WALLET TOTES

Having finished the quilt, I decided that I would take things a little easier and go back to trying out bag patterns.  This turned out to be a really good idea.  I had pattern for a two tone tote from one of the free sites which I had just the right fabric type and colour for.  I cut it out and virtually had it done in a couple of hours - this is a record for me, a personal best - and I had used the electric machine! The bag was finished the following day and given to my Aunt to use on her holiday this week. Needless to say, she loved it!

       I didn't take photos as I went along because I was 'in the zone' and on a mission to get it done.  
      Plus my antiquated mobile doesn't take them and there wasn't anyone around who could.  
      Must get this situation rectified!  Here are the two bags done.

So now bereft of any projects, I sat with files of patterns to select my next one.

I found this project - Wallet Totes - again from one of the sites I trawl and thought (in a moment of insanity) that it would make a good project and give me some more practice of working with zips. I have made two Kennedy bags (see previous posts) and they had zips, I have also made a quilted cosmetic bag but really, three zips done; more practice required.

So I spent last night selecting materials, finding zips and cottons and cutting out.  As it was still relatively early, I then put three bases together to the zip part and then did one, just to try it. Success so far.....  I also managed to find hubby's phone and took a sneaky photo just as I was about to start sewing........

The zip sewing took a little practice - the first one zip I sewed I sewed too close to the teeth and then couldn't fasten it up.  I unpicked the zip but unfortunately there was not enough of the pink material shown in the photograph above to recut the bottom pieces so I now only had two examples cut....

I then managed to sew the second one - the pale blue one - inside out (!) and due to the weave of the fabric, I couldn't unpick it without spoiling either the zip or the material.  I was getting really frustrated now so I switched off the machine and went to refill my cup.

Taking a deep breath, I began my final cut example.....  They say thrid time's a charm and it was!  It went really well.  The zip around the whole bag bottom went so much better than I had expected - still not completely happy with it as there is a little 'pleat' near the zip head when the bag is open.  However here are the finished photos of the bag; closed, outside and inside.

I now have a few more larger zips where I need to work out how much larger I need to cut the base - I can hear you groaning from here, stop it!! I know maths isn't my strongest subject but I think I can so this...  The finished bag is a little on the small side, but my Aunt (my bestest 'customer') loves it and uses it to carry books in when we find them on our travels......

bag fully closed

bag open - outside

bag open - inside

Bottom's Up

I have for some time now, wanted to re-cover the seat and back of my chair.  I 'inherited' the chair and it wasn't in a particular good condition then but over the years, the seat had slowly become more thread bare and the material on the top edge of the back was getting very thin also.

I found a pattern for a slip cover and put it to one side with a view to doing at some point when either I had to or finally had the time to do it.  I knew that I would need time to think about how I was going to do it as the chair I have is very different to the one shown on the pattern.  Let me explain......

'Normal' typing chairs have levers underneath the seat where the user can adjust the height and position of the seat along with maybe another for the position of the backrest.  However mine is slightly different - see photo.......

The seat does indeed move up and down but there is no lever; there are two 'locks' either side of the seat and they are quite bulky.  The pattern I had was for a slip cover which effectively had a drawstring type of fastening which, on examining my chair, would not work with my design of chair hence the reason to have to think about the pattern.

So, one rainy Sunday I bit the bullet and sorted through the (many!!!) boxes of material I had and came across a piece of heavy cotton which had a design in the middle I felt I could 'fussy cut' so that the design was centred on both the seat and the back rest.

I needed a pattern so began taking the chair apart so that I could (hopefully) remove the remains of the existing cover as a template.  I couldn't work out how to remove the seat pad from the seat. Several attempts, scraped knuckles and after I had unscrewed all the visible screws and getting nowhere, I finally lost my temper and 'attacked' it with a very large screwdriver.

Instead of it breaking or chipping, the seat unclipped.  What a surprise!  There are four clips which grip the metal edge of the seat in strategic places on the seat.  Well this was now so much easier!!!

The original cover had been stapled onto the seat pad and so again with the screwdriver, I attacked the material which, was so badly worn, came out of the staples very easily.  I then realised that the seat pad was really thin at the front of the seat.

Along time ago, my Mum wanted to recover her headboard and bought some material which I guess is used by upholsterers to use for this very purpose; it is heavy duty material which is difficult to cut, does not tear and is quite thick.  She used it very successfully for her project and I thought that I could use some of the remaining 'hoard' to re-line the seat.  So I found a large enough piece and cut a pattern wisely marking the front of the piece so that I didn't make a mistake!

