Sewing

Machine stitch sampler

~ guernseyjane ~ 2 Comments

As recommended, when I got my Janome decor doc 3050, I made a stitch sampler. But rather than have a useless but decorative piece hanging around – I decided to make it into a bag to hold the presses feet and accessories.

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main challenge for this was putting the continuous zipper together, I find threading the zip on tough despite following YouTube videos carefully. Nevertheless continuous zips make financial sense and are worth the fiddle. Maybe I will be organized and thread all the bits together before I need them ?

Appliqué bags, ScanNCut assisted

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An old tablecloth up cycled into a shoe bag and a something else drawstring bag with appliqué decoration.

i used my new ScanNCut to transform scraps into appliqué shapes. Heat and bond lite gives lightweight cotton enough support for the machine to cut fine lines.

after ironing the shapes into position on the bag front panels I used zig zag to stitch them down.

Then I cut a matching back panel and pinned the panels top sides facing. I marked a gap for the drawstring channel between 2 and 5 cm from the top of each side and sewed around the rest of the sides and bottom. I boxed the corners to give a bit more shape to the bag as well.

rather than lining this heavy fabric I just ironed a 0.5 hem at the top and used a length of 4 cm bias binding to form the drawstring casing as well as fix the hem down. I zig zagged each side of the bias binding in place to make sure it was firmly attached.

I folded two more lengths of the same binding for each bag as I didn’t have any ribbon long enough for the drawstrings. These were pinned to a safety pin and threaded through the gaps in the seams and around the casing, one from each side seam. Finally each length of binding was knotted to secure it, on one I sewed some buttons to make the knot even firmer.

 

Double oven mitts, again from jeans

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image imagea freestyle project using ‘jolly molly’ double oven mitts as a template.

layer outer canvas, insulbright, batting, outer canvas and jeans back pockets over the template made from old mitts. Baste around the edge then fix bias binding to seal the edges.

Don’t look too closely at the binding, next time I will hand stitch the second side as I found it tough to stitch in the ditch.

What to do with a fabric samples book?

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Ideas please as I have a stack of curtain fabric samples to be used. There just isn’t room in my craft cupboard for all the fabric I am accumulating.

imageProject number one – my failsafe door stop design with sizing adapted to fit the fabric square. Four identical rectaingles and two squares to match the width of the rectangles with a strip folded to make a handle. Method; stitch the rectangles to form four sides of cube, keep it inside out.. Top stitch the folded strip and sew on the top square in place as a handle. Stitch  the top into position in the cube and stitch around most of the base square leaving a gap for turning. After turning fill with cushion poly fill and finish with some gravel or pebbles as weight before hand stitching closed the gap.

Wet stuff pouch

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A super cheap IKEA shower curtain is the lining for a simple zippered pouch which will carry wet swim wear or soggy stuff in style this summer

method: cut two identical panels of outer fabric (I used six charm pack squares quilted on to wadding), two of liner (shower curtain) and optional interfacing if you want stability.

sandwich interfacing first then outer then zip then lining to one side of zip – all raw edges aligned then do other side of zip. Optional top stitch afterwards

lay linings to the right and outer space to the left with good sides facing then stitch around leaving a gap for turning on the long lining side

turn then top stitch the gap closed.

done

to be honest the shower curtain is going to rip under pressure and was tough to sew at zip level so the next one is going to be an envelope style pouch with Velcro fixing instead

Fabric baskets

~ guernseyjane ~ 2 Comments

image image image imageGoal:To replace the tired old bread basket with a home made version.

result: love this with contrasting fabric which makes it reversible. so far one bread basket suitable for 2 people (10 inch squares) and one (18 inches) now my cottons basket.

method- take two squares of fabric, back with heavyweight interfacing and iron neatly.

draw darts midway each side – for the large one mine were three inches deep and three inches wide.

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Sew each dart so it pulls the fabric into bowl shape then, with right sides facing, stitch the pieces together leaving a gap for turning. Turn right sides out, iron to tidy the edge and top stitch to neaten and close the turning gap.

For or the large one I also rounded the corners before I drew the darts using a plate as a template  and at the end stitched a button on each flap. Other variations to follow, love this practical make.

 

A chic’n cheap dog bed

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As doggy outgrew his favourite bed and declined to use the giant pillow we bought him,  I decided to make a new one out of what we had around. A faded Indian cotton throw, a large IKEA pillow pad and  old duvet (world is mad when it is cheaper to buy a new one than get it drycleaned) filling.

Method:make a ‘pillow case’ for the base pillow. make four smaller pillow cases, one  for each side of the base leaving half of a narrow end open for stuffing. sew one  long seam of each of the four smaller pillows to the base  case. stuff as firmly as you can and insert the base pillow in. hand sew  the opening of the pillows closed and then hand sew the short ends of the smaller pillows together . This  pulls the four sides up and together around the base.

Success – he loves it! So much that another one made with the same set of materials.

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