Tag Archives: sewing

When one project is finished, another beckons

06 Thursday Jun 2013

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After the debacle with my entry for the Sydney Royal show, I made sure and sent off my entry for the Australian Cotton Fibre Expo in plenty of time. Sadly I still didn’t have any success, but at least I got it back OK, and can post photos of it now. Previously when I sent away a different denim vest for somebody to see it got lost in the mail, and I never did get it back. I’ve often wondered what happened to it.

Here is the jacket I made, titled ‘Denim: resurrected”

Denim: resurrectedIt’s made by unpicking the waistbands, hems etc of a number of denim garments (mostly children’s sourced from the op shop), and piecing them together to make the most of the patterns that are created when the denim fades. I’ve always loved denim as a fabric, and the way it takes on the character of the garment.  These are shots of some of the bits of fabric after unpicking. I even made the lining out of men’s business shirts cut up and pieced together. IMG_1127IMG_0782It was disapppointing not to be successful, but never mind. At least I have the jacket to wear.IMG_0784I don’t know what won, since the show was so far away there was no way of going to look at the other entries, and so far there is nothing on the website, in fact it looks as if the winners from last year haven’t been updated yet.

All in all I’m feeling a bit ‘meh!’ at the moment. I just love that word, if word it is, for the way it so perfectly expresses the feeling. I am very tempted to start a new project, but I have to remind myself that I currently have too many projects I have started and am yet to finish. The kitchen, floor and other finishing touches, wardrobe in the spare room, at least 3 or 4 other sewing projects, and that’s just the ones that I can see without looking into the deep dark recesses of cupboards etc. I shall hope to enjoy the feeling of satisfaction and virtuousness (?) I get when I finally finish a few of them.

Next projects

21 Thursday Feb 2013

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OK, so I sent my entry in for the Australian Cotton Fibre Expo. Actually, I sent in photos and paperwork, which is all that’s required at this stage, and I have to admit that the piece isn’t actually finished. It’s finished enough that I was able to take photos of it though, and it doesn’t have to be sent in until April, so I have a little time yet. I’m pleased with the way it’s gone so far, and pretty confident that it will turn out looking the way I want it to, so fingers crossed!

I need to be strict with myself and finish it before I go on with anything else, or at least start anything else. I’ve already got one project on the go, but that’s a long term thing. It’s a quilt, done in the English method using papers, of hexagons which I think are about 2 inches across, or about 5 cms. I haven’t yet stopped to calculate how many I will need to make for a double bed sized quilt, but I think it will be well over a thousand. I’ll be stitching this all by hand, so you can understand why it’s a long term project! It will be all made from either old clothes, or left over bits from making clothes or other things, so I’m digging through my stash. I’ve been sewing for over 40 years, and mostly when I’ve made something I don’t throw away the scraps, so I think I will have plenty of fabric. I want to go back to the origins of patchwork, when it was a way of using up scraps of old fabric and the good bits of old clothes. Whilst I also love lots of the quilt fabrics which are available today, and have succumbed to some of them for other projects, I have a slight problem with going out to buy yards of new fabric, bringing it home to cut up and stitch back together again. It doesn’t sit too well with the whole ‘use less’ philosophy which I try to live by.

Another inspiration for the quilt is that my Mum made one back in the 1970s. Hers is the same, made of bits of my old dresses, and hers, and she and my Dad still have it on their bed. Her hexagons are smaller though, which makes it even more laudable. I talked to her about it recently, and she told me that one of the patches was from my Dad’s ‘demob’ shirt, in other words the shirt from the suit of clothes he was given when he was demobilised from his National Service in the UK, about 1948 I should think. That patch is wearing thin now, but after about 65 years that’s not surprising! Now I come to think of it, some of the fabric I am going to use will be about 30 years old already, so it only has 35 years to go.

My next short term project might be a quilt for my daughter’s engagement, and for that I shall succumb to browsing the internet for fabric. I want some with themes to cover their interests, so that means hours spent on the net looking for just the right thing. I can’t wait!

