Attack my overlock

The biggest constraint in my sewing-life is sewing clothes! As a girl I learnt sewing from my mom and she showed me of course how to do clothes too. She has always made some for us and still does for herself. I have seen her doing it and doing it with her together and doing it alone with only her advice from the background: So theoretically I can measure out a body, decide how to chose the right size, prepare the pattern, cut out the fabric pieces, understand the explanations from the pattern book, sew together all the pieces in the right order .... yes theoretically!

In practice I didn't sew a proper cloth the last ..ähhmmm 10 years. Except some easy skirts and a vest that is okay, but isn't my style any more so I never wear it. In fact I stopped trying, as there has been frustration too often. But actually it would be very useful if I could sew things for me that suits me. I am very tall (1,81m) with long legs and even longer arms. I can't find a blouse with sleeves that are long enough - I wear them all as 2/3 sleeves. Jeans are possible to find in Jeans stores, but other trousers not. In France this is even a bigger problem than in Germany as here the average woman is much smaller than me. 

A year ago my husband bought me an overlock machine in discount, because he heard me complaining about I couldn't sew elastic fabric on my machine as it causes always waves around the seam. Very kind and I wanted really to try it out on some simple shirts or others, but I have been also afraid of the frustration and so since one year I only made some jersey loops and some very professional looking seams when turning a trouser into a skirt.

Now the excuses have to stop and I will try harder! Next week I will show you a pyjama trouser that I intent to sew (the fabric is already in the house since 4 month :-))

Today I got out the Overlock from the cupboard to up-cycle an old shirt for my son. Of course after I got all other excuses done - I even repaired the toilette flush, what normally I say is the job of my husband. Then finally after I ate half a bar of chocolate I felt brave enough. This came out. Nothing extraordinary but my boy likes it - probably because of the fire trucks.

This is the most nice fire brigade fabric I have ever seen. Unfortunately I bought only enough to make one loop for my son, who is the biggest fan of fire men. This are the last bits that I used for the shirt. I hope I will find some day more of it.

A bientot,
Jane

many many little fishes

... are now swimming on the duvet cover of my youngest.

One even made it to the pillow:

I cut them out of various cotton fabric bits to spice up a very boring blue/white striped cover. I glued them on with Vliesofix, for me the easiest way to fix parts for applications. They can stay fix even when you're washing them, but I don't want the fishes to fray, so I framed them with small zigzag-stitches. The eyes and the bubbles I fixed by quilting about 3 times around.

This is me on the living-room floor fixing the pieces with the pressing iron.

A bientôt,
Jane

St.Valentin hearts

Tomorrow it is Valentines day. It is not really a date that means anything to me. If my husband needs to be reminded for weeks by TV, radio, Internet and other advertises to buy a gift to show his wife that he loves her, it doesn't feel very romantic for me. So normally we are not celebrating that date, except that maybe I make a fancy cake or so. Just for fun and because my darling loves cakes and I like to make them.

But over the years I generated anyway some little decorations that lasted in our household. 

Several years ago I mad this two patchwork hearts from scraps. Now they are hanging together with a faded rose on the air exhaust beside the chimney.

Last year I took little stones and draw hearts with red acrylic paint on them. For each family member there has been one with his name on it. I put them for decoration in the middle of the table on a small linen (that's why it looks so crinkled, I tried to iron it!) table runner. Those pebbles stayed for some weeks as decoration and I guess I will get them out for tomorrow again.

I have an other house deco that has hearts in it. When I first tried to make garlands with triangle pennants I experimented a little with the size and form. I used an old white bed sheet and when I found my preferred form I quickly made some more the same size to see how they appear as a garland. For not wasting this example I applied some red hearts to decorate the boring white pennants. I found no one whom I could give this as a present, so it is now hanging in our bedroom between two roof beams.

Yeah, I am not the most romantic person in the world, but I wish you all have a Darling to think about tomorrow!

A bientôt,
Jane

Version 3 ?

Guess what I found in the web after I packed a parcel for my friend with the last writing case?

A very good idea of how to realize a case like that with much smaller risk that something might fall out.

This is the link (click) to the binder purse! Have a look! Isn't it great? Need to make this for Version 3 - ehhhmm - some-when in the future :-)

A bientot,
Jane
with something else than writing cases!

Writing case - 2. version

Over a week I have been looking at the writing case I made in January (watch here). I disliked it more and more! Especially the outlining seam has been very disappointing. It is not straight and the most annoying is that the tension is not equal: some stitches are tense and some are very loose.

