Tiny pocket Hemlock

Hello!  How are you today?  I'm feeling a little underwhelmed - Sunday evenings tend to have that effect, don't they?  Plus I'm about to show you a fairly unexciting t-shirt. But then life isn't always exciting is it, so, well - suck it up haha! :-)  Yeah, I'm keeping it real with the sewing blogging here. It just felt like time for a chat, so here I am.

So I made a knit hemlock. I can't really remember why to be honest, apart from a kind of sewist's curiosity - just to check out what all the fuss is about.  It is indeed a very easy sew, and clearly an excellent base for all sorts of variations - but then you knew that already. I used a remnant of brown/cream striped jersey and slapped a tiny gold pocket on it (no explanation needed, surely. It's a tiny gold pocket).  On me it's considerably less oversized than it is on Jen, ahem. (Shits given: zero)



I finished the neckline, sleeves and hem by turning under 1cm and coverstitching. People with coverstitch machines - do you have trouble tying the ends off? I thought I'd pulled the thread through and tied them up really carefully, but still the sleeve hems have unravelled after a couple of washes (see below). Any tips for me? Plus they flip to the inside which is really annoying, I guess it's because it's a pretty narrow hem. Next time I'll finish the sleeves with little bands/cuffs anyway as I'd like them to be a teensy bit longer.

 

I did have grand plans for a bunch of other quick, fun hemlock tees - I even started sewing one with some rather nice flutter sleeves cut on (get me, fancying things up). But its been distinctly autumnal in temperature round here recently, and once I realised I'd given up hope of an indian summer, I couldn't bring myself to carry on. This bothers me tremendously - I absolutely hate UFOs, I have to finish things or chuck them out, but I just can't bring myself to do either with this one. Really, I think a tee like this is generally an instant gratification kind of project, isn't it? Which doesn't work so well when there's going to be a six to nine month delay before you actually get to wear the outcome.

Ugh. Autumn. Sunday evening.

Actually I can't wait for Monday morning tomorrow - we've had some seriously irritating bad behaviour from the kids this weekend (well one of them, but I won't identify which, to save potential embarrassment when he's older. Oh wait, oops...)  There are many things to like about the office (adult company, intellectual stimulation, relative quiet, coffee) but what I'm most looking forward to this week is the chance to speak again without whatever I say causing someone to throw furniture around while manically cackling with laughter and attacking me with plastic ninja turtles. (And in the unlikely even that that did happen, we'd just have the person concerned carted off by security or the doctor and it would totally not be my problem. It's all about context...)

ANYWAY. Now for some random other things, which might be marginally more exciting than the hemlock, for those of you who've stuck this post out to the end.

First, yesterday I realised that quite literally* EVERYBODY (*god I hate when people say that) on Instagram was signing up for Periscope, which is basically the same thing but with live video. So I did too (I know, I know, I'm such a sheep). I have to be honest: this kind of thing makes me feel really old. My phone asked did I want to sync it with my twitter account and I said yes, and as a consequence I can tell you that I think my username is the same on both: @jo_sews. Right? (Er, good luck finding me there, should you wish to...)  I did one video so far and, having replayed it, realise that next time it would be better not to put my finger over the microphone half way through. Anyway, it's pretty fun to hear my sewing friends speak and see them in live action, so if you're at all tempted, come and join us!

Second - this is a thing that is actually, truly exciting! Drum roll please!!! ... On Thursday 29 October, I will be in London, for the sole purpose of fabric shopping and meeting some of my lovely online friends!  Yippee!!  For the moment, it's just me and the lovely Marilla (yes, I get to fangirl in person!), and I think we're probably not up for organising a sewing meet of enormous proportions (which is why this announcement is hiding at the end of a fairly boring post - just for the true fans hehe), but if you're around and free and fancy joining us at some point - please just say so! There are loads of you lovely UK-based sewers that I'd love to meet, and it drives me nuts that I'm there fairly often and still never manage to meet up with anyone!  We don't have a specific plan yet but the general idea is Goldhawk Road and/or Walthamstow market (are these combinable??), and if I can fit in a quick pilgrimage to Loop as well, I'd be a very happy lady...

Have a happy Sunday evening, everyone! Or Sunday morning / Monday morning / whatever day it is when you're reading this (* delete as applicable).