One of these days it will get cooler here. In preparation I bought some wool jersey from The Fabric Store.
I pulled out my Renfrew shirt pattern and got to work.This is an easy afternoon sew.Most of the work being done on my serger.Since this is wool, along with long sleeves I made the cowl neck.For the hems I followed Coletterie’s excellent tutorial on hemming knits with a twin needle. I have used a twin needle before, trying to mimic the look of a cover stitch. It never looked smooth or professional – until now.I really like the look and feel of this shirt. The wool jersey is very light weight and comfortable, although being 85 degrees at 5:30, it is still too warm. One of these days I’ll be able to wear this and really enjoy it.
I remember the days when I could easily thread my sewing machine with no extra tools or gimmicks. Yes, I was in my 20s and had young eyes.
But even when one is young, having good lighting on the sewing machine only makes the job easier. Here is my sewing machine light looks like.I wasn’t trying to enhance this photo – just show it like it is. The light throws more shadows than actually lighting up the machine bed.So this is how I work, add more light from a standing Ott light. Better but still throwing shadows.
Then while reading my favorite blogs I came across this post. Enhance your lighting, yes creative blogs are great enablers. But when a new tool or technique comes along – no reason to resist.
I have Amazon Prime so was thrilled that I could save the shipping cost on buying this item through Amazon.
And here is what came in the package.It took all of five minutes.Working from the back of the machine I attached the strip of lightsI placed the power strip on the side of the machine and….Look at that great bright sewing machine bed!View from the back, with the wire held neatly out of the way.
Of course I’ve yet to actually sew on the machine since I am still furiously working away on the hexie quilt. But I do have some projects I need to do on the machine and will report back with my experience.
Meanwhile, just to show you how easy this is, take a look at the video from IspiredLED
I’ve been quite addicted lately as you know. Which is why there haven’t been a lot of other projects going up here. Yes my son thinks I’m crazy – YOU ARE SEWING THAT ALL BY HAND?!?!
Sizzix Big shot
Yes, dear I am. But I am trying to figure out how to cut down on the work load. I had heard of all kinds of die cutting machines. I thought this one would cut fabric so I bought it. It’s a fun little tool. Of course this is just the initial expense, then come the actual dies, which aren’t cheap.I bought this set, thinking I can cut paper and fabric in different sizes. Ooops, turns out this machine only cuts and embosses paper. For a while I was cutting the paper templates as well as providing fun for grandchildren.It’s a good workout for them to crank the handle and they love the resulting images, which do end up in the trash. Fun with grandkids is always worth it. Meanwhile, I kept going back and looking at Accuquilt trying to convince myself that I should buy one. I kept saying to myself: after this quilt I will be so over the hexies, really, I don’t need this. Two things, first of all, I may only be a quarter of the way through this. Second of all, they came out with a clamshell die – which opens up a whole new range of possibilities .I bit the bullet and ordered the GO, you can see, it folds up nicely for storage. I had already bought the hexie die in hopes that I could use it with my Big Shot. Remember how VHS wouldn’t play Betamax. (Ok, I am really dating myself here, I probably could come up with a newer example). Well The same is true with die cutting machines. This die is just millimeters too big for the Big Shot. I tried to shave down the edges and realized I am probably wasting my time and might even ruin the die. As Here it is open and ready to use. The Go is much sturdier and heavier than the Big Shot, I did get value for what I paid.I can now cut six layers of fabric at one time, making 24 hexies in one crank. Fabric and paper ready to go.Action! Cutting the dies.
In less than a minute – this is what I have.
I showed this puppy to my son in law, boy did his eyes light up. He had just started a clamshell quilt and was not enjoying the cutting at all. So I promptly ordered the 8″ clamshell die (I’m waiting!!!). It better get here before Saturday, I am going to Israel for a week and promised my SIL that he can borrow this fun tool for just that purpose.
Now I really feel justified in my purchase, knowing how much use it will be getting.
Once upon a time, when I was young, I could thread any needle, read small print and bead with tiny beads.
Those days alas are in my past. Now it’s reading glasses and any kind of tool I can find to – thread the needle.I think we are all familiar with this fellow, our Roman Guy. This simple tool is ubiquitous in all of our sewing baskets. Yes it works, but you still need pretty sharp eyes to get the wire diamond through the eye of the needle. The smaller the needle, the harder it is and if your needle is tiny the wire won’t go through. This is the simplest of it’s type, google and you will find all kind of iterations of this type.
Next up, the Clover Needle Threader. these come in two sizes, one for fine needles and one for larger ones. I bought the fine needle threader. Simple operation, put the needle in the slot, drape the thread and push the lever a few times. Then gingerly, remove the needle and hope the loop of thread comes with it. Pull the loop until one end remains. Then cut with the handy cutter.
