Recycling for September

I am feeling well enough to sit at the computer for a while now.  Most of last week was spent just laying around.  My head ached so badly I just couldn't do anything much.  I think it will still take another week or so to get over my reaction to that food additive.  But I did go into the Guild and on the sale table saw this needle book that caught my attention.  It had been made out of curtain fabric with a beautiful bead used for the closing.  I have all those soft furnishing sample pieces and I thought I would see how that would make up.  I am quite pleased with the result.

This needle book is based on a  Octagon.  Luckily I have a template that came with a book I bought years ago, but they are not hard to draw up.

My fabric is heavier than that which was used in the original piece, so to get the finish I wanted I had to use the largest size with 3.25" edges.

I used a lighter weight patchwork fabric for the lining and some left over batting for the leaves. A bead for the closure and 3 strands of stranded cotton to make the cord.  I cut this 75" long so that there was a little extra to play with.

I cut one main fabric and one lining and pinned these together at each of the corners.

I then sewed these together using a .25" seam, leaving one side open to turn the piece through to the right side.  Before doing this I took a little of the fullness out by notching each point.

After turning through I slip stitched the opening closed.  If I had used lighter weight fabric I think this could have been done when edge stitching.

Next step was to press this really flat.  I used my water spray and a lot of steam from my iron to achieve this.

I then edged stitched the piece using the edge of  my machine foot as a guide.

Because the furnishing fabric is a bit lumpy I ran another line of stitching inside this to get the edge to sit flat.

For the leave I cut a 6" circle from waste quilt wadding and marked it into 4 quarters using a water soluable pen.  I positioned this in the centre of my piece and attached this piece sewing on the marked lines.

I started stitching at the edge of the leave, reversing at the beginning and end of each line.   Then removed the markings before ironing the piece flat.

The next step it to fold the 2 sides into the centre and then press well with your iron.  This next step is better described in pictures rather than words.   I started with wonder clips to hold the pieces in place.

But because of the thickness of the fabric found that clothes pegs worked better.  After this lots of steam from the iron to get it to lay flat.

The final step was to make the cord.  I did this with 3 strands of stranded cotton using an old fashioned pencil and the door knob.  I made it long enough that one side made a loop when attached in the middle and threaded the bead on the other end. ( This is different to the original piece there they used a button and cord.)

And it is finished.

I intend to make these as Xmas gifts for my friends.  I like the furnshing fabric, even if it is a bit heavier.  A great way to use those swatch samples.

 

A bit of home organisation

All this thinking and pondering over my stitch club activities has made me not see what is under my nose.  I have missed some of the basics like making sure all the linen in the kitchen is up to scratch.   I have stepped back, tidied all the draws in the kitchen, discarded old tea towels and replace them and had a look at the hand towels.  My home is on three levels.  From the living level, where the kitchen is, I go up to the bedrooms and bathroom and down to the guest rooms, bathroom and laundry.  ( My husbands workshop and office is down here as well but that is not my concern.)

What it does mean is that there are stairs to ascend or descend if you need to wash your hands.  Who is going to do that?  This results in the tea towels being used to dry hands.  There is nowhere to hang a hand towel so I have resorted to the type you buy in markets with the crocheted tops.  The draw back with these is that they have to be changed every day.  My solution is to make a version that suits me, and, as I need at least 7, are a lot cheaper.

I start with a packet of tea towels from the supermarket.  Five for $10, that makes me 10 hand towels.

I cut these in half, overlock the cut edge and run two lines of machine gathering to pull the top in.

I then do a line of double crochet with a cotton thread over the gathering.  I use a No 2 steel crochet hook, this goes through the fabric easily, and a soft cotton thread, about a 4ply.  I keep these supplies in a see through bag so they are just there if I need them.

I don't count how many double crochet I do across the top.  This very much depends on how tight the gathering is.  But after the first row I work 2 more across the top.  It gets smaller with each pass.

I then switch to treble crochet and  evenly decrease in the following rows until the work is the about the width I want the hanger to be.  When decreasing I do make sure I end up with an even number of stitches.  When I think it is long enough I make a button hole by working to the centre and then back to the edge.  I then return to the centre and slip stitch back down to where I began and work the other side.  This takes me back to the outer edge and I crochet all the way across again.  I then work 2 rows of treble crochet followed by 4 or 5 rows of double crochet descending at the beginning and end of each double crochet row to round the end off.

I find my biggest problem is finding the buttons, which need to be a good size, to finish off.  After this lot I am down to just one large button in my stash.  I usually source these from the Guild sale table or St. Vinnies but non of these are open at the moment.

I find I can complete 2 towels in an hour or so.  I have tried a more sturdy hanger and although this looks nice it takes more materials and time, so this easy version is the one for me.

in these times when hygiene is so important I feel a lot more comfortable with this.

 

 

Recyling project for April

I have known for ages what I wanted to do for my April project, a pinwheel pin holder.   But could I find a pattern?  No.  I spent days searching the web, but to no avail.  I did find lots of images of antique pinwheel pin holders mostly from sale houses.

 

I like this silk one.

And this one as well,

and I even found a butterfly shape.

But no instructions anywhere.  Result, I made my own.  I'm not sure if this is how others make this but this is my version.  (you will find a downloadable PDF at the bottom of this post.)

So what do you need?

• An old piece of embroidery to cut up.
• A backing fabric for the reverse side.
• Soft, light weight wadding
• Waste card  packaging (post card from book packaging is great)
• Tacky glue.
• Needle and thread.

I cut my cardboard into a 1 X 4" circle, cutting on the outer side of the line  as a template to cut the embroidery and reverse side fabric.  I added an iron on interfacing to stablise the embroidery.

  2 X 3.5" circle cutting on the inner side of the tracing line for the mounting shape.

 

I glued the wadding to one side of each of the mounting shapes using a tacky glue.

Using a fine needle and a length of poly-cotton thread I ran a line of small gathering stitching around the edge of the embroidery and the reverse side fabric, starting with a firm knot.  (A small stitch gives a much more even gathering line.)

I found it helped to slightly gather this before inserting the mounting shape.

I then inserted the mounding shape, pulled up the gathering thread and secured the fabric in place.

Placing the inner sides of the circles together  I stitched the two shapes together.  I used a double poly-cotton thread, this is stronger and will not break under pressure.  I also used a fine needle that had a slight flex so that I could sew, using a ladder stitch to pull the two sides together.

I sewed 3 or 4 stitches loosely, just below the edge of the cardboard  and then pulled the thread tight.  When I came back to the beginning of the circle I secured that thread.

Next I decorated the edge of the pinwheel with pins.  These are great for berry pins or any long pin that has a fancy top.

These are a great way to use embroidery from damaged pieces.  My piece was full of holes and parts of the design had come undone.  Now it will have another life as a sale item at the Queensland Embroiderers' Guild sale table.  Also, there is now a set of written instructions.

Download Pinwheel pin holder

Look at the price!

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.

Deb's Food Throw - 4 Adding the corners, attaching the long sides, outer bindings.

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.

Deb's Food Throw 3 - Joining the patchwork sandwich to the netting.

 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.

Deb’s Food Throw. - 2. Cutting out and sewing patchwork sandwich

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.

 

 

 

Deb's food throw - 1. materials.

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.

1. Buying the materials  (metres)
2. Cutting and sewing  ( feet and inches)

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.

 

                     

 

 

The slow stitch alternative, for kids, or those that enjoy hand sewing.

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.

Time to think about Xmas

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.