 

 

Excuses for lack of posts

15 Friday Feb 2013

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How lax I have been! Nearly three weeks since my last post. In my defence, I haven’t been doing nothing. I put an entry into the Australian Cotton Expo in the craft section, and have been beavering away at it. It really needs to be finished by this weekend so that I can take a photo and send it in before the entries close, but I don’t think it will be. I’m now frantically trying to figure out how much I need to finish in order to be able to take photos which will look as if it’s finished, if that makes sense. The entry conditions say that you have to send a sketch or photo of your entry, so it doesn’t have to be finished, a sketch could be of something which wasn’t even started yet. No hints on here as to what my entry is, that will have to wait until the contest is done, in about April I think.

On the topic of competing, I also entered my wall hanging, Fremantle Limestone, in the Sydney Royal Show, just for a lark. At least that is already finished, I just have to find a way of packing it so that it can be posted, shouldn’t be too hard. Then I have an idea for another competition I saw mentioned recently . . . I can see this competing business is going to get a grip on me!

So, the sewing has been taking priority lately, partly also because it’s mostly too hot to do much outside. Cooler weather forecast for this Sunday though, so I hope to catch up on a few jobs. Trouble is, my ‘to do’ list never gets any shorter. Anybody got any ideas?

 

Fremantle Limestone embroidery

15 Monday Oct 2012

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I finally got around yesterday to taking some photos of the wallhanging I entered in the Show, and here they are.

Fremantle Limestone wallhanging

Sorry I wasn’t able to resist leaving the prize card on it! Some close up shots:

close up

Close up 1

One of the ways I created texture in the piece was to attach shells to it, some which I had collected many years ago on the beach, I think in Rockingham or Kwinana. I made small pieces of machine embroidered ‘lace’ using water soluble stabiliser, stitching over it randomly in roughly circular motion. After washing out the stabiliser and drying the pieces, I laid them over the shells on top of the background fabric, and stitched around the edges, using the same kind of random circular motion, so that it looks as if the lace is growing out of the fabric. I was aiming to imitate the way shells and stones sometimes get embedded in rock.

close up 2

Close up 2

I made this texture by stitching from the wrong side of the fabric, with the top tension really loose. The top thread gets drawn to the underside in big loops. I then ironed on some fusible interfacing on the wrong side to hold the threads in place, and pulled out the bobbin thread, leaving the loops behind.

Close up 3

Close up 3

I made some crochet chain out of perle cotton, and hand stitched it down – machine stitching flattened it too much. The little bunches of threads that look a bit like flowers I made by looping the thread and stitching over it, then cutting open the loops. A wooden skewer is really useful for holding threads and so on in place while you stitch them down. It’s smaller than fingers, and doesn’t hurt so much if the needle goes through it!

I’m pretty pleased with the way the piece came out, and it’s certainly inspired me to have another go.  I already have a couple of ideas in mind, in the meantime I’m going to turn my attention to making some skirts to wear for work this summer.

 

 

My new toy!

28 Friday Sep 2012

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Well, I took the plunge this week and bought myself a new sewing machine. I’ve got two, one of which was my 21st birthday present from my parents, and served me well for many years (how many I’m not going to say), the second was a present from my ex husband, and I’ve had that almost 20 years. It had also done very good service, but is I think getting worn out. It squeals sometimes, which I think means it needs new belts, but I’ve not been able to find any on the net for my model and I don’t think it’s worth taking it to be repaired.

Between the two machines I’ve sewn just about everything. Clothes for me and family and friends, curtains, upholstery, fancy dress costumes, dance costumes, horse rugs, dog beds, quilts, you name it and I’ve pretty much made it.

So now I decided the time had come for a new sewing machine, and I chose a Bernina here. I had been going to get the 380, as about my price range and features, but changed my mind to the 530 as it has more space to the right of the needle, plus a few other features. I’m not interested in embroidery machines, if I want to do embroidery I’d rather come up with my own designs, plus they are sooo expensive. As much as a small car if you go to the real top end ones.

