A Place Of Her Own

Since April, I've been sewing on the dining table. Well, to be honest, most of those days my machine sat unloved on the dining table while I glared at it. As my sewing paraphernalia grew, it took up more and more space until we were eating dinner on the couch each night. My fabric was spread around the house, my tools were usually out of reach, and bunny fur was getting everywhere.

My mannequin lived by the bookcase, make a creepy silhouette in the window.

No more! For Christmas, dear darling hubby got me the Expedit desk from Ikea. It's a pretty sweet sewing station. It's wide enough for my sewing machine and ironing board. Like most Ikea goods, it's modular and you can add new cubbies or buy door and drawer units to change the functionality. He set it up in the basement in an area we'd painted and carpeted. It's very comfy and well-lit.

Yes, I hung tulle form the ceiling.

What looks like cardboard tubes under my mannequin is really postal paper for patterns.

I have all my tools and fabric organized and at hand. No more searching for my scissors or seam gauge. My sewing box, which doubles as my pin cushion, is both out of the way and easy to get to. I don't have to walk to another room to get a book to reference. I know exactly what fabric and threads I have. My bobbins and fasteners are tucked away in drawers. So tidy!

Books and pins at hand!

These wooden boxes can from my parent's business. It's special to me to be able to reuse them.

Cotton waiting to be transformed into clothing.

We had an ornate card table in that space, so now it's my cutting station. My mat's a little large for the table. If I don't get a new table, I'll paint this one white.

I need to make some curtains to add to the hominess and subtract from the basementness. I like the white and brown, but I want to add touches of pink to make it like a cute French chocolate shop. And if you happen to be someone who sleeps in this area when you visit, fear not. There's still plenty of room for an air mattress.

Appliqued Robots

Skills acquired: applique, using fusible and non-fusible interfacing, dull needle identification

Meet my first applique.This was done on a toddler's tee shirt. I tried a variety of stitches on scraps first, and liked the zig-zags best. I know that will mean a little fraying, but that's okay. The button belly is happy.

I had black fusible interfacing and white non-fusible, so I had to use the non-fusible. (I've since stocked up on fusible.) I'm not sure if it was the best thing to use. It felt stiff, but that is sort of the point.

This is what I was putting on a onesie when my machine punched a hole in it. I had one antennae and the face left to do. That's all! The repair shop said they should have my machine ready by Monday. I miss it so much!

Blast You, Machine!

I've learned a hard lesson about dull needles. Of course, I should have checked it before over six months had passed. I was on the last few stitches of a onesie I was appliqueing for Christmas when my machine ate it! It needed to go in for servicing anyway as tension settings no longer seem to matter. I knocked it up to eight at one point but it was still crazy loose.

Mother & Child Aprons

Skills acquired: pattern drafting, pattern cutting, cutting on the bias, sewing on the bias, making pockets, stitch the ditch, using bias tape, mitered corners

This was my big Christmas project, an apron for my sister-in-law and her son. (He's three and loves to play chef.) The pattern is a combination of things I drew up myself on postal paper and patterns from Stitch by Stitch (the picnic place mat and pockets from a skirt). My nephew's is extra fun because the belt and pockets can be untied and snapped off to be worn as just a tool belt.

I'm very proud of my invisible stitches!

The gear print fabric is twill. I'd never worked with twill before and learned that it likes to twist. But then some of it was cut on the bias too. I made all the tubes first so I could watch Damages while I turned them inside out.

Since making these, I've acquired a hem gauge so ironing the hems will take far less time. I also realized after I made my nephew's apron that I'd hemmed the first fold then the second (fold-stitch-fold-stitch) when really I only needed to fold-fold-stitch. Hers also has mitered corners, while his are bulky folds.

For future aprons, I think I'll install d-rings at the neck to adjust the strap. For the little boy's tool belt, I'll add a hammer loop as well. Part of me also wanted to use a zigzag stitch in a contrasting color for the hems just for interest. I may try that in the future too.

A few people were interested in me making them aprons, so I'll set up a custom order on Etsy. (More on Etsy later.) I'll post here when the link is up.

Blind Hem...Sort Of

Skills acquired: Blind hem

After much consulting with my mother and my yoda about what on earth a blind hem is, I put one in a pair of jeans. (At 5'4", most of my pants need to be hemmed.) This was both a success and a failure. If these jeans were pure cotton, I think it would have gone better, but polyester blends don't iron as beautifully as cotton. Ironing a tube didn't go as well as it could have either. My hem is also too short for heels. The biggest problem, however, was that I thought I could do this without cutting off the excess fabric. Not so. They don't lay cleanly because of the extra bulk, so while my hem is perfectly blind, it needs to go on a diet. When I get a moment (please see my previous post of upcoming projects), I'll pick this out and try again.

Projects in the Queue

I'm still working on secret Christmas projects, so no photo updates this week. But soon there will be a slew of project posts. I have a lot lined up.

- Pillowcases The pillow cases I have are a terrible dye. I bought two lovely olive brocades which will give me some slippery fabric experience as well as practice putting in invisible zippers.

- Apron I've been using the same apron since middle school home-ec. The fabric is terrible. I'd love to use some of the techniques I've learned to make something retro and dress-like.

- Applique Robots One of my friends has two boys, so I thought I'd learn appliques by making some nice linear robots for their wee little shirts.

- Silhouette Skirt I have big, big plans for this. My first one will be for my dear roomie!

- Scarf Winter is nippy. Making some scarves will get me started on jersey and several fabric techniques.

Tools Wishlist

I've been sewing this week, but I can't post pics until after January. (Secret Christmas projects!) In lieu of a project update, I thought I'd make a list of the tools I need/ am lusting after.

Wrist Pin-Cushion I'll most likely be keeping my pins in magnetized containers on the wall (<3 Ikea.), but moving to put the pins in their proper place while I sew disrupts my rhythm. I'd really like a wrist pin cushion so it's all by me as I work. (I guess could make one, but it wouldn't be as cool as this embroidered sugar skull from Etsy.)

French Curve I'm a curvy girl and will be making clothing accordingly. A French Curve helps alter commercial patterns and draft patterns for the shapely figure.

Scarf Hem Foot Chiffon is lurking in my basement, and the mere idea of working with it intimidates me. My sewing yoda told me there's a foot that will roll the hem of a fine fabrics while you sew! As I have big plans for fine fabrics, I'd love a scarf hem foot.

Ruffler Foot Pulling the bobbin thread gets the job done of ruffles, but a ruffler foot would do this faster.

Sleeve Board Sewing means ironing has become part of my life, and I rather enjoy it. I do not enjoy, however, ironing sleeves. Puff sleeves are the worst! When I cant' get the sleeve on my board, I end up with one smooth side and one creased side. A sleeve board would fix that.