Skip to main content

April turned out to be a busy month.

I seemed to be constantly busy during the last two weeks of April. I just seem to have been trying out new sewing projects, one after another.

It began with making a tailor's ham, which then progressed to making a sleeve roll, then 10 rice filled pyramid pattern weights and a drawstring bag to keep the weights in. The ham was made on my Singer 99K, the sleeve roll. pattern weights and bag on my Singer 201K.





Diane wanted me to make her a tool roll for some of her jewellery making tools. As I had recently taken apart an old leather skirt to re-used the leather, this seemed like a fitting project to make on my Singer 99K (using a leather needle). The roll was lined with felt that we got at the Gloucester Resource Centre.


The most tricky project over the past couple of weeks was without a doubt the Office Party Bag from Debbie Shore. I chose to make this from some vinyl which I obtained through the Gloucester Resource Centre some weeks ago. As my first bag project, to use vinyl, in hindsight was a mistake. There are some parts of the bag (which is not a big bag) that are really thick, with 8 layers of vinyl for the needle to punch through. I began by using my 201K on this project which worked fine for the majority of the bag, but when it came to attaching the handles, using a hand cranked machine proved tricky (due mostly to my inexperience). To solve this I switched to my Toyota Super Jeans 34. Using this was easier, but it was still difficult to control and obtain a straight stitch through really thick vinyl. In the end, the topstitch finishing was done by hand. Despite a couple of "wandering stitches" the bag turned out reasonably OK. Some day I will make another using different material!




The final project was an apron. made from a heavyweight cotton mix fabric which, again, came from the Gloucester Resource Centre. It was a large pattern sample, plus eight smaller pieces of other colours. You will notice I used two of the smaller sample pieces to make the pattern weight drawstring bag.
For a pattern, I adapted one from the Merchant and Mills Sewing Book. I put it together and bound using the Singer 201K after previously serging cut edges on my Toyota 3304 overlocker.


I have also been sewing 2 quilt blocks per week in collaboration with Diane, who does the cutting and pressing for the blocks that are part of 2 online "challenges"
We have now completed one of the quilt tops (below), which Diane will quilt at a later date.



It has been a busy couple of weeks.








Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Singer 99: Edge stitching attachment.

Looking like a weird set of ladders the Singer edge stitch attachment is one of the most versatile attachments I have, so I thought that I would share some of the ways it can be used. First, it is a very effective and almost faultless way to stitch at the edge of material. Remove the normal presser foot and attach the edge stitcher and you are good to go. I like to turn under 1/8-1/4" of fabric first, and either press or finger press a sharp edge in place. The video below details the full edge stitching process using the attachment. Singer edge stitching foot   More edge stitcher techniques: Singer 99: Adding lace, ribbon etc to a garment edge with the edge stitching attachment
Post a Comment
Read more

My primary machine: Toyota's Super Jeans 34 after 10 months use.

This is my Super Jeans 34. The big daddy of Toyota's Super Jeans machines with 34 stitch options. It's black, well actually it's more like a dark brown to my eyes. Like almost every domestic sewing machines today, it has a plastic exterior with a rigid metal frame inside. This makes for a lightweight machine, but one which can still punch its way through multiple layers of denim fabric with ease. So what drew me to this machine and what is it like to use? Well, first let me say that my partner has been using a Toyota Quiltmaster 226 for close to 5 years and swears by it as a real, un-fussy workhorse. She is a quilter and has made a multitude of quilts on her machine since we bought it, and it has been totally reliable. I have a Toyota 3304 over locker that I use for garment construction too. It took me a weekend to get to grips with a machine that uses 4 threads instead of two, but since then I loved using the 3304, it's a great over locker, quiet, easy to use, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Hussif

A quick project that I did today was to make a Hussif which I found in the projects section of the Merchant & Mill "Sewing Book". A Hussif is a sewing roll of tools and thread inspired by the rolls that WW1 soldiers used to maintain their uniforms. My version, which is almost identical to the pattern in the "Sewing Book", holds a pair of small scissors, a tape measure, pack of Household needles, seam ripper, two pots of pins and two spools of heavy duty thread. The Hussif is not only a roll to store and protect the equipment, it also has a built-in pin cushion. As the Merchant and Mills pattern may be copyright, I have not included it here. I just need to find a couple of Tic-Tac boxes to hold the pins instead if the childproof "pill pots" which are a safe but a little on the chubby side.
Post a Comment
Read more