Category Archives: Sewing

In Search of an Eco Friendly Xmas

Fabric remnants

One of my favorite things as a young kid was having presents wrapped in the Sunday Comics.  Color me simple, I just enjoyed getting to read the funnies a second time.  I have no idea if my parents were doing this for economic or ecological reasons, but it didn’t diminish the simple joy of the funnies.

Then, as I got a chance to take on elf duties as an older child, I very much preferred the “pre-cut” funny papers to anything I had to measure out.  Given that we were a family of 8 you can see where expediency was of interest to a teenage girl.

Much later, Hubby and I had two kids… and went through that baby/toddler phase of cheap and plentiful toys (all educational, of course).  I must have wrapped one too many presents in that phase because I started thinking it wasn’t fun anymore.

I didn’t enjoy feeling I was spending more time on the presents than the people.  And, I really didn’t enjoy planning in advance for bin space… knowing there would be a glut of paper going out in the recycling.

My goal this year was to wrap presents in a cute, EASY, and ecological way.

Starting with this book and some inexpensive remnants of fabric…

Furoshiki book

I finished of the edging with just a straight stitch and some pinking shears (pay no attention to the wobbles)…

Pinked edging for furoshiki wrap

Following the instructions in the book I came up with this little gem for Hubby…

wrapped gift

Here you can see the same size cloth on two different presents done Furoshiki style…

2 styles of furoshiki

Courtesy of some volunteer work at My New Red Shoes, I learned how to make some quick gift bags as well.  Here I’m playing with two different top edgings…

2 styles of bag edging

Then came the embellishing.  Firstly I simply re-used some ribbon from years past.  This is the no-frills way to go.

re-used ribbon

Here are the embellishments that make my heart go pitter pat.  I scored this crocheted snow flake at a mom’s night out gift exchange last year.  I was three sheets to the wind but still managed to coherently trade for it.  I also acquired a model for this picture.  Cricket is usually so terribly camera-shy, but she insisted on being in this photo for some odd reason.  Maybe it’s a sign that there is some crocheting in my near future.

crochet snowflake

It’s a lot of work and it might get spread out over a couple of years, but I’m seriously looking forward to using a lot less paper… and enjoying more time to drink hot, spiked cider while snuggled up next to Hubby.

Happy Holidays to You and Yours!!!

10 Minute Fingerless Mitts

10 Min Fingerless Mitts

Despite these beauties, my smugness is gone.

I used to get all superior when either my dad, brother or husband said, “This is an easy (computer) problem to fix.  It’ll take just a few minutes”.  I’d roll my eyes and continue about my business, knowing in my heart they’d still be scratching their heads for at least another couple of hours.

I found an easy tutorial for these super cute mitts online, bought my fleece and jumped right in thinking it would be a quick, instant gratification project.

What would likely take the average beginner just a bit of time took me a smidge longer, and here’s why:

  • Make pattern, no problem.
  • Cut fabric, no problem.
  • Get excited because everything is on a roll.
  • I may have (cough) even taken a few moments to show off here.
  • Start stitching, realize zigzag is not quite right.
  • After about 3rd time of stitching, finally realize the basic zigzag was just fine and I really shouldn’t have been scrolling through the fancy schmancy options on my machine.
  • Check the finished mitt and realize it won’t fit anyone in my family.
  • Say a few curse words.
  • Get up and walk away.
  • Double check the directions and realize should have used 1/4 inch seams instead of 1/2 inch.
  • “Think” on it for a couple of days.
  • Rip it all out in the presence of others so I stay civilized about it.
  • Finish it up, again.
  • Check the newly finished mitt and realize it fits the one person in the family who has the most narrow hands.
  • Sew up second narrow mitt so said family member can at least have a pair.  (Bless his heart, he’s worn them nearly every day for about a week now.  Love that boy!!!)
  • Screw up courage a few days later and make 3rd mitt (with some minor adjustments for size).
  • Realize I needed to only increase the fabric in most but not all areas.  Whaaaat?!  I have a custom hand?!  Sheesh!
  • Stew for another couple of days.
  • Rip back the area that now needs decreasing.  (This step is becoming disturbingly easy now.)
  • Re-stitch.
  • Check sizing.
  • Score!!!
  • Make second mitt.
  • Admire its super cuteness… 7 days later.

photo

So, these same mitts my daughter wants me to make for her in sunny yellow really should take about 10 minutes now, right?  Right?!  (Give or take a couple of days?)

