Peggy Winifred Sews

Sew-A-Long photos for Simplicity's Suede Says Fashion's Night Out Red Bag

2012-01-19T14:46:00.000-08:00

My Finished Bag:

Photos of the front & back of it...

1. Click on the photos to enlarge them. Use your back browser arrow at top to return.

Simplicity # 0109

Suede, from Project Runway is involved with a Sew-A-Long on Facebook which I plan to participate in. The sew-a-long will start on January 24, 2012 and finish up around February 14, 2012. For more info, go to:

http://www.suedesays.com/blog/suedesays%E2%84%A2-sewalong-starts-124

And check back here to see photos of my bag from the Sew-A-Long, too.

Working from my fabric stash. Only have to buy the pattern and the zippers. The pattern calls for two 28 inch long zippers.

2. Bag pattern arrived 1/24/2012 . The fabric for the outside of the bag was an eBay purchase. The red fabrics came from Walmarts several years back. Working my stash on the fabrics. The bag has 3 straps. Each one is going to be a different color on this bag.

3. Closeup of the outside printed fabric

4. Guess who had to get into the act?

5. Closeup of the fabric lining.
Note: Didn't use this one on the bag. Used a red fabric with white dots in place of it. This fabric might ened up on a red dress instead...

6. Closeup of the fabric for the inner pocket.

7. The 1" PolyPro webbing.
Will be using the red, green and blue for the 3 handles.
Red for the long strap. Green & blue for the short center handles.

Yes, that's the tip of the cat's paw over on the edge of the photo.

8. 1/24/2012: Made a change with the lining fabric for the insides. Didn't like he red on red, so changed the lining to white polka dots on red. The solid red is the pocket.

9. Closeup of the white polka dots on the red fabric. This fabric was an eBay purchase last year. Was going to use it for my GD's 1st B'day dress, but, my DIL changed her mind and switched over to the pink background, so, into my fabric stash went this fabric...

10. 1/25/2012: Cut out the outside pattern parts.

11. Next, cut out the inside lining plus the inside pocket.

12. All cut out and ready for the next step

13. 1/26/2012 Update: Cut out the batting and sewed it to just 4 of the outside pieces, the top, the bottom and the 2 pieces for the sides/gusset.

14. Used the off-white Warm & Natural batting on this bag, S0109. Made large diamonds because you can quilt up to 10" apart with same. Like the way that the batting stuck to the fabric. Reminded me of the way Velcro would stick to certain fabrics too. Didn't really have to pin the fabric and batting together, but, did so to be on the safe side. My zippers arrived today, Thursday, 1/26/2012. Didn't get to the pockets. That's on the agenda for tomorrow. Watched the video for doing up the front pocket. Looks easy. Pleats are a cinch for me. Zippers, that's a different story...

15. I actually drew my diamond shapes on the batting, using a pen and a ruler. Used 6 1/2 inches spacing on the top and the bottom, with 6 inch spacing on the width of the sides/gussets, which made them oblong diamonds on the gussets. Didn't attach the lining to thte batting back. I'm following the pattern instructions but doing it slightly different because the pattern called for prequilted fabric, with the fabric quilted on both sides. I'm one of those who doesn't always follow the pattern to the "T." Learned to do some things slightly different back when I had sewing in high school, over 50 years ago. Just used one package so far. Had to piece the gusset strip to make it long enough for the top and sides pattern piece.

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Simplicity sew-a-long videos for this #0109 bag can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/user/SimplicityVideo

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16. 1/30/2012 Update - Completed the pockets. Actually gave the bag 6 pockets. that's 3 on the outside and 3 on the inside. Closeups below.

17. Inside large pocket made from the sports mesh.

18. Inside double pocket made same as the above pocket plus adding s strip of binding down the center of it, to form a second pocket.

19. Outside large single pocket with a Velcro enclosure.

20. Outside double pockets, pleated with each pocket enclosed with a 9 inch zipper going across the top of the pocket.

21. 2/24/2012 Update: Started sewing the large 28/30 inch zippers in and assembling the bag. Using a # 18 sewing machine needle to do so. Finished up early Sunday morning, 2/25/2012. Worked through the night...LOL. Today is SuperBowl Sunday, so, I might not get much more done today. Going to take a nap for a few hours before tackling the thick bottom gusset. Closeup photos below.

22. The bag inside above.

23. The bag outside above.

24. Closeup showing the quilting: Just the outside front & back sections and the gussets are quilted onto the Warm & Natural. The outside pockets fabric is doubled because I folded the fabric in half before cutting the pockets out. I used black thread which blends into the design for doing the quilting. My diamonds are spaced about 6 inches apart. With the W & N your row spacing can be as far as ten inches apart. I backed the inside red polka doted center parts with 2 layers of plain white cotton fabric without quilting it. However, didn't do that on the gusset pieces. The edges of the different quilted and backed parts are zig zagged in black. The inside pockets are a single layer of mesh with red binding going across the top on them, with one having the binding going down the center to form 2 pockets. See the above closeup photo showing the quilting with the black thread on the outside parts.

September Sewing Month

2011-09-02T07:11:00.000-07:00

Along with September being National Sewing Month with their own sewing contest, http://www.nationalsewingmonth.org/ there are other ones going on. One of which is a one for making purses and National Purse month being the last week in September.

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The 16 hand made dresses by Connie & me that were sent to Joplin, MO & Some Memory Bears Photos

2011-07-26T23:37:00.000-07:00

These 12 pillowcase dresses were all made from Simplicity 2228 by me. They were made up to be sent to the Joplin MO area with some other dresses for the Joplin First Day (Back to school) Program around the end of July, 2011 for distribution to young ladies who recently suffered from a tragic storm disaster in their area.

The request for girls dresses came in through ASG's Region 3's website, so 2 of our American Sewing Guild's Neighborhood Group, the Whiting Stitch Rippers, in Southern New Jersey put our sewing machines to work for another charity project. All of the dresses that we made up are all size 7. They asked for desses in sizes 5 to 8. We choose the Pillowcase Dresses because we didn't have to worry about them being a perfect fit, because they are a loose fitting dress that will fit the girls who are extremely slender to the plus size.

For the ones below, I raided my fabric stash for most of the fabric, except for the last one, the Keliscope Dress. Picked up that fabric at JoAnn's earlier in the week, mainly for making up one of these dresses. The other fabrics came from various places and were purchased at various times. The Plaid Dress fabric came from Walmart's way back around 1994ish as indicated on the fabric's selvage. The Green Frog fabric was an Internet/Ebay purchase about a year or so ago, with the border print on the bronz colored striped fabric a very, very recent eBay purchase. That striped fabric was a Walmart's purchase quite awhile ago. That fabric is heavier than the other fabrics. It's more like a denim fabric. The red and white fabric is more like a dressy satiny fabric, also a Walmart purchase from a few years ago. Added some white lace to that dress.

These dresses only required about a yard of fabric to make them up. Instead of using binding around the sleeves area, I used some of the dress fabric. Plus I made a change on the pattern. Increased the top part of the pattern about an inches to eliminate the use of binding for the ribbon caseing. Even used some of the dress fabric to make fabric straps for a couple of the dresses. Ran a horizontal row of satin stitching upwards on the dress center so the ribbons don't come out of the dresses when they are washed. Used both satin and grosgrain store-bought ribbons for the ties too. Added some wooden beads to the ends of the satin ribbons. Used lace on one of the dresses for trim. Quite often when working with patterns, I make slight changes on the patterns. Been doing that for about 50 years or so.

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Individual photos of the 12 dresses below from Simplicity Pattern # 2228 that I made up. That's my shower curtain used as a backdrop for the dresses...LOL

Polka Dotted Dress

Bronz & Yellow colored Striped Dress w/Border

Plaid Dress w/Border

Cranberry Floral Print

Red & White Dress w/ Lace

Sunflower Dress w/Black Background & Sunflower Border

Blue, Black & White Square Print Dress

Black Scottie Puppy Dress w/Border

Sunflower Dress w/ Cranberry Background

Lavendar Animal Print Striped Dress

Green Tree Frog w/Red Eyes Dress

For the Frog Princess?

Keliscope Print Dress

Simplicity Pattern # 2228

I made up some labels using my Print Perfect Deluxe program, The Electric Quilt Company's cotton satin injet fabric sheets, my printer and sheets of the Steam-A-Seam2 for an iorn-on self-sticking backing for the labels. Below is a photo of the label in one of the dresses made up by another ASG member that I had added the label to her homemade Pillowcase Dresses for this project. She used a different pattern than I used that was similar to mine. She bought her fabric in JoAnns's when we were there last Wednesday, the 20th, when I had also picked up some for one of the ones I made up too. We make a trip to JoAnn's as a days outing for our ASG's sewing group, including a late lunch every once in a while.

Labels: Using Avery's business card size template, with 10 labels on an EQC's fabric sheet and Steam-A-Seam2 for the backing.

The above photo shows all 16 of the dresses that 2 of us Whiting Stitch Rippers made up that were sent to the Joplin, MO area. 4 (all blue, 1st rown running downwards) were made up using Simplicity pattern number 0460 by Connie. We actually did up all of the dresses in about 2 days. Had mine all cut out before spending the 2 days on the sewing machine with them. The label I designed and made up for the dresses is shown on one of Connie's dresses in a close-up photo. I added the label to all 16 of the dresses before sending them out via Priority Mail. I also took photos of Connie's 4 dresses using my shower curtain as a backdrop, too. One of hers is different, with a red border on the bottom of it, with teh other 3 having a navy border.

Heard that there was over 1400 hand made outfits sent to Joplin, MO for the First Day Project from many, many seamstresses in the United States. Shown above are just 16 of them.

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The week before, I made up some teddy bears for Care Alternatives...

6 Memory Bears

Like my sewing machine is constantly on the go.

Even when we were having a heat wave last week.

I kept on sewing on and on.

It was too hot to go outside.

And my air conditioner was on the go

As I sewed, ripped and stitched along...

Other Bears made up on another occassion:

2 Memory Bears: Added a mint green dress to the white bear from the 2 fabrics recieved for same.

8 Memory Bears: Two of these Memory Bears have T-Shirts. A special request. Made them from larger T-Shirts along with making up the bears themselves from denimum shirts. Have done up other Memory Bears that I didn't take pictures of.

