Getting busy with my sewing machine and other things

My worktable - such a mess!

It was a surprisingly busy week last week despite some really high temperatures. It all ended with my table looking like this. A real mess. I spent some time getting it tidy again before being able to start anything else.

Pinfold crazy patchwork challenge

As you can see there has been some progress with the crazy patchwork, There is still quite a lot to do. I have collected a number of things which could be added - buttons, beads, lace and a broken zip included. Quite how much of this will be included remains to be seen.

What a mistake!

 I've been doing quite a lot of free machine embroidery. This first one was started after the green piece. I had decided to try and do a kind of all over pattern which wasn't related to the pattern made by the fabric pieces. Without thinking too much about it, I got out the stitch and tear and drew a grid pattern which I could use to develop the pattern I wanted to use. I should have torn off the stitch and tear after sewing the grid........ Instead, I got going on the stitching. Big mistake. I only realised just what I had done when I tried to remove the paper around the first few squares. It took a ridiculously long time, a pair of tweezers and very sore fingers. As a result I removed the paper from around the squares I hadn't yet stitched.

The same piece with the paper removed after stitching 

As you can see if you look closely, there is still plenty of bits of paper waiting to be removed. The following photo is of the first piece I had worked on. For this one I just free machined using the large squares and then infilling the rest. Lots of fun using a variegated thread. You might remember seeing these pieces a few weeks ago when I was making fabric from scraps used in making the packs for my talk coming up in November.
The green one will eventually be made up into a cushion cover. The smaller blue one will turn into a zipped project bag. There are two further pieces which need to be stitched. I have plans for what they might turn into, just haven't got started with them yet.

The green free machine embroidered piece

I still haven't finished work on the two tops which I showed last time. Perhaps next time?

Progress with the knitting

I did get some knitting done, but progress has been slow, probably due to the hot weather earlier this week. At least that is my excuse. I really do need to get on with this one since it needs to be finished by the 7th July.....

Itching to stitch.

Fabric collage

An interesting workshop with Liesbeth making fabric collage. The idea is to put the pieces together without thinking too much about it. The fabrics are bondawebbed in place. The pins are there since I also added some scraps of fabric which had not had any bondaweb ironed to them. The idea is then to place L shaped bits of card to find interesting pieces for future stitch projects.

Using improvised L shapes to make mini stitched pieces

These small pieces are around 5" x 3" (13 x 7.5cm). In the end I chose a couple of other pieces to cut out since these seemed a little dull and "safe". So far I have just cut out two pieces to work on. There may be others.

Another mini piece

In case you are wondering, I improvised the L shaped pieces. These are actually cut from flyers I found at the venue since I don't have any such shapes of my own.

Charity shop finds - lace edging and cotton hankies.

One of my failings is that I really cannot resist going into charity shops and rooting through their textile items. I do try to plan what I shall do with each piece rather than just add to my growing collection of fabric. I had intended the lace edging and hankies to be used for nuno felt. However, the hankies are so pretty I think I shall probably keep them as they are for now. The lace edging will definitely find itself added to some nuno felt before long.

Cotton fabric

Now, this cotton lawn piece could become a long skirt. I think it was intended to be two long scarves since the design has distinct borders. Each shawl is approximately 1.5m by 1m (59" x 39"). This is after washing. Luckily, I chose to hand wash since the fabric was steeped in size and really quite stiff. It is a lot softer now and has shrunk slightly. I said it was lucky that I chose to handwash this since it lost a lot of loose dye in the process. I'll have to find a suitable fabric to line this with if I decide to make it into clothing. Any thoughts?

More vintage patterns

I found some really nice patterns too. I used to own a copy of Simplicity 9254 when it first came out in the eighties. I made a long sleeved version of the dress which I wore for quite a few years. It is one of those patterns that I really wish I had hung on to. The McCalls pattern is from 2003 and is for stretch knits, a type of fabric I really must get around to working with. The third pattern had never been opened. I've never heard of "Successful Sewing", so can only assume it came out with a series of magazines. There are no sewing instructions, but since it is quite a basic style that shouldn't be a problem. I see this as a potential pattern to use some of my own printed fabrics. I just need to start printing some much larger pieces...... Now that could be fun.

My only problem will be what to start first. Perhaps I should finish some of my UFOs first..... decisions, decisions.

Making fabric using scraps - a short tutorial.

First collect all the scraps.





Sort them into colour groups - blues and greys, purples and lilacs, reds and pinks, browns with orange, yellow and cream, then the greens. Well, those are the colour groups I sort them into. I also have a bag for multicolour fabrics.






This is the base fabric I shall be using. This time I am using HeatnBond, though quite often I use Bondaweb.
I cut the base fabric to the size I need before ironing on the HeatnBond. Then play around with placing the fabric scraps. This time I am using greens and reds with some purple.





This way I can use up those tiny pieces left over from applique as well as offcuts from various projects. What is so useful is that the oddly shaped pieces from the applique usually still have the Bondaweb adhered to the back. So useful to break up too-large areas of solid colour.





A warning, though. Do make sure the plastic bags get put well out of the way of the iron. This is what I had to get off my poor iron.......... scraps of plastic self-seal bag. Ooops!
You will be pleased to hear that my iron is now perfectly clean and no fabric was damaged in the incident.

A quick post script to the post - I found the HeatnBond I used far too thick for the stitching I intended to do. In the end, I restarted the whole piece using Bondaweb. This produces a much thinner fabric which is easy to stitch through.