Sunday, July 31, 2016

Bed VS Sewing: Which do you need?








Well, some holiday this is turning out to be... I've been de-cluttering and shifting what seems to be piles of stuff from A to B and then getting distracted by stuff in pile C. Hahaha! My front bedroom which is a spare room with a bed, computer desk, and a sewing table was sadly in need of a declutter. The room wasn't bad; it just needed clearing up and re-organised.  To be honest, we hardly ever use the single bed except for perhaps guests staying over, so when Paul said we could get rid of it and extend my sewing area, hell; I jumped at the chance. So with the bed gone, things started happening pretty quickly. Books started moving around; fabric started getting sorted into weight and colour, sewing equipment started finding new homes and then a biggish purchase was made in the form of an overlocker.  I've been yearning for one of these babies since, well, forever.  So when Paul made a purchase of a new bike, he agreed that I should go ahead and get a new machine. Woohoo!  Who was I to ask twice, off I ran to phone Sewing Machines Direct (yes, this is my rave review).  I phoned late on Wednesday afternoon, and my machine arrived on Thursday afternoon (I live in Central Scotland, and the company is in Wales.)  How quick and cool is that?

So, since my new machine arrived I've been crafting like crazy; overlocking seams on the material for my craft room curtains and then using my regular sewing machine to embroider tiebacks which I then pleated. This was a job that was incredibly satisfying and long needed; the previous curtains were made by Paul's gran and looked a bit dated and old fashioned, extremely well made, but they had ruffles. I've also made a new vest; the tie top cami by House of Pinheiro which was featured in Sewing Network Magazine.  The fabric used is called Bittersweet Red Gingham Cotton Jersey Blend Knit by Girl Charlee. This was a relatively easy top to make, just take a few body measurements, find your favourite vest top; trace it and away you go. I did get a sweat on though when the pattern said to make bias binding; this was needed for the front and back neckline and armholes.  It took me two days to build up the courage to have a go and during that time I must have watched quite a few YouTube videos on how to start.  Verdict: even though this was my first time making bias binding, I think I will be trying this in the future, and I may never buy store bought again. Gasp!

I've also returned to making craft bags;  I put my Folksy shop in holiday mode when I lost my Rhodesian boy and couldn't face opening it again while I was grieving.  I've been thinking about re-opening for a while but life just kind of got in the way.  I've had lots of ideas and I've been busy making a few new products so, stay tuned for a big launch of new stock, different makes and a few giveaways.

The jumper in this post is Chuck and was a test knit for Andi Satterlund over at Untangling Knots.  This is the fourth version of this I've made so far, and I'm hoping to make a few more for the winter season in different colours. I already have 2 x red, cherry and blue, so maybe a forest green or duck egg blue would be a nice change.  What do you think? Colours here and here.

                                                                   xoxoxoxo
                                           



4 comments:

  1. Your top is gorgeous, and what lovely photos. Yey to the overlocker, it's the same as mine, and it's just great. I recently discovered how to gather fabric on it from a video on youtube. There seem to be a few good youtube videos on this machine, including a great one on threading it. I really lost patience with the lower looper (I think?! - it's the green dial) at first, but threading it is no problem now. Re making bias tape, the metal bias tape makers are brilliant, and they come in different widths.

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    1. Thank you, Lynne, the top was the first item I've ever copied from an existing garment, and I'm pleasantly surprised by how it turned out. I worked slowly measuring and cutting to get the bias binding to turn out just right, the metal bias tape makers are a godsend, I bought a full set on eBay. Although, I did see on an American blog (can't remember the name) they had an electronic bias tape maker that heated up and fed the material through. Unfortunately, I've never found one in the U.K. Boo! I'm not looking forward to re-threading the overlocker, I've heard a lot of people talking about their frustration while trying to re-thread. I would watch the DVD again that I got with the machine, but the background music is so annoying. Lol!

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  2. Oh, and I forgot to say yey to the sewing room too. Isn't it great to be able to close the door on the creative, umm, untidiness! Or maybe that's just me... ;)

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    1. Couldn't believe it when Paul said I could extend my sewing area, I nearly fainted. I'm exactly like you Lynne I just walk away leaving the untidiness behind the closed door. I don't want to wreck my creative flow by tidying up; I wait until I've finished the project then clear everything away. Hahaha!

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