Riley Marie's First Birthday Dress in the Works - All dresses lined with white fabric...

2011-05-30T09:09:00.000-07:00

TWO DIFFERENT VIEWS.

Still needs buttonholes and the final touches.

3 PRACTICE DRESSES

Using Ladybug Fabric

Ladybug fabric, pink trim & pink buttons & white rickrack

Ladybug fabric, 3 rows of rick rack on bottom of dress

Ladybug Fabric, contrasting bottom pannel added

PATTERN USED

McCalls # M6193

ASG Creativity Contest 2011 is Underway

2011-01-30T21:36:00.000-08:00

The Simplicity pattern selections have been decided for the 2011 ASG Creativity Contest for 2011. Below is a photo of this years selection. Remember that you don't have to be an ASG member in two of the categories if you are 22 years old or younger. There's a third category that's strictly for ASG members. Like most other contest, there's a nice selection of prizes for the winners, too.

The 2011 Simplicity pattern numbers are: 2284, 2286, 2287, 2288, 2293, 2453 & 2469. Thinking of entering the contest. Picked out a couple of the patterns and already ordered them over the internet.

Our local Walmart store did away with the draws and draws of patterns when they reduced the fabric and craft departments. Miss browsing through the pattern books there. Spend a lot less time there since then.

Anyway, the 2011 sewing contest is on. Go to American Sewing Guild . Look over on the side for a list of available departments and click on the one for the contests. You'll find this one listed there along with some other ones. After getting the info and the contest entry form, you can head over to Simplicity and place your order for your own choice/choices of these patterns (and view more of their patterns online) to get you started and on your way to creating your own look and entry into the contest if you don't have a local place for purchasing the Simplicity patterns.

I have a little bit more info on our ASG South Jersey chapters Neighborhood Groups website, the Whiting Stitch Rippers about this sewing contest if you want to check that out before going to the ASG website for the official rules and regulations and an application for same...

8 Memory Bears made up in December 2010

2011-01-07T04:51:00.000-08:00

The ASG Stitch Rippers made up 8 Memory Bears for Care Alternatives in December 2010.

2010 December Holiday Blizzard

2010-12-27T11:42:00.000-08:00

The snow drift in front of my walkway was close to 28 inches deep. To see more photos taken on December 27th, click here.

My Wine Glass Holder Necklaces took first place in a 2010 national sewing contest.

2010-11-14T06:51:00.000-08:00

Below says it all:

Dear Peggy:

Congratulations! Your National Sewing Month contest submission for a Wine Glass Necklace Holders has been chosen as the First Place Winner in the 2010 National Sewing Month Accessorize Your Life contest. The judges just loved your project! As the first place winner, you will be receiving a JoAnn Fabric & Crafts gift card, plus assorted goodies from our sponsors. Your gift package will be mailed to you within 2 weeks at the following address:

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXX NJ XXXXX

Congratulations again and thank you for participating in National Sewing Month.

Happy stitching!

Janice Blasko
Joyce Perhac

Sewing & Craft Alliance
http://www.sewing.org/

Margo Martin
Abby Wright

American Sewing Guild
http://www.asg.org/

For National Sewing Month
http://www.nationalsewingmonth.org/

National Sewing Month Sponsors:

V.I.P by Cranston
http://www.cranstonvillage.com/

Ghee's
http://www.ghees.com/

Kwik-Sew
http://www.kwiksew.com/

Edited

The Before & After: Cancer Cure Fabric Bags/Totes...

2010-10-16T20:23:00.000-07:00

When at a recent craft show, a lady asked me if I had any water bottle bags in the Cancer Cure fabric that I had on the Wine Bottle Totes, or if I had any more of that fabric to make 2 of them up for her.

The Before: Wine Bottle Tote

I told her that all I had was what was on display on the table. I would have to check at home and see if I had anymore of that fabric at home in my fabric stash. I suggested that she call me in a couple of days at home, which she did. It turned out that I didn't have anymore of that fabric.

I told her that I could convert 2 wine bottle totes into 2 water bottles totes for her, which I did, as shown below.

Two water bottle totes completed with attached mini totes & shoulder straps.

I cut about 5 inches off of the top of the wine bottle tote. I made the top section into a small tote bag. I did that by sewing across the bottom of the bag. Plus I cut the top handles off of it as seen in the photo below. Then I added some Velcro to the top part, inbetween where the old handles were as shown in the photo below. I set the small mini tote aside .

Old handles removed & Velcro added between them.

Next, I worked on the other half of the wine bottle tote, the remaining 9 inches of it. I finished off the top of it the same way that the wine bottle tote was made except, instead of putting the pair of handle straps on it, I put a 48 inch shoulder strap on it that ran from side to side of the bag. This was completely different than the pair of handles that were on the original bag. After that, I made up a small belt that I had sewn inside the bag to hold the water bottle in place.

The small belt holding the water bottle in place.

I went back to the mini tote from the top section and did some more work on it. I added a ribbon to the mini tote that resemble the cancer cure ribbon. When doing so, I also added a button to the part of the ribbon where it crossed over.

Then, I joined the two pieces together. Now, I have a water bottle holder with a small mini tote/purse on the front of it. I completely changed the wine bottle holder into another item, the water bottle holder/tote/bag.

The After: Completed water bottle bag with its attached mini tote.

NOTES: Actually, the mini tote section can be flipped up to cover the top of the water bottle. That is, if there is nothing in the mini tote, thus giving it another new look. If the mini purse section is left down, it could hold one of those Lazy Girl Designs Wonder Wallets or the like. A key chain holder can also be clipped to the shoulder strap, too, dangling on the outside of the bag.

The attached EMPTY mini tote flipped up over the top of the water bottle.

2 Bears

2010-10-09T12:02:00.000-07:00

Click on the photos to enlarge them. Then click on your return button to reduce them and to come back here.

Recently made up 2 Teddy Bears using McCall's Carol's Zoo Pattern number 5605. With this pattern you can make teddy bears 8 inches, 10 1/2 inches and 14 inches. The middle one, the 10 1/2 inch size is the one our ASG South Jersey Neighborhood Group, the Whiting Stitch Rippers, will be working with for making them up for the Care Alternatives hospice patients families. The pattern is very simple and easy to work with because it only has two pattern parts to it for making up the bears.

McCall's Carol's Zoo Pattern # 5605 used for making the bears.

Only 2 pattern pieces to work with.

The way that that works, one of their representatives brings us their hospice patients garment or clothing to make the bear out of. These bears will be faceless, with NO eyes, NO nose or NO mouth or the like. After the bear is completed, they come and pick it up and give it to their hospice patients family. That simple.

I had the honor of making up the first one for our group for them. But, before making up the first one for them, I made up one with some of my own fabric from my own stash. I used a fabric that had a black background with flowers on it in two shades of pink and yellow which also had green stems and leaves on it. The flowers looked more like drawings that resembled "eggs" you might say. I gave my sample bear some eyes using an extremely large black snaps and made it a white nose out of some white knit fabric scraps.

My sample bear.

When working with the fabric that they gave me to make up a bear from I ran into a problem. The fabric was thin and a stretch knit fabric, similar to a jersey fabric you might say. I changed my sewing needle to a ball point needle in my Brother SE350 sewing machine and still had the same problem. The fabric was getting stuck in the hole in the needle plate. Solved it by using coffee filters, the same ones I use when doing embroidery work. I doubled the coffee filters. After done sewing, I simply and gently tore them away from the back of the fabric.

Coffee Filters used for my embroidery work

Using the coffee filers when making the bear.

Since this bear was made out of really a plain white garment, I dressed it up somewhat. Was actually given two garments to work with. The second one was an extremely light mint green. I used that one to make a heart shaped applique out of that I had sewn on the front of the white bear.

I used the front neckline part that had some lace and embroidery work on it that I incorporated into the heart shape. It still looked plain so I made a skirt and a vest from the mint green fabric, too, that are removable.

I made up my own heart shape for the applique by folding a piece of typing/computer paper in half and cutting out the heart shape which became my pattern for same.

I didn't use a pattern for the skirt or vest. All I used were strips of fabric. I sewed a 6 inch wide by about 20 inches long strip together at their shorter ends. Then formed the casting for the elastic which I inserted using a small safety pin. I just ran two rows of zig zagging across the bottom which gave the fabric a finished fuffly edging.

Dressed up white bear.

For the vest, I used another strip of fabric, a little bit shorter in length. i cut a straight line for the armholes. Tried it on the teddy bear. Then, I cut the back part in half and V'd it with the shorter part of the fabric for the top neckline area. I French seamed it back together. Then, I simply made a small hemline going around all 4 sides of it. I added a small straight frog to it for a closure. Hand sewed that onto the vest. Then, the dressed up teddy bear was finished. The rep. just loved it when she picked it up from me. Usually the teddy bears are plain without clothing on them, but, this one might keep its outfit because of it being just so simply plain. Besides putting the Care Alternatives name tag on the back of the bear, I also put one on the back of the vest.

Care Alternatives label on the back of the vest.

The sample the rep showed us at our ASG NG meeting last month was very colorful, like my sample bear is. The fabric that the white bear is made out of is sorta stretchy, which made it a wee bit bigger than my sample bear after it was stuffed. You can see that, when the two bears are side by side.

The two stuffed bears, side by side...

2. Buttonhole Pillow - Pocket Pillow/ Sewing it together.

2010-09-12T18:54:00.000-07:00

You should have completed Part 1, Making the 2 squares before coming to this section. If you haven't, click here to go back there.

We are going to make French Seams that will look like Flat Felled Seams on the inside of the pillow with a row of stitching showing on the outside, about a half of an inch from JUST the top and bottom seams, but NOT on the side seams. When completed, there will be no raw seams on any of the 4 sides of the pillow, inside nor the outside of the pillow.

1. With the right sides of the fabric facing outwards on both of the fabric squares, pin across the top and the bottom of the pillow.

2. Sew about 1/4 of a seam across the top of the pillow on the RIGHT side of the fabric. Do the same across the bottom of the fabric, too. You are not doing anything with the sides of the pillow at this point. We are just working with the top and the bottom parts of the pillow.

3. Turn the pillow inside out to the WRONG side to now work on. Make another seam across the top of the fabric pillow. Repeat this step across the bottom of the pillow.

