Pink...Pink...I Just Love Pink!

Sometimes I see fabric at the store and it's as though the fabric has it's own gravitational force.........the luscious colors just pull me in.  And so it was with the fabric I used for another bag I made for my crafts.....this one was for my hand stitching. 

I just love the roses set on the soft blue background, and who could resist the pink and white polka dot?   It's just the perfect shade of pink....not too soft, not too harsh.....aaaaah, just right!

Just like the knitting bag, this bag began with the embroidery from Embroidery Library.     I stitched lime green (my other favorite color) ric rac around the embroidery which was then lined to create a pocket.   The pocket was then hand stitched on three sides to the front of the bag using heavy light pink cotton thread.   And I added two lime buttons to the handles to tie all the colors together.   Love, love, love the way this turned out.

Of course I put some pockets on each of the long sides inside the bag which hold patterns, scissors and floss.  As you can see I am currently using this bag to hold redwork embroidery for a quilt I am making for Christmas.   And just like the small bag I made for knitting socks, this bag is always stocked with everything I need to work on my project.   That way I can just pick up the bag at any time and walk out the door with some handwork to keep me busy while waiting at appointments.

If you have ever done any hand stitching you know that the first thing you need to keep organized are your needles for different projects.  A needle case is the easiest way to keep all your needles in one place and at the ready for a new project.   I had this wonderful lime fabric with script across it just begging to be used.   And I found a small crochet flower and smaller three dimensional rose button in one of my drawers of "goodies" and used those to complete the front of the needle case.

When you untie the pink ribbons and open up the needle case there are two pockets on the left which are large enough to hold quite a supply of packaged needles for different stitchery projects.   On the right is a thick flap of felt that is only attached at the top with the pink and cream ribbon making it easy for needles in use to be "on hold" there, ready and waiting for more thread.

Hand work bag

  

Knitted socks bag

Large knitted projects bag

I'm thrilled with all three of my new craft bags...one for knitting socks, one for large knitting projects, and one for hand stitching.   Color is what always draws me to fabric....and paint.....and clothes....and department store displays....and cars..........ooops, sorry, I got carried away.   As I was saying, color always draws me to fabric, but when I sew something it needs to be very functional in order for me to be happy with the end result.   And I'm very happy with how all of these bags have turned out.  I expect to get many years of use out of them, and they make me smile whenever I pick them up as I head out the door.                        

Why not make some bags for your own projects?

Debbie                                                                                                                                                                      

Kaffe Fassett Rocks!

If you read my other blog, I promised to show the pics of the large version of a knitting bag I recently made.   When we go on trips with our RV, I usually end up knitting during a large portion of the drive while I'm sitting in the passenger seat.  After struggling with store plastic shopping bags to hold my projects I finally gave in and realized I would enjoy the knitting process a whole lot more if I didn't have to fight to keep my knitting organized.  

And this is what I came up with.   The bag is made using Kaffe Fassett fabrics, gotta love those bright, cheerful prints of his!   The bag measures 18" high and 14" wide and 6" deep.  

The embroidery was downloaded from Embroidery Library and stitched out on my Viking embroidery machine.   I felt like the embroidered focal point of the bag needed something three dimensional, so I added the lime, pink and orange ringed buttons on the left side and pinned a lime colored silk rose above the embroidery.   Aaaaah, now that's better.

I wanted to be sure the bag lasted a long time and so I added 8 sturdy metal purse feet to the bottom to protect it from getting worn.

There are pockets inside to hold scissors and other knitting paraphernalia.  And don't you just love the home-dec lime fringe?   See the smaller bag peeking out of the top?    There's more about that bag below.....keep reading.

 Luckily, I had these curved bamboo handles in my stash that were just the right size for the bag and were sturdy enough to hold the knitting bag and all its contents.   I took three different colors of heavy cotton and simply straight stitched under the handle to prevent it from slipping and to add some decorative panache.  Hand work is still one of the simple joys in my life.    Sigh.....

Here is one row of orange stitching completed and the lavender thread is next.   You can also see the finished embroidery piece that became the focal point of the bag.

And here is the completed stitching.  It works great to prevent the handles from slipping and sliding in their fabric casing which was used to attach the handles to the bag.

