I went shopping before Xmas and found a tub of chooks.
But look at the price of them!!! $19.95 each!!!
You could make that yourself. I made a pattern for this and only the beak is a bit different.
Here is a link to my free tutorial.
To begin, lay your patchwork sandwich along the side and trim the length so that it will match at the corners.
CORNERS
Take the corner pieces that you have already prepared and add one to each end of the quilt sandwich.
You do this by inserting the end of the trimmed quilt sandwich between the front and the back binding,
and then sewing through all the layers on the edge of the folded binding. This should line up with the bindings on the shorter edge .
INSERT BINDING - LONG EDGE
Add this longer quilt sandwich to the edge of the netting the same way you did for the shorter edge. (see Tutorial 3)
One thing to note is that there a multiple layers of fabric at those corner joins. Lengthen you stitch at these points so that they sit flat.
OUTER EDGE BINDING
This is done the same as binding the edge of a quilt. ( I use the same method as Sharon but do not use the glue and adjust the width of the binding.)
Take your joined 2.5" strips and iron in half. I allow and extra 8" in length for the final join.
Attach these to the BACK of the quilt sandwich with a .5" seam allowance, folding the corners as you would for a quilt.
I stop sewing .5" before the corner, fold and turn, start sewing again .5" at the beginning of the next edge. The distance from the needle to the edge of the foot is .5".
Join the binding on the final edge.
Turn to the front. Turn you hem to cover your stitching (.5") and then machine stitch on the front, pivoting at the corners.
No hand sewing necessary.
With the left over scraps I made a draw string bag to store the throw in the outside cupboard along with the other outdoor crockery and cutlery. This will keep it clean and the net will not flow all over the place.
That is one long tutorial but you get a great result at the end.
Joining the patchwork sandwich and the binding
There are 4 pieces of fabric to join here:
1x netting, 2 x binding and 1 x patchwork sandwich
To do this place you 2.25" strip, which you have ironed in half, on the netting edge.
Then layer the patchwork sandwich on top of this.
On top of these, lay your 1.75" strip, right side down. Pin and sew.
Because there is a tendency for this number of layers to move I sew just inside the .25" mark to make sure I catch all layers. This is where you walking foot is invaluable.
Turn your work with the netting and binding strips to the left and your patch work strip to the right. Top stitch through all the layers just inside the seam. I make my stitch length longer (2.9) to allow for all the layers.
Because the netting is so see through it is quite easy to turn a hem on the back binding that matches the edge of the folded binding. Pin and sew the edges together.
The other thing you will notice is that I haven't said iron. That netting will just melt under the iron. If you have to iron keep to the cotton fabric only.
Repeat this process for the other side. Your work should look like this.
Next: Adding the corners, attaching the long sides.
It took me some time to get all these layers straight in my mind but I will list each one here before we begin as a reference.
Quilt Sandwich
Backing strip - goes of the back of the wadding.
Wadding - goes between the backing strip and the patchwork.
Patchwork pieces - fabric to sew on top of the backing strip and wadding.
Binding to attach quilt sandwich to net
2.25' strip folded in half and ironed (goes on top of netting and below quilt sandwich.)
1.75' strip (goes on top of the netting, folded strip and quilt sandwich )
Outer Binding
2.5" strip, folded in half and ironed to bind the outer edge.
CUTTING
Make sure that you have a sharp blade in your rotary cutter before you begin.
QUILT SANDWICH
backing strip, wadding and patchwork fabric
Backing strip and Wadding - 4" x 55" x 4" of each (or the length of the side of the netting + allowance and 4" wide)
4"x 4" x 4 of each for the corners.
Patchwork edges - various scraps to cover the wadding. They need to be 4” wide but can be various lengths.
The wadding is usually fairly wide and you will have no joins but if you are using scraps you may have numerous joins. The backing strips will have to be joined to achieve the length you want. Cutting those long strips could mean that the end of your ruler will move. To stop this I put a full bottle of water as a weight on the end of the ruler. Also, l use a cut and move up motion as I don’t have a lot of strength in my arms.