4. Your pillow should look like this on both ends of the top and the bottom on the WRONG sides of the pillow. This is as far as we are going to go when we do the sides, but, we are going to go one step further on the top and the bottom of the pillow to give it extra strength for inserting the pillow and for taking the pillow cover off of the pillow, which will be done in number 5. At this point, the sides of the pillow should still have their raw ends untouched.

5. Make the pillow look like a tube, with working on the WRONG sides of the pillow. Fold the loose hanging 1/2 inch seam towards the side that the button and buttonholes are on. Sew across and close to the ends of the seam.

6. Your seam should look like this on the top and the bottom of the WRONG sides. Click on the photo to enlarge it if you wish to get a better view. You can do that anytime to any of the photos to enlarge them somewhat.

7. Turn the pillow over to the RIGHT side. It should look like this going across the top and the bottom of the pillow. We are not going to do this step when we do the sides of the pillow, which are and still be raw and untouched at this point.

8. NOW we are going to start working on the sides of the pillow. With the RIGHT sides pf the pillow up, saw a seam down the sides, about 1/4 of an inch as you had done to the top and the bottom of the pillow in number 2.

9. On the RIGHT side, open up the buttons. Turn the pillow inside out to the WRONG side through the opened button area.

10. Check your corners. Square them off by either poking them out with a stick from the inside or GENTLY use your seam riper to do this step.

11. After doing that step, make another row of stitches down both sides of the pillow as you did to the top and the bottom of the pillow in step number 3.

12. Both of the sides and the bottom should look like this on the WRONG sides. Click on the photo to enlarge it if you wish to see a better view of it.

13. Turn your pillow to the RIGHT side through the center button and button hole section. The RIGHT side should look like this. Enlarge the photo for a better view by clicking on it if you wish to do so. Almost done.

14. Now, it's CLEAN UP TIME. Check to see of you have any loose threads or the like showing on the RIGHT side of the pillow. If you have any showing as I have, as showing in the above photo, GENTLY CUT THEM OFF with a pair of scissors.

15. You should have cleaned up any hanging threads and should end up with CLEAN EDGES all the way around the pillow. The pillow should look like this on the button and the buttonhole side of it. You can see that I left the pocket on this pillow because I have the pocket buttoned up. You can see that near the top of the photo, a few inches down and inwards, near the tip of the corner, near the edge of the long pointed pedal of the flower/leaves. The buttons are a brownish/green color that match the color on the insides of the pointed flowers/leaves.

16. The other side without the button or buttonholes should look like this.

17. I inserted the memory card from the funeral home of Ed into the pocket on this card. You can more or less put anything you want into the pocket and, then button it up, if it should have a button and button hole on it. Maybe even a tooth can even be inserted into it, for the Tooth Fairy to find? Or a special message? A love note? A holiday greeting? That is, if you left the pocket on the pillow, to make it a Pocket Pillow.

18. This is what the button and buttonhole side would look like when the pocket is buttoned up or there is no pocket on it at all.

19. This is what the other side looks like that doesn't have the buttons or the buttonholes on it. I didn't put any name tags on it or the like because I didn't want to take away for what this one was intended for, to be used as a

"Memory Pillow" for my neighbor. This pillow was made up from one of her late/deceased husband's Hawaiian shirts that she gave me to make this pillow up from, as shown in the top storyboard photo. Ed & Marie were married for 54 years before Ed passed away in December, 2009. That is why I made up this pillow for Marie and why it is so special for her, to cuddle up to when she goes to sleep, and for being on their Love Seat in their livingroom during the daytime.

The idea for this pillow came from The Patchwork Cushion Cheat Pillow which a friend posted in a Yahoo craft newsletter.

1. Buttonhole Pillow - Pocket Pillow/Cutting out the squares

2010-09-12T16:24:00.000-07:00

Storyboard of the Buttonhole Pillow/Pocket Pillow

Actually, either side could be the front or the back.

For the Buttonhole pillow, the one labeled

Back" is the "Front" and

Visa Versa for the Pocket Pillow,

as it is labeled above.

NOTE: The idea of making up this "Memory Pillow" came from:

The patchwork cushion cheat pillow

We started off with a man's shirt, size Large.

We used a 16 inch pillow, which is 40 1/2 cm

1. We buttoned up the shirt all the way down the front of it.

NOTE: I left the pocket on for doing up the Pocket Pillow. If you don't want the pocket on, remove it before doing this step for making the Buttonhole Pillow. In other words, removing the pocket is optional.

2. We turned the shirt inside out.

3. We measured down 2 inches from the edge of the shoulders, which is about 6 1/2 cm's on both sides of the shirt.

4. We drew a line across the shirt from the 2 inches we marked off in number 3 .

I used a regular pen because we're working on the inside of the shirt and these lines are going to be our cutting lines.

5. Because we are using the 16 inch pillow, we add an inch, which gives us 17 inches to measure down from line in number 4. Make several of these across the width of the shirt, and do same everytime we do such markings. This is about 43 1/4 cm's. Hereafter, whenever I say the 17 inches, mark of the 43 1/4 cm's inches.

6. Draw a line across the shirt, using the markings that you made in number 5.

7. Make sure that the buttons are closed and look even from the top to the bottom of the shirt.

8. We will be marking off the 17 inches across the shirt. To do this, put your yardstick at 8 1/2 inches on the area where the button was sewn onto the shirt. That's about 21 1/2 cm's. Mark both sides, at the end of the yardstick and the 17 inches. Repeat this all the way down the shirt where the buttons are sewn onto the shirt.

9. Draw a line down both sides of the shirt to the bottom line that you marked off in number 8. End each of the two lines at the line you drew across the shirt in number 6.

10. Now, you should have a square drawn on the shirt. Cut it out. Be careful and only cut this square from the front of the shirt.

11. After you cut out the front square, cut the back of the shirt out from below the back yolk and down the sides, at the seams as shown above. We are going to make another 17 inch square on this piece. To start off, mark 17 inches in several places down the shirt from the top edge of the shirt as shown above.

12. Draw a straight line across the shirt width where you marked off in number 11.

13. Draw a line down just one side of the shirt, with it ending at the line you drew in number 12.

14. From that line, the one you drew in number 13, measure and mark 17 inches across the width of the shirt in several places.

15. Draw a line down the length of the shirt from the markings in number 14.

16. You now have the three sides marked, the bottom, the right side and the left side. You should have a straight cut across the top from when you cut just below the yolk in number 11. Now, cut out the 3 sides. You now have your second square and are ready to start sewing away.

17. Go to the next step, which starts at 2. Buttonhole Pillow - Pocket Pillow/Sewing the squares together at

Part 2 - Completing the pillow - Sewing the squares together.

Pillow cover with buttoned up backs, the easy way.

2010-09-12T05:56:00.000-07:00

Came across this blog for making up pillow covers with button up backs backs, the easy way. This one you gotta see for yourself. Click here to see this easy button trick Going to try it and will post photos of same when I do so.

Teddy Bear

2010-09-02T00:06:00.000-07:00

Practicing on making teddy bears. This is the first one I made up. Used a McCalls pattern that was dated 1993 that only calls for 2 pattern parts. Patterns also for a rabit and a lamb also included in the pattern envelope. Have another McCalls pattern dated 1996 that looks just about the same and see that they have another similar one out at present. Might be making more teddy bears up in the near future.

Used the plastic eyes that have plastic washers in the back of them on the teddy bear. Made up the triangular nose from some black scrap fabric.

Made up a mini full apron for the teddy bear. The pine cones on the fabric are about the size of a penny. The background is a dark green with lighter green pine needles on it. Outlined the apron with white lace. Used white 3/8 inch wide ribbon for the overlayed and sewn on waistband along with using same for all 4 of the apron ties. Yep, used my Brother SE350 sewing/embroidery machine when making the bear and the apron.

Promised to make up a "Memory Bear" for one of my neighbors, Marie. She gave me one of her recently deceased hubby's sweat shirts to make one of them up for her from the garment. Will be putting a red heart on the bears chest with her hubby's name on it is the present plan.

There's a group called "Care Alternatives" that makes up "Memory Bears" for their Hospice patients. One of their reps will be coming to our ASG Neighborhood Group meeting on September 10th to talk to us about possibly having a workshop for making them up next month, October. They seem to have a McCall pattern that they use. Don't know if its the same one I used. Will find out on the 10th.

The Tomato Horn Worm & its Host.

2010-08-22T15:43:00.000-07:00

What do you know about a Tomato Horn Worm that has some white larvae on it?

Click here to find out what I recently found out about same. Here's one of my photos of what it looks like:

Drawstring/Gift Bags

2010-08-21T04:50:00.000-07:00

Made up 20 of the drawstring/gift bags as pictured above.

They're easy and very simple to make up. Used the French Seams on them. I botched up on one of the gambling bags. The side French Seam ended up on the outside, so I simply turned it into a Flat-Felled Seam by sewing it down to look like the seams used on the sides of dungarees.

The main difference between these two seams is that the French Seams are on the inside of the garment, not sewn down, and the Flat-Felled Seams are on the outside, and sewn down. They're actually done in different ways, too. So, my Flat-Felled Seam is actually a False Flat Felled Seam on that one bag, to confuse you moreso.

Sewing books, such as the Readers Digest Complete Guide to Sewing has step by step instructions with diagrams telling you how to make the two different seams up. This book even tells you how to do up the buttonhole pretty much the same way I did them up on these bags too.

I call that book my "Sewing Bible" and refer it it every once in a while when needed and not sure which way to make something up. My book of same is the older version which has the Tailoring section in the back of it. It's the 1984 issue, the 10th printing. The newer versions seemed to have dropped that section on Tailoring from the book to update the book to make room for the newer methods of sewing, like serging and the like.

Buttonhole-like buttonholes are done up by using the seam on this bag. An inch is left open in the seam, which is hand-pressed in that area and zig-zagged around the hole. When doing the French Seam and the Flat Felled seams that area for the button hole open has to be left open, too. I used straight pins to mark off the area for doing same when doing up those seams.

When using 2 inches for the casting for the ribons, shoestrings or the like, the buttonhole is just below where the fabric is folded down when making up the 1 inch buttonhole opening on same. So, the buttonhole opening is located 2 to 3 inches down from the top of the fabric.

