Me-Made-May 2019 - Brigitte Scarf

I went away for the weekend, so I'm catching up with blog posts now I am back with my laptop again.

Day 3 of Me-Made-May I wore my Brigitte Scarf. A little head scarf that I made very shortly after I got my Tilly and the Buttons book (it's a Tilly and the Buttons pattern suprise suprise! ;) ) and it is the first pattern in there and brilliant for new beginners. It is also on her website as a tutorial, so follow the link above if you want to find out more.

I did this pattern just as a little something to keep my fingers busy before deciding what the next big sew was going to be. The fabric was from a scrap bin in a fabric shop near to my LYS, and I thought that the blue with little birds in flight was lovely. It seemed the perfect thing to make with it. The Brigitte scarf itself is very versatile as well. I have worn it in so many ways since I made it and I really do love it.

The fabric scrap wasn't long enough to make a scarf the exact same length as the pattern says, but I made one as long as I could out of the fabric I had. Fortunately I have a small head so there wasn't going to be many problems.

I wore this on the train journey up to London for the weekend and it helpfully kept my hair out of my eyes - and I have a lot of it!

Unfortunately I don't have a close up photo of the scarf, so you cannot see the stitching, but I did make some changes the following time that I made this pattern. This particular scarf when I turned the scarf the right side out, I ran a length of top stitching along the edge with the hole in it. It looks fine and when wearing the scarf it isn't noticeable, but for some reason it bugged me. I have a basic sewing machine, so I don't have any of the snazzy top stitch settings that some do, which would have finished the edge of this scarf off beautifully.

I did make a second Brigitte scarf, which you will probably see later on in the month, but for that one I hand stitched the hole closed in a way that hides the stitching from the outside, which I feel makes it so much better. But I am happy with this one! I will leave you with the picture from my Instagram stories for day 3, I also was wearing my Margot Pyjamas, well, because they are my pyjamas! ;)

My First Quilt

Font

A little while ago, I thought I would try my hand at quilting. As usual things like college got in the way, but I made the front of a quilt. I made the front out of a fat quarter pack that I got from Hobbycraft, and I created this pattern. Being the engineer I am I did a technical drawing to see how the pattern would look, and to use as a guide as I was making it.

I finished the front fairly quickly, and it got folded up and put in a draw for quite a while. Part of the reason was that I didn't have anything for the back - to be honest I hadn't actually thought that far ahead!

BUT! I did find a little while later another fat quarter pack (they were packs of six), that I figured would go with the front. Then I struggled with what to do on the back. Did I want another busy pattern like the front? Did I want it to be obvious that it was the back? Does the back need to be boring? I really didn't know. So that fabric sat in the draw with the front of the quilt waiting to be put together!

Back

I finally got around to making the back, I decided that as long as I liked the design on the front and on the back, who cared which side was which! The pattern was much more simple, but I think it looks nice, and was nice to sew together.

The next thing to figure out is how to quilt it all together. First of all I need to get the wadding to go in the middle. Which I'm still yet to do, and after that is done I can put a border around it and I will have finally finished it.

Then after this one, I may make another one!

Fat Quarter Bunting

As a little project for when the best friend came to stay - she had just got a sewing machine and she wanted to come and use mine to build up her confidence (it worked!) - We decided to make some very simple bunting out of fat Quarters.

This weekend the bunting I had made finally went up!

I do apologize in advance for the poor pictures in this post, it is really difficult to take good looking photos in a small attic room with bad lighting!

For the bunting we used six fat quarters, around about the size of a fat quarter pack, although some do only come with five. There are twelve triangles on my set of bunting, and from the same fat quarters we made another set of bunting.

To make the triangles we cut out a triangle template. The template would have fit on an A5 piece of paper, but you can make the template either larger or smaller depending on what size of triangle you want. Just make sure that your two long sides are the same length and then join them up at the top.

For the bunting triangle we cut out two sides which are then sewn together. We drew around the template eight times on each fat quarter to make four bunting triangles (one triangle for each side). This was done on each fat quarter. We then shared the triangles between two sets of bunting with twelve triangles on each.

The two triangles are placed right side together and pinned in place. Using a seam allowance of half an inch, sew along the two long sides of the triangle before turning it the right way out.

It is worth trimming the excess fabric along the bottom of the triangle before it is turned the right way out, this allows a much cleaner and sharper point. It can also be useful to use a knitting needle or a pencil to push the final bit of the point out.

Once all of the triangles have been sewn and turned the right way out, they would benefit from being ironed, which allows them to lie flat and look pretty! :)

To attach all the triangles together we used bias binding, as it can be folded over and sewn down so the raw edges at the top of the triangles are inside and hidden. The bias binding that we used was 25 mm thick and 2.5 meters long. The binding was from Hobbycraft and they come on a little roll, and one roll is 2.5 meters long, so to make two sets, we did use two rolls!

