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Monthly Archives: February 2017

WIP Wednesday: Sewing for the Kids

28 Tuesday Feb 2017

Posted by STH in Uncategorized

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

cats, Pooh, quilting, Shelby, WIP Wednesday

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Spokesmodel Shelby approves.

This project came out of an internal dialogue that went something like this:

Me:  I have all these fluffy, bulky fleece scraps left over after this winter’s orgy of fleece sewing projects.  They’re spilling out of their bin and I swear they’re multiplying in there and what am I going to do with them?

Me:  I mean, I have all these cotton scraps, too, but they’re so much easier to use up because you can put them in scrap quilts . . . .

Me:  HEY WAIT A MINUTE

And so began the googling.  Is there such a thing as a fleece scrap quilt?  I’d never heard of any way of using pieced fleece in a quilt except for rag quilts, and I didn’t want to have big lumpy seams in whatever I wound up making.  I eventually found this post, which suggests overlapping the edges and zigzagging.  Perfect!  I decided to try this technique out on a cushion for the window sill in my sewing room, which is a favorite cat spot for napping.  It had a cushion already, but it was pilling and lumpy, so it was time for an upgrade.

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That dark pink there is actually from a scrap of sweatshirt fleece that I used fuzzy side out.  I just thought the cushion needed some dark pink and I’d used up all my fleece in that color.

I had a little 4″x4″ quilting ruler hanging around, so I decided to cut 4″ squares.  It quickly became clear, though, that I needed to cut some smaller sizes to use up my smaller pieces, so I also cut 2″x4″ rectangles.

Sewing them together proved trickier than expected, however, because my crappy old sewing machine was just DETERMINED to eat that fleece at the start of every seam.  EVERY. SINGLE. SEAM.  It was a wrestling match the whole way through the piecing.  I’m looking at the picture above and I’m amazed that it looks as nice as it does, considering the fleece munching that was happening.  One big reason for that is that I made sure that when I overlapped the strips, the edge with all the messiness was UNDER the other strip.  (It occurs to me now that as you get more experience and skill with sewing, one of the most important things you learn is how to compensate for–and cover up–all your mistakes.)

The cushion is reversible, with mostly pink, purple, and black on one side, and more of a mix on the other.

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I’ve got most of my blue and orange on this side, including some really fun scraps that I didn’t have much of.  See the sun and the spaceship on the left?

I used some of my larger batting scraps for the cushioning, then I tacked the layers together by hand along the long seams.  For binding, I cut 2″ strips of black fleece, sewed it (right sides together) to one side of the cushion, then folded it over and sewed it down to the other side.  To my surprise, my sewing machine didn’t give me any trouble with that part, even though I didn’t trim the batting from the seam allowance, as I wanted the binding to help secure it in place.

And I’m happy to report the cushion has been a hit!

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This was already a favorite nap spot for Pooh, but he’s been spending a lot more time here since I made this cushion for him.  Shelby moves around more, but she’s also in this window frequently.

But wait–there’s also this!

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I also made a cat bed, based on this tutorial.

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So that’s where that 4″ square ruler went.

Another project to use up fleece scraps, this was supposed to be for Pooh because I finally put our artificial Xmas tree and tree skirt away.

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I put away the ornaments and the rest of it early in January (I love Xmas stuff, but having it around always makes my allergies worse), but Pooh LOVES napping under the tree so much that I just couldn’t take it away completely.  I left out the bottom section of the tree with the skirt, and he used it for a while, but then seemed to lose interest, so I figured it was time.  (I’ve firmly established my crazy cat lady cred here, haven’t I?  Yep, I thought so.)

I didn’t have a big enough piece of fleece for this, so I used purple for the top, and bright blue (which I had to piece) for the bottom.  I would have liked to use something a bit more fun, but it’s for the living room, and the person I live with is somewhat more conservative in his tastes.  😦

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Here’s the bottom.

The tutorial tells you to use stuffing to fill this, which I didn’t have a lot of (and I didn’t want to get trapped yet again in the Fiberfill Vortex, where you buy another bag to finish your project, but then you have half a bag left, but it isn’t enough for your next project, so then you buy another bag and so on and so on).  I do have batting scraps, though, so I used several circles of batting for the center and sewed another ring of stitching to secure it.  I tore up my smallest scraps and used those–and the last of my fiberfill YAY–to fill the outer ring.

Now, according to the Sewing Blogger Code, this is the part where I’m supposed to say that it isn’t as lumpy as it looks because that’s just an illusion caused by the camera or sun spots or something.  However, the truth is that it is just exactly as lumpy as it looks; I don’t think I’ve ever stuffed anything that didn’t turn out lumpy, which is one of several excellent reasons that I don’t make stuffed animals or things like that.

So far, Shelby has been the only one interested in this.  I had to hand sew the opening shut with her actually napping in the bed; I tried to lift her out of it, but she told me off with an outraged squeak, and I gave in and let her stay.  Anybody who has cats knows getting them to like and use an offered cat bed is a highly risky enterprise, so I’ll be happy if it gets any use at all.  Hell, I’m happy anyway because I used up a fair bit of fleece and about half my stash of batting scraps.  So I’m calling it a win already.

STH

No Painful Owl Puns, I Promise

20 Monday Feb 2017

Posted by STH in Uncategorized

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

cats, clothing, Named Saunio Cardigan, Pooh, sewing

018

Don’t these owls deserve better than bad puns?

This project is a bit of a switch for me–imagine, me sewing a recently-released pattern made with a fabric that’s actually available in stores right now!  Almost like a real sewing blogger!

Don’t worry.  It won’t happen again.