A half of an inch is turned under on the folded down section when making the ribbon casting. I also ran a second row, which is an additional row of stitching across the top edge, sorta like you see on gathered curtains, with only about being about a quarter of an inch from the top edging. The bag instructions don't tell you to do that step. Just something extra that I did.

The fabric strips were 30 inches long by 14 to 15 inches wide (3 across the width of the fabric for 3 bags) which were folded in half to make squares. They ended up not being quite square when completed. Used a yard of ribbon for the drawstrings that were drawn through the castings with a large 2 inch long safety pin.

You can see the white stitches going down the side of the gambling bag (cards & wheels print) when clicking on the photo up above, to enlarge to enlarge it. That seam resembles the Flat Felled Seams that are used on dungarees. The gambling bag would be a great one for going to AC (Atlantic City, NJ) when one doesn't want to carry a large bag and just the bare necessities too.

Blackberry Quilts Blog: Scrap Bag Projects-Giveaway!

2010-08-06T09:54:00.000-07:00

Blackberry Quilts Blog: Scrap Bag Projects-Giveaway!

Sun Bonnet Sue Quilt in the making

2010-07-28T22:10:00.000-07:00

Completed the Sun Bonnet Sue quilt late Saturday night, July 31, 2010, just before midnight, like about 11:30 PM. Here's what the finished quilt looks like... In Storyboard form...

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Making the quilt

Attempting to make my second quilt. Making it up as I go along. No pattern or the like. Will also be for my granddaughter. Used Bonnet Sue ready made fabric squares that are 11 X 14 inches square along with two other printed design s on squares the same size.

The Bonnet Sue squares are yellow, green and red on a white background. Two different squares. One has a green dress on Sue and one with a yellow dress on Sue, with Sue wearing a red bonnet on both of them.

I introduced the pink/red/green fabric mainly because my granddaughter's bedroom is pink, so the quilt will match her room.

The other fabric, the yellow/green/red is similar to the fabric I used on the backing of the other quilt that I made up for my granddaughter, which was the first one that I ever made up, the Strawberry Shortcake Quilt Set earlier this year.

Click the link below to see more on the other quilt I made, the first one, earlier this year.

Link to the Strawberry Shortcake Quilt Set

I used the pink/red/green flowered print on the back of the Bonnet Sue quilt. In the photo below, the quilt's 3 layers are pinned together and folded up, awaiting to be quilted on my sewing machine tomorrow.

Still working on the quilt. Altogether, there's a total of 25 squares, the 11 X 14 inch size on the front of the quilt. It's present size is 52 X 70 inches square, with the back being just one giant square. I might be adding some rick rack or the like to the front of the quilt. Undecided at this point. Thinking of using it to seperate the different color schemes that I used on the quilt, like a color block or the like.

5 squares wide by 5 squares long = a total of 25 squares used on the front of the quilt. Only 4 across showing in the photo below. The unseen 5th row which is hanging off the table on the other side is the same as the first row which is hanging over the side of the table in this photo. If you go to the top of this post and look at the first photo, the photo shows the 5 squares going down the quilt.

Will be uploading more photos as I go along. Hope to have this quilt completed by midnight Saturday, if all goes well. I started making this quilt earlier this week, on Monday.

Monday - After deciding what fabrics to use with the ready made 11 X 14 inch Bonnet Sue fabric squares, cut out the 11 X 14 inch yellow & pink fabric squares.
Tuesday - Sewed the 25 squares together. In the evening went to Walmart's to pick up the batting for the quilt.
Wednesday - Cut up the 52 X 70 inch square backing. Pinned all 3 layers together, the front, the batting and the back. Had to trim the batting to size. Took the above photos. All of them, except for the Strawberry Shortcake quilt photo.
Thursday - Still working on this post, well after midnight. Still adding to it at 1:30 AM.

My two felines, Velvet & Sparky are behaving pretty well. That is, after I chases them away, several times, away from this sewing project. In the photo below, they're laying on the floor, side by side, like 2 well behaived cats...LOL.

Finally completed the quilt Saturday, around 11:30 PM, just before midnight. Here's more photos of it being made up and completed.... The cats were good. They didn't bug me at all, but my phone kept on ringing and I made the conversations short, saying that I was busy at my Brother SE350 sewing/embroidery machine working on the quilt.

For doing the quilting, used decorative stitch # 38, which looks like waves. You can see that in the photo below. Moved the needle to the center, which is the 3.5mm. Changed the stitch size to 2.5

Before running the rows of waves stitches horizontally, I ran rows of the wave stitches vertically where the fabric squares are joined together. These rows are about 9 or 10 inches from each other. Thus helped with holding the batting in place and preparing for doing the horrizontal rows of waves.

After that step was completed, did up my horizontal waves with spacing the rows 2 inches apart from each other. Did that by using a quilters guide that was inserted through a section of the foot that I was using, the "J" foot. This one didn't come with my machine. It's one that I had from another sewing machine. You can see it in use in the photo below. That's the thin metal gaget sticking out on the side of the machine. I had never used it before. I had to refer to my Brothers owners manual for inserting it into the foot. Was simple and easy to do.

First time for quilting this way and first time for using this gaget. When I did up the Strawberry Shortcake Quilt, the first machine quilt that I ever made, I used the fabric design on the back of the quilt for doing up straight lines of quilting. So, doing it this way, on my second quilt was a wee bit different.

Finally getting to the other end of the quilt with the rows of waves. Only about 3 more rows to go in the photo below.

That was a tight squeeze when rolling the quilt up to get to this point. You can see how I had rolled the quilt up in the photo below. It is loosely rolled up. Really need something to tighten up the rolls of fabric so they aren't as bulky when doing a quilt this size. I used hat pins on the Strawberry Shortcake quilt. This one is larger and bulkier. Right above it is the speed control. I kept on hitting that with my hand when guiding the material and having the speed change on me and had to move it back into position.

Now, all done with the quilting, the rows of waves that is. You can see how it looks in the photos below.

The front of the quilt.

The back of the quilt.

Next, I'm off to my fabric stash to look for some fabric to use for the edging.binding. Came across this fabric. It has a pink background with white flowers on it with a black dot in the center of it. I'm actually making this quilt up as I go along. No pattern and no instructions. Just using common sense...LOL.

Made up fabric strips 3 1/2 inches wide by the length of the fabric. This piece of fabric is a hare under 2 yards long. I then folded the fabric in half and pinned the strips lengthwise, with the right side of the fabric facing outwards. Then I laid it on the edge of the the quilt and sewed it to the quilt. Did that on the front of the quilt, the side with the 25 squares on it.

Next I turned the quilt over to the other side, the large pink square. I folded the fabric strip inwards and top stitched it.

Next, I trimmed the excess batting off of the edges. Did that to all 4 strips as I did them up. I also use this plastic container for the end threads that I cut off when sewing along. I also cut the corners off on the ends of the strips before folding them over, too.

It looked like this when that was done. Did this to all 4 sides of the quilt. Turned the ends under when going across the top and the bottom of the quilt. Just about done after doing all 4 sides this way...

P.S. Turned that gaget, the quilters guide, upwards because its not in use. You can see that sticking out near the upper part of the photo. Might just leave it on the machine and put it to use for doing other things up. That seems to be a handy gaget.

Overlapping the top binding strip after edges cut off. Really gives the quilt a squarred-off look.

The last step... Sewing the pink rick rack around the 9 center squares. I measured around them and figured out that I needed 140 inches of rick rack.

Found a light pink piece in my rick rack stash that was about 150 inches long. Put it to use and ended up with the ten inches of it left over. Below is a closeup shot of the pink rick rack.

Done, finish complete. Put the quilt back on the same table for taking more photos of it. It's overhanding on both sides. There's 5 quilt squares across/ horizontally and 5 quilt squares going up and downwards/vertically. Had to put the end leaf back on the table for the length of the quilt.. Below are photos of the completed quilt from different angles.

Should put it away and give it to my granddaughter for Christmas. She's only about 6 weeks old now plus she has the Strawberry Shortcake Quilt to use now, in the crib...

This quilt, the Sun Bonnet Sue Quilt, is for when the crib is converted over to the youth bed. They make them as 2 in 1's nowadays.

Used some of the photos from above when doing up the storyboard/collage of photos that's in the begging of this post. We'll might as well as end with it, too.

Short Kimono

2010-07-22T01:43:00.000-07:00

Recently made up a short kimono, Yakata style.

I only had 3 yards of the 60 inch wide fabric, so, couldn't make it the full length. This fabric came from Walmart's and was only two dollars per yard.

Of course, when cutting out the cloth fabric pattern from some of Walmart's a dollar a yard fabric, Sparky let her presence be known by becoming a weight on fabric pattern pieces.

Then, Velvet decided to participate, too. She became a weight on the fabric pattern when laying out the turquoise dragon printed fabric just before I started cutting away.

I had used one of the books in my collection of Japanese kimono books for making up the fabric pattern pieces, the center one.

1) Japanese Kimono Designs by Shojiro Normura & Tsutomu Ema.

2) Making Kimono & Japanese clothes by Jenni Dobson

3) The Book of Kimono, The Complete Guide to Style and Wear by Norio Yamanaka

I also checked out two patterns for making up the kimono. The Butterick pattern # 6698 is considered the modern "Western Style" kimono because it has the shoulders slanted and the armholes cut out, whereas the other one, Folkwear # 113 that I got from http://www.patternsoftime.com/ is a lot moreso like the diagrams for making up a kimono in the book up above that I used, which also told how to do it, step by step.

All turned out as I had expected, except for one thing... I only cut out one arm piece instead of two of them. I ended up salvaging the project by cutting the arm piece in half to make two arms, plus I used some matching binding on the edges of the sleeves so I didn't have to shorten them too much.

So, the shortie kimono has shortie arms, too. The main difference between the short Hapi Coat and the long Yukata Kimono is the collar. The Hapi's doesn't go across the body the way that the Yukata's does. I used my Brother SE 350 sewing/embroidery machine when making up the kimono.

You are looking at samples of the embroidery work done up on kimonos from book # 1 that's available at http://www.doverpublications.com/. Just put in "kimonos" at that website and the book will come up. People were crafty in those days too. There's a total of 60 kimonos pictured in the book for ideas of making up your own embroidered and traditional kimono of yesteryear. Some are really detailed and have lots of embroidery work on them. Some of the hand crafted designs have special meanings behind them which is explained in the book below each picture.

