Parka - Felted Knitted Jacket Project - May 6/2012

So, here it finally is - my parka! And I am very happy with it overall. The sleeves are not quite as deep as I would like, meaning I can't wear big sweaters in it, but I've decided that's okay. And I also decided to forgo the sewing of an airtight outer jacket. After all the work I put into this with the hand-sewing and applique, and even just all the knitting and felting, I decided it would be a shame to cover it up. Not to mention that the outer jacket would rub the felted jacket, causing it to be all pilly. I discovered that aspect when I was sewing the pieces together. I have a great sweater stone which removes these, and I used it before taking the pictures. I have to admit that handsewing is one of my least favourite things to do, and this required a lot, including sewing the fur on the hood, and sewing the lining to the zipper which was already attached to the parka. It was just too thick already with a double layer of felt and the zipper, my machine would not sew through one more layer. But it was still worth it, and I love the fur around the hood - I think it makes the coat. And this coming from someone who doesn't wear fur, and has never had any desire to have a fur coat. But I wanted it to look like the parkas of my youth, and it does, plus it will help keep the wind out. And I got a used fur coat from Village Green Thrift Shop to use for this purpose.

 

Here is a closeup of the pocket applique -  a stylized oak leaf made from mustard coloured felting from another project, and appliqued using rayon threads in gold and copper.  It's a little hard to maneuver with the thick felt layers, and one of lining, but that also helped prevent the distortion of the fabric which can happen with machine applique on felt.  Before the applique, I used a zig zag stitch with regular thread to baste the outer edges in place.  You can see it's pretty puffy looking because the applique stitch really compresses it.

Here's a view of the lining inside.  I used a kasha lining which used to be a high quality heavy rayon lining used in coats, but is sadly now made of polyester, like so many other things.  I really hate polyester and acrylic!  They make me overly hot, but there wasn't much other choice in lining fabric.  As you can see, it is not even close to the same colour as the felt, but it's next to impossible to match any kind of red, and I felt it wasn't too bad anyways.

Here's the fur around the hood.  I think it finishes it off nicely, but have no idea what kind of fur it is.  It didn't say in the label.  It is shedding a bit the edge where I cut it, but I'm told that will subside.  If any of you want to try sewing with fur, here are some tips.  Use a razor blade, or a utility blade with snap off blades, and cut the fur from the back.  This will prevent you cutting the fur, and making even more of a mess.  I've been told you can sew fur with your sewing machine using a small zigzag stitch and polyester thread, but you have to keep pushing the fur into the seam.  The sites I looked at also said to use a smaller size regular needle on your machine, not a leather sewing needle.  Apparently most of those are too large for sewing fur.  The other option is to sew by hand, again with a small sharp regular sewing needle, and using whip stitch, again using a polyester thread.  This is what I did, and it was pretty fast, or as fast as I ever get with hand sewing.  Plus, if you have a nice full fur like I found, it hides any seam you may need to make if the particular fur isn't long enough.  And, needless to say, you do not pin or baste the fur before sewing.  It is an unforgiving fabric, and the holes will not disappear.  This pattern called for me to place the fur with the fur side against the inside of the hood, and sew it onto the edge with whip stitch.  Once that was done, you flip it to the outside of the hood so the fur side is up.  And, of course, you can always use fake fur instead.

 

Parka - Felted Knitted Jacket Project - March 19, 2012

 

So, I did decide to go with handsewing the felted pattern pieces together, and even though it's taking a fair amount of time, I think it was the right decision. Even though we had freezing rain, and then snow yesterday, winter is almost over so there is no rush to finish by a particular date. And it would have been a royal pain trying to maneuver the bulky pieces through my sewing machine - especially when it came to more than two layers as it would underneath the arms. And I'm also glad that I decided to overlap the seams. With such thick fabric, it makes it lay flatter, and lessens the bulk. This is a pic of the sleeve being attached to the body of the parka. When I was knitting the fabric, I didn't think about sewing it together by hand, so I didn't save any of the yarn. I'm using a dark brown which contrasts a little, but I'm not worrying about that. I'm using a buttonhole stitch to make sure the edge of the fabric on the outside will be contained, and also a back stitch to strengthen the seam and catch the inside edge of the fabric. As I said, it is pretty time consuming, and I need to use a pliers to pull the needle through on the thick areas. It'll be more awkward when I sew the seam under the sleeve and down the side of the jacket, but again, less than trying to use my sewing machine. Of course, I will definitely be machine sewing the lining and the out jacket. I'm not that much a glutton for punishment!

Entrelac - Felted Knitted Jacket Project - March 19, 2012

 

After my frustration with the overfelted sleeves on my blue mix project, I thought I might give up on knitting, and then felting an entire jacket. But hope springs eternal. I got a book from the library called "Entree to Entrelac" by Gwen Bortner and Elaine Rowley, and she had a few felted items in it, and since I've long been fascinated by entrelac, it gave me inspiration, not to mention tips on shaping. I like the textural look of entrelac, but always disliked the boxiness of clothing made with this technique. But with a jacket, boxiness doesn't matter so much to me. I could tell by looking at her felted items that more than one colour would be necessary for you to notice the pattern, but I didn't want it to be too noticeable. I'm thinking of alternating two shades of red - that being my favourite colour. Of course, it's necessary to do a sample swatch and felt it, so here mine is before felting - 9.5" square. It will be interesting to see how it felts since the knitting is going in more than one direction. I'm theorizing that it might come out more square than usual, but we'll see.