I’ve been happy with this contraption until a quilting friend introduced me to this guy.The Bohin Needle threader. Bohin is a French company that specializes in superior tools for the home sewer and quilter.
As you can see, one tool that will thread two sizes of needles. My grandson was my handy little helper. (only way to get these photos is to have him be my assistant). As he depresses the brown button, a small lever pushes the thread through the eye of the needle, similar to how the purple one works.Keep on pushing and a loop of thread appears.Ok, I helped things along, the loop is big now. At this point, you pull on the loop until one end emerges. Now, when you remove the needle, it is completely threaded!This threader also has the handy cutter, which means this can easily go through airport security and one can get some hand work done on a plane.There is a magnet on the bottom, so when you lose your needle, and who hasn’t, just wave it over the table or floor and let the magnet find the missing needle.
I’m a big believer in having the right tool for the job.
Anyone who works with their hands will tell you that it’s the special tools of the trade that make the work both easier and fun. So from time to time I will be talking about tools unique to the fiber-arts. This time it’s sewing and quilting.
So what is my favorite tool?The Seam Ripper!! I have never sewn anything where I didn’t need to use this little tool!. Always, without fail at least one seam needs to be ripped out.
Lesson no. 1 for new sewers – an expert seamstress is not someone who doesn’t make mistakes – WE ALL MAKE MISTAKES! It is someone who takes it in stride and knows how to correct the mistakes.
The most important use of the seam ripper is to rip out seams! Of course it also comes handy when opening button holes.
As you can see, I have a few examples here. Looking at the simple blue ripper – it’s a very basic tool, one long thin pointy blade – enables you to get in under the stitch and rip. the shorter end is tipped with a bead – to protect you and your fingers.This is my favorite ripper today. The handle is substantial and the cover has a wonderful rubber bauble that makes it easy to rub away at all those loose threads. The end of the ripper has a smaller rubber section – for the same purpose.My one complaint? When open, the cover does not fit onto the back of the ripper, so I never use that big lovely ‘eraser’. It effectively becomes two tools. Since I have a way of misplacing my tools on my work table, it is hard enough for me to find the ripper, to then try and find the eraser is too frustrating. So I find that I only use the seam ripper and the small eraser on it’s end.The blue one is fine, but a little small and uncomfortable to hold. This is a duel purpose seam ripper, came out a good 10 years before the Seamfix. I guess the idea was that you could slide out either the ripper or the tweezers. A very uncomfortable tool. So why do I still have this? Because invariably I can’t find any of my seam rippers except this one, so it gets a lot of use – with a lot of swearing at the same time.This is a new tool to me – the eyebrow shaver. Yes it is intended for eyebrows but isn’t it wonderful when someone figures out how to adapt other tools to our sewing purposes!
As you can see, it is a wire wrapped razor-blade with a nice long handle. I learned about this tool while taking a Craftsy class on Paper piecing. When sewing paper-pieced patches together one uses a very small stitch length. It isn’t easy to get in with the traditional sized seam-ripper. So gently sawing with this tool shreds the seam. You are left with a lot of messy small thread, pull out the eraser from the Seamfix to take care of that.
I hope this gives you food for thought and any other seam ripping suggestions, please share!
All done, this was a fun project.I had a lot of fun making this dress. I did make a few changes. I modified the top so it wouldn’t have any pleats. I did make a ‘muslim’ out of leftover knit fabric, it worked out fine. My pictures – no so much which is why I didn’t include one here.
Have I mentioned how much I love my serger? I have a Juki MO-655, it is a 5 thread, which means when I am sewing woven fabrics, and I know exactly what I’m doing (like a simple skirt) I can sew the seam and finished edge at one time on the serger.Here I am using the 4 thread option, which simply reinforces the served edge with another row of stitches. It is stronger than the 3 thread version. It’s the light blue thread, I was too lazy to change the color. One draw back of this machine is that I have to thread the needle on my own. Not easy! Juki now has the air threading mechanism as well – my next serger.
This fabric was interesting to work with, it is a knit, but because of the vinyl polka dots – it doesn’t have a lot of give. It also has a lot more body – and can hold it’s own nicely. Word of advice! Because of the polka dots, I ironed this on the wool setting and always used a press cloth. In my case, it’s a piece of silk organza. Those dots would melt otherwise. Also, when pinning the pieces together, those dots got in the way, pins didn’t want to go through them. So the serger was perfect, I did some top stitching on the sewing machine. One again, because of the dots the inner facing didn’t want to lie flat. Not sure DVF has top stitching on her dresses, but hey, this is a knock-off, it has to work for me. Looking cute from the back.I did put a snap where the V meets, I like the extra assurance that it won’t gape open as I go about my day.
The necklace is a perfect match, I made it a few years ago, out of a mixture of beads I had around. Couldn’t find a more perfect fit.
So now I have my own DVF wrap dress, one like no other, unless she decides to use this fabric as well.