I’ve only had a very limited time so far to play with the machine, and it will certainly take some getting used to. It has hands free sewing with the knee lifter, needle down feature, and a whole bunch of other stuff. I’ve used the old machine for so long now that I know it inside out, and using it is almost automatic, now I have to start again, but I’m sure it will be worth it. I look forward to creating many more projects, plus I get to shop for extra feet and gadgets, since none of the ones for my old machine will fit.

Going to the Perth Royal Show tomorrow to look at the craft exhibits and see how mine stack up. No hope of winning anything, but I really don’t know what the standard will be, so I’m keen to find out. I’ve decided to go on the first day so that hopefully it might be a little less crowded, not really because I’m impatient!

Choices

21 Wednesday Mar 2012

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The topic we were given for next month’s writing group was ‘Choices, and how they change the story of our lives’. I started off enthusiastically, and wrote a good few hundred words in my head, but when I actually started committing them to paper (screen), it wasn’t so simple. I had lots of thoughts, but finding a common thread to hang them all on was a different matter. Eventually I finished the piece, and have posted it here,

I’m not entirely happy with it, for one thing I think it’s still only a collection of thoughts, but I’ll wait and see what the rest of the group thinks. More time would have been good, but that’s a poor excuse since I started planning it straight away, and have had over two weeks since. Although I’m really keen to get on and start trying to get published, in reality I have to accept that I don’t really have a lot of time, and I might be better to ‘hasten slowly’, and work on improving quality rather than just get stuff out there.

I received the gardening magazine I’d subscribed to from the US, in fact not only the magazine but another collection of articles. I sat down and read them both right through almost immediately, and in spite of my reservations above I do think I might try and submit an article I have written. I submitted it for critiquing at last month’s meeting, and most of the comments were positive. I also think that the style of the magazine suits the style of the article, or the other way round. Watch this space!

I was turning out some stuff recently and came across some bits of embroidery that I had done years ago when my daughters were young. I took some photos, just for the record, and here is one of them. Embroidered flowersAgain, this is the photo straight as it came from the camera, I should try and see if I can improve it a bit. I’d also really like to do some more hand embroidery, having not done much for years, but it’s all about time. I should quit complaining and be more organised, then I’d have time!

Lessons Learnt whilst Making a quilt

13 Tuesday Dec 2011

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I’ve been making a quilt for my Dad, since it’s his 85th birthday. I ordered the fabric online months ago, choosing patterns from nature. There are butterflies, bees, dragonflies, birds, trees and leaves, and one fabric is tree bark. Dad is and always has been a lover of nature. I got the top pieced quite successfully, and this week started to put it together with the batting and the backing.

I laid it out on the biggest table I have, since it’s not a big quilt, only single bed size. Designed more as a lap quilt or knee rug than anything else. I had to join the backing, so I did that first and laid it on the table, then the batting on top. I used Warm & Safe,  a rather advanced batting from America which is made of sustainably grown trees (more nature) and is also rated as being fire retardant, which I thought was a plus. It comes from The Warm Company, but this particular product doesn’t seem to be on their website yet. Then I put the quilt top over that, and smoothed it all out.

I’d decided to pin baste rather than thread baste, and used as many safety pins as I had. Then I took the quilt to the machine and started to quilt. Nothing fancy, just quilting round the edge of some of the blocks to start with. I had done maybe a third of what I intended to do, then got too tired and went to bed. Next morning I laid the quilt back out on the table. Disaster! What I thought was a nice reasonably smooth job looked shocking, with more wrinkles than a Shar-pei puppy. Nothing for it but to indulge in a spot of reverse sewing and start again.

This time I thread basted, lines of long stitches about four inches apart over all the quilt. Then I looked on the web for any hints as to how to get a reasonably good result. This was one of the best pages I found. Put the sewing machine on a bigger table was first, with clear space all round, and so that the weight of the quilt would be supported and not dragging against the needle. Closer basting also helped, other things I could have done but didn’t include spraying the table with a silicone based furniture polish to help the fabric move over the table evenly, wearing gloves so that I could manoeuvre the fabric better, and making an extension to the sewing machine bed so that I had a bigger flat area to work on. I decided to try without all these things since I don’t quilt often (actually I think this is only the second time). The furniture polish I would have done except I didn’t have any and it was Sunday.

