turkey feathers

Polka-Dots This Time

I'm on a roll with another smock finished! 

It's a reverse of the last one, same pattern.  From same re-purposed duvet cover.  Only I seamed up the back this time, and left an opening big enough so I can just slip this on over my head.  No elastic in the sleeves either, just left them loose.  I like how breezy and comfortable this is.  I'm imagining how perfect it will be for summer days spent in the garden or in the kitchen making jam. 

Or Poppy Seed Muffins . . . but I digress.

I love this type of facing.  Love it.  It's a facing and a bodice all in one.  What's more, trim, lace, or rick-rack can be added as you top-stitch it into place just by sliding it underneath as you go along.   Brilliant!

Garden Rhythm

Spring came bearing gifts this weekend. 

Sunshine and warmer temperatures being one of them, which was a wonderful surprise as we'd been expecting more rain.  Naturally, we dropped everything and bounced out the door.  The moment had finally arrived to spruce up the the garden and plant a few things. 

Birds like to plant things too.  So lovely to find little surprises like this.

To see the fresh glow of  little morning faces.

Buds on the crabapple trees ready to burst. 

The next sunny day may bring an explosion of fireworks. 

Freezer Paper Print-Outs

It's our turn to jump on the bandwagon with a few freezer-paper projects.  We made these t-shirts in preparation for a baby who is due to arrive in a few more weeks.  I guess we have bunnies on the brain with so many of them romping around the yard right now.  Plus the tags on these say, Rabbit Skins (from Dharma Trading Co.), so I guess that did influence our decision.   (If you haven't seen this technique before, Craftster has tutorials.) I prefer using the C. Jenkins 8.5 x 11 freezer paper sheets rather than the paper rolls from the grocery store though, mainly because you can feed these sheets into your inkjet and print any line design directly onto the paper.  This is great if you want to adjust the size as I did, but it can also save time if you're making many.  (Of course, you can trace designs right onto the paper too.)  Just a few more nifty uses and applications for the freezer sheets here; including printing directly onto cloth as I've done here. 

I'm probably the last one on the block to try this, though I've often admired quilts with old photographs printed onto the fabric and always wondered how difficult that might be.  It made me a bit nervous to tell the truth, but it worked fine.  I did have some ink smudges in places, so make sure your cloth is securely stuck to the paper before you proceed.  I used vintage pictures and photographs printed onto light-weight muslin that was trimmed to fit the sheet.  (After printing, let it dry completely before peeling off the freezer-paper backing.)  I imagine you could make all sorts of labels too.

I used a few as appliques on the newborn onesies I've been working on for baby grand-daughter #2.  She'll have lots of hand-me-downs from Sister, but it's always nice to have a few new things too.  Love how sweet these look with just a touch of blanket-stitching around the neck and a rosebud or bow, or in this case, the printed appliques.  (Used a tight zigzag machine-stitch all around the raw edges.  Close-up view.)  TIP:: For cotton knits use a peel-away iron-on stabilizer on the inside of the garment in the area you're working on.  It's also a little tricky keeping these onesies flat under the sewing-machine needle, requiring a bit of adjustment as you go along, however, not too difficult. 

Updated 4/29 to add:: I didn't use Bubble Jet Set, but did do a wash test on these printed images and had no fading at all.  I used an Epson printer, and their inks are made from permanent pigments, rather than dye-based types, such as the ones used by InkJet printers, which do fade and wash out more readily.  So in that case, you would need the BJS to preserve the ink longer.

Give and Take

I got busy and finished up the apron-smock. 

The fabric I used was salvaged from the same duvet I used to make the sewing chair slip-cover.  Now we're twins!  Can't tell where I start and the chair ends.  Scary. 

And I still have lots of fabric left, especially the polka-dot, so it's a good thing I really like it.  Perfect for making garden & kitchen smocks anyway. 

The smock is the same one I blogged about here.  But what's exciting is that Simplicity reprinted this pattern again as #2950 under 'Misses Retro Aprons'.  I was so happy when I found out (thanks again, Bethany), because the pattern I had (from 1972) was just one size: SMALL. 