Sweet little butterfly bag…

Miss E sometimes surprises me.  In this case, I gave her free rein on decorating a zippered canvas bag I just finished.  Her usual drawings are busy and full.  In this case they are simple and sweet.  There are just two little butterflies, one on either side of the bag… both circling a happy little sunflower button.

4/29/12 Butterfly bag

4/29/12 Project 365 butterfly bag closeup

1 old t-shirt = 3 new bags

I originally saw the idea for drawstring bags made from the sleeves of old T-shirts in Green Craft magazine, then proceeded to google some instructions today.

These were so easy and so thrifty it felt like I’d discovered the new world.  I’m totally patting myself on the back here.  They were fast, too.  It took just 1/2 hour to do these for my very first time.  My 12-year-old saw them and immediately claimed the large bag for himself to hold his PE clothes.  (Mstr. N being interested in Mom’s crafts?  Priceless!)

I have one large bag from the body of the t-shirt and two small bags from the sleeves.  The draw strings on the smaller bags are made of 1 inch strips from the top of the t-shirt.  The beauty of these is that the hems are used as the drawstring casings… that means just a tad bit of cutting plus some straight sewing on only 1 or 2 sides.

4/27/12 Project 365 sleeve bags

This is what was left.  I figure I might google other t-shirt crafts to see if there is any way to re-use the rest.

4/27/12 Project 365 tshirt bag scraps

Too fun!

The first bag! (And it even has a zipper.)

Okay, it’s really called the Denim Dop bag and it’s in Brett Bara’s “Sewing in a Straight Line”.  The instructions were very detailed and step by step.  (This translates to “even a nube like me can do it”.)  I am so in love with this book after having such a good experience with this project.

It’s super cute, but will likely be cuter once I let Miss E in on the fact she’s allowed to decorate it for me.  (I’m giggling inside with anticipation.)

The bag was originally made with denim jeans, but the small pieces mean you could likely make it out of most anything that needs “upcycling”.  I made mine from left over artist canvas.

4/16/12 Project 365 Denim Dop Bag

An accounting of projects…

3/11/12 Project 365 spinning 2 ply

I was reading online where someone suggested that 5 was the optimal number of projects to have.  (I’d share a link, but I was lost online and can’t find the link anymore.  Story of my life.)  The premise was more than five projects slowed down your progress to the point of frustration and less than five left you without something to do at critical times.  She suggested having different types of projects for different situations… fancy lace for alone thinking, small projects like socks and hats for travel, idiot knitting for social times or tv, etc.

I had been feeling lately that I was doing a lot, but wasn’t finishing much of anything; discontent was creeping in.  I wondered what my actual number was.  Was that driving my irksome feelings?  I also wondered how having multiple crafts might change your number, and not necessarily for the better.  Then there are those crafts you want to do next that weigh on your mind.  I think they count too, since they don’t just fade away.  They keep cropping up in your head over and over.  Should I be thinning my projects?  Do I fit the 5 project mold?  What will I see if I account for what is currently in the works and on my mind?  I took these questions and upended my various project niches in search of whatever I might find.

In the works:

Hand sewing kanzashi flowers for the painting.  I’m dragging my feet on this, but I recognize the need for them on the painting.

Quercus Sweater (worsted/fairly easy)

Spectrum scarf (fingering/fairly easy/fairly small)

Kernel scarf (lace weight/dead silence required)

Spinning 2 ply fingering wt yarn (tv watching easy)

Sewing a zippered bag (some concentration)

Sewing a skirt for me.

Knit kimono sweater (easy, but needs ripping and adjusting)

Re-knitting blown out sock toes.  (easy, just need to do) I’d just patch them, but the true problem is the socks just aren’t long enough.  Try as I might, my hoofers are just not that delicate and small.

On the brain:

Spin some fiber for a friend.

Hand sew kanzashi flowers from plastic bags for giggles and grins.

Take hubbie’s ad laden conference bags and put fancy fabric on them to dress them up and hide the ads.

Recreate the baby sweater for the pattern/sweater found in FIL’s attic.  Maybe from homespun…

Rip out wrap I don’t and won’t use… put yarn into something else.  A blanket?