Binding fabrics
Before you start to cut your binding fabric you have to decide if you are going to cut on the straight of grain, that is parallel to the selvedge edge, where there is little stretch to the fabric, or, across the width of the fabric, where there is considerable stretch. Because these are long lengths I cut across the fabric. A bit of extra stretch can come in handy here.
2 x 55” x 2.25” iron in half lengthwise for front ( short sides - no patch work strip)
2 x 60” x 2.25” iron in half lengthwise for front ( long sides- patchwork strip attached)
4”x 4” x 2.25” iron in half for front ( corners)
2 x 55’’ x 1.75” for back ( short sides)
2 x 60” x 1.75” for back ( long sides)
4 x 1.75” for back (corners)
Outer binding - 2.5" wide strips joined to measure circumference (plus 1" for joining) of throw then ironed in half along length.
Sewing Patchwork Sandwich
I use my walking foot for all the machine sewing
Put down your 4” wide backing strip wrong side to the wadding then begin a stitch and flip of the patchwork pieces until the wadding is covered.
Trim back the long edges to 3.5” width and iron flat.
Prepare your corners to make your long edges.
Sew these 3 pieces together.
Flip the folded and back binding outwards from the sandwich and top-stitch
Make a hem on the back binding to match the front binding edge and iron flat.
NEXT: Joining the patchwork strips to the netting.
It is time for those flies to hover over the holiday ham and one needs a food throw to protect the food.
I ended up making 3 different versions of Deb's instructions so for Version No 4 I have come up with my own version. It isn't a lot different but with this one there is no hand sewing at all. Everything is sewn on the machine. Also you can adjust the measurements to suit the materials you have at hand.
I bought a piece of nylon netting that was 137cm wide. It is a bugger to cut evenly so I bought 140cm length and then trimmed it so that I had 137cm on all sides.
This is quite a large throw, I have a large table
and it looks small on it.
You can adjust the measurements to suit your needs.
This is not a quick project. It will take 4 or 5 days to complete.
This diagram shows the dimensions of the parts but doesn't include the bindings or the seam allowances. You can make the throw smaller by adjusting these measurements. (Being able to see a diagram makes thing easier to understand. There is also a pdf Download Food throw )
One thing to consider is that although fabric is bought by the metre most cutting mats etc are in inches. I have tried to put both measurements.
Think of it in 2 stages.
So what do you need in the way of materials?
Netting 1.40m (Approx 4" 8")
Wadding 4 x 9cm x 1.40m strips for sides
( 9cm = approx 4")
4 x 9cm x 9cm squares for corners.
Backing and binding 2.8m of fabric for the backing and binding strips.
Patchwork edges Enough scraps to cover the wadding.
All 9cm (4") wide but length can vary.
Cotton thread fill 3 bobbins before you start.
There is enough allowance on the fabric so that you can trim back the edges after sewing.
Next : Cutting and sewing the patchwork strips.
I remember as an 9 or 10 year old looking at some darning samples my grandmother had stitched as a 7 year old. They were stitched with Silko cotton and were just perfect. My stitching was so erratic and she was so much younger than I and her stitching was wonderful! It took a long time to realise that it wasn't lack of talent but lack of practice that was the difference.
Little children were TAUGHT to sew and knit from about 5 or 6 years of age back then. There was no TV or radio and to keep little ones occupied they were taught these skills plus it helped Mum keep up with household chores.
Fast forward to when I was 8 years old. At Primary school where classes were all girls and boys were kept separate. We had sewing classes and were taught some embroidery and we all had to make a gathered skirt, BY HAND. There were no sewing machines. Some of our Mothers had electric sewing machines but it was usually our grandmothers who taught us and their machines were treadle.
The thing about the old treadle machine was that it sewed at a far slower speed than the electric ones that raced away. (Put those electric ones next today's machines and they were positively slow.) So, calling on those old skills I learnt back in the late 1950s, which we call slow stitch today, here is how to hand stitch yesterdays decoration.
