16 posts tagged “sewing”

It seems I've taken to posting monthly.  I will need to work on being better about that.

I finally finished sewing my bag of the summer -- just days before September.  I started it way back in June, about a week before my vacation; but about 2/3 the way from completion my sewing machine started making a horrible noise.  So I decided that was Life (or something) telling me to put away working on the bag and start doing all that other stuff on my list to prep for vacation (you know like get the house clean, have clean laundry to pack, make sure Dog is set for his kennel visit).  When I got back I took the machine in to the shop and they tried to recreate the noise with absolutely no luck so it came back home with me.  But of course I still thought it was making that awful noise when I worked on the bag, it must have had something to do with sewing through 4 layers of canvas instead of 1 layer of corduroy like they did at the shop.  Anyway, earlier this week the bag was staring at me and I decided I was either going to finish it or thoroughly break my machine trying.  All in all I spent part of 4 different days working on this bag (one of them I was even helping a friend learn how to make her own tarot card draw-string bags).

The pattern is Wasp Bag from  Machen/Machen and it's free :)  I didn't totally follow her instructions, partially because I envisioned the straps and horizontal band differently than she did and partially I just mixed up the order of process to suit me (I made the straps last for example - oh I also did the interior pocket differently) but I loved the shape and am happy with the bag.  It was my first time installing a magnetic snap and the first time I put a zipper ala Creative Little Daisy's Zippered Pocket Tutorial (of course I changed that a bit too, making the pocket a loose stand alone pocket just stitched in at the top).  This was also my first time using fusible fleece interfacing; I felt it was a little bulky around some of the seams but I like the shape and relaxed body it gives.  Nothing bugs me like a clear outline of purse contents in a flimsy fabric purse and so far the interfacing keeps this at bay.

I bought the purse-body fabric almost two years ago (at JoAnn's when they had a nice 45" canvas section), meaning to make a small messenger bag out of it - but then I found my go-to, very PNW Overland bag that was exactly the size I wanted and had many of the features I wanted as well as marked down because it was a discountinued colorway and my nearly signature lime-green.  So I was happy when I saw the wasp bag pattern and realized this fabric would go great.  The straps are made from leftover green canvas bought last summer at Ikea for a summer picnic blanket (that project, sadly is still waiting to be finished).  I wish I knew the name of the blue lining fabric (a quilting cotton) so I could buy more of it since I love it.  The orange polka-dot fabric was some scrap fabric hanging around.

For the past 9 years I've lived in places where I do not have curbside recycling pick-up.  Luckily I've always had access to a recycling center of some sort.  However many recycling centers/containers are designed for those with curbside pickup.  For a long time we've made do with multiple paper bags to hold all the recyclables.  It got messy and cluttered.  When we used a single trash can we had to sort into bags before walking it to the recycle center.

Long story short I have settled on this solution:  wire shelf on casters from Bed, Bath & Beyond (not quite the right size but at 1/3 the cost of perfect-size shelf it was close-enough), and hanging bags from s-hooks.  I just had to sew the bags - I planned on using canvas but then I was walking through Ikea and saw the big blue bags and remembered how people (like Africankelli) were re-fashioning them into other bags.  So I bought one big blue bag hoping it would be enough for two smaller bags.  I grabbed my seam ripper and ripped out the bottom and side seam as well as the handles.  I cut the side piece in half, then determined how big my bottom of each bag could be and cut two bottoms from the original bag bottom.  I cut the long straps in half for two sets handles plus cut the short straps up to attach d-rings for hanging.

These two bags hold so much more than the one bin that fit on that shelf plus I'm not worried about rogue liquids weakening paper bags.  The handles are also much more comfortable than when I carried a very full paper bag. Success for less than $30.  The added bonus is that it holds the washcloths and hand towels I keep at the door to wipe muddy, wet Dog paws (and legs and belly and back and tail) and the top functions as a landing strip for mail and keys and such when we walk in the door.

I have a lot of fears.  And they keep me from far too much too often.  Okay, that sounds a little drastic, and it isn't quite that drastic.  In college I used to joke that I had a high sense of self-preservation when I wouldn't jaywalk across the 5 lane road that separated my dorm from the rest of campus, of course by my junior year of crossing this street daily I had no problems crossing half-way in between the two crosswalks or waiting in the median for the other traffic direction to clear.