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This post on kimonos is linked to My Pattern Review on Kimonos

Heart Shaped Pot Holders

2010-07-05T06:43:00.000-07:00

Came across the link for the instructions for Martha Stewart's Heart Shaped pot holders on a Yahoo Group, the 25 weeks of Christmas site. Here's a photo of the first set of them that I made up.

The sunflower fabric that I used was in my fabric stash for many years.

It's the VIP print by Joan Messmore for the Cranston Print Works Company.

Margo on the go

2010-05-31T08:44:00.000-07:00

Click on the photos to enlarge them. Use your return button to come back here after doing so.

Margo, front view

No sooner was my first Margo finished off, she left home. That is, about five minuites after her completion. Margo stopped and posed for some photos before her departure. Margo moved across the street from me and went from her newer New Jersey home, in the garden state, down to Florida, the sunshine state, with her new owner, Mary, to visit Mary's sister in Florida the following morning, via airplane, like around 6 AM.

Margo, Back View

My neighbor, Mary, saw Margo in the making a few days earlier and fell in love with her. She saw Margo's LGD pattern illustration, too. That was even before Margo was assembled and completed. Then, Margo was merely just 4 sections, the front pannel with her two pockets, the back pannel and two inner sections with their strips of pockets. My neighbor wanted her. She also liked Margo's shoulder strap along with her LGD's pattern.

Margo in the making.

Margo's fabrics came from Walmart's a couple of weeks ago. The sunflower print is one of Cranston's VIP prints. It has a green background. Believe it or not, bought more from this fabric line over ten years ago, with different colored backgrounds. Also bought some solid colored fat quarters there earlier this month that I also used in making Margo up too. Something new, our Walmart's selling fat quarters....

I made some changes which are noticable in the photos.

1. When making 30 inch long handles, I had two fifteen inch strips left over. I put them to use rather than adding them to the fabric scraps pile. I gave Margo a top band.

2. Used 4 buttons for garnishing Margo. I used 2 smaller buttons for the centers of the 2 larger buttons. Put the bottons on the center top of both the front and the back of Margo. Used two different shades of yellow on the larger buttons.

3. Used the lighter button on the front to match the lighter colored rick rack that I have running down the front center and across the bottom of Margo. Also ran a row of green rick rack and a deeper shade of yellow, sorta like a golden mustard color on another row around the top band, which matches the other button on the back of Margo.

4. Instead of giving Margo a recessed zipper, I backed the buttons with Velcro for closing her up.

5. For the brown inner pockets on both of the yellow inner sides I used just one fat quarter. I turned the fat quarter oblong to do that. Made one side shorter. The side for the cell phone, pill bottles, keys, etc. The pockets on the other side are the normal regular length, which is long enough to hold a pen and other larger items. I lined the pockets up at the top when sewing them onto the inner parts. Also ran two rows of stitches across the bottoms so I didn't insert them into Margo upside down and so I knew their bottoms from their tops.

Margo Handbag, Lazy Girl Designs # 127, completed

Of course, before walking Margo over to Mary's house, I also showed Margo off to some of my other neighbors. Told them that Margo was already spoken for by Mary. Mary liked Margo so much that she, herself, ran Margo over to another one of her friends houses to show her off there, too, after her being in Mary's possession for only about five minuites.

Margo came out a lot, lot better than I expected her to come out, that's for sure. She was easy to run off on my Brother SE350 sewing/embroidery machine. Margo must have arrived in Florida by now, with Mary, as I post this entry into my blogspot.

For Dad - Wine Glass Holders

2010-05-21T13:14:00.000-07:00

Just one of many that have been listed on eBay, Etsy and Artfire under "Oceanpeg."

Dedication Ceremonies of the World War II Veterans Memorial Park in Whiting, NJ

2010-04-24T18:19:00.000-07:00

This has nothing to do with sewing. It has to do with my other hobby, photography and a dedication ceremony for our new Veterans Park. To view more photos of this historical event for our town, go to:

http://wwiivmp08759.blogspot.com/

It has its own blogspot because I took over 300 photos that afternoon, which I narrowed it down to about 115 photos for that blogspot. It includes an aerial demonstration and many of our past and present armed forces people in the photos.

Click on the above photo and the photos at the other site to enlarge them.

As you may have guessed, we're in the NJ Pinelands/Pine Barrens in southern NJ, Ocean County. We're above Atlantic City, NJ. Our largest local newspaper is the Asbury Park Press. I met one of their photographers, as both of us snapped off loads of photos, along with many other photographers from the different branches of the armed force services and other private citizens.

Wine Tasters Wine Glass Necklace Holders/Totes

2010-04-20T17:40:00.000-07:00

Click on the photos to enlarge them.

Listing my hand made wine glass necklace holder/totes over on eBay, Etsy, ArtFire & NJ ArtFire. Doing this up quickly because the ASG, American Sewing Guild's monthly internet meeting is about to start within the hour. So, just dropping off some photos of the WGNH/WGT's

Did up a special order recently, in pink dogwood fabric on the WGT's.

Another recent Special Order

I liked this Special Order so much that I offer it in some of my internet listings. I offer 24 different fabric swatches for them to choose to have their custom-made WGT's out of. Some vary somewhat from this selection.

Hafta pay for my Brother SE350 Sewing/Embroidery machine somehow......LOL This is what I do and what keeps me busy inbetween my regular sewing projects. Right now, having OFF SEASON SPECIAL SALES on them over the Internet.....

Strawberry Shortcake Quilt Set

2010-04-04T17:55:00.000-07:00

The Strawberry Shortcake Quilt really came out better than I expected it to look like when it was finished. My DIL really loved it. It was part of a set that I made and presented to her at the Baby Shower on April 3, 2010. I was a little late for it because I slept in. Was up unntil after 4 AM putting the finishing touches on the set, with making up the pillow last. Was supposed to have been there at 11 AM, but, was close to an hour late. All was forgiven, after they saw the hand made quilt set that I made for my granddaughter to be, who should be arriving around June 24, 2010.

Click on the photos for larger views of them.

Making the Quilt

The first step was to cut out the fabrics for the front and the back of the quilt. Squared them off to a little over 40 inches wide and long. Next was to cut the Batting. Had bought the precut 45 X 60 inch Morning Glory High Loft Quilters Polyester Batting a couple of months ago when I decided to give machine quilting a try.

Next step was to cut the batting to a 45 inch square. Then, pinned all 3 pieces together, the fabric front, fabric back and the batting. After that, trimmed the batting down somewhat.

Next step was off to my Brother 350 Embroidery/Sewing machine. Left the original foot on it that came with it. Ran a row of stitches around the outside parimiter of the fabric and batting square.

Then ran rows down the back fabric design, going from top to bottom every time, trying to keep inbetween the two rows of red stripes.

When getting past the six inches to hit the machine sides, it started curling up.

When it was about ten inches or so from the needle I started to hand roll it up and used a couple of hat pins to hold it in place, which I had to keep on doing.

It sorta looked something like a jelly roll you might say.

Straightened it out as much as possible, on both sides of the sewing machine, so I could follow the red lines as I sewed along. The machine quilting took the longest time to do. Everything else was a breeze.

I just ran strips around the edges, doing first the top and then the bottom. I added a row of pink rick rack when doing them up. When they were done. I repeated same on the sides. My baby quilt was done.

The bedding/crib skirt/duster

Then proceeded to do up the other parts to the bedding set. Made up the bottom ruffle/bed skirt. Used the Strawberry shortcake fabric remenant that was 4 1/2 yards long for same. Removed 1 1/2 yards and put it aside. Used 3 yards of stripping on each side. The Strawberry blossom fabric design ran sideways rather than up and down on the fabric, so the edging pieces didn't have to be pieced together. They were just long strips that I had hand pleated.

Rather than sitting there with a pair of scissors measuring and cutting the long strips, I just measured the side strip, 17 inches and tore it down the 3 yards of fabric. Did that twice. Once for each side. Spaced the pleats about an inch from each other. Didn't pleat all four sides at once. What I did do was to pleat each side individually, sewing them onto the center piece, the pink fabric with the butterflies on it.

I previously cut that part to the standard matress width and length for a crib and youths bed. After doing up both sides, I cut and tore the top and bottom sides from the 1 1/2 yards of fabric that I had put aside previously. Then, individually hand pleated them and sewed them in place.

I also hemmed each section as I worked on it. I hand pinned each hem with straight pins after joining them to the center butterflies fabric. Didn't join the 4 corners together. Finished off their edges and left them open. When doing my hand pleating and pinning the hems I sat in front of the TV on the couch, watching TV, and not at or near my sewing machine that sits on top of the table in the kitchen.

The sheets

There was nothing to doing them up. Made many of them up over the years. Making the sheets:

Just cut the corners out, sewed the sides together, did the casing/edging and added the elastic. That simple.

Made them the crib/youth bed size, 28 inches wide by 52 inches long for about 8 inch thick mattresses. Made the first one up from the pink fabric with the red butterflies on it. Same fabric I used on the bed skirting. The Strawberry Shortcake fabric has butterflies on it is how this one ties into it.

The fabric was about 44 inches wide. Used 2 yards of fabric for the length (72 inches) with the cutouts being 7 inches ( 3 1/2 inches cutouts) on all corners. Used 1/4 inch elastic, 24 inches on each of the ends. Didn't run the elastic all the way around the edges. Just ran the elastic across the top edges and about 10 inches down both of the sides. Did the same on the bottom half.

For larger youth beds, they'd have to be pieced. Measure the mattress and cut a piece of fabric out abou an inch longer and wider. Then cut and sew on about 10 inch strips to the lengths of each side and to the top and the bottom sections. Sew up the sides, make casing, add the elastic, with increasing the elastic length a wee bit more.

Used a different fabric on the second sheet that also matches the Strawberry Shortcake fabric that has flowers on it, not exactly the same as one ones on the main piece. Sewed this one up the same way that I did up the first one. Since the baby isn't due until June, I still have time to make up more sheets, too.

Laundry Bags

Next items were the laundry/single draw string bags. Made up 4 of them. Did up each one individually. Started these the night before the Baby Shower. Took me several weeks to get to this point.