Anyway, this is the Named Patterns Saunio Cardigan, which I won recently in a Facebook sewing group giveaway.  The soft, drapey owl fabric was a remnant (5/8 of a yard) found at WalMart; since there was so little of it, I used another remnant (3/4 of a yard) for the sleeves and some black mystery knit from the stash for the facings.

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I usually wear this with a black turtleneck, but I’ve got a charcoal one on here so that you can hopefully see the detail better.

Strictly speaking, this pattern does not come in my size (though Named does have some patterns that go up to larger sizes), but it’s meant to be a bit oversized, so I figured I could make it work.  I added about half an inch to the sides of the front and back, starting below the bust, and that was plenty.

In reading reviews of the pattern, I had run across complaints that the sleeves run a little narrow, so I also added half an inch to each side of the sleeve pieces starting about half way down, and an inch to the length of the sleeves.  Good thing I did–the sleeves are JUST wide enough and JUST long enough, so I didn’t hem them.  If you made this pattern out of the recommended stretchy sweater knit, the sleeves would probably be fine as is, but nobody who’s blogged about it seems to be doing that, and my black fleece has very little stretch.

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I’m contemplating adding some loops and buttons on the front . . . black elastic for the loops maybe?  Would love some suggestions if you have them.

Also, this is a pretty short cardigan, so I added a couple of inches to the length.

And will you take a look at this happy accident?

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The front almost-kinda-sorta matches, simply because I had so little fabric.  I didn’t plan it–honestly, pattern-matching never even occurs to me–but I had to put the front pattern piece right on the fold of the fabric to get it to fit, then I cut down the fold to separate the two fronts.  With the 3/8″ seam allowance specified in the instructions, I got pretty close to matching the pattern on the front.

These cheerful little owls have been such a fun thing to wear the last few weeks!  I’ve really been enjoying them, as it’s been less cold, but still plenty dreary here.  February requires warm, colorful things to cuddle up in, that’s for sure.

Also, I wanted to give you a little preview of another project I’ve been working on.  I just happen to have all these fleece scraps hanging around, so I put them to use so that Pooh could have a better pad for his favorite sewing room windowsill.  So far, the most challenging part of this project has been getting it away from him so I can work on it.  Here, it’s just two layers of pieced fleece.

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And here it is with the batting sandwiched in the middle.

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He even came back in the evening for another nap on it.

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I’m hoping to get the binding on it tonight, if I can.  Fleece fun continues!

STH

 

Superb Owl Sunday

05 Sunday Feb 2017

Posted by STH in Uncategorized

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Butterick 6177, clothing, sewing

003

Current coping mechanism:  brightly-colored fleece remnants.

While I spend the afternoon ignoring today’s sportsball event, I thought maybe I would drop in here and show you some pictures of what I’ve been sewing.

First, there’s this blouse, made for the Ridiculous Prints Sew-Along over in the Facebook Sew-Alongs & Sewing Contests group.  Pattern is Butterick 6177.

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Everything used to make this was from the stash, as I was snowed in at the time.

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This is a cotton or cotton/poly shirting, bought many years ago.

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The collar’s my favorite part of this.

This pattern is another little step outside my fashion comfort zone, but I really like how the blouse turned out. There’s just something about this shape that’s fun to wear.  It fits well through the shoulders and bust, but then there’s the swirly stuff around the hips that’s just fun–it’s a little like wearing a circle skirt. Feels swishy and a little girly, but also tailored, which is a combination that really fits me.  Drapey fabric, that nifty, crisp little collar, and lemons, too!

The only part of this blouse I’m not crazy about is this business here:

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The outer blouse has this weird little boxy shape at the ends, which I’m not really sold on.  I haven’t worn this out and about yet (I’m pretty much wearing nothing but fleece right now, as anything else isn’t warm enough), but after I road-test this, I might sew straight down to the point at the lower left and cut off the box.  We’ll see.

I’ve also been working on the baby quilt I was commissioned to make, but it’s a bit boring, so I took a break to whip this up:

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My new best friend.

Somebody in one of my Facebook sewing groups linked to this tutorial for a microwaveable shoulder wrap, and I knew immediately this was a thing I needed to have.  You may recognize the fabric as part of the comforter cover I got at Goodwill last summer.  It’s soft and colorful and I have a hell of a lot of it, so it was perfect for this.  A bike wheel turned out to be just the right size for the pattern, and I used the base of a coffee carafe for the center.

My excuse for making it was to help ease the tension I tend to hold in my shoulders.  I don’t know that it really helps with that, but it is lovely and warm.  🙂

And then there’s the owl fleece.

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I had SWORN I was done with piecing fleece, but then I happened to find this remnant at Wal-Mart and couldn’t resist.  (Yeah, I know, Wal-Mart, but I take my mother to get groceries every week, and Wal-Mart is the only store she’ll go to.)  Then I took her again the next week, and there was a remnant–almost a full yard–of black fleece to go with it.  So it’s fate, obviously, right?

I wanted to try a different style with this one, so I’m making the Named Patterns Saunio Cardigan, one of the free patterns I won recently.  This cardigan is going to run me about four bucks.  🙂

Loving all my brightly-colored fabrics right now when things are all white and gray here.  Partner and I were supposed to go to the Portland area this weekend for one of his bike rides, but getting there requires going through the Columbia Gorge, and the weather has been ugly down there.  Next weekend, we’re planning to go to Seattle for the annual Bike Swap, but the weather outlook isn’t good for that, either.  I’m feeling pretty whiny about things right now, but at least I have my lovely fabrics to cheer me up.

Off to finish that cardigan and dream of spring.

STH

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