Blue Mix Slippers - Felted Knitted Jacket Project, Feb 29/2012

So, here are the slippers I made using the sleeves the cardigan. I used a Linda MacPhee sewing pattern for warm up boots, and that describes them better than "slipper". I felt that the medium size was too small when I measured my foot against it, so I cut out the large size. I single crocheted around each pattern piece, and then slip stitched the pieces together. Of course, this meant that they turned out even larger - sort of ginormous, actually. I'm pretty sure I can wear two pairs of socks and still wear them. Since I live in a place with concrete flooring under the lino, this is not a bad thing - no matter the ambient temperature of the room, the floor is cold, and an extra layer helps. That's why I love the felted slippers in Bev Galeska's book, not to mention that it's like walking on puffy clouds with the double layered felted soles.

It's nice to be able to make use of your failed experiments. I have to confess that I am also really enjoying the felted vest. Sometimes, it's nice to wear something cozy and warm that leaves your arms free, like when you're doing stuff in the kitchen. Sweater sleeves never want to stay pushed up!

Felted Knitted Jacket Project - Parka, Feb 15, 2012

 

I have also finally cut out the pieces for my parka, and I didn't really overestimate that much in the amount of yarn required. Mainly because it was two narrow to cut the complete back pattern piece on the fold, so I actually had to make two back jacket pieces with an extra seam allowance in the middle to sew them together. And then I had to re-cut one sleeve that I somehow manage to cut a little shorter than the other. It is more difficult to pin and cut on such thick fabric, and my thumb complained a lot afterwards. Ah well. It is now done, and I'm considering how to do the assembly. I've already decided to do overlapping seams to lessen the bulk, and I also think that my sewing machine might have a hard time with the thickness. Maybe some handsewing with a decorative houndstooth stitch to strengthen the seam? The last is a suggestion from the slipper pattern that required butted seams, so it might also work for this.

Blue Mix Cardigan - Felted Knitted Jacket Project, Feb 15. 2012

 

So, here is what I did with the sweater that shrunk too much in the sleeve width. I carefully removed the sleeves, which wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I took a small sharp scissors, and cut the yarn that sewed the sleeves onto the sweater. I was more careful not to cut the body part of the sweater than the sleeves, and it worked well. The seam wasn't as felted as I thought it would be. Then I picked up and knit stitches all around the neck, front edges, and bottom of the cardigan using several circular needles so I could do it all at once. I used a garter stitch rib pattern, which I'd used on another cardigan, and liked. I also added buttonholes but couldn't find any buttons I liked. I did buy some, and haven't sewn them on because I really don't like them. SIGH! I did wear this yesterday without any buttons, and liked it a lot, which surprised me because I don't generally like vests on myself.

As for the sleeves, I have cut out a pair of felted bootie slippers for myself, and hope to assemble them today. I was going to follow the pattern and hand sew them, but now I think I will instead crochet around the edge of the pattern pieces to provide a firmer edge, and then slip stitch the pieces together. Even though it is pretty densely felted, I thought just hand sewing the edges together with butted seams as recommended in the pattern (a sewing pattern using melton or duffle cloth) might not be strong enough with felted knitting. I think these slippers are going to be very cozy.

Blue Mix Cardigan - Felted Knitted Jacket Project, Jan 15, 2012

So, here is my second attempt at a felted cardigan that was completely knit in pieces and assembled before felting. As you can see, the sleeves look just a tad long, prefelted. In order to prevent warping of the neckline and outer edges of the sweater, I single crocheted all around the edge with cotton yarn, and then crocheted the front edges together. This is mostly easy to remove later, and results in a much more even and matching edge.  

And here is the sewing pattern on which I based the measurements. It calls for boiled wool fabric, and is fairly simple, so I thought it would be a good match for felted knitting. First I did a sample swatch in fairisle, because basically, that's what this is, and felted it well. I wanted it to be very felted, and didn't want a repeat of the previous sweater where it became much shorter than I anticipated. Then I made all the calculations based on the measurements of the sewing pattern, and the gauge of the felted sample swatch. I did a repeating pattern of knit 2 sts of colour A, 2 sts of colour B, and alternated them row by row to get what I thought would be a muted heathery look once it was felted.

 

And here is how it turned out. As you can see, the sleeves did not shrink as much as I'd hoped, and are still very, very long compared to the body of the sweater. In addition, one sleeve is narrower than the other - too narrow to wear comfortably, and they flared out a bit at the bottom. If I had crocheted around the bottoms of the sleeves, this would have been prevented, although the flaring doesn't bother me. I even kind of like it. But the sleeves are way too long, and I'm not sure how that happened because I double checked all my calculations. The only thing I can think of is that my tension got looser when I did the sleeves. I did do them some time after finishing the body, so that's possible, and it's harder to detect when you're knitting looser than usual anyways. If the sleeves had been comfortable otherwise, I would have considered just cutting them shorter, and adding some other finish. But they're not, so I think this is going to be a vest, instead. The body fits very well, and the neckline is about the right depth. It makes me understand better why Bev Galeskas never had a pattern with a felted cardigan that also had felted sleeves. I've been very successful doing felted fairisle items that are smaller, like purses, and tea cozies, the a sweater has many more variables to consider.

 

 

From experience, I know that fairisle felts a lot more densely, than stockinette stitch because of all the floats, and I thought that's what I wanted, but I'm reconsidering. The sweater is a lot stiffer than I think would be comfortable to wear, and it wasn't meant to be an outside jacket, so it doesn't need to be that thick. First I thought that maybe I could do a fairisle in sport yarn and felt it. It would be softer, but what a lot of work, considering I don't really like multi-coloured clothing on myself. Time to mull this over....