Embroider a felted black project bag I have.

Weaving with plastic bags.  Coasters?  Table runner?

Weaving a wrap.

Sewing a skirt for my daughter.

Sew and cut fabric class on Craftsy.com.

Weaving straps on the inkle loom for my Mighty Wolf loom.

Another Tunisian crochet blanket (of course).

Another post card abstract drawing with markers.

There are probably a couple of projects on the brain I’ve forgotten in the moment, but overall, this list was not nearly as heinous as I expected.  While I obviously don’t fit the 5 project mold, I don’t really think I could trim down the list… as the brain loop would still kick in.  I would be willing to lay money on the fact that most of my crafty friends have a list closer in size to mine than just “5″.  The list is reasonable, and I’ve already acknowledged to myself what the next steps are for everything listed.  While I wouldn’t change anything, I do find it a little comforting just accounting for what is “so” for me in this moment.

As to the discontent that’s been creeping in… maybe I just need a new project.  (Hehehehe!)

Crafting vs. blogging? Crafting wins every time!

This has been a great day and a great week for crafting but maybe not so much for blogging.  As I told a lovely friend I ran into during an evening school event, there are days when I have a half and hour… and that half an hour is for making stuff.  My goal is still very much that I craft every single day for 365 days.

I spent Saturday in a sewing class.  While I diligently worked on my 2nd custom t-shirt and waited for the instructor to announce she was showcasing zippers, I apparently missed the intro to zippers.  Gah!  I saw the second part, but it was like a foreign language if you hadn’t seen the first.  Grumpily, I decided to finish the t-shirt and maybe see what home zipper projects I could start.  I figured I could bring in questions later if needed.

Sunday I helped enable a troop of Girl Scouts as they decorated their own TOMS shoes.  My favorite quote of the day was “Sparkles” (said with great reverence).

I used Monday for finishing the t-shirts.  The 2nd t-shirt was better “fit” wise, but I’m still working out the kinks on those iron on transfers.  Sadly, nothing photo worthy for the t’s.  (As a side note, I think the patch iron-ons are way better than the design sheet iron-ons.  And, did you know, there is apparently an appropriate height for the design?  Ask me how I know that now!)

Tues I took on the zipper challenge with the denim dop bag in Brett Bara’s “Sewing in a Straight Line” book.  Check it out!  I actually cut the pieces properly!  And the zipper, while not perfect, looks mighty fine for my first foray into zippers.  With all the step by step instructions, it was actually easier than what I expected.  It certainly made me question the bad rap that zippers have.  I did it in canvas instead of denim because I enjoyed the TOMS shoes that the Girl Scouts decorated so much.  Sparkles anyone?

3/23/12 Project 365 zipper

Wednesday I shopped for skirt material.  Our sewing class will be taking on elastic tomorrow and I wanted to at least have the project set up and ready to go so I wouldn’t miss any demos again.  Today I turned to the one-hour skirt from “Sewing in a Straight Line”.  And, success!  I still need to stitch in the ditch (what is that?), but it’s looking pretty good.

3/23/12 Project 365 one-hour skirt

Between yesterday and today I finished off the first piece of the Quercus Cardigan.

3/23/12 Project 365 Quercus progress

I topped off my Friday with an iron-on for Miss E.

3/23/12 Project 365 peace

What a great showing for crafting this week!

I’m doing the right thing. Why do I still feel so bad?

Yeah.  It’s been that kind of day with all of my projects it seems.

I realized yesterday that I had over knitted a rather large piece of knitting… by oh, 7 inches at least.  It knitting terms this is pretty major… nearly a whole freakin’ sleeve… 3 afternoons at least…  This is due to a) relaxing into a different gauge, b) being arrogant enough not to double-check myself at least once, and possibly also c) just not paying proper attention in the moment.

Given that I had spent a good portion of the afternoon ripping out a black seam on a black t-shirt with my over 40 eyes, gumming up a couple of sewing machine needles and following that with a borderline acceptable iron-on job, I figured I’d move to something a wee bit more mind numbing and less accident prone.  Besides, tearing at something kind of fit “the mood” at that point.