Also, I made this smaller bag that is just large enough to hold my sock pattern, double pointed needles and a skein of yarn.   This bag is for socks that are in progress.   I always have a skein of yarn in the bag and then when I have a doctor's appt. or need to kill some time, I just grab the bag and I have a ready-made project with me.....something to pass the time while waiting for appointments.  This bag can also just slip inside the larger one and is made from a companion print and has the lime handle to co-ordinate with the lime accents on the larger bag.   Too.  Much.  Fun!

 

To close the bag, I used one of my favorite magnets on the lime tab top which also becomes the handle for the bag.

All in all, it was a real treat for me to sew these bags and create something that was both fun and useful for me, myself and I.   Since I spend the majority of my time in the studio working on projects for clients, it was a real treat to let my imagination run wild and create this bag "on the fly".   I've used the large bag for 2 knitting projects so far and it functions great.   But most of all it makes me smile every time I look at it.  And the smaller bag gets popped into my purse several times a week so I can keep making more socks.

One more bag to show you tomorrow,
Debbie

Triathlon Quilt

There are so many runners who come to me with their prized t-shirts, all of which they acquired after running a marathon.   Some even run in the kind of race where you run and bike through a designated course.   And then there are those crazy (hey, there's no way I could finish one of these races!) folks who run, bike and swim their way to the finish line.   I am always amazed at the wide range of age, ability and motivation of the triathlon participants.

One of our family friends runs in these triathlons....and didn't even start until he was in his late 50's!  He recently brought some momentos of his contests and asked me to put them into a quilt.   Here is the result.

I took one of the pictures of him running the course and printed it on fabric so it could be included in the quilt next to the shirt from the same race.

Can you read the clock on the picture to the right?   Yes, he ran, biked and swam for 9 hours, 21 minutes and 51 seconds.   Oh.  My.  Goodness!   How did he do that???

He had removed the front portion of some baseball caps so I serged around them and stitched them down in one of the wide borders.

I was struggling with how to include 2 pieces of memorabilia.....the paper signs that each contestant is required to pin to the front of their shirts.   And then it occurred to me that I should mimic the race and I pinned it to the quilt in some open space.   It worked out perfectly!

Quilt On,
Debbie

The Raincoat that Almost Wasn't

If you've ever sewn garments, you may be able to relate to what happened to me recently while attempting to sew a raincoat for my granddaughter.   My daughter had called me months earlier and said that Sydney would love it if I would make her a raincoat.   While I was at the fabric store, I ran across some awesome Amy Butler laminated fabric that would work great for a raincoat.   I even bought an Amy Butler pattern for a rain jacket/coat which could be made up in several lengths and I was well on my way.  Well, sort of....

The fabric sat in my sewing room for a few months while I tried to figure out how I was going to prevent water from entering the inside of the raincoat where each little stitch made a hole from stitching the seams together.   We get some torrential rains here in Florida and the last thing I wanted was for Sydney to wear her new coat and get wet because the seams leaked.   I finally did the research on the internet and bought some of this......

I found this product at our local camping/hiking/sports store and it is normally used to seal the seams of tents that have developed leaks.   After some experimenting, I  came up with a plan that I thought would work for the raincoat.    After I sewed each welted seam (think blue jeans seams) I brushed this liquid sealer on the fabric inside of the seam using the brush attached to the glue bottle.   It was a little tedious, construction wise, as I would sew several seams and then brush them with the glue and let them dry overnight.   And that's how I kept sewing and gluing the entire raincoat, hoping that I was sealing  the seams as I went along.  I even tested the seams by pouring water over a test seam as I held it over the sink and it worked!

 The pattern didn't call for welted seams, but I really liked the professional finish of them, so I used them on the shoulder seams, the back of the two part sleeves, and the side seams down each side of the coat.   To make a welt seam, first sew the seams "backwards", with the raw edges out instead of inside the garment.

 Next, trim one side close to the seam.  Then, take the "longer" side and turn under the raw edge, stitching close to that edge as straight as possible.

And you end up with this!   A welt seam!   I had to use a Teflon foot  to stitch the seams because the plastic coating on the fabric made a regular foot stick and pull against the laminated fabric side.