I made my 2 circles of fabric 7 inches but I think it would work quite well down to 5 inches. Any measurement less than this is fiddly. For beginners I would draw a line 1/4" inside the outside edge. This will keep the line of stitching even and acts as a guide, when you turn the piece through you will not see it. You could start with a knot and then take 3 running stitches. (That is about the number most children can manage on their needle.) Notice I used a sharp needle with a big eye. They have to learn to thread that needle at some point so make it do-able.
Then one back stitch. This just adds a little more strength to the stitching and stops it being pulled undone. Continue on around the edge leaving an opening of about 2". (This took the girls about 40 mins from start to finish and was their first attempt at this kind of stitching.)
Before we turned the fabric to the right side we finger pressed the seam allowance for the opening.
The piece was then turned to the right side of the fabric using a chop stick which had a rounded end. This was used to 'gently' push the seam open. Remember that hand sewing is not as secure as machine stitching so go gently.
To close the opening one girl used a whip stitch the other ladder stitch. Both looked good. Then, a line of running stitch was worked around the edge as a top stitch. We found that 2 stitches at a time was what they could best handle because they were sewing through 4 layers of fabric.
When this was finished I pressed it for them as they are not too good with a hot iron as yet.
The next step was to fold in half and iron.
Then half this again. This gave the perfect guide to sewing the pieces together.
We doubled the thread for strength then joined it at the centre point. Folded it again and over sewed this.
When it came to the second fold we did half and then joined it again as it was quite thick for them to get their needle through.
To get the final shape we sat it on a flat surface holding it at that centre point. It automatically went to a square base which we then finger pressed into shape.
Folding the leaves open is just "like folding back a collar on your school shirt" I was told. A bit of pulling and pushing but with that square base in place it just went into place.
Then we had to sew our button on. Quite a bit of time was spent in the button box.
We couldn't find any cord to hang it by so just made a loop with the doubled sewing thread which we attached to the corner. It was then ironed very flat. ( I don't think it needed to be this flat.)
"Can we make something different next time?" Back to searching You Tube.
We are moving quickly into November so it is time to think about Xmas. I have been looking on You Tube for ideas I can use with my grand daughters and I think this tutorial will do the trick.
I now get a chance to try out my circular cutter, (that's me not the girls.) And as with all new tools there are a few little tricks that they don't tell you. You have to put the folded fabric on the registration lines.
Good idea to iron your fabric first then put it on the registration lines.
If you look at the cutter itself you can see it is a small rotary blade with a plastic lug on each side.
It really helps to put this in position in the line that corresponds to the size you want to cut before you position the frame.
Then you can position the frame and just cut.
This makes accurate cutting a breeze and does away with all the measuring and then cutting with scissors.
This is very achievable with kids who are 7 or 8 years old "with adult supervision". But not everyone has a sewing machine and a line of kids waiting to use the machine can be problematic. I have come up with a slow stitch alternative that I will post tomorrow.
Now I have to find some fancy buttons to finish these ones off.
I think I now have all the place-mats I need, I just have to finish sewing them. One of the criteria I had set myself for these mats was that I wasn't to buy any fabric. I could only use what was in the stash. The last set saw me rummaging around and I found some old fabric that I had bought from Ikea. It was a linen type fabric that was pre-sewn as a runner. You just had to cut off the length you wanted and then hem the ends.
It has meant that I have had to un-pic the edges and the fabric is a bit light but I have come up with a way to use it. Looking through the scrap bin I found a cat fabric that I thought would be good for an applique. So, using the design on the fabric, I drew up a cat template, which I have included as a free download. Download Cats I printed this out onto light card so that I could use it as is and in reverse, then ironed some Visofix onto the back of the fabric and traced the design onto the paper side and cut out the shape using small scissors.
As I have 8 mats I determined the position of the applique and marked this with pins. (Just to make sure everyone would look the same.
I removed the paper on the back of the shape by scoring it with a pin. My supplies are rather old and the adhesive sometimes lifts. Removing it this way means that I can keep it mostly in tact.