     Readers of my blogs will already be familiar with previous lessons learned - pins and 
     soft tissue do not mix, care required when counting (especially quilt squares), placement 
     of  embellishments (especially close to the seam) and obviously checking you are sewing
     the correct side to the correct side so that your final piece isn't inside out!!!

I then checked that this piece would cover the whole of the pad with sufficient spare material to be 'gripped' by the seat/pad.  There was so I then used this template to fussy cut the top material.  This particular part of the project was the most frustrating.  I eventually pressed a cross in the middle of the material where the middle of the cross was more or less centred in the middle of the design and tried to line it up with the middle of the head boarding material.  I think I did a pretty good job when you look at the finished cover, but it was pretty tense in my sewing room..........

With the use of my recently re-found stapler and spray glue, I managed to recover the seat.  I was really very pleased with the result.  With that done, the back was a breeze!  I followed the same process and again used the spray glue and stapler to fix the material to the rest.

I borrowed my daughter's iPad in order to take the photos.  Unfortunately the lighting in my sewing room isn't studio quality and that's why the colours look different on both parts.  I can promise that they are from the same piece of material and the seat in the photo here is the 'proper' colour.

Not bad, even though I say so myself.  Feels much comfier too with the additional 'padding'.

I then stated that the chair my husband uses at work was in more of a sad state than mine had been and so I asked him to bring his chair home the following weekend and I would 'overhaul' his too.  As you can see from the photos, it should really have been condemned to the skip!  Nevertheless, I washed it (which made a HUGE difference), and then used a piece of upholstery fabric to recover the seat and back rest.  This time the seat was screwed to the base of the chair and so I had to also then remember which screws went where when I put it back together again.

This is the seat pad - or should I say what's left of the seat pad!!!

Finished chair.  Another project which success relies on the choice of fabric.

Hubby is really pleased - especially as the additional padding means that he can't feel the ridges of the seat base!

First Quilt (proper) part 8

HOOOORRRAAAYYYYY

Yes its actually finished.  I finished yesterday (Sunday 15 March).

To be honest I had been putting off the binding as I just couldn't get my head around the mitering aspect.  I have watched video after video and even tried it out on the sample mug mats but even then, the corners didn't look right.

The weekend was going to bad anyway as it was the anniversary of losing my mum and Mother's day so it was going to be a toughee!  However, there was also two hockey matches on - one Saturday, one Sunday - so I decided to bite the bullet and use them to my 'advantage', take my mind off my troubles and just do it.

I made the binding on Saturday.  I cut 3" strips which I then folded in half and then folded the edges into the middle making one side a little wider than the other (tip from one of my videos).  You will know - from previous blogs - that my maths isn't that hot (72 squares etc etc....!) so I didn't bother measuring the entire outside of my quilt to make sufficient binding, I winged it.

The binding was placed to one side and I again trawled the net for alternative methods for finishing my quilt along with any other binding 'how tos' just in case.

Sunday came around and I set my stall out......  computer loaded with Miss Marple stories on CD, angle poise light correct positioned, Lucy freshly oiled and loaded with a full shuttle bobbin and three spare (just in case) and the obligatory pint of coffee.

I set off pinning the binding to the back-side of the quilt but then realised that I didn't need to do this as the raw edge of the binding ran along the edge of the quilt.  This saved time and fingers being pricked.  Lucy 'chomped' through all the layers and the stitching was just right.  I followed the instructions for the mitred corners and was pretty pleased with the back.

When I reached the beginning of the binding (the other end) I trimmed off the excess - like I said, maths not my thing - there's loads of binding left!! - and managed to make quite a neat little join.

The problem started when I got to the first corner on the top side.  There was far too much binding!  I couldn't understand what had gone wrong.  I had followed all instructions even to the point of slowing the video and practically going frame by frame so I didn't make a hash out of it.   Pointless!!

Anyhoo, after quite a lot of folding in and folding in again, I managed to get them something like but not even close to a mitre.  They are neat (I think) and tucked in, not ruckled or anything but not what I wanted.




Needless to say, my first quilt is done!  This is the view of the back and closer view of the stitching in the ditch .....

 IF I ever decide to try another one, I will find a pattern a lot easier to do and chose something other than denim to make it out of.  Mind you, for now, I'm gonna quit whilst I am ahead and get back to some 'quicker, easier result' projects and I already have a list!

First Quilt (proper) part 7

When I wrote my last post, I was undecided on how I was going to quilt it and the colours of the thread I was going to use.  Well, as a sort of 'practical distraction', I went to meet a lady in the village who is part of the Buttercross Needleworkers group and spent time discussing quilting/sewing etc and she gave me a couple of ideas which I hadn't even considered.  So now, fully inspired I wanted to start straight away on my quilt......  Unfortunately being Saturday afternoon, everyone was in the house and I needed space (to lay out my quilt) and quiet (so I could talk to myself in an attempt to believe I could convince myself that what I doing was doing was going to be ok).

Eventually, Sunday afternoon came around, Hubby and the kids were waved off - ice hockey match in Peterborough -  and after cleaning up, setting off the coffee maker (knew I was going to need a few pints!!), washing the kitchen floor and then accumulating everything I would need, I began assembling my quilt.

The first thing I needed to do was iron the backing which I did and also used some spray starch so that it would firm it up enough to hold its shape whilst I set about the pinning marathon!  I then also sprayed the backing - once dry - with Gunold KK 100 temporary adhesive spray and laid the wadding on top of that ensuring that there were no 'bubbles' or creases in it.

That done, the last step was to lay out the denim top and pin like it to within an inch of its life!!!  Half an hour later, I must say that I had had enough!  My knees were cold - from kneeling on the kitchen floor - and my back ached - from being in the same position - and I had lost two nails down to the quick :0(              However, I had half of the quilt pinned and stabilising pins on the other half so that the layers didn't pull away from one another.  I really couldn't do any more pinning but felt that half the quilt could be sewn and that would help me pin the other half but not so rigourously.

Whilst the quilt was laid out I took the opportunity to trim the spare backing/wadding but not too close to the edge of the denim just in case.  I had some spare denim squares which I had decided I was going to use to trial the different and new - thanks to my chat with Chris - ways to quilt my project.  This done, I pinned two squares to the spare (still having a little left and adding this to my 'stash') and placed these on my machine ready.  As this seemed to be a natural break, coffee-time ensued.

Having had a pint cup of coffee, I carefully carried the quilt into my sewing room and set about organising it to accommodate the large (goodness me it was big and heavy!!!) quilt I now needed to sew. All my sewing boxes were placed above head height, laptop moved, other stuff also moved until I had a clear desk and area to the left of my desk. I then trialed the quilting ideas.


Although I quite liked the 'X', I realised that there would be a lot of ends to deal with so, I plumped for method 2 - square.

I then felt that I could possibly 'get away with' only sewing every other one but would check out this when I had two rows done.  Happy that I had made the decision and that the choice of black thread would work on both sides, I took a deep breath, put the Agatha Christie tape in the machine, pressed play and began to sew.

The sound of the machine was interrupted scarily regularly with the sound of pins dropping to the floor and the occasional 'ouch' from me as a pin stuck into my more softer and delicate parts!  (Note to self - must get some proper quilt pins if I am going to do another one).

Lucy (my hand-crank) was coping admirably with the sewing but I was struggling with the turning of the bulk of the thing (this is fast becoming a thing!). However with a few of the squares quilted I was really rather chuffed with the result.

A decision was made there and then, rightly or wrongly, that I would quilt each square rather than every other one.  I know I will live to regret this (and my boobs are feeling sore just thinking of more pins) but I am secretly enjoying this part of the project.  It will though be the first and last quilt I make like this.................

Well, I have managed to take a break from the quilting just long enough for one of my daughters to take a photo of the mess I seem to have created.  Yes, there is a sewing machine in there somewhere but not me!  I have also rethought the pinning and have pinned each centre square only.  Much better!

Updates to come - sooner I think rather than later.... :0)

First Quilt (proper) part 6

Well, thanks to the Sheffield Steel Dogs who had a game yesterday, I was able to check out my quilt 'strips' on the wadding/winceyette and the Ikea lightweight tog quilt to see which of the two 'paddings' I am going to use as my final (final) 'quilt'.

Well the Ikea solution sounded good but in practice the outer fabric, I don't think, will last very long before it's torn.  The fabric seems to be similar to a lightweight interfacing material and, although we won't be playing tug-o-war with it, I don't think it will be long before repairs will need to be made or  (even worse), another quilt for the underside!! lol groan!

Therefore I will be using the wadding/padding I got from my trip to Hobbycraft as I was correct in thinking that the seams would be too 'uncomfortable' without it and I am also going to be brave, bite the bullet and sew all the rows together first then sew all three parts together.  I haven't decided what colour thread to use yet as my denim is mainly blue (doh - obviously) but the backing has a cream background with pictures of black animals all over.  (see photo right)


As there is quite a lot of sewing to do not to mention the quilting part (!!!!), I will pin everything down within an inch of its life and any bits I have to 'trim off' will be used to sample thread colours both top and bottom of the quilt.  That way I will be able to work out what tensions to use them under (if they are different makes) and also check out the finished look before I commit myself 100%.