Whew!   Alright, got the sleeves on and the hood and made the lining, too!   Three days of sewing, gluing and drying and now Sydney came to visit.  I could hardly wait for her to try it on.......ummmmm.  "Sydney, this is never going to fit!", I moaned.   Yup, even after using her measurements and checking and rechecking the pattern(which happened to be multi-size)......I had made the entire thing too small!!!!!!!   Aargh!  Apparently this pattern is made for really skinny, skeletal builds.   Aw, man!   The arms were skin tight, the coat wouldn't even come close to buttoning.   Everything was small except the hood!

Back to the drawing board.   I remeasured her, and we decided on the size we felt would be a better fit for her.   Next, I pulled out the pattern pieces and calculated how much additional fabric I would need to buy, if I could find it, to complete another raincoat.   I cut the hood off the raincoat so we could reuse it, and laid out the pattern pieces onto the fabric I had left over from the first time I cut out the pattern.  We loaded into my car and drove back to the fabric store, hoping to find the same fabric.

Eureka!    They still had the same fabric and even had the same cotton I had used for the lining.   Ok, now we were on a roll.    Some $ and an hour later we were back at home, ready to conquer this baby once and for all.  I cut it all out, stitched and glued and 2 days later we had a finished raincoat.   Hey, I don't usually give up and this was one time I was determined to get it right. 

The pattern is so busy, that it's hard to tell where the front seam is.  There are covered buttons in the same fabric down the center front.

And I really like these pleated pockets with the flap on top.   I reused these from the smaller coat, so, that saved me a considerable amount of time and materials.  I also just reused the covered buttons, too.

The hood was also reused from the smaller coat and I simply reattached it.   All in all, I learned a lot from this project.   I will definitely measure out the pattern next time I make clothes for someone other than myself to be certain there is enough ease in the pattern to make it fit right.   And I won't make a lining until I can get the kids to try on the garment first so I'm not putting more time into something until I'm sure it will fit.

With a little determination and some luck finding the same fabric, the raincoat finally came together and Sydney is very happy wearing it!   Aaaaah,  glad that one is behind me.

Learned my lesson,
Debbie

Star Wars Pillow

I wish I could tell you I was really clever and that I created this pillow out of my imagination, but, alas, that's not what happened.   When I was on Pinterest I saw this really cool pillow and my oldest grandson came to mind immediately as he loves anything that has to do with Star Wars.    When he was visiting I asked him to name the planets from the movie that he liked the most and he named some extras that weren't on the original pillow I saw on Pinterest so I included them for him.  

So I went thru my fabric stash and came up with wacky colors that I thought might be part of a Star Wars world and used Steam a Seam Lt. II on the back of the circles and adhered them to a white fabric base.  

And of course I used the Sashiko machine to stitch around the planets after writing the names of the planets in permanent ink. 

 

 

I especially like the fabric for Naboo as it looks to me as if it's a molten planet with shifting continents.   Hey, use your imagination!   It kinda looks like that, doesn't it?

This was a fun afternoon project and Jackson was really excited about getting a pillow to match his "brown" bedroom.    More decorating to come.......

May the Force Be With You,
Debbie

Baby Time

 Recently my friend Bonnie asked if I could knock out a quilt for her soon-to-be-born second grandchild.   We discussed a few options and then I remembered cutting out some quilts when I had my shop a couple years ago.   I showed her the fabrics and a picture of the finished quilt and we agreed this one would be a winner.

It's just a little baby quilt but the fabrics are what make it sing.   Black and white opposed by red and yellow really make this quilt pop.   After I had the quilt all put together I decided to quilt it simply by sewing diagonal lines in both directions thru the blocks and all the way to the edge of the quilt.   Pretty basic but I think it works and lets the cute fabrics shine.

  
















I decided to finish off the edges with black and white dotted binding and one of my labels.

I hope Bonnie's grandchild gets many years of enjoyment from this colorful quilt.

Sew On,
Debbie

Christmas Tree Skirt, Part II

Alright, so when we left off I had just finished deconstructing the gown.   Now it was time to put things back together.   So, the biggest hurdle I had was figuring out how to keep the zipper/lace/row of buttons intact, but still take the bodice and "flatten" it out as much as possible so it wouldn't be a "funnel" when sewn back together.   Get it?   It's hard to explain but think about how flat most tree skirts are.   There wasn't a way(ok, I couldn't come up with a way) to "flatten" out the bodice while still keeping the back intact and not taking the entire gown apart at all the seams.  And it turns out I needed all the length of the entire gown to get the width I needed, so, I had to sew back on the section I cut off!   Which was a blessing in disguise as I had a finished hem on all the layers ready made!