I’m slowly learning how this blog thing works. I know, there are many tweeks I can make on the blog, but right now I’m concentrating on content.
Content means good pictures, which means good equipment. Let’s start with the camera.
Panasonic DMC-FZ200 Otherwise sold under the Lumix name.
I have a small Canon, I have an iphone. I had a nice large camera that was so old (9 years) it only took a 2GB card. So before our trip to Peru I did a lot of online research and bought this camera. I’m not quite ready for changing lenses, I didn’t want a simple point and shoot. This one came recommended as a very good high end one lens camera. I’m still learning the ropes. One thing that was very important was a remote control, I want to get pictures of myself in my me-made clothes. So yeah, sometimes you’ll notice that little clicker in my hand. Give me time, I’ll get better at hiding it.
Next, background, I know they often distract from the object. I need a simple white box so off to Michael’s I went and came home with this.
Project board and white board
Which can be set up like this:
Ok, I have a lot to learn, like I think my camera lens needs cleaning.
Well, not really, I was improperly inserting my needles. Tightening the clamp too hard until the screw wore down to a point and wouldn’t hold the needle in place. But this quilt is what finally caused me to just go get another machine.
ModOlives baby quilt
Here it is quilted finished and labeled. Ready to go to a baby boy. It’s nice that friends are having children and grandchildren.
I love tools of the trade, anything to make the project easier or more interesting. I discovered this wonderful Quick curve ruler and had to start playing.
As a quilter, I have a stash, a lot of fabric on hand. I was lucky to be given this wonderful car fabric, what better for a little boy, add some solids and we have a palate.
Fabrics for ModOlive
Jenny started a QAL (quilt along) with wonderful instructions and a
All well and good, until I got to the quilting part. The missing clamp for my Babylock is supposed to arrive at the end of March. Who can wait that long?? No idle hands here! I must be creative all the time. So I broke about 15 needles, struggled with a very difficult FMQ (free motion quilting) job, but I did it!
back of quilt
My backs are always pieced, another way to highlight the fabrics. In this case you can really see the quilting stitches as well. Despite the effort the result is beautiful.
Final step
The label
Now I get to play with my embroidery threads. I found this cute image of a flower, easy to turn into embroidery. Of course name and date and even enough room for the parents to write the name and date of birth of the baby.
I love the quilt, but that was it, I couldn’t quilt with this machine as is and I have quite a few projects on the docket. Joel agreed, I am always working, I should have the right equipment. When I tested the Juki, it was amazing how easy and smooth the quilting was. Of course I was working on a small sample, but I have no doubt, even with larger quilts – I am going to love working on it.
Everything is cyclical. I learned to sew as a child, but there were long periods where I was involved in other crafts. A few years ago, the sewing and quilting bug bit me again. My old Bernina wasn’t up to the task so off I went to buy a new machine.
At the time I didn’t know many other sewers or quilters and I didn’t do much research online. This is what I bought
Babylock Quest, my ‘old’ machine
At first I was thrilled, smooth sewing, many options. But gradually things changed, things got just a little wonky – not quite perfect stitches, tension, not great. Of course I took it in to be serviced regularly, but still no improvement. And then at one point it turns out I had damaged the needle clamp with improper use.
In the meantime I had of course met all kinds of sewists IRL and online and had a wealth of information at my hands. One thing I discovered is that having one machine that does everything – means it does everything in a so-so manner.
So I started researching a basic straight stitch only machine. As well as a good place to buy said machine, somewhere to get real training, so I wouldn’t inadvertently cause damage on my own.
So last week it was off to a sewing/quilt show and I met up with these lovely people http://www.moores-sew.com/
Here is what I came home with
Juki TL 2010Q, the Q stand for Quilting!
I am in love! What an amazing machine. Juki is a well known company that has made industrial machines for ever! They wisely have moved into the home sewing machine market and have adapted a basic industrial machine for home use. So it is quieter and a little easier to use than simply buying an industrial machine.
Needles for old machine on left, oy I think I was hoarding. Needles for new machine on right,
Of course I am not ditching my old machine, there many things she still does well. And with this large supply of needles, I need to use them. At one point I bought ‘the wrong needles’ but as I know see, they will work well on my new machine, yay!
First project! a skirt.
I have wasted no time in getting to work. The finished project will be in another post.
This is an easy afternoon sew.
Most of the work being done on my serger.
Since this is wool, along with long sleeves I made the cowl neck.
For the hems I followed Coletterie’s excellent tutorial on hemming knits with a twin needle. I have used a twin needle before, trying to mimic the look of a cover stitch. It never looked smooth or professional – until now.
I really like the look and feel of this shirt. 
The wool jersey is very light weight and comfortable, although being 85 degrees at 5:30, it is still too warm. One of these days I’ll be able to wear this and really enjoy it.