Used a completely different fabric for them. I Frenched seamed the bags. Instead of putting button holes in the fabric for the draw string to come out of, I added other fabric strips to the tops of the bags. Each one has a different fabric strip/casing.

Plus I used 3/8 inch ribbons in place of shoe strings or cording on them too. Put a little tag on each one of them after inserting the items that were heading to the baby shower. Had other goodies to put in them too, including some stuffed animals for my granddaughter to be. Of course, my cat, Velvet, had to check them over..... More sewing instructions below.

The bedding set was in the one with the top fabric strip casing that matched the back of the quilting set. Still have enough of this fabric to make a sheet from same.

Lastly, the baby pillow.

That was the easiest and the quickest thing to do up.

I Covered up one of those 12 X 16 inch Fairfield Poly-Fill pillow inserts that I had bought recently for this sewing project.

The front of the pillow matches the Strawberry Shortcake fabric.

With the back of the pillow matching the fabric that I used on the back part of the quilt. Also have a 16 inch square pillow sitting on the side that I also bought that I still have to do up to match the set. That's another one of Fairfield's pillows.

My DIL at the Baby Shower

The first Baby Shower gifts that my DIL opened up were my four laundry sacks. The first one she opened up was the tallest one, which happen to be a large frog holding onto a smaller frog. I bought them seperately and used a large green elastic band to join them together so they appeared as mother and baby frogs. Both of them were green and yellow, which sorta made them a good match.

MAKING THE LAUNDRY BAGS

Sewing instructions for the laundry bags continued: Two of the laundry bags were about 30 inches tall, one of which just held these two frogs in it. It's at the fartherest end in the photos. The other two were just about 24 inches tall. Used the fabric width, 44 inches wide that was folded in half for the bags. The shorter 24 inch bags corners were squarred off to 8 inches by doing 4 inch cutouts on the bottom corners.

The 24 inch bags have mini plastic laundry bags in them for shaping the bottoms that are about 8" wide by about 11 1/2" long. They can actually be left inside those two bags and the upper sections hanging loose inside the laundry baskets to give them a covered look if left on a shelf or the like in the baby's room or can be used as large tote bags or grocery shopping bags as well as just plain ordinary laundry bags for the babys room.... Multi uses for them.

If you go back to the top of this, to the beginning, you'll see my DIL holding up the baby quilt, along with a photo of her with my son, who arrived later on to help load their car up and a cargo van with all of the items for their daughter to be, who will be my first grandchild.

A word from our ASG Princeton NJ (SJ) chapter

2010-03-26T14:42:00.000-07:00

We are going green.

This is the first time that I am sending everyone the newsletter through email, which will come to you faster, in color and it will save trees and the environment.

You will be getting a hard copy for now but my goal is that by the New Year we will be all green.

It takes a lot of time to pick up the newsletter from Staples, fold, label, sort by zip code and then take it to the Cinnaminson Post Office. It takes an extra ordinary amount of time which we all know is volunteer work. Please share the word with the other members of our groups that this is taking place.

Green by 2011 is my new motto.

Rose Wilkins

President of SJ / Princeton Chapter

American Sewing Guild

March 2010's recently completed sewing projects.

2010-03-15T05:45:00.000-07:00

Click on the photos for larger views of them.

1. Made up 2 of these table runners. Gave both of them to Marie. They match her chair pads, table mats, and her kitchen curtains.

2. Made 2 of these wristlet purses. Gave one to Marie. She was planning on putting her "Crumb Catcher" in the mini purse inside her larger everyday purse. The grape fabric was an eBay.com purchase. My YKK zippers also came from eBay. I buy them in bulk batches. Same with they keychain rings, which were another bulk eBay purchase.

3. Made 2 of these Traveling Kleenex covers. Gave one to Marie.

4. Made up 4 of these brown table runners. Center fabric from Walmart's. Edging fabric from eBay.com.

5. Made up 4 of the Santa cat table runners.

6. Made up 4 of these plain cat table runners.

This is the reverse side of the cat table runners. The front Cat fabrics from Walmart's. The back cat & fish fabric from JoAnn's on the internet.

7. Made up 2 of these Craft Aprons, Style "A."

8. Made up two of these Craft aprons, Style "B."

The difference between Styles A & B?

Style B (top photo) has two strips of fabric going across it for pockets.

Style A (bottom photo) only has one strip of fabric going across it for pockets.

Style B has 4 pen pockets.

Style A has only 2 pen pockets.

Both are about 12" long. Used the same fabric on both of their waist bands. Each of the waist bands were made out of 3 strips of fabric. Check fabric widths and lengths below for all. The smiley fabric has been setting in my fabric stash for years. Believe I bought it from Walmart's because that's where most of my fabric came from before going on line and finding all of the other places on line that sell fabric. The black and white fabrics also were in my fabric stash. The red fabric came from Fabric.com on the internet. Waistband fabric from Walmart's.

You can see where the waistband strips were joined together on each side of the apron in this photo because I used the white thread on the black fabric as a decoration. You can also see the wood grain pattern on the black fabric in this photo, too.

The pen pockets on on both aprons are about one inch wide and will hold both a pen and a pencil in each of the slots. This is shown in the above photo. The pocket below is holding 4" X 6" Post-It Matt photo paper. That's the print, peel and stick kind that comes in a pack of 25 of them.

I loaded the pockets up to the gills. Besides the 4 pen pockets, craft apron Style B has 9 other pockets. That's 5 of them across the bottom row with 4 of them in the row up above. Style A only has the 4 pockets with the 2 pen pockets on it. Yes, that's a Fabric.com yellow coupon in the top end pocket. That's where some of my fabrics come from, such as the red swirled fabric used on this apron.

Another feature that Style B has are two pockets that have Velcro on them for closurers on the bottom row. I bent the fabric down so you can see both the front and the back sections of the 2" strips of Velcro.

Making up these 2 Aprons you will need:

A= Waist band - 3 strips of fabric 5" long X 20" wide (regular), 22 " (XL), 24" (XXL) - folded in half lengthwise for each apron.

30" (regular) 32" (XL) or 34" (XXL) wide fabric strips in the following sizes in length:

(all the same width)

B & F= Body - 24" folded in half lengthwise.

C= Top Pocket - 16" long folded in half lengthwise.

D & E= Bottom Pockets - 12" long folded in half lengthwise.

After assembling the lower body parts before joining to the waist band, pleat the lower body part to about 18, 20, 22 inches. I space the 1/4 inch pleats about 2 inches from each other, with using 4 of them on each side, thus a total of 8 mini pleats on the apron. You will need about an inch on each side for joining the 2 apron back tabs to the main center tab and for sewing up the tie ends.

RECAP:

I'll do up tutorials with photos the next time I make these aprons up. The flat Waitresses Aprons are similar. They use fabric strips about half of the width of the strips that these Craft Aprons use for the lower body and the pockets without the pleats.

BROTHER SE350 USED

Used my Brother SE350 Sewing/Embroidery machine for making all of these up. Had no problem with sewing through the 6 to 12 layers of the cotton with the machine when making up the apron with the two rows of pockets on it. The 12 layers of fabric came into play when doing the edging on the apron. I used the foot that was on the machine when I bought it and didn't need a walking foot to do same. I also cheat and leave the same foot on when sewing in zippers. I just change the needle position to do same. Just love the machine's feature for self-threading the needle. It also has the capability of cutting the threads too. This machine seems to do just about everything you want and need a machine to do. The more I use it, the more I seem to be falling in love with it and really completely satisfied with this purchase..... Would probably be a breeze for doing up the Lazy Girl Design Wonder Wallets on it because that pattern calls for multiple thicknesses of fabric, and, after doing same with making up Apron B, this machine should be capable of handling the LGD WW's too.

American Sewing Guild

2010-03-11T19:56:00.000-08:00

Seeing that there doesn't seem to be an American Sewing Guild Neighborhood Group in Manchester Township, NJ, am interested in starting one up here in Ocean County.

The only problem is, finding other members of the Southern NJ chapter (Princeton) of ASG in Manchester Township which covers Manchester, Whiting and Pine Lake Park, with the zip codes of 08759 and 08757. Also notices that there's none listed for neighboring Toms River, zip 08753 & 08755, either, here in Ocean County, NJ.

American Sewing Guild

If by any chance you are a member of ASG in this area, or know of other ASG members here, please contact me or have them contact me so we can start up a Neighborhood Group. Click here to send me an e-mail

Crumb Catchers/Adult Bibs

2010-03-02T05:21:00.000-08:00

One Crumb Catcher/Adult Bib for coffee

And one Crumb Catcher/Adult Bib for tea.

I started making up the Crumb Catchers in the early 1990's for my terminally ill father. Have made up plenty more for other senior citizens over the years. I call them Crumb Catchers because of the pocket I put across the bottom of them. These adult bibs are actually reversible. The other side of the bib is the same as the pocket fabric.

Some senior citizens even have two Crumb Catchers. One for home and one for eating out, which includes me. I even carry one in my purse. Never know when one will be needed when out and stopping to and eat. Not unusual for some of my friends to do same, too. Some folks seeing us breaking out our Crumb Catchers in restaurants smile and chuckle. We, of course, say that we come prepared. They usually grin some more.

When making up the Crumb Catchers, I usually use different fabrics for them. Some folks even put in special orders such as the ones for a newly wed couple in their 80's that the coffee and tea ones above were made up for. They were the first Crumb Catchers that I did up on the Brother SE350 sewing/embroidery machine. All of the others were made on my older sewing machine. Another neighbor had me make several up for her with using a glittering gold fabric along with one that had a pink background with printed desserts on the fabric. Also made up some Crumb Catchers in silver, too.

Another neighbor wanted grapes on her Crumb Catcher. These were made up on my other sewing machine last year. I did up something different with hers. I made up a mini purse from the cutout from the neck area. Put a brass button on it along with a ribbon for a loop for the closeure.

The grape Crumb Catcher and mini purse.

Made up a matching mini purse out of the neck area cutout for the grape Crumb Catcher which is seen folded up next to it in the above photo.

The Crumb Catcher is inserted into the mini purse in this photo.

I've been thinking of makeing up matching Panty Purses for carrying the Crumb Catachers in. Both the Crumb Catchers and the Panty Purses are novelty items, and, will most likely go well together. If and when I do same, I'll post a photo of the set here on this blog.