I rolled out the complete length of the binding, and started to place where the triangles would go. I marked the centre of the binding and put a triangle at half an inch from the centre, and another at half an inch the other side. Working out from the centre I was then able to fit all of the triangles on with a gap of an inch between them all. I then pinned them in place and ran a line of stitching along one crease in the bias binding. After that row of stitching I trimmed the edges of the triangles that stick up into the binding, making sure that they had flat tops, so I was able to fold the other side of the binding over and run a line of top stitching along it all to finish it off.

And there we go, fairly simple way of creating bunting! I was really quite pleased with the outcome, and you could make the bunting a lot more special by using scraps of fabric, perhaps some personalised birthday bunting with old baby clothes? Or you could create plain bunting and put letters on them to spell out a greeting or a name? The possibilities are plenty, and with a little bit of creativity you can create something very special, and personal!

Notebook Cover

It's been a long time since I last posted, and I really can only blame Module 11, it has taken so much work, time and effort, but I am pleased to say I actually passed it! :D

Anyway, I decided to make this little cover for a notebook or a book. I am always one for taking a book away with me, but it is always a little sad when you carefully put you book in your bag, only to take it out and it's managed to worm its way under everything, and bent the pages and now your water bottle has leaked all over it...
Admittedly this cover isn't waterproof but it can protect against most things!

The material I used I got in a fat quarter pack, and I used most of two of those fat quarters.

You need four pieces of material for the case, the width approximately 11 inches and 13 inches in length. I found folding a fat quarter in half along its long edge gave me the 11 inches before trimming the top down to 13 inches.

Two of these pieces will be the outside of the case and the other two will be the inside. Using a material in between the two materials can give the case more protection, but is entirely optional. I used some childs craft felt between my layers. It used two A4 size pieces, with a strip from another piece of felt to make up the width. If you are using felt, place the felt in the portrait position, with the fabric also in that position. There will be a gap between the felt and the top of the fabric, this is okay.

So we have four pieces of fabric and two pieces of padding. I started by laying two of the pieces of fabric right side together, then on top of that, laying one piece of padding. Making sure that the edges of all three pieces are lined up, I then made a seem with a straight stitch down one side, along the bottom and along the other long side, making sure to leave the top open. Then turn it the right way around. That is one side of the case.

I repeated that with the other three pieces of material, and I had two sides done. This is the point when I couldn't decide what fabric I wanted as my lining and what I wanted as the outside. Seeing as I had two halves with one side of each I decided to sew them together so each side was different.

I've got the two sides, and still the top is unsewn. I placed the two pieces right sides together (it doesn't really matter the way I did it, but if you want the inner and outer to be different then do!) and pinned them in place before sewing the two pieces together. Now this step can be done with a sewing machine, but my sides were very thick, and I didn't want to take much away from the space inside the case with seams. So I hand stitched around the outside. Admittedly this did take longer, but I think it was worth it.

Finally with the case mostly done, I just had to finish the top on both sides. I did this by folding the two rough edges inwards, and sewing a straight stitch along the top. Not forgetting to add a ribbon half way along one edge to be able to close the case.

There are a few different ways to secure the case shut, you could add buttons, button holes or loops to hold it shut, but I felt that a ribbon would be able to accommodate different sized books and notebooks that I wanted to put in there.

Also this case isn't just limited to books, it can be used for anything that would fit inside it that you wanted to cover!

I am sorry that I didn't take any step by step photos of how I did it. I can imagine that it could become difficult to follow. I am also aware that there might be an easier way to make this, so feel free to experiment and take away from this any ideas that you might have!!

Happy Making!

Plodding Along

This week has been somewhat a slow week in the factory of things. I've been keeping up with our new module at Flybe, and making stuff has taken a little bit of a back seat, but we'll get around that, I just need to get a move on!

Today I made some more progress on the Polka Dot Knickers! I got the elastic sewn in to the two legs and the waist band, although this is only the first bit of elastic sewing, so they look rather crumpled and will begin to look better once I've managed to do all of the top stitching.

I did actually start to do the top stitching on one of the legs, and it is a very long and fiddly task. I got nearly all of the way around the leg and then the bobbin ran out and I decided that it was enough for today!

I have also started another blanket for a friend, but I'm not going to post that one until it has been finished and delivered, he doesn't want to see it until it's done.

Hopefully I'll get back on track soon! xx

Polka Dot Knickers

One of my favourite Christmas presents this year was from Mr M's mum. Make your own polka dot knickers! Now I've made a skirt and done a little bit of quilting before, but never actually tried making knickers, or any kind of underwear to be honest. So this was one leap into the dark.

I've done my research when it comes to making clothes, it's been something that I've always had the urge to do, but never really got around to it finding all manner of excuses to not do it! But I have altered quite a number of things, luckily for this kit, you don't need too much experience, just a sewing machine.

In the kit is practically everