Sewing Just Before Christmas

"Merry Christmas Everyone!"

Are you busy in your studio before Christmas? I hope you have been, as I have been having so much fun there. The days have quieted down with the arrival of snow and I find myself, wanting to sew and sew some more. Below is one of my hand 'dye' painted textile cards with 'free motion' thread sketching. For my own Christmas cards I simply had photos made of the textile art and attached the photo to folded card stock.

 

I think the trick in thread sketching is to simplify. "What lines really tell the story?" In this case, I felt, that the shape of an old fashioned wooden shoeshoe was important, as well as the webbing. Notice I didn't put the webbing in the top area, or the boot harnesses, or ski poles. Did you make your own Christmas cards?

 





Sewing Gifts

Picking fun fabric and fussy cutting makes for some great potholders for gifts.

Potholders:

Okay measure twice and cut once. Obviously I didn't do that here!

 

Coordinating fabric makes two matching potholders but not they are not the same.

Lay the two layers of fabric right sides together. Mine were 8" square. Lay two layers of cotton batting on top. I stitched with a 3/8" seam to be sure to catch all layers. It probably would have been better to change to a walking foot but with attention, a regular foot works.

Preparing a Loop

 Some I added a loop to. Out of the scraps, I cut 1 1/2" strips, folded in the edges and stitched down the open side. The sewn strips were cut to 4" and inserted between the two fabric layers when sewing the perimeter.

 





A matched set because of the identical paisley background.

Leaving an opening when sewing the perimeter allows the potholder to be turned right side out. The opening was hand stitched closed and then the square was machine quilted.

 

This lovely fabric was purchased at http://crestoncard.com/

All packaged and ready for giving

From the left over scraps I cut 3/8" strips, sewed them together to form strips long enough to tie the two potholders together.

Board Game Bag:

My Scrabble Tiles Bag

 Although this top sample was sewn years ago, I wanted to show it, as the bag has been great. Three features I really like are:

1. the satiny lining as the tiles slip out easily
2. the double draw string as it is easy to close
3. the front pieces is velvet so it absorbs some of the sound as you lay down the bag.

As this bag is a gift for another Scrabble Player, I wanted to incorporate those special features. I didn't take photos as I went along, but this is what I did. I put two layers of cotton together and free motion stitched them together. I used one of my hand dyed fabrics for the outside. To see what was my inspiration for this fabric, click here.

 

 I cut a rectangle from the two sewn layers of fabric, folded it in half lengthwise and sewed up the two sides. Then I sewed a 2" seam across the bottom side seam to create shape to the bottom of the bag. The bag was then turned right side out. Next a lining was sewn using a shiny fabric but I made it a bit longer. The lining was inserted into the outer bag and turned over the top edge of the outer bag to create a casing for the drawstring.

 

After sewing the edge down all around the top, I stitched around the side seam several times in a square shape. After that the stitches of the side seam were undone to create an opening for the string to go into the casing. Strings were threaded through the casing all the way around the bag and back to the original opening. This was then done on the other side with another string. Beads were added.

To keep the lining and outer bag from separating, a few hand stitches were sewn to catch them together at the bottom near the side seam.

There it is. Of course this would make a unique bag for other board game pieces.

January is around the corner and I am looking forward to more time in the studio. What are you planning?

Textile Necklace using Hand Dyes

Hand Dyed Textile Necklace

Oh my gosh this textile necklace was fun to make and it feels light to wear.  I was inspired on a recent vacation by another traveler's hand created bead necklaces which were gorgeously unique. And since I 've been wanting to use some of my extra hand dyed fabrics, I put the two ideas together and decided to try making my own necklace today. What else to do with a Sunday afternoon when I should could be weeding the garden!



Completed Textile Necklace

Looking through my stash of hand-dyed light fabric, I found this piece of low immersion dyed 'lawn' fabric. It was 56" long.

I pressed it and ironed over 1 3/4". The seam allowance was a 1/4" leaving 1 1/2" X 2 for a 3" casing which became the necklace. Notice I didn't cut it off the large piece of material before I sewed it in order to avoid distortion of the material as it is a loose weave and stretches easily.

 

Note: When I make another necklace, I will shorten my stitch length and match my thread so as to not show any stitching when a large bead is inserted into the casing.

 The seam allowance was trimmed to a little over 1/8"

 I turned the piece with a large safety pin.

 I did not press it after turning.

Placing a bead in the end. It needed to be loose enough to move the bead down to the middle. The largest beads which I used in the middle three was a little over 1/2" in diameter.

 Then I tied an overhand knot.

 I added more beads and knots, alternating from side to side. These are the beads I recycled from an old necklace.

 I think it looked quite pretty just tied with a bow and then of course you could adjust the length to what you were wearing it with but I decided for a more sophisticated look and added a clasp.

It was a little tricky to get the tube of fabric through the small metal circle on the clasp but it went. The fabric was pulled through to what length I decided was appropriate for me (about 20"). I double knotted the end and clipped off the excess fabric. You could add a few stitches to ensure it doesn't unknot.

For the toggle end of the clasp, I tied one knot then moved down an inch and tied two knots together. The reason for this was that two knots up by the toggle made it difficult to slip the toggle through the ring of the other part of the clasp.

 

As you can see I had about 7" to spare so I guess for this length of necklace about a 50" piece would do. I used 19 beads and they got a little smaller in size as they went away from the center. 

The variation in colour of hand dyed fabrics creates an interesting gradation as you go along the necklace. I can't wait to dye up some specific fabric strips with some chosen colour schemes. What about red for the center with orange to gold leading out from each side. So much for just using up some of my current fabric scraps. Have any of you ever included textiles in your jewelry? 

Creating with Strips of Fabric

When we all put our blocks together, we almost have a small quilt. As borders are mostly what I use, I am wondering how might I use this block in a border?

 

Keen quilters in their seats waiting to get started on the workshop using scrap strips.

 

We ended up with pairs from these two sets of sewn strips. Wow, how fun are these together. Pinwheels and alternating diamonds where the ideas we came up with, should you decide to put a solid colour with this block.

 

 

Another block put together involving an accent strip. How clever those these instructors are! Doesn't this look like a kaleidoscope image. I am sure I could use these as a border which should show the accent strip as a zigzag.

 

At times, the room was so noisy with machines running you couldn't have a conversation. Also one time, we all fell silent for a minute or so. It sounded eerie.

 

Next we are going to be experimenting with the scraps we have left over from cutting our blocks from the sets of sewn strips. I am sure I will be making some borders with those. Hopefully for my textile piece, 'Carol and Sue' from the previous post. Have you ever experimented with strips. What did you come up with?