Initially I thought, to be on  the safe side, I would 'stitch in the ditch' for this one as it is my first and there is so much 'faff' on the top side anyway.  However, I wasn't counting on the number of seams on the reverse of the topside and the many different ways that they lay.  Stitching in the ditch has now now been ditched (! pardon the pun) and I will have to rethink how I am going to quilt it.

As a final decision hasn't been made on the colour of the threads I will use and I know that I will be trimming off some of the winceyette/padding, I can also trial quilt using some of the odd pieces of denim I have left to experiment with the quilting.   I think I may also revert back to using Lucy - my hand-crank - as she really doesn't care what I throw at her, she just sews!  The hand control will be better at a slower speed even though I will only have one hand to guide the whole thing through the machine.  This is the theory - practice may be different and I may stop with the electric one.... will let you know.

Who knew there would be all sorts of decisions to make - thought it would be just sew and go!  Yes, I do know what thought did, thank you!  lol

However, there may not be another post for quite a while now as I can see these last two stages taking a lot of my early mornings up.  Wish me luck................................. :0)

First Quilt (proper) Part 5

Well, I am getting there - finally!  Made up the deficiency in numbers - 72 squares out - boy not really a deficiency is it?  Nearly another quilt - lol!

Anyhoo I have begun to sew my squares together.  Following advice from web-buddies on 'sewmamasewcircle', I am sewing rows of single squares and then sewing these single rows together.

I have also broken out the electric sewing machine too.  It is so much easier having two hands to guide the material through.  I won't become a convert though, I still love the sound of my hand-crank and love the control it gives me.  I can see the benefits of the electric one though and won't be so reluctant to use it in future - we all have to move on eventually or we get left behind!  Gosh, hark at me!

Apologies for the blurriness of the photographs - hubby did these on his phone - kids out and needed the photos now before I continued with the last single rows to be sewn together.

Now all I have to do is to decide whether to 'quilt as I go' or sew it all together and then quilt it.  Really not sure as this is the first quilt I have made and it is sooooooo big and going to be so bulky.  I was advised to maybe not put any wadding in between the top and backing layers. However I think this may not be an option as the seams on the denim are quite thick - don't want to sew it and then find that the seams are uncomfortable.

I will have to wait until the next ice hockey match to put the quilt together and pin it so I can see how much there will be to sew if I go with the wadding - I need the front room floor to spread the materials out.  Hey ho!  Updates to come..............

First Quilt (proper) Part 4

Well, I feel like a right muppet!!!

I had the afternoon all to myself last Wednesday, due to there being an ice hockey match on, so I thought I would have an hour or so with the squares I had been making for my quilt, the piece of fleece I have for the backing and arrange the squares into some sort of 'random' pattern.

I spent time ironing all the squares so they would lay flat, then moved the furniture around in the living room so I had sufficient floor space to lay out the backing piece completely and then began laying out my lovely piece of fleece.

I have already spent time (it seemed like hours) squaring each individual piece into a 6" square using my rule and rotary cutter but I am really pleased with the result and the iron just made them seem even better.  Once all were ironed, I had a huge (or so I thought) pile of them and took them into the room.

I took the squares and laid them into rows of 9 - not really taking any notice of the evolving design as I knew I would be 'faffing' with it later.  However, when I had laid all my pieces out I realised there was quite a lot of the fleece piece still visible!!  With a heart wrenching thud, I realised I was several squares short of my quilt!

This is not a euphemism but went some way to describe my mental state at this point as it was soon plain to see that it was more than just 'several'; in fact I was 72 squares short of a quilt............... gggggggggrrrrrrrrrr!!!! I was sure that I had enough to start stitching together....  How had I made such an error?

Needless to say I am now cutting more parts and sewing even more squares...........  Thankfully, as the pattern is random, I can use different pieces of 'odd' denim and other comparable fabric to continue the theme as some of my 'original' pieces have been used up.

Who knew I would not have enough squares?!

Note to self - measure, measure and then measure again!

Anyhoo.......... pictures to come when I can cajole one of the daughters to take them for me. Watch this space.........

Well pictures as promised.................... 

These are some of the squares already sewn - they still need to be 'squared up' and then, when I have made up my deficit,  the second marathon sew-in can start; sewing them together................  Looking forward to it.  Roll on the next hockey match  ;0)