Then, with some trepidation (I’d already done enough reverse sewing for one project) I started again. This time I’m pleased to say that the result was satisfactory, although more practice might have improved it a bit. Now all I have to do is add the binding, and the quilt is done. Oh, and I need to remember to take a picture of it when it is finished.

I titled this post Lessons Learned Whilst Making a Quilt, and I bet you can guess what the lessons were! As with almost everything in life, preparation is the key to good results, isn’t that boring?

Gorgeous vintage and retro clothes patterns

22 Tuesday Nov 2011

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I got an email this morning from a company I bought some sewing patterns from a while back. Decades of Style pattern company have put photos of many of their patterns made up on their site, and the results are gorgeous. Not all of the patterns are there, but a good number of them, beautifully made, and with such authentic looking fabrics.

I bought some of their patterns months ago, mostly because I saw a blouse reviewed in Threads magazine, and when I visited the site the postage was the same price for up to 5 patterns. I’m ashamed to say I haven’t made them up yet, but seeing these photos has made me determined to bump them up the ‘to do’ list a little! That’s after I’ve finished a quilt for my Dad’s 85th birthday (in 2 weeks) and a dress for a Christmas function for my daughter, also in 2 weeks. Both are fortunately fairly simple projects.

Two of the patterns I bought from Decades of Style were blouses, the 1940s Girl Friday blouse, and the 1950s Collar Confection blouse. Both would be good to have made for the summer, I will make myself an appointment to go through the stash and see what fabric I have to use. Whilst the examples on the website are made of vintage inspired fabrics, I think they would translate quite well into contemporary fabrics if well chosen. Lightweight linen in a plain colour or small print would do fine, or a softer rayon type print. I am pretty sure I have something suitable somewhere.

Another project I’ve been giving some thought to lately is the re-organisation of my sewing space. Actually I don’t think the word re-organisation is valid, since that implies an existing level of organisation, which I can’t honestly say there is. I have a space, not huge but I think adequate, but it needs cleaning, tidying, and lots more storage. Not only that, but it needs to be organised so that I can find what I need, and don’t end up going out to buy more of something just because I can’t find what I already have. I can’t wait to go through all the boxes which are hiding in the garage and sort them out and create some kind of reference for what is in them. Most of the stash will have to stay in the garage since there isn’t room for it in the house, but it would be really good to know what was out there and where it was. A database of some sort is required I think, although I have thought of just taking photos of the content of each box and having them on my computer for browsing when I want something.

I’m also working on how to set up a cutting out surface. The space I have doesn’t really lend itself to a permanent cutting out space, which really needs to be at least 1.5 metres square, and preferably more, with room to walk around all four sides. I’m trying to come up with a project for fold-away cutting out space, but not too hard to put away so that I don’t bother to do it. My current thought is a couple of small chests of drawers, on castors so they can be moved, and with flaps hanging down each side which can be raised. Two chests together, and the flaps, I think can be made to give me a surface about 1.2 metres by 1.8 metres, and still be manoeuvrable in the room, which is only about 2.4 metres wide, although quite long.

Something similar to this, but I’ll probably try to make it myself, or at least put a top onto a purchased chest of drawers. That’s after the kitchen, and the tool cabinet in the garage which isn’t finished yet! And a few other things!

This week’s photos are what in England we used to call an Easter cactus, because it flowered about Easter. Here in Australia it flowers in spring, but that’s nowhere near Easter. I’ve Googled it, and I think it is properly called Hatiora gaertneri, the name being nowhere near as pretty as the flower, as usual. It is really spectacular this year, although I should have moved it into the sunshine before taking the pictures, it would have looked even better.

Easter cactus

Hatoria gaertneri, I think

Easter cactus 2

Hatoria gaertneri, I think

Hatoria gaertneri, I think