Which no longer works for me. (ahem) 

I found the pattern online from the Simplicity website.  It is nice that they added the ties, which was how I always made this.  You can still seam up the back and leave an opening large enough to slip this over your head if you prefer to wear it as a top.   

I definitely need one of these in polka-dot now.   

Back on Earth

Sewing chair make-over.  Check. 

I'm so pleased with how this turned out.  It's basically two separate pieces slipped over the chair. The chair fabric underneath has a brushed nap to it and holds the slip-cover in place quite nicely, so no ties were needed.

Each slip-cover I've made has been a little bit different due to the dimensions and the hardware on the chairs.  The back-rest on this one was slightly wider at the top--so to mitigate that, I made a small drawstring casing to pull in the extra fabric around the middle.   It works!

I'm off to find more stuff to cover up now . . . including myself. 

With a new smock in the making.     

At The Helm

Next on my list of make-overs: my "Captain Kirk" chair. 

It's the chair I use at my sewing machine.   I've had it for ages and it's pretty comfy, but the arm rests need to go.  Removing them will make the chair easier to cover;  I won't have them banging into the table anymore either.    

As I was measuring the seat, I noticed it was about the same size as the back of the chair, only turned the other direction.  Saved myself a little time here with only having to make one pattern instead of two.  

This pretty paisley fabric was formerly a king-size duvet cover (IKEA 1999), that I bought last year at a flea market.   I couldn't resist.  It was a lovely 82-inches wide with no middle seams and a bonus polka-dot backing.  The very fact that they were red polka-dots sealed the deal.  Basically, just two large sheets sewn together, making it very simple to trim away the side seams, which is what I did yesterday.  Hope to finish it up today.  Will share how it turns out later . . .

 

Singing in the Rain

The rain has returned after a few sunny days of glorious weather. 

And with it the robins!

There's a flock of them stalking the lawn for earthworms.  I love watching them. 

This reminds me of a pair of wonderful needlepoint pictures I found at a vintage fair last spring.  At first glance, I thought they'd been stitched recently because they were in such great condition, but when I turned them over I found old crumbling magazine pages from the 1950's that had been used to seal the backs of the frames.  That means that they are probably about as old as I am!

These were likely made from a kit.  The birds are done in a petite-point, which allows for the finer detail.  Every stitch is perfectly done. (Click on the pictures to see the detail.) 

Having taken up needlepoint as a hobby in the mid 1970's, I can appreciate all the work that went into making these.   

And while on the subject of "work", I have here another office-chair slip-cover. The ruffle-foot did not work on this medium-weight upholstery fabric, so there was some fiddling with it as I did the gathering by hand--but it turned out pretty nice.   More pictures here. 

Sitting Pretty

I love kid-inspired fashion and had to share this brilliant combination that just entered the room. Credits go to::  Hand-knitted leg-warmers compliments of big sister (Grace), gypsy skirt and mod socks from Mini-Boden, tops from Old Navy.  All purchased at different times, for different seasons, but perfectly beautiful, and thoughtfully chosen for this chilly spring morning. 

More pretty things . . .

For ages, I've been thinking about covering up some of our office chairs and finally got motivated.  Finished this one for the sewing room yesterday and was so tickled with it.  This is essentially, a two-piece slip-cover made from a vintage percale sheet.  I'm on the prowl for more of these now;  have lots of chairs to cover, and as I've just discovered, they're perfect for this.  The skirt-bottom is actually the top part of the sheet, so no hemming required.  Used my ruffle-foot attachment (Bernina #16) to gather it all up (love LOVE that thing--saves so much time; remember it only works on light-weight fabrics though).  If you decide to do this, you'll have to do your own measuring, because office-chairs are different shapes and sizes, but I can tell you that a full-size sheet will provide the width needed to go all the way around the seat edge if you plan to sew this as I've done, with the hemmed edge at the bottom.  Leave a 4" space for the back brace; turn under the raw edge, then top-stitch.  I made paper patterns of the seat and back shapes as guides before cutting them out and used a little pink-piping on the back piece to provide color detail.  (Piping also helps reinforce the seams and gave this a nice upholstered look.) I think it turned out pretty sweet despite the fact that there was a large adjustment screw-thing right in the middle of the backside, which accounts for a little pull at the sides, but it's still a major improvement over its former life.