T-shirt Reconstructions

I've been reconstructing my own T-shirts for quite a while now and friends keep handing me a pair of scissors to alter something for them or ask how it's done.  I've had several people nagging me to start selling my reconstructed shirts too, but that's a bit scary so I've not tried that.  I started off attacking shirts to make the over-sized ones fit me, and then realised how much I hated the standard T-shirt shape and now buy everything a size or two larger and alter them.

I have finally written down some proper instructions to explain the process.  The main instructions show how to make my default style which has gathered sleeves that sit on the shoulder and knitted sides that bring the shirt in at the waistline in gathers and drape fabric across the tummy and derriere.

I've included loads of variations at the end so that you can do different sleeves or give the shirt an empire line waist.

It's quite an easy process, requires no sewing and I can make one over a few cups of tea or while watching a film in the evening.  I'd recommend trying it out on an old shirt you don't like to get the hang of it.  Your work will get neater and much quicker once you've tried the first one.

If you're doing my default version and it doesn't look quite right when you've finished, you can always unfasten and re-tighten the shoulders, and unfasten and re-knit the sides (even cutting larger sections before re-knitting if you didn't take it in enough).  The finished version should automatically come in at the waist when laid flat.

PDF instructions

The witch is my own graphic design but it's up on redbubble if anyone wants it.

More charts

Just a post where I'm going to store more of the charts I've designed (as inspired by the ones at Textile Transfigurations).  I'm making them to go with the charts I'm using from there so they'll be designed in the same size.

I'm using them to crocket into cushions or blanket squares, and I've already got a small backlog of requests.  If you want to learn how to do crochet portraits, I'd suggest checking out Lee's Site.

To download full size, right click, "Save Target As...".

To start with here's David Tennant as Barty Crouch Jnr.

The dark blue squares have been used to represent black so that you can still see the grid and count squares more accurately.

To use it for cross-stitch, just remove the border and background.

If you are on Ravelry and make use of any of these charts, please link up to the project on there so I can see your results. :)

Slytherin Crest Project

I'm not very well at the moment so I'm spending the Summer stuck indoors indulging in some favourite childhood crafts.

While making film character portraits in crochet (they'll end up as cushions, a blanket or attached to some sort of furniture by my upholstery genius mother) I found myself in need of a Slytherin Crest in the same size, so here it is (right click, Save Target As... to download full size version).

The chart is exactly the same size as the Severus and Lucius squares I'm making (as designed by Textile Transfigurations) so I'm assuming that all of the other character squares are this size too. It uses four colours instead of five as the crest looked better without the white. I've made the black appear as a dark grey in the image so that it's easy to count squares (something I struggle to do on the Textile Transfigurations versions so I end up drawing white lines on the black sections before printing out).

Most people have been knitting the Textile Transfigurations squares but I wanted to crochet mine.  It's *really* easy and if you've never tried it before, there's a lovely Fibre Artist called lee who has done a crochet-along set of videos here.  It seems that most  of the crochet portrait makers like to use read-along charts but I prefer an image chart so I can see where I am easily, know what it's going to turn out like and can spot any mistakes early enough to correct them.  Lee has some lovely Harry Potter charts too if you prefer read-along charts, and there's a Slytherin crest on there (but just not the size I was wanting).

I've mapped out the banner separately in case anyone wants to use that for something (right click, Save Target As... to download full size version).

For those who prefer cross stitch or tapestry, here it is in a cross stitch chart format.

The colours I've suggested should turn out like this

I've approximated the number of stitches and recommend comparing them to Kathleen Dyer's chart so that you can work out how much floss you need for the project.

If you are on Ravelry and make use of any of these charts, please link up to the project on there so I can see your results.  :)

The Carol-Anne Martin Photostory

There seems to have been a lot of confusion and curiosity going around among some Whofans relating to a selection of John Entwistle photographs featuring a little known young lady.

As much as it would amuse John that I'm defending his honour I do perhaps owe him a little for somewhat defending mine in the past, so let's clear this situation up. ...admittedly I'm doing this more for the lovely Alison Entwistle than John.

All of the following images were taken on Thursday 2nd March 1967 and star Who fan Carol-Anne Martin spending a day with her idol, John Entwistle, and accompanying him to the Marquee Club that evening where The Who's performance would be filmed for Beat Club.
I don't know whether the girl was a true Who fan who had won the day in a competition, whether it was a publicity excercise or whether it was a photo op set up with a model. What I am certain about is that three months after these photos were taken John married his childhood sweetheart Alison Wise whom he had met and school and had been dating steadily since 1962. Alison had been dutifully attending John's gigs since he was in The Detours, so she wasn't exactly going to miss any girls hanging around him at gigs in London several years later. These photos were posed for fan magazines, and John wasn't stupidly going to suggest a secret girlfriend for the photo shoot either (that honour goes to Paul McCartney, maybe I'll explain about that another time).It's worth noting that the carpet and wallpaper in the bedroom photos match those in the picture of Carol-Anne sat on her sofa in front of a wall full of Who pictures. Whether those who read magazines in the 60s actually beileved that a photographer could sneak a girl into John's bedroom to wake him up without him noticing is unknown. ;)The following two photos were taken by Ray Stevenson who covered the Beat Club recording. All of the other images were taken by David Magnus.








If anyone else has any additional information or more photos from the shoot, please contact me and I'll update this to share with everyone else out there. All images and footage remains the property of their original creators and are reproduced here for educational puroses (setting a bit of pop history straight).