Making Irish Panty Purses

2010-02-25T06:38:00.000-08:00

Getting tired of all of this snow we've been getting and thinking ahead to next month, to Saint Patrick's Day and have been inspired to make up some Irish Panty Purses.

Been snowed in a lot this month. Getting more of it right now while typing away. It started around 7 AM and it's now 9 AM and the snow is sticking to the ground. The trees are once again covered with snow. Twice this month our recycle pick up will be snowed out you might say. They pick up every other week, on Thursdays. So now there is a months of recycleing contents sitting in plastic buckets in the house. Will be housebound for another couple of days, so, I'll more or less be sewing away moreso, again, the same thing I did the last couple of times we've been snowed in.

Made up 3 batches of these Irish Panty Purses so far this month. Each batch consists of four of them, thus totaling a dozen all together. The reason I do up four at a time is because they need pieces of fabric twelve inches by ten inches to make them up. That's one third of a yard of material for each layer of fabric for making up the four of them. The fabric is about fourty four inches wide, so four will fit across the width of the fabric. The length of them is about six inches long, so, when doubling that, you end up with twelve inches for the length.

Most of the time I use 3 layers of fabric. The interfacing and the lining is usually the same fabric which more or less matches the outer fabric. This depends a lot on the tickness of the fabric. The two above with the white backgrounds are a thin cotton and did them up three layers thick, whereas the other one below is a thicker and heavier material, so it's only two layers thick. They are the ones in the panty purse tutorial from earlier this month.

Doing up the panty purse on my new sewing machine, the Brother SE350 is/was a breeze. Made a change on the pattern to overcome the problem with the eight inch zippers when making them up. Trimmed down the sides a wee bit at the top of them, which gives them a more defined angle on their sides.

Plus found out that the computerized sewing/embroidery machine has another built in safety feature. It lets you know when the bobbin is getting low. The machine kept on wanting to close down and turn off. Kept on over-riding that feature when just about finished with the fourth pair of panty purses. Believe it or not, only had about eight inches of thread left in the bobbin when the last pair was finished. That was really, really cutting it close to really, really running out of thread in the bobbin, that's for sure.

Using Coffee Filters on the Brother SE350.

2010-02-19T12:51:00.000-08:00

I like the way that the coffee filters came out a lot better than the paper towels did when using the Brother SE350. Really a lot neater and a cleaner looking back. Plus a lot easier for tearing away. I doubled up on the coffee filter. I really have enough of them to do that, with the 2 packs of 250 of them... Used them for backings on a craft cotton with embroidering 3 initals, an inch tall, that take up a wee bit over an inch wide when you include the spacing between them. They just about filled up the 4 inch embroidering area widthwise.

I broke another needle. This time I immediately hit the green button to stop the the machine even before the machine's safety notice came up . What happened was that I had the wrong size end cap on the top spool of thread.

The instruction book says to use a larger one than the spool size, which I didn't do. The thread got stuck in that little slant in the spool that it's in when you buy the spool of thread. That's exactly why they say to use the larger spool end cap. My error. For me, this is a learn as you go and a trial and error in changing over from a manual operating machine to a computerized machine.

Am running the machine now with a number 14 needle. It came with a number 11 inserted into it. Always ran my machines with the number 14 needle. Learned that back in the 1950's from my high school sewing instructor you might say.Either her or my mother. One of them taught me that little trick. If using a delicate fabric, I change the needle for that, or if using a heavy fabric, use a heavier needle. For everyday use on the craft cotton when working with the YKK zippers in the Panty Purses, I think the number 14 is a better choice. That might be why the first needle broke, because it was a number 11.

As for breaking needles, found out from some of my crafty internet embroidery friends that this is a common thing with them. They said that they buy the needles in bulk, a hundred at a clip. Guess I'm going to have to do that, too, for doing my craft work.

Update on the Brother SE350

2010-02-18T18:43:00.000-08:00

Today I tried out doing some embroidery work. I printed "Peggy Winifred" on some scrap fabric. Did it the real old fashioned way, using paper towls as a tear away backing. Worked out fine.

Someone told me to try coffee filters for the backing, so I ran out and bought some. Not a coffee drinker. Am a tea totler. I have a small metal measuring tape on my key chain that I pulled out and used to measure their width. Coffee filters, it turns out, come in different widths. The ones I ended up buying are circular, 8.25 inches in diamater, with 250 of them in a pack. Bought two of them because they were on sale, two packs for three dollars. Can't go wrong with that price, even if they're the store brand. I have 500 of them to play around with. Should last me a lifetime. Most likely cheaper and probably better than using the paper towls. Will let you know with the next post.

The area for embroidering that this machine does is four inches square. The embroidery hoop that came with the machine has about a 5 X 6.25 inch work area. There's a clear plastic grid that also comes with it that has holes in it for putting a ball point pen or the like, marking off the embroidering area and the center of the area. Of course, instead of using a regular pen you'd use a chalk pen for doing your markings. Put a coffee filter in the hoop. It just fits it with all four corners covered.

Have to watch and make sure that I buy this size again, if I ever run out of the ones I now have in my sewing notions stash. Better yet, are the ones for the electric coffee makers that are larger than these. No sense putting them in the kitchen with my other appliances there, because I don't have a coffee machine nor a coffee pot. If you get served coffee at my place, it's instant coffee.

Now, off to play with my new machine and the coffee filters......

Adding a wrist strap to the Panty Purses

2010-02-14T08:15:00.000-08:00

Wrist straps added to the above Panty purses.

This batch of Panty Purses (PPs) consists of 5 of them. Two red hatters, 2 with hearts for St. Valentines Day , and one with the white daisies on it. Have 3 more cut out and sitting on the drawing board of the one with the daisies on them to also do up this weekend. The ones with hearts on them I did up a wee bit different. I added a wrist strap to them. See the photos above to see how and when I added the wrist straps. Click on the photos to enlarge them for a better view of them.

That was simple to do. I used some cording to do that. The cording is actually a mini clothes line that I picked up in a dollar store a couple of years ago that I ended up adding to my sewing notions.

The only difference in making up these panty purses was that I added the strap to the PP by sewing it on between adding the trim and inserting the zipper. As you can see in photo number 1, I simply placed it on top of the trim and ran regular stitches back and forth over it. Didn't have to use one of those things that you use on the seams of Jeans or the like when sewing over the bulk cording.

The sewing machine didn't give me any problems with doing that step. The new computerized Brother SE350 sewing/embroidery machine and I are really getting along very well. It's doing what I've been asking it to do, without any problems.

When it came to the step where you trim the zipper overhang, I trimmed the zipper, the cord, and the lace trimming, all overhangs, all at the same time, as shown in photos numbers 2, 3, and 4.....

In the above collage of photos (storyboard), the bottom row shows the completed PP's.

Upgrading to the Brother SE350 Sewing/Embroidery Machine

2010-02-11T00:50:00.000-08:00

What next? Just upgraded to a sewing/embroidery machine, a two-in-one machine.

Found my Brother SE350 easy to operate after spending a few hours on it. The first thing that I used it for was making a batch of 4 of those Irish panty purses.

Found out that you move the sewing machine needle via the LCD screen. To move it all the way over to the right for doing 1/4 inch seams and for sewing in a zipper without using a zipper foot, I changed the number to read as number "7" as shown above. I used a number "3" stitch as also shown in the LCD pannel.

Also made another change. I like doing the back tracking manually rather than letting the machine doing it automatically. To make that change, I touched the upside down "U" with the arrow on it with my finger. Beforehand, it was outlined in black. Whenever you choose a stitch or the like, it becomes highlighted in black.

This machine allows you to use the buttons on the front of it when operating it, or you have the option of the foot pedal. I choose and used the foot pedal.

Now, I have to try out the other options and features on the sewing machine. It does one step buttonholes, which is the reason I originally decided to upgrade to this machine. My other one does the old-fashioned 4-step buttonholes. Not only does this machine do the one step button holes, it also does embroidery work, quilting, appliques and smocking too. Plenty of stuff for me to have fun with and to expiriment with.

Been sewing for around 50 years and never had a sewing machine with all of these features on it. Might try some of them. I always did most of those things the old fashioned way...... Oh, it also sews buttons on, too....

The red light comes on every time you lift up the pressure foot. When you back track, going in reverse you might say, the machine beeps, which you have the option to turn off.... Sorta reminds me of one of those big dump trucks. If you do something wrong, the sewing machine lets you know that by beeping twice....

It also has a safety feature built into it I also found out about when inserting a zipper into one of the panty purses. I use the plastic YKK type of zippers that you can sew over and through its teeth on. I use larger zippers and cut them down to size after inserting them into the garment or whatever, as shown in the tutorials on the panty purses, which is the simple way to insert the zippers. These zippers have metal stops at the bottom of the zipper, which the needle won't go through as it does to its plastic teeth. On one of the zippers I was inserting into a panty purses, this metal part came into contact with the sewing machine needle, and the machine wanted to shut down, as a safety precaution, which it stated in the LCD pannel.....

I eventuly found the machine very easy to operate, especially when doing up the fourth panty purse on it. Just takes time and patience, plus reading the operating manual and following their instructions. The DVD that came with it was also helpful, too....

Hopefully using all of the options and features are just as simple as the plain straight stitching and zig zag sewing are. Check back here every once in a while to see how I'm doing with my new machine and what I've made with it and what features I've used when doing same.

Part 3 - Making Panty Purses - The Finishing Touches

2010-02-11T00:01:00.000-08:00

Now that the trim is sewn on and the zipper has been inserted into the panty purses, the next step is to finish them off. This is quite easy.

STEP # 1

After inserting the zipper, turn the Panty Purse inside out. Sew around the edges and leave a section open in the leg area as shown in photo number 1. Back-track over the zipper area for extra strength for tugging the zipper back and forth when opening and closing the panty purse. Make sure that you slide the zipper pull towards the inner section before sewing around the edges. You don't want the zipper pull on the outer parts of the zipper edges when you cut them off.

STEP # 2

Now that that is done, it's time to do the trimming. Cut off the zipper overhang/hangs as shown in photo number 2. You should have moved the zipper pull to the inner parts and it should not be in sight when cutting the excess zipper tails.

STEP # 3

Next, trim all of your corners as shown in photo number 3. This will make neater points.