I learned (the hard way) that if something is not quite right with your knitting, it’s best to fix it as soon as you notice.  These things tend to give way to new issues structurally that you hadn’t thought of… and possibly even more tearing out than you would have had to begin with.  But did I follow that lovely little tenant this time?  No.  I thought longer was probably just fine.  Who would notice?

It wasn’t fine on the booty in the mirror.

It wasn’t fine when I saw how the weight of the fabric changed the look of what I had already knitted.

It wasn’t fine when I began to think of the calculations I might need to do for the other piece that was going to be joined with it… and the extra yarn it might require.

(Insert 1.5 hours of ripping and picking back up nearly 250 stitches.)

The thing is, I truly don’t mind the extra knitting.  Knitting is good any way you can get it.  I just dislike being inefficient in getting to my sweater payoff.  I’m mourning those “lost” hours.  Silly, but there it is.

My next step is to do what my mother always suggested… put the crafting down and get a good night’s sleep.  Tomorrow is a new start to my beautiful cardigan.

The little things…

I get a real kick out of figuring out something that I’ve either been stumped by or somewhat afraid of.  In this case, my son’s duvet cover had about a 2.5 inch slit in it.  I don’t even remember what happened exactly since it’s been sitting in the mending basket for maybe 1-2 years.  (Is this where I get the bad mommy award?)  I knew in theory it could be fixed with the sewing machine, but I wasn’t sure on the actual “doing”.

This morning I “did”.

Changed the presser foot (and found a new setting on my machine in the process).

Changed the needle to a denim needle, something I would not have known to do before my sewing class.

Debated about changing the thread from black to blue to match the comforter, but decided I kinda of liked the effect of the black thread… and no one was going to see it anyway.  (It really wasn’t laziness, honest.)

Lowered the feed dogs… because @meshuggeknitter taught me about when to use them and not.

Cut holes in some canvas and practiced a bit.  They aren’t nearly as pretty as the diagrams in the book, but they were effective in stabilizing the fabric.

3/14/2012 Project 365 practice mending

When I felt comfy I loaded up the duvet.  You can see the hole here.

3/14/2012 Project 365 hole in duvet

There was slight panic when I realized the denim was lighter weight than the canvas and probably could have used a stabilizing fabric behind it, but I threw caution to the winds and forged ahead.

3/14/2012 duvet repair a la Frankenstein

Voila!  My repair à la Frankenstein.

The next step was to take the self adhesive patch I bought at a time when I thought all I had to do was slap on the patch instead of also seaming things up a bit.

Carefully read the instructions.

Gathered my watch with the second-hand.

Found a cutting board to use as the surface, per the instructions.

Found a light weight pressing cloth, also per the instructions.

Heated to the proper temperature and pressed the proper length of time.

And… nothing!

Tossed pressing sheet.

Tossed cutting board right behind it.

Pressed the stuffing out of it again… both sides.

All better.

3/14/2012 Project 365 all better

Sometimes art is just the little things… the practice, the sketches, the swatches, and the patches.

Beginnings…

You know you are on a good path when you

try something

screw up

try some more

screw up some more

and thoroughly enjoy the entire process (and want to keep trying it).

I am totally addicted to making pillowcases, but I think I’ve made a mistake on each and every one them so far.  Today was about making Miss E’s pillowcases.  I had saved them for a last, hoping that I would be up to the task of embroidery for her.  She wanted her name on the first case plus a pattern.  I tried.  I tweaked the tension on the top and bottom.  I broke threads.  I played with designs to see what worked with the thread (and didn’t).  When I showed her my practice runs she decided her name wasn’t big enough and opted not to go for embroidery.

(I’d like to apologize to my mom for any impatience I had with her sewing when I was a kid.  I now understand the fun and frustration of sewing.  And, I now get how my “changing my mind” was very possibly inconvenient at best.)

Pillowcase number two was a cute little penguin number with pink and white pinstripe trim.  Unfortunately, the trim was on the bolt skewed… and made a nice crazy 8 kind of thing when I tried to straighten the stripes within my 8 inches of fabric.  Acckkkk!  I managed to tweak it enough and shorten the seam allowances enough to make it work, but it was touch and go with my beginner skills.  Whew!

  You can see the earth love and penguin pillow covers here…

3/7/12 Project 365 E's pillows

I hope this is a bright beginning for many new sewing projects, and I hope Miss E enjoys the things I make for her as much as I enjoyed the things my mom made for me.