Sewing project: my first knit!

I'm still busy working on Chris' cardigan and I'm also whipping up another pair of men's gloves for a friend.

Sundays for the last three weeks, however, have been dedicated to the sewing room! I did not get to spend much time at the ol' Singer last year but I'm making efforts to do so for 2011.

Right now I'm working on my first knit project. Knits, as I understand it, are much harder to work with because the material likes to stretch and can be slippery. I haven't had too much trouble so far.

I'm using a dark blue fabric that I think is jersey. My mother-in-law gave me the fabric along with a pattern for a turtle neck dress. I had planned on making a turtle neck (shirt, not dress) but after buying this pattern with Hancock Fabrics gift card money, I decided to use it for this instead:

I'm making shirt A. I've already created the neckband and sewn the shoulders together. Next I'm trying to figure out how to attach the neckband to the shirt. I hope to make time to do that on Sunday.

To buy the pattern, visit Kwik Sew's website here.

Where to Shop: Abingdon, Va.

Stop by yesterday's post on Small Travels and Musings to read about A Likely Yarn, a yarn shop I visited in Abingdon, Va., and other places to visit in this Southwest Virginia town.

Hemming can be hard to do

Sorry this post is late. Since I worked last Sunday, I had this past Friday off and I vowed to stay away from the computer and enjoy myself. And enjoy myself I did! All weekend long! Take a gander of some of what I did:

Do you remember these shorts?

Mmmm ... I didn't realize how dark this picture was. Sorry!

I tackled them again Friday. It took three hours -- yes, three hours! -- to re-hem these so that the fabric wouldn't bunch. I tried three different techniques, including sewing a basting line and trying to ease in the extra fabric like you do with sleeves.

I finally found out that I had tapered the leg hems in the wrong direction! Yep, that was it. After sewing the leg seams from the seam line to the edge of the fabric, the material laid nice and flat. Before, I had tapered in, toward the leg itself!

Look! No bunching fabric! Yes!

Now the legs lay nice and even. I'm so happy and can't wait for it to warm up so Chris can wear them every day this summer!

I also cut off the original hem, which was fine because the shorts were too long for the hubby anyway. They now hit him just above the knee and fit nicely too.

These shorts are by no means perfect, but they are improved enough that Chris might wear them more often when the weather warms up.

Besides scratching my head over what should have been a simple technique, I also took a day trip with the fam, baked tortillas and took up two pajama bottoms this weekend. I'm feeling very satisfied after such a productive weekend!