Late Week 4: Completion of the Shamaness shirt

For some reason I could not update anything onto blogger during the weekend. So I have to update this now.^^

I finished knitting the Shamaness shirt. And I found a nice fabric for the Assassin's Creed undershirts, but with that came a problem: It was available only in light pink and dove grey, not white. I have to ask the staff do they know if there's similar fabric in the store or should I try bleaching (which I'm not even trying until necessary). Well, I won't be able to buy any fabric until the 4th of February so I'm still looking.

Here's the piccies of the finished Shamaness shirt:

Sorry if some of the images are a little blurry, the camera battery was dying out and it was very hard to focus it. The result is very warm and cosy shirt that I've been wearing at work. What I learned from my own body and knitting in this project was that next time I have to do the upper part (waist upwards) a size smaller than the hips. Why? I'm rather pear shaped, this shirt is good around the hips, but there's extra around the bust.

Onto next project!

Week 2&3: Lucrezia

What have I been up to... Well, as  far as sewing goes, right now all I've done is patch my fiancée's pants (useful), knitted the Shamaness shirt hood (slow) and thought how to start the first Assassin's Creed costume.

The one being Ezio is quite a straight forward copy of the original, but three were "original" designs. First one is for the poisoner, Lucrezia. (yes, I know in the game Lucrezia is one of the bad guys).

Here is my character scetch on her:

Bleh, I really need to get back on drawing more... Anyway, sorry about this image being in B&W, my tablet pen has done a runner and I need to catch it before coloring. I'm taking a few liberties to the actual time period correctness, but I think the game also takes a few liberties, so we can put this on artistic freedom. The color combo for Lucrezia is green/teal and white.

I'm planning on modifying the Butterick pattern B4486 or The Poet Shirt for the shirt. The collars I have to redraw, and maybe do some twinking on the sleeves.

For the corset I ordered the Steampunk Asylum corset pattern from Harlots & angels in Etsy. In the pattern the lacing is in the back, but I'm not sure wether I want it to be there or move it to the front. I drew it to be in the front, but I think I like it better on the back. I still have to think about it. I also have to tweak, lenghten and puzzle out the hem.

I've used the B5265 pattern more than once for making different capes and found it easilly modified, so I'm going to use it again. Like going back to a dear friend.^^

The hood is something I have to puzzle out myself. I know I have the instructions on how to draw a hood pattern somewhere...

What else... Since I am using the rumor that Lucrezia Borgia used to poison (to my knowledge there is no actual historical evidence, just rumors) people by using a poison filled ring, I need to find something suitable. I've seen a few good candidates on etsy.

Lucrezia Borgia

I think I will also get myself a book about Lucrezia Borgia. It's good to get to know the person from whom I am building this fictional character.

Week1: Shamaness knitted shirt progress

I started this knitted shirt in December and I've been knitting in during evenings when I have had the time. The original model is from Novita Winter 2012 -knitting magazine. I fell in love with the hood of this shirt, took up my needles and started to knit. The shirt is part of the Lapland shamaness collection.

Original model from Novita magazine

The pattern originally says to knit the front and back parts separate, but I knitted them together by using the circular knitting needle. This is because using ordinary knitting needles for such a big project is a strain on the unaccustomed wrists, the circular knitting needle allowes you to knit 80% of the shirt body by using the plain stich alone.

The original was also grey baclground with highlights by Novita Takkatuli -yarn. While shopping the yarn I fell in love with the teal color they had on the background yarn and so my shirt became teal with highlights.

How my shirt looks right now.

I still have the hood to do, othervice the shirt is finished. I have the first of the two big examinations on monday, so I can't continue over the weekend, but I'm hoping to finish by the end of the week.

You can also see that I made a measuring mistake on the right sleeve and the middle stripe is higher than it is on the left sleeve. I'm also very stingy when it comes to the yarn and I didn't match the different stripes as they are on the model image as then I would have ended up with different lenghts of cut strips of yarn that I have no big use, which to me is waste. So I knitted in the order the colors rolled from the clew.

Materials:
Background: Novita 7 veljestä teal (75% wool, 25% polyamide)
Stripes: Novita Puro Takkatuli (100% wool)
Needles: 4mm circular knitting needle in 60cm lenght, 4mm double pointed needles used to make the sleeves
2 safety pins to mark the side seams.