The Ikea linen doesn't have a lot of body to it and I would normally stabilize the fabric first but this time I just machine buttonholed it straight onto the batting using a 50 weight cotton in the top thread. When I added the backing fabric I then stitched around the shape again in straight stitch. (You could of course just buttonhole around the edge by hand but if you wanted to use needle turn you would have to include an allowance all the way around.) Because of the lack of body in the fabric I choose a backing fabric that had a little more weight.
I sewed in the details using a straight stitch but found that I had to add a bit of felt for the eyes as they were hard to see. I was going to cross hatch the quilting but quite liked this look.
Only 7 more to go and I am going to play around with different coloured threads and play things for the cat. This one has a flower, I have fish, balls, and other cat playthings in mind. The end of this project is in sight. Now I'm thinking about my challenge for 2020.
At first I couldn't think of any really easy straight sewing on the machine projects. Now I can't stop thinking of them! So, here is a very easy one, some serviettes. I used cotton quilting fabric, which is a good weight and comes in lots of different designs and colours.
Traditionally the most common sizes for serviettes are;
12" x 12" morning or afternoon tea
16"x 16” Informal Luncheon
20” x 20 “ and 21” x 21” Dinner and for more formal occasions such as Banquet Dinning.
But, my designs is driven by the fabrics I have to hand so I have made mine 12" square finished. This is for using for morning tea or lunch. But I don't think I would make them any smaller than this. You should find that 1 m of each fabric should make a set of 6. (I would look out for cheaper sale fabrics.)
I press my fabric on the diagonals to make sure it lines up properly.
Stitch a 1/4" seam around the edge, needle down to pivot at the corners.
Leave a 3" opening to turn through and then press down the seam allowance before I do this.
Snip the corners before turning through.
Top stitch around the edge using the inside of my 1/4" presser foot as a guide.
And that is it. You could use the same fabric top and bottom or have a different back or even make every serviette different. I think these will make great Xmas gifts.
It is only a week or so to the Children's Classes at the Queensland Embroiderers ' Guild and the project this time is a book-cover.
I do have a tutorial for a book cover from back in 2011 but I think it is time for an update. ( Looking at that tutorial list there are so many here you could search forever and not find it! Another job.)
I use this easy method to make book- covers out of odd pieces of embroidery and patchwork, even interesting pieces of fabric I find. I don't follow any set measurements, rather, just suit it to the book I want to cover. Have you noticed how many variations there are on A4 and A5 sized books?
Materials: fabric to cover book, interfacing, lining
Step I - Select your fabric and book you want to cover.
You may find that the pieces you have are too small, so join the pieces so that they extend out beyond the edges with enough fabric to fold over the front and back covers and allow for a seam at the top and the bottom.
This is a flexable measurement. The ends can cover nearly the whole of the inside cover or just enough to fit the cover in. It depends on how much fabric you have to play with. In this example I had an embroidered panel which went nowhere near the size of the book so I added a piece of left over patchwork from another project. A thing to note at this point is that you make sure that your fabric isn't too tight, allow a bit of ease all around.
Step 2 - You need to add an interfacing to this piece to give the fabric some body. The exception to this would be if you were using a stiff furnishing fabric which already has the weight needed. In this example I had stitched through a Pellum interfacing which had given it the strength needed. This interfacing doesn't have to extend to the fold backs, unless you want it to.
Step 3 - Neaten the edges of the fold over on either end. I was short on fabric at one end so I sewed a binding on it as a neatening choosing the same fabric I was using as the lining.
Step 4 - Turn your fold for the front and back cover so that the right sides are facing each other.
Step 5 - Cut your lining fabric the same length as you main piece but about 1cm shorter on each width and neaten the raw edge .
Step 6 - Place your lining fabric over you main piece, right sides together. Pin in place and sew along the top and bottom edges.
Step 7 - Turn your piece to the right side. You will need to pull the front fabric through the open end of the lining and the lining will look like this.
And the other side like this.
Finish by folding the pocket ends to the right side and poking out the corners.
If I want a really refined finish I will machine right around the edge again to give this a sharp edge. There are lots of other ways you could finish this but this is a quick easy method that gives a good result. (When designing this I was thinking of 20+ kids lined up wanting their book covers assembled!)