Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Machine Knit George, Peppa Pig's Brother



 A while back, I blogged about taking a coloring page of Peppa Pig and converting it to a stitch pattern in DesignaKnit. http://marzipanknits.blogspot.com/2014/10/using-dak-placing-single-motif-on-front.html        But, I don't think I showed you the end result.  First I did a pillow:


 Well, actually it's George, Peppa's brother.  I added some fairisle designs to his cheek, jacket and hat to help with floats a little. I also wrapped the edges with strands of the main color to keep it from separating.    I used new cotton dishtowels for the lining.  I find that making the lining after knitting the outside of the pillow makes for a perfect fit. I just placed the knit piece on top of the dishtowel and cut allowing for 1/2" seam.   It's stuffed with polyester material that you get at any fabric store. The lining was sewn on the sewing machine; the outside seamed by hand.

Encouraged by the results, I did a sweater, also for my grandson.

The long floats on the pillow didn't matter, but for the sweater they were bothersome.  So I bought some iron-on nylon stabilizer and affixed it to the back before sewing the sweater together.  The advantage of this nylon stuff is that it stretches with the knit a little  but keeps the floats in place.

You can kind of see on the left side where the interfacing was cut.  It's just a little larger than the fairisle pattern. You can also see where I hung a few of the floats, but it  got tiresome really fast, so I quit and opted for the interfacing.   Yes, dbj would be another way to go, but alas I'm still not doing it.

Closeup of the design.  Cute, eh?  I love how George's nose goes off to the side, kind of like a child's drawing.

And finally, proof that it fits.  Hard to get a picture of a constantly moving target!
If I were to make this again, I'd do a modified drop shoulder.  The regular drop shoulder is too bulky for a little kid.  I knew better, but sometimes the brain isn't engaged.