Finish Line for Sewing Machine Cover, plus Bias Tape Reborn.

I don't really think it's quite sunk in yet. Feels almost a bit miraculous. This project has been dang close to finished for SO many months. Extreme silliness. This was my very first sewing project - had several lessons from a wonderfully experienced sewing guru in the neighborhood and this is what I chose to learn with - she showed me how to read the patterns, mark and cut the fabric, gather the corners, sew on the bias tape, and so, so much more. It was great! Then, somehow with projects of all sorts popping up all over the place, it fell to the wayside. Now, everytime I've been in the craft room for the past several months, the mostly finished machine cover would get a pained glance followed by feelings of regret and determination to one day finish - and always with a sooner than later plan, especially on the days where the machine actually seemed most unfortunately and quite avoidably dusty.

So, now it's complete... ahhh. It only needs a quick final pressing just to finish it off and make it hang better. I really, really love it and had to take a pic asap to proudly show it off. Funny thing - I go in to take a photo and the battery is dead; camera shuts off; so, I go swap the battery pack and turn it back on; that battery is also dead - damn! so, I eject the battery, try turning it back on and quickly switch off the display to the screen and manage to eek out one last picture before the camera again shuts off with a message insisting that I replace the battery with one having charge. I count this eek out as a victory and load the photos with plans to do the posting on my lunch break tomorrow, but I'm still so excited to be finished with this project that I couldn't resist starting the post right away. ha! so not like me, really. Anyway, I will finish tomorrow with talk of the new bias tape making method that is super cool and much faster than the way I did it before.

Ok, so this method is actually from one of the packets Ms. Peggy Sue brought for me on a sewing lesson day. It explains how to make a continuous piece of bias tape, which I've read before, but just didn't really get it until this past Saturday.

First of all, the way I did it one other time was to cut sections of fabric wide enough for a double fold, but then ending up with a stack of bias tape segments needing to be joined. VERY long process. ugh! Plus, last time I did not actually make "bias tape" - it is simply "binding" unless you cut it on the bias, which means that is is diagonal to the selvage edge. Cutting something on the bias gives it some strength and stretch and allows it to move and hang better - it is most always used when making clothing or edging anything with a curve. I read that it's not really necessary to cut on the bias when edging something flat with straight 90 degree corners such as a kitchen towel - it annoys some people that you will tend to waste some fabric since you're marking on a diagonal and start with the first full strip between selvages for a continuous strip, thus discarding the excess on the ends. (Note: That last sentence to may not make much sense until the end of this little walk-through.)

Ok, so the first thing you do is mark the strips on the diagonal to the selvage. The easiest way to do this is to fold the fabric from one corner at the end of the selvage over to the other selvage side. This creates a 45 degree angle to guide the marking. I wanted 1/2" double-fold bias tape, so marked strips in 2" segments. Before marking, measure the edges of the kitchen towel that will be bound with the bias tape to figure out how long the continuous strip will need to be. After measuring the length of one strip, I figured that I would need a total of four long bias strips to make up the entire continuous length.

Now, for the fun part. So, you mark the strips, then cut off the excess (triangles on either side of the angled strips), then also cut 1/4" off each selvage edge (short strip ends) just to tidy up. This gets you to the photo above.

Next, you match up the short ends of the strips with right sides facing (or markings on the outside). Arrange them so one strip overlaps at each end - so they're offset by one strip width - and pin. The photo doesn't show it too well, so if it's not clear yet, hopefully it will be after the next step.

So, the whole point of the overlapping strips is to create a spiral of sorts. Once happy with the way the short strip edges are lined up, sew a 1/4" seam on this edge and press the seam open. Now, if you start at either end and cut following the line markings, you will cut in a spiral pattern creating one very long piece of 2" bias strip. When cutting over the seam, just focus on getting from the end of one mark cross-wise to the beginning of the next mark - it's a little awkward that it doesn't seem straight across the seam after sewing and pressing open, but I promise it turns out perfectly fine once you cut the long piece and press in the foldings.

The last part takes some practice and some patience, but basically you have your iron set on the hottest setting for the fabric you're using and pull the strip(s) slowly while pressing on the folded end as it comes through. You can either use a bias tape making tool or I've just been marking the right width and setting up a makeshift tool with a long, straight pin on the ironing board. This first fold has each side tucked inward to meet in the center.

From time to time, the folds start to get off (uneven) and you just have to set down the iron, pull it backward a bit, straighten the fold with your fingers, then start pulling through and pressing the fold again. Once the entire strip length is pressed once, press the last fold by just halving once more. See last pic of finished product wrapped around another package of the store-bought stuff.

Now, it's ready to apply. I won't post those general bias tape instructions here, since I don't have pics to go with, but the Posie Gets Cozy blog has this tutorial I learned from and she even gives clear instructions for mitering the corners.

Maybe the bound and finished kitchen towel will make it into a future post - I'll try and remember to do that.

Buttons galore, and Felted tote - Part I

There are two things I've wanted to do for quite a while now - one, somehow straighten the photo diplay on the shelves in our den and two, craft with buttons. So, decided to kill 2 birds, as they say... ;) Danielle so generously shared her button supply with me earlier in the year - she gave me this entire enormous jar of assorted buttons - so awesome!!! I love buttons and this jar o' buttons was especially fun since it contains every size and shape you could possibly imagine.

Several months ago, I started wondering more about button crafts - searched around online some to see what people have done with them before and found a post (have no idea where anymore) where someone made a sort of bulletin board decorated with buttons. I thought it was interesting, but had no use for a bulletin board really.

Then, it hit me a while later while looking at the hodge podge of picture frames jumbled and crammed all together on the little built-in bookcase of our den. I felt like I had to get the pics out of the frames and displayed another way - there were just too many frames all stuck together that it was starting to hurt my brain to pass by that area. (Ok, so I'm feeling a tad dramatic about it at this point...) Anyway, I loved that the photos were in the den - it makes me happy to have all the photos out in our main hang-out area, but it was just too dang messy, the frame clutter distracting from the photos themselves.

So, back to where it hit me... well, once I realized that I wanted the pics out of the frames, I remembered the buttony bulletin boards and started gathering supplies. I bought the el-cheapo set of cookie sheets (3 different sizes in one pack for like $3.99), some cement glue from the craft section and some magnets also in the craft section - oh, plus a roll of contact paper and some spray paint (everything in one trip to walmart).

I actually bought one can of primer spray paint and one of color, since the paint was going on metal cookie sheets. I wasn't very happy with the color selection in the spray paint section or the choice in contact paper, but all these things were really just the supporting actors to the pretty buttons, so I tried not to care as much.

The actual assembly was easy peasy. After the spray paint is dry, just mark and cut a piece of contact paper to go in the cookie sheet center, then glue buttons all around the edge of the sheet, .. and presto, on to the really fun part - arranging the pics! Then, just made sure to have enough magnets topped with buttons to hold the photo collage securely in place, cleaned off the shelf and set up shop.

I really love having all my favorite photos arranged this way! It's obviously still very busy, but now I feel like it draws your attention into the photos and makes it more fun to look at them. There's still one more sheet to go, but that means I also have to clean off the most messy, cluttery shelf of them all, plus print off some more recent photos to display, so that could be a little further down the road - we'll see.

Some things I did differently for the second sheet after learning from the mistakes of the first - put the tinest buttons on the bottom edge so that the buttons don't get in the way of the display sitting on the shelf. The sheet on the top shelf is actually propped up a bit on a couple decks of cards right now, since I overlooked this potential problem. Also, the buttons adhere best with a dab of cement glue on both surfaces; i.e., on the back of the button and on the edge of the sheet where the button will be placed.


Now, the last photo deserves some chatter. First of all, you won't be able to help noticing my rockin' new knitting bag. How cool is that? Sara Leah made it for my birthday and I love it very much - it housed this latest knitting project over our recent trip to the left coast, so is already rather well-traveled. It's really the perfect knitting bag with plenty of room for tons of yarn and plenty of pockets for misc other supplies. I actually used it as my carry-all bag for the trip, complete with yarn, wallet, maps and a pullover.

Also, in the pic is the beginning of what will eventually be a felted tote bag - yippee! The bottom and a smidge of the sides were done on the plane to and fro SF. I'm about halfway finished at this point and can't wait to try my hand at felting - wahoo!!! I will of course be devastated if it doesn't go well after all the knitting with all the gorgeous yarn, but surely that won't happen. ;-) This yarn was purchased last summer in a really cool shop in Atlanta called Knitch. Once through last year's holiday crafting season, it took me this long to clear out some other projects and get set up for this one. So, I'll keep posting the progress for this one - would love to be ready to felt in another month or so - here's hoping. :)

Dueling Machines, and The Spawning of the Robots.

Yay, Robots!!!!!

Angela and I worked on a set of gifts for Jim and Sara Leah off and on for several months - finally gifting the entire crafty accomplishment the night of Jim's birthday party.

The whole set is for their new kitchen and includes two decoupaged bottles for olive oil and soap (or whatever they want to use them for), four placemats and four napkins. We had so very much fun making everything and learned some kick-ass sewing techniques along the way.

We've done the bottle decoupage once before and have both wanted to give it another whirl. Once the robot ribbon was discovered, it sealed the deal that this craft would be part of the wedding gift extravaganza.

So, the bottles shown first are after the fabric decoupage, but before the "glazing" process - basically, a bazillion coats of polyurethane. We didn't look into it too much before-hand, but now know there are better options out there for sealing and glazing the bottles - would get more serious about that next time for sure. It was a little scary at first to see the dramatic robot ribbon fade into the background after the poly. started soaking in, but you can definitely still see the little guys and we thought the bottles turned out great overall. :-)

Of course, the most fun part of the process is cutting out the fabric pieces, then piecing together the colors and patterns on the bottles. It's simple enough to be a kid-friendly craft, I think - the fabric pieces being pre-cut for the littler ones.

As for the placemats and napkins - the core tips, techniques and patterns came (once again) from Bend the Rules Sewing by Amy Karol. We mostly followed her instructions for the placemats, but naturally, the patterns were modified some to fit our needs - with most of the creative juices going into the napkin-making.

To me, the best part of the whole affair was the dueling sewing machines. Mine is portable, so I brought it over to Ang's and we set up in their dining room where her super rockin' Singer lives in a beautiful antique machine table. I love her machine - it's so simple and solid and no-frills, yet has every single feature you really need... and it's quirky - that's likely what I like about it the most.

So, several times, we brought the machines together, pulled the ironing board out of the laundry room and set up a mini sweat shop. Fun stuff. It was so dang cool to see the little oddities introduced to the project by our unique sewing styles. ..and it was freaking hilarious to see our different ways of handling mistakes - and oh, there were a plenty.

We really wanted the napkins to feel like napkins - not too thick - but wanted the robot fabric top pieces backed in order to hide the seams. So.. we decided to sew a top piece with red fabric framing blue robot sections and use another thin bottom piece for backing. Then, really going wild, decided to go with bias tape on the seams and some random-ish zigzag stitches across the top of the entire napkin in a few lines.

This random topstitch method has the dual-purpose of a fun, decorative detail with the bright yellow accenting zigzags, and most importantly, it's intended to keep the napkins from bunching up through the washing / drying process. These items are for the kitchen and above all things must be functional. We've all had those things you love, but you never want to use - always dreading the time when a washing is in order, and even (eek!) a pressing to make it look good again.

In the end, all of the pieces were tied together with red, since that's the main color they picked for the kitchen, AND robots, of course. Sara Leah LOVES robots!! (and we trust Jim loves them, too.) ;D