STEP # 4

Turn the panty purse to the right side by pulling it through the leg opening. It will turn just half way. You will have to slide the zipper the rest of the way open to pull the lining outwards. After doing that, sew the opening up. I did it with using zig zag stitches as shown in photo number 4.

STEP # 5

You are now done with sewing up your panty purse. You might want to extend the length of the zipper pull by adding a key ring, a key chain or a ribbon or the like, as shown in photo number 5. I added a key ring to this one. Plus I added the white crocheted ribbon applique decoration after the panty purse was completed on this pair of panty purse. It was an after thought.

Part 2 - Making Panty purses - Inserting the zipper.

2010-02-07T02:49:00.000-08:00

Adding The Zipper

All of your trim and decorations should be put on the outside sections of the purse before inserting the zipper. Your interfacing and lining should also be attached to it beforehand, too. We will call the printed fabric the front side and the solid green side the back side of the purse. Both the interfacing and the lining are the same pink and white print. To click on photo to enlarge it for better viewing, use the photo down below instead of this one.

INSERTING THE ZIPPER

1. Your zipper should be longer than the width of the top of the panty purse as shown in photo number 1 . Lay your zipper across the top of the front edge of the panty purse. Your zipper should have an overhang as shown in photo number 1. It is okay to have an overhang on the other side, too. Move the zipper pull and tab all the way to the edge of the zipper, completely closing the zipper up. Sew across the length of the zipper in the fabric area of it either with a zipper foot or by moving the sewing machine needle towards the zipper's teeth as shown in photo number 9. DO NOT use a metal zipper. The best kind of zipper to use is the YKK plastic zippers or other zippers with plastic teeth that you can run a sewing machine over.

2. Turn your zipper upwards as shown in number 2.

3. Bring the interfacing up to the top edge as shown in photo 3. This would more or less look like the wrong sides of the fabric. The right sides of the panty purse should be inside, bent in half and facing each other.

4. Flip your work over. Insert straight pins below the zipper as shown in photo number 4.

5. Sew across the top edge of the zipper as you did in step number one. Then zig zag the edges of the zipper to the edges of the fabric that is beneath the zipper as shown in photo number 5.

6. DO NOT TRIM YOUR ZIPPER OVERHANG/OVERHANGS AT THIS POINT. That will be done after the sides are sewn together, just before turning the purse inside out. Sometimes you can even get away without trimming the zipper edges off at all, which really depends on how much of an overhang you have.

Click on the collage/photos to enlarge them.

Adding the trim to 5 panty purses

Inserting the zipper

5 panty purses completed, front & back views. Note that the rick-rack and the zipper colors are the same on each purse, but different on each purse, so no two are exactly alike, the way an artist might make one of his/her paintings, thus, making each one sorta an "original."

HELPFUL HINTS

1. After the zipper has been sewn into place as above, make sure that the zipper pull and tab is pushed inwards past the edge of the fabric as shown in photo number 6. This is an important step. Sew back and forth over the zipper ends several times when sewing the sides together as shown in photo number 6.

2. After the sides are sewn together and partly turned, use your finger to push the zipper open to finish the turning so you can get to the inside lining to close up the unsewn section that you left open so that you could turn your work as shown in photo number 7.

3. Gently use your seam ripper for pulling all of your corners out for squaring them off when needed to do so. Also use it to straighten out both ends of the zipper after the panty purse is completed as shown in photo number 8.

4. Run 2 rows of stitching around the edges when sewing the sides up for extra durability. Check and make sure that the sewing isn't too close to the edges of the fabric in the area of the zipper along with doing the back tacking as shown in photo number 10 .

5. If you hate changing the sewing foot all of the time, you can cheat and use the regular sewing foot when inserting a zipper. Just move the sewing machine needle towards the zippers teeth as far as it will go, which should be about 1/4 of an inch as shown in photo number 9.

6. When sewing about 1/4 inch seams, instead of using your seam guide, just move the sewing needle instead, and have the edge of the fabric close to the edge of the pressure foot, similar to what you did when sewing in the zipper as shown in photo number 9.

Batch of 5 Panty Purses completed.

2010-02-07T01:46:00.000-08:00

You'll notice that the back and the front of the panty purses are completely different. I used a printed fabric on side A and a solid green fabric on side B. Actually, either side can be the front or the back, so, we'll call them sides A & B. I used the same fabric for the interfacing and the lining, a pink print that has white flowers outlined on it. I used 5 different colored rick racks plus matching the zippers up to the rick racks. Colors are: Brown, green, yellow, light pink and a medium pink. Click on the photo to enlarge it for a better view.

Part 1 - Making Panty Purses. The Beginning

2010-02-05T03:44:00.000-08:00

Today I'm working on making a batch of 5 Panty Purses. I'm doing them up like an assembly line, step by step.

Step1: PLASTIC CANVAS: Make up a template. Take the panty purse pattern and trace it onto a sheet of plastic canvas. Cut it out.

Step 2: WORKING WITH FABRIC A: Take the newly made template and lay it over a section of over part of the design on the right side of the fabric. Trace the template, but add 1/4 inch below the crotch area to make a seam line. Repeat this 4 more times, centering each one identically on the fabric design as you did to the first one. Cut all 5 out. Put aside. This will be the front of the panties.

Step 3. WORKING WITH FABRIC B: Make 5 panty pieces in the solid green fabric. Be sure to include the 1/4 inch for the seam allowance in the crotch area. Use a strip of fabric about 10 long by the width of the fabric. Turn the template sideways so you can get 5 panty pieces from the strip. This will be the back of the panties.

Step 4. WORKING WITH FABRIC C: Making 5 interfacing and 5 panty liners out of a light pink fabric: Use a second matching solid color of fabric about 12 inches by the fabric width, 42 to 45 inches. Preferably the same background color you used for Fabric A. Fold it in half to 6 inches by the fabric width. Using the template, trace 4 Panty Purses across the width of the fabric. You don't have to add additional for a seam in the crotch area because you folded the fabric in half, thus doing away with that seam. Cut them out.

Step 5. REPEATING: Repeat Step 4 with two more strips of fabric. You will need a total of ten panty pieces. Five will be for the pants lining and five will be for the pants interfacing.

Step 6. ASSEMBLING: Take one of the panty pieces made out of Fabric A and and one of the panty pieces made from Fabric B and sew them together at the crotch.

Step 7. REPEATING: Step 6 with the other 4 remaining pieces of Fabrics A & Fabrics B.

Step 8. PINNING: Pin one of the pink interfacing pieces that was made from Fabric C to the back of the piece made from Fabrics A & B.

Step 9: REPEATING: Repeat Step 8 to the other 4 matching pieces.

Step 10: RICK RACK: Adding the rick rack: Sew rick rack around the curves legs section of the panties about one inch in from the edges of the fabric. Do this to all 5 pieces that were sewn together with Fabrics A and Fabrics B, using different colored rick rack on each piece.

Step 11: MAKING SQUARES: Cut out 5 small squares from Fabric A in different areas of the fabric design.

Step 12: PREPARING SQUARES: Turn the edges under 1/4 of in inch on the fabric squares that you made in step 11. Either pin or iron the edges under.

Step 13: PLACING THE SQUARES: Center the small fabric squares from Fabric A on the green half of the pants made from Fabric B. Pin in place.

Step 14: SEWING THE SQUARES: Sew the small squares on the green Fabric B in place with a standard running stitch.

Step 15: BREAK TIME: Stop and take a break. We will pick up and continue with making the panty purses later on today or tomorrow. What you can do while taking the break is to get your ZIPPERS ready. Match them up to the 5 different colors of rick rack that you used. I used green, yellow, brown, light pink and a medium pink. All of which match Fabric A.

NOTE: If the fabric that you are working with isn't too thin, you can skip the interfacing and make your panty purse just 2 layers thick instead of the 3 layers thick as we did here. An exception to that rule is if you going to use your panty purse as your main purse, and want the extra thickness to give the panty purse the extra body weight. If just going to use your panty to put into a larger purse, with filling it up with some personal items you don't want seen when opening up the larger purse, just the two layers of fabric will do. Your option, of course.

Vintage Looking Panty Purses

2010-01-30T10:08:00.000-08:00

These Panty Purse really have a Vintage 50's look to them with the rick rack trim on them. The background fabrics that they are laying on are the same fabrics that I used for their linings. For their enclosures, I used white zippers that are going across the top of them.

The bottom pair has a removable wrist strap. When inserting the zipper all the way to one side, I ended up with a wee bit of a hole at the end of the zipper, so, I decided to add the removable wrist strap, which sorta fills up the hole..... I put a stop at the end of the wrist strap that's bigger than the hole at the end of the zipper. When centering the zipper, with an overhang on both sides, this small hole at the end of the zipper disappears......

Link to my NY Jets Undies/Panty Purse entry.

2010-01-30T09:47:00.000-08:00

Please vote for them at:
http://www.facebook.com/JandOFabrics

The voting is over. Didn't win, but, thanks for voting on them anyway. Didn't really expect to win. Was just the challenge that was entreating.

2 Panty Purses. One with lace on the legs area and one without lace on it. Size is about 8 inches wide at the hips area. Length is about 6 inches from top zippered area to the crotch area. Can be used as a cosmetic bag or the like in a purse. I also put removable white cord wrist bands on them for jogging or for quick trips to the store when just carrying a small business size/charge card size mini holder inside it. For decorating them, also use matching rick rack on some of them in the leg areas and a row of rick rack just below the zipper that runs across the top of the bag. For these panty bags used the NY Jets Official fabric with a matching white lining.

Undies/Panty Purses

2010-01-29T11:23:00.000-08:00

You've most likely heard of the Bra Purses, but, have you recently heard of the Undies/Panty Purses?

One of the craft groups I belong to started making them up, and, I joined in the fun of making them to my likings. Mine have a vintage look to them. Mainly because I put some rick rack and or lace on them. Some are plain because the trim would take away from the fabric design itself. Some even have removable wrist bands such as the one up above.

I even entered some Panty Purses into a craft contest that's being ran by J and O Fabrics over on Facebook. That's http://www.Facebook.com/jandofabrics Pop in over there and check out my undie/panty purses there. The craft contest requires that you use the Official NFL fabric of one of the teams of same on your craft item. I had some of that fabric from the NY Jets in my fabric stash and put it to use for same. On Facebook, I'm known as Peggy Cox over there.