It took three attempts to "get it right", but I finally felt like I had achieved the practical application that was needed while getting the look I was after in narrowing the bodice down.  

I know this looks goofy, but I used a giant gallon Ball jar to simulate a tree stand.   Here I was playing with the lace, trying to space it out around the top of the tree skirt.   I also reattached the crinoline underneath the newly bustled skirt to give more fullness to the finished product.

At least I had plenty of lace to work with.   And I love doing handwork, so the time spent sewing the lace back on gave me a boost.

Gorgeous, simply gorgeous!

And here's a close up of the lace all attached on the finished product.

I ended up "bustling" the gown's skirt in two layers to get a feminine re-creation of the way the original gown was designed.   When I delivered the tree skirt to Natalie, I explained that when she uses it, it will be just like her wedding day.    She will need to "primp" and play with the gown/skirt to achieve a finished look.   She plans on having a carpenter build her a 10" high box made of wood and attach their tree stand to it.  That will give some height allowing the gown to tumble down over the stand and box.   Then, using acid free tissue to stuff out the areas she wants to pouf more, she will get the look she was after.

Oh, yeah, this is a horrible picture but I was exhausted at this point and just took the pic for the sake of having a pic of the veil attached to the skirt.   I didn't spend any time rearranging the bustled portions of the skirt to make it look pretty.  When the skirt is arranged pretty around a tree, it will look much nicer than it did plopped on my cutting table.  

When I delivered the skirt, Natalie was so excited to see her gown transformed into something she will get to use every year around her huge, decorated Christmas tree.  I hope it's all she wanted it to be....a way for her to relive her precious memories of her wedding day....now being celebrated each and every year under her Christmas tree.  

Merry Christmas, Natalie
Debbie

Wedding Gown to Christmas Tree Skirt..........aargh!

Well, this is a new one for me.   Dear husband's co-worker asked me if I would turn her gorgeous, expensive wedding gown into a Christmas tree skirt.   I'm always up for a challenge, so I said, "Sure, how hard can it be?"   Gulp.....   Very seldom does anyone in my family turn down a request...and the joke in our family is that someone always says, "How hard can it be?"   Followed by a fit of giggles as we rattle off the disasters we've overcome as we tried our hand at various ventures.....most of which took 3 times as long as they should have, had we known how to do them correctly in the first place.

But, I digress.   Did I mention that the wedding gown was really expensive?   And so, the gown and accompanying veil sat.....and sat......and sat.....for 2 months draped over my dining room chair.  I know, I know.  I was procrastinating because I was really unsure of just where to begin.

Finally last week I opened both bags and stared down my nemesis....um, I mean my newest project.

Breath, Debbie, breath.

Isn't it gorgeous?   I can just picture Natalie in it, walking down the aisle with her new husband.  Ok, enough daydreaming.  It's time to get down to business.

And so, the moment of reckoning had come.   Where and what to cut first?  Just the thought of taking a scissors to the gown made my palms sweat.   But I had to start somewhere, right?

The gown was so full and hard to work with so I decided to remove the crinoline from inside first.   Ok, keep breathing....so far, so good.  That was easy.

Cute!   It even stands up on it's own!

Onto the bodice.   The only way to remove the boning and stays was to use a trusty razor blade on the tiny stitches holding them to the gown.

That's a lot of stays!   At least now the gown is more flexible and easier to work with.

I was starting to feel more confident by now as I gently removed the handstitching that held the delicate laces to the bodice.   Natalie's favorite part of the gown was the back with all the beautiful lacework and the long row of satin covered buttons, so I wanted to do everything I could to keep that intact.   Because of that I only removed the lace up to within 1" of the back zipper and the buttons.

As I was feeling pretty convinced I now had a good plan of attack, I plowed forward and made a design decision about the length I needed to cut off the gown in order to start forming the proper width for the tree skirt.   I did a bunch of research on the internet about the width of tree skirts and different tree stands.   Remember, this gown has to fit over a tree stand.  And Natalie told me when I asked her what size tree they usually purchase that she likes to get at least a 9 footer!   So, that meant the tree skirt had to be pretty wide or it would look skimpy under the tree.

To be continued....
Debbie