Alder Shirtdress - a Grainlinestudio Pattern

The Grainline Studio Alder Shirtdress is one of the many lovely patterns I received for christmas. 

Check out this sweet haul! 

Pretty lucky girl huh!

So I am gradually trying to work my way through the patterns, Linden - done, Nest egg Tote - done, and now the Alder shirtdress is finished, Yay!

I decided to try out this pattern using some lovely fabrics from M is for Make (they had a super sale on, and as ever they have excellent service)

I used a Kona cotton solid in Prussian (which in honesty was a little more *blue* than I had anticipated, more on that later) and some rather awesome Leah Duncan Florascape Moonstone from her Meadow collection by Art Gallery Fabrics. 

This pattern was a breeze to put together, it really was. I was a little hesitant about putting a collar in, it has been a few years since I have done one, the pattern is beautifully cut and didn't give me any trouble. 

I decided on adding some top stitched lines down either sides of the button placket to add some texture to the plain fabric. I have used bright blue Kam Snaps instead of buttons, and I am quite happy with the finish. 

The Snaps however were not the breeze I thought they would be! I trialled a few on Christmas Day when I got my new tool, and thought....yes! This is the most amazing thing ever! What can I put snaps on, I want to put snaps on everything!!! Quick, make something you can put snaps on!! Ha ha. 

In reality, I wasted seven, yes, SEVEN! Snaps making this dress, think I was tired and rushing to get it finished, so maybe I will have better luck next time. 

I adore the contrasting fabric I used for this shirtdress, in an ideal world the whole dress would have been made from it, alas, my contrasting collar and back yoke will have to do. 

I finished this dress and before adding the snaps I tried it on, and couldn't quite believe it. It fit, no FBA needed, no awful drag lines, ok, I would prefer a slightly softer fabric but the fit is good! 

Please excuse my awkward posing and weird non smile face, it is -1°C, there is still snow on the ground and I am outside prancing about in my summer weight shirtdress and jelly shoes trying to look all casual like I am not freezing... Ha ha. 

(p.s. I had ironed the dress just before I took the pics, looks like it's going to crease a little) 

All in all I love this shirt dress and I already have a lovely soft floaty rayon mix lined up for my next version. I also plan to take a few inches of the hem, so it sits just above the knee.

 I do have a slight issue with this dress, the colour. It is more blue than I anticipated, I was going for navy and this is quite royal blue. Totally my fault, it is true to the website colour swatch, I guess I didn't have my eyes on straight when I was ordering ha ha. The colour reminds me of a uniform a little too much, but I will still be wearing it. 

Thanks for stopping by.

~HJF~ 

Bobble hats a plenty!

I started knitting when I was probably about sixteen, my aunty taught me the basic stitches and I was away. I knit lots of random squares with good intentions of knitting them together to form a blanket, but, well, that never happened.

I quickly moved on to bobble hats, I am not a quick knitter, so I needed something that gave me more or less, the instant satisfaction of a finished product. 

I started knitting hats, and haven't been able to stop.

My problem with knitting hats is that I never follow a pattern, I swatch up the wool for my cast on measurements and just go with it. I now have quite an array of hats, none alike. 

I decided to dig out all of my hand knitted bobble hats and see what I had. It turns out I have knitted fifteen in total over the last 10 years, fifteen! Who needs fifteen bobble hats!! Turns out I do, well actually I need sixteen, because I have just finished knitting up another. (Just in time for the snow we have here!)

Before I show you my latest knit, I want to share with you nine of my hat collection.

As you can see, they are all rather different, but most have a bobble, I love an oversized bobble, and I just feel it makes the hat sit better on my head too. 

Here is my latest addition to the collection. A blue and grey hat knit in a merino mix that is amazing to work with and the perfect weight for a hat. I had just enough of this left over after knitting a baby dress last year. 

I crept outside this morning to take some pictures of my hat in the snow, the light was just wonderful. 

Once again this is just a completely random pattern, I am sure expert knitters can spot many flaws but I am happy with it. That is not to say I am not still in search of the perfect hat pattern.... Any recomendations welcome?

Thanks for stopping by. 

~HJF~