my eyes, for example, Dottie Angel), wear them, so I am going to too.

This is the result, I somehow ended up with an additional two points on it, so word of warning, don't make the mistake I did, when it means "in center point", it doesn't mean each center point, it means the one point that is in the center obviously. oops!

The pattern is on Ravelry, and is called Goldberry Shawl. Once you get past the first bit, it is quite easy. And even that is easy as long as you can count and keep track, I am a bit of a clutz so I did go a bit wayward at times.

Though it doesn't hang as well with three points, I was enamored enough to try a second, which I whizzed up in two days in Rowan Hemp Tweed, in Kelp and Duck Egg, for my mother for Christmas, shhhh!

It was a mighty success second time around, I did the points in the center point only, and thus got the desired triangle shape. Perfect for wearing whilst crab apple picking... (&with my favourite Cleo Dress).

Even the little pup got involved in the gathering...

 We shall be making some kind of beverage with the apples, not sure what yet. We currently have kilos and kilos of rosehips, elderberries, blackberries, damsons and god knows what, in the freezer and fridge waiting to be made into drinks and preserves. It really feels like Autumn is coming. Watch this space....

Altering the Bettine Dress

Tilly and the Buttons patterns are really some of the easiest I have ever followed, so I was quite excited to try this one out. I measured myself up and found I fell into the second smallest size. However I should have researched the pattern before cutting it up because when I made it up I discovered I could barely get it over my derriere.

(Also worth noting if you have an ample chest, you might have similar issues, thankfully I don't). As I was making the version with pockets, it made it a little more of a faff to alter, but actually as you will see, it was pretty easy in the end).

(This is the first one I made, with a vintage floral fabric and all the optional extras, tabs, pockets)

So if you had the same problem as me, this is how I altered it!

So I felt that it fit perfectly on the upper half, and around the waist, and though it did fit on the bottom half, it was kind of hard to sit down.

As you can see, it is a little too huggy.

(Here are the sleeve details)

So here are some tips for widening the skirt:

You will need some large pieces of paper or smaller ones taped together. Then take the back piece of the skirt pattern as your base, and draw a line skimming off the widest point down. You can see MY pattern piece behind the original to see the difference. Make sure you copy all the markings across. 

Copy that back piece. Then take the front skirt piece from the Bettine pattern and copy that pocket curve in and the markings from THAT piece.

Now for pockets.You will see here that I have stacked the original pocket bag, mine and the back skirt piece. There is a very slight difference between the original pocket piece and the skirt- you need to add that or it won't get stitched into the seam. 

See, a very small extra bit.

Then do a similar thing for the pocket facing.

You should now have four altered  pieces. Make sure you copy all the markings across as you go.

 At the end, stack them all up, they should all line up well. Alter if needed.

As you haven't changed the waist of the dress, it will all sew up just as easily as the first pattern. To test the fit of the new skirt section, I made this practice from a cheap peacock cotton:

It actually fits beautifully and I wear it often.

Modelling in Provins, France. I will soon be making a whole new Bettine and will share the outcome when its done. Though now I can move and sit down easily, I know it will work fine.