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.....

iPhone pockets and knitting, preparing for sewing too.

Stormy skies

The skies aren't quite so dark as this outside at the moment, but this was the scene from the back garden a few days back, just before a thunderstorm. The colours were amazing. At the moment the skies are dark and it is raining again. The garden does need the water, and it gives me the time to get on with things inside rather than feeling I should be out doing some gardening.

Weights for my next session with a dress pattern.

Yes, it might seem odd having these heavy washers in my sewing room. I was reading the Coletterie blog, and noticed how washers were used to weight down dressmaking patterns rather than using pins. I decided that the next time I was in a builders merchants I would get some for myself. So yesterday I picked up two packs of these. They were the heaviest on the rack and cost just £2.14. It will be interesting to see how I get on with these.

iPhone pockets.

Yesterday my elder daughter took collection of five iPhone pockets which I had been making for her. These have been around my workroom for the past few weeks and I had forgotten to post about them. Liz had seen two previous little bags I had made for myself, and noticed that they would be perfect for carrying her iPhone around at work. I let her have the one already completed and let her persuade me to make some more. Three of these have closures while the remainder are just left open at the top.

More iPhone pockets.

You might recognise the fabric used in two of the pockets shown above. I was printing these not so long ago.

Reverse of the brown and silver pocket,

My long sleeved cardigan under way.

The back of my longsleeved cardigan is now complete and I have started the left front.

Making a bag from made fabric.

This is the bag I made from the fabric shown in the previous two posts. It is a very simple cylindrical bag, twelve inches tall with an internal zipped pocket, two large external pockets and padded handles. The tops of the bag and pocket are bound - this was sewn into place by machine and then handstitched into place to leave no stitchline.



The two pieces of fabric I used were: 26 inches long and 12 and a half inches tall (for the main bag), and 26 inches by 8 and a half inches for the outer pockets. I put a piece of wadding inside the main bag to give it some "body". It now stands well.

The base was constructed very simply after the main pieces had been sewn together to form a cylinder. The basic bag structure then became the outline for the base. I quilted this to give it some shape. The chalk marks show the internal dimensions of the bag itself.



This was then sewn to the main bag, being careful to not stitch in the lining - this was then handsewn into place.

The bag has now gone to it's new owner. It was constructed as part of a Swap organised by the United Kingdom group on My Sewing Circle. The theme for the swap was "Stash busting/repurpose". Mine used fabric scraps and pieces from my stash.

At present I am considering writing up this pattern as a free tutorial. Please let me know if you would like to have a copy.

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.