After sewing some easy bags, I felt brave enough to think about a solution for this project again. I can't give something away that is not satisfying me. So for not disappointing my friend, who wanted the writing case, I had to think of something else. Friday night I had a new idea: It is not a real case, as it is not closed by a zipper, it is more an advanced folder, but for the beginning I am very happy how it turned out and this one I will send to my friend and see if she likes it. Maybe some when in the future I will attack again a version with a zipper.

For this one I took a normal folder and removed the clips/hooks. It is just the base for giving stability. I didn't use synthetic leather this time. It is cotton fabric with a light batting that's giving a little volume. It is to close with a velcro strip, that I added to a cotton belt.



Inside it has the same features like the first version. On the right side you can put either a block (opening in the blue horizontal line) or a college block (that can be slipped in from the left side).

In the middle there is a piece of belt where I fixed two elastic lashes to put pens in. This stripe hides also the holes where there has been the clip before and pulls the outside nearer to the folder, even when it's open.

On the left side one can slip in A4 papers under the blue and apple cover. The apple fabric forms a little pocket for smaller paper and there is a pocket for business cards also.

Even if it is still possible that loose pages and papers are falling out while you carry it, I think it will serve its purpose. I'll see what my friend says.

A bientôt,
Jane

Bag examples

As promised I looked in the photo archive to find some bags based on the method I showed in the tutorial yesterday.

For a Christmas marked I made a bunch of those simple bags out of oil cloth:

For Christmas I made this cow-bag for a friend. The body is made in the way I explained, but instead of two handles I added the flap, a zipper and a long handle to carry over the shoulder. Therefor you prepare all pieces: outer body, inner body with inside pocket, zip with a stripe of fabric added to make it larger, long handle and flap with cow imitating fabric (what is awfully slippery and I would never use it for me). Again you put the two body parts into each other and then you keep thinking while pinning all other parts in place. Sew around the top edge and turn the bag. Then you have the surprise moment when you see if everything is in the right place and if the bag is like you wanted it to be :-)

For this bag I tried an outside pocket that is over the whole side. On top it is closed by a zipper.

This is a little basket I made for a girls grocery store.

And this is already a year old: I made a boys bag for one of my sons. Simple with a flap that is closed by velcro. There is a little pocket on the back outside too.

You see who completely different bags can be made by one simple pattern.

A bientôt,
Jane

Little bags tutorial

Not that the internet is not full of free tutorials, but yesterday I made photos while sewing a bag to show the mom of a friend how easy it is to sew bags. As I have already those photos I will show them here as well and give a short explanation.

These little bags are very useful, to take small things with you, kids like to put in there preferred toys when going to visit someone, you can put a present in and take it as a wrapping, ...

First you chose your fabrics. Something that took always the most time for me. You will need two fabrics: one for inside and one for the outside. I normally chose one that is a little thicker or has stability by itself, so it will stay open, when you set it down. I made them already from oil cloth so they are water resistant and easy to clean.

You have to cut two rectangles in the same size from each fabric. You will also need two strips of about 25 to 30 cm length for the handles.

I wanted to make a children's bag and my rectangles are squares with 30cm side length.

Normally I take them 33cm wide and about 36cm high. The minimum width is 22cm. I used this for the small bag in the last post and I wouldn't suggest to make them smaller!

Prepare your fabric pieces. If you want to decorate them or add a little pocket, do it now.

Put the fabrics with the right side together and close 3 sides. Leave the top side open. Debaste the edges.

Now you have to fold the sac so that one side seam is on the bottom seam. Mark a line rectangular to the seams. The line is as long as you want the bags bottom plane to be wide. I normally take 10cm. For the small one from the last post I chose 8cm.

Fix it with pins and sew along the line. This you have to do 4 times to form the bottoms of the inner and outer bag.

Cut off the triangle that you separated from the rest of the bag by the seam and debaste the edge.

Should be looking from the right side like that:

You now have to sacs.  

Put one into the other so that the right sides are facing each other. I put always the sac with the thicker fabric in the inside.

Fix the sacs together with pins, so that the side seams are meeting each other. Add the handles between the two layers also. The opening of the handle (where you later have your hand) should be about 7cm.

Sew the sacs together leaving an opening of about 10 cm to turn the bag. While sewing it works well to have the thicker fabric on top, as it lays better flat. When having the light fabric on top the foot of my machine often pushes a fluffy wave that becomes later an unattractive plead.

Turn the bag and sew a complete round on the upper edge of the bag closing the opening at the same time.

Now your bag is ready! Mine can be used in two ways depending which fabric you want to be outside.

For me this method is the basic to form bodys also for other bags. You can vary for example the handles to only one long handle to carry over the shoulder. You can add a zipper to close the bag or a flap. Tomorrow I will show in a new post some of the bags I already made by this method.  

A bientôt,

Jane