But I really didn't mean to go all deep with this post.  I just took a little dip into one of my sewing fears - invisible zippers (and ruining lovely fabric).  I've had intentions of sewing a couple pillow covers for the two extra pillows that didn't really have a home (but would look nice on the office futon if covered).  I found the fabric last fall and even measured and cut it out.  Pillows. Four seams.  Except, being me, I had to make it difficult.  I used contrasting fronts and backs and I wanted a zipper so it would be easy to remove the cover for washing.  And a regular zipper would look odd along a seam and I didn't want a designated front and back so that meant using an invisible zipper.

I've been wanting to tackle invisible zippers for a while now - except I couldn't find much instruction on how to insert an invisible zipper.  Tutorials abound for the regular zipper (despite the fact that every sewing reference book I've seen has instructions and instructions come with many regular zippers).  I didn't have any manufacturer's instructions with my purchased invisible zips.  Luckily I had one invisible zipper tutorial bookmarked and I did remember reading another set of directions somewhere.  Plus I realized that I might not like the pillow covers as originally envisioned but the fabric would make a very cute doll-sized quilt if the pillow covers failed.

So I jumped in... and finished the pillow cases:

They aren't perfect, and they don't fit perfectly but close-enough counts this time.  I also finally got around to clearing the futon and covering it with my old chenille bedspread and placed the teddy bear my grandmother made for me on it.  I should make the teddy a new collar though.

(side note: it turns out that I did this project about 3 weeks ago and it just took me that long to clear the bed to be photograph worthy)

It really isn't good when you find yourself becoming a big ball of rage while working on your sweetie's [late] valentine's day present.  It isn't that I am angry about making a present for TheHusband, making presents for people is one of my favorite things (second to making stuff for myself - I'm a bit selfish that way).  Is it that the pattern for the pajama pants is very poorly written or I have become rather stupid about sewing.  So as all customer service people have experienced my brain has decided the pattern is stupid instead of admitting that I might be stupid and I am angry at the pattern for that.  Yes, totally silly, but there you have it.

I picked up the pajama pants yesterday determined to overcome my frustrations.  I ripped out the wrongly sewed leg and re-stitched it.  I stitched up the crotch and then I started fighting with the non-zippered fly-front.  If I just had the pieces in front of me I felt like I knew what to do, how it was put together but whenever I read the directions and looked at the diagram it didn't mesh.  I might have marked the fly flap incorrectly but I'm not sure.  I tried searching for tutorials online, but only found mock fly-front and zipper fly front tutorials; and the results from searching my two sewing reference books were the same.  An online friend suggested I take a look at Diana Rupp's book S.E.W. and so I did (it seems like an excellent book by the way).  I took pictures but then didn't think to upload them.  Doh, I don't think many people who read this are that into sewing though so...

Anyway.  I finally put the fly together they way I think it is supposed to go and attach the waistband.  Then I discover I don't have the right width of elastic.  Gah.  So much for completing the pajama pants (flaws and all) today.  Also, I have become a lot more fearful of starting other clothing projects.  Sigh.

I've been sewing since I was about 9 or 10 (I wonder if I have any pictures of the first halter tops my mom taught me to sew?).  I've known the importance of grain-line since I started using patterns in junior high.  I always take lots of care with my fabric.  I pre-wash it, I iron it before laying it out, I take my time putting the selvages together, measuring that grain-line guideline on patterns in multiple locations, multiple times and measuring it again if I have to tweak a pattern piece.  I've read about grain-line importance.  I've watched Threads video on getting the fabric setup properly.  I've tried to do that trick where you pull out a cross grain thread/fiber but the dang things just break on me about four inches in from the side.  Okay, so I haven't tried to rip along the cross grain very often; frankly I worry that I would just end up with mishappen strips of fabric instead of a usable squared up fabric (or by the time I get it right I don't have enough fabric for my chosen project).  I would like to blame my sewing set-up (a queen size bed covered with a folding cardboard cutting mat that won't lay flat) but I'm not sure that is fair.  Many sewers face the same space and budget constraints.

Add my usual grainline woes to a 58/60" drapey flannel fabric and every frustration just gets amplified.  When open it is longer than my wingspan and too wide for my cutting surface, it drapes and grips at the same time. Grumble. Then I realized that the selvage edges indicate the pattern is woven in, which means cross-grain stripes are truely cross grain and I put faith in this during the layout and cutting of the pajama pants I'm making. I manged to get one leg of the pajama pants I'm sewing on grain, but not the other leg - I'm hoping it isn't too noticeable.  Then to top it all off I sewed one right sides together (correct) wrong sides together (incorrect).  And I forgot to mark a couple things from the pattern onto the fabric.  Needless to say I'm putting this project away for the rest of the day.

Sheldon the turtle butt now has a neck, head, eyes, legs and shell.  I'm currently in the middle of doing the attached i-cord to put the shell together, then I will stuff and sew on his legs.  I missed my own personal deadline, but luckily my nephew probably won't notice (or remember if my SIL cooperates) that his first birthday present didn't arrive on his birthday.

Saturday evening I finally hand-stitched the binding onto the oven mitts and finished my first project almost completely done on my sewing machine.  I was really happy that I decided to stitch the quilting lines about 2 inches apart on the oven mitts because all that quilting, even on a machine, got old fast.  And I had to pull out the old machine to sew the binding on since the diameter of the babylock's free-arm was just a bit too big for the oven mitts' opening.  But the project is done and ready to be packed up and shipped off to my mom.  I hope the insul-bright batting works effectively.  The potholder pattern is from Amy Butler's In Stitches book and I traced my favorite oven mitt for the oven mitt pattern.  Originally I was hoping for two matching oven mitts but didn't have enough fabric.  I bought 1/2 yard of each fabric seen and that was basically just enough, I have 2 bias binding strips leftover, 2 triangles from either side of cutting the bias binding and a few pieces of quilted scraps from the oven mitts.

Warning this post is long on detail and how-to as well as photos.  If you aren't sewing inclined you might want to skip reading down to the very bottom where I talk about sewing alternatives (or skip it altogether if you are knitting inclined either).

A couple months ago, I got frustrated with the state of my needle drawer.  I was looking for a needle I swore I had but could not find it.  So I pulled out Stitch n Bitch and looked at their instructions for an organizer.  At one time I thought I was all about the needle roll, but then I realized I don't want to carry all my needles with me all the time.  Plus I prefer circular needles and the less kinks in them the better (of course my bryspuns don't have kinks in the first place).  Anyway, I didn't like the idea of attaching the needle organizer to a clothes hanger but did like the hanging aspect.  I also thought the directions were fiddly, so I didn't follow them, just used the finished size as a guideline for my work.

What I did
I cut two pieces of fabric twice the width needed (plus seam allowances), two pieces of peltex craft interfacing the length & width of my finished product.  I seamed each fabric rectangle once along the long edge for a tube, turned it right-side and centered the seam.  Then I pulled the peltex into each flattened tube.  If your fabric is heavier than the lightweight eyelet I used you might not need interfacing (or be able to use a lighter fusible interfacing).

I put both pieces together interior-sides together (so the seams were on the inside) and did a small seam on the top & bottom (short edges).  Then I flipped it inside out (so the exterior sides faced each other) and seamed the top and bottom again to enclose the raw edges.  I flipped it right-side out again and marked my seams for each circular needle size slot and stitched those, then spent a long time hiding the thread ends.  Finally I used a couple thumb tacks to hang it on the wall and inserted my needles.  Officially this still needs the needle sizes to be labeled.  I am looking for the right buttons to do that (or maybe I'll break down and make them, or get lazy and find a fabric marker).

I also made a DPN roll.  I know I said I don't like the idea of needle rolls, but I realized that this could be stored with my yarn stash.  The goal is to condense the knitting supplies into this one box.  I think that is just so the sewing supplies can take-over, but that is another story. Plus I also had these two fabulous fat quarters that I was itching to use.

What I did (apologies, I forgot to take photos)
This time I grabbed a bit of freezer paper and laid out all my dpns (in the packaging) and basically traced them onto the freezer paper (lining them up on a bottom straight line, and making sure they fit within the width of my fabric) to figure out how tall the finished needle roll should be.  Then I cut out an exterior fabric, an interior fabric, a pocket fabric (same size as the exterior & interior but then I folded it in half), interfacing for the pocket, interfacing for the body, an exterior flap, and an interior flap (these were about half the height and the same width as the exterior/interior pieces).

I ironed on some interfacing to the pocket piece, then folded it in half along the longer axis and ironed it*.  I ironed interfacing to the wrong side of my interior fabric and placed the pocket on the right side, lining up the bottom edges.  At this point I used a erasable fabric marker and made the lines for my pocket stitches; Go ahead and seam the very ends too, this makes the final step easier.  It took a little bit of figuring on the freezer to paper to get the distances right.  I made the pockets for the smaller needles smaller than the larger needles.  Once this was done I pulled the threads through to the wrong side and knotted them. 

Setting the main piece aside I put the two flap pieces together (right sides together as is Standard Operating Procedure) and seamed up three side, leaving one long side open for turning it right-side out.  Turn this right side out and iron it.  If you have a directional pattern for one or more of your fabrics make sure that the open edge is at the top of fabric pattern.

Now you make a fabric sandwich.  The bottom layer is the interior piece with pockets (wrong side on the table, right side visible).  On top of this lay your flap making sure its raw top edge is lined up and centered along the interior's top raw edge.  You want your exterior flap fabric to face out (be visible); if you are worried about catching the short edges when you sew the side seams you .  Finally you place your exterior piece on top of these pieces, wrong side down and making sure all the edges line up nicely.  Pin this together.  You should not see any of the right-side of the fabric just the wrong side.  Starting seaming this together.  You will first place your needle around the 3/4-of-the-way on the short side of your fabric sandwich, turn at the corner, seam one long side, turn at the corner, seam the other short side, turn at the corner, seam the other long side, turn at the corner and seam about 1/4 of the original short side.  Don't forget to back stitch at the beginning and the end.  This should leave an opening about 1/2 the width of the short side which allows you to turn your sandwich right-side out.  Don't forget to trim your corners before turning it right-side out.  You might want to use a chopstick or something to poke the corners out nicely.  You might tug gently on the flap and then iron everything.  I hand stitched the opening shut, but if you wanted to you could top-stitch around the entire thing to close it. 

Now I made a fabric strip and added velcro to it for my closure but you could use a wide ribbon (or ahead of time add buttons/snaps/velco at the appropriate spots on the exterior fabric).  I also embroidered the needle sizes on the pockets after sewing this together; I bet it would be easier to do before you sew it together, but after you mark the pocket stitching lines.  I put some notes on my flickr photos and can try to draw up some diagrams if my written instructions are confusing (and diagrams are requested).

Saturday night was the first time since we bought this couch (in May 2006) that we've allowed the dog to be on the couch.  What made it worse is that after TheHusband invited the dog on the couch TheHusband sat on the floor.

On Friday my friend Zarah posted this very cute picture of her dog Lucy and it reminded me of the dog bed I made last fall as well as Dog's preferred cushy pillow.  (Random factoid, since Lucy is the first dachshund that I ever met all miniature dachshunds are now known in my house, or maybe just by me, as "lucy-dogs" or "long haired lucy-dogs").

Last fall I decided to sew a dog bed.  It also seemed like a good project to try out freezer paper stenciling.  I bought a couple yards of natural colored cotton canvas, a couple zippers, a roll of freezer paper, and a few bottles of cheap acrylic paint.  I cut out the two primary pieces and did the stenciling on the top before I sewed them together.  I made a special corner pleat (a link to that photo if you are interested).  I also sewed an inner zipped pillow case to stuff with cedar chips so it would be easy to wash the dog bed cover.  When it was finally finished my dog sniffed around it and laid on top because I asked him to.  Then he moved before I could even grab the camera.  I left that dog bed out, let it swallow up nearly eight square feet of floor space, for a few months waiting for the dog to use it.  I even carted it downstairs during the day since he tends to sleep on the same floor that I am inhabiting.

I suspect his nose is offended by the cedar chips (my mom suggested them, her dogs apparently have less sensitive noses) because he never got closer to that dog bed than this:

However, Dog will always use a pillow when it is available (he adores dirty laundry, but those pictures, while cute, tend to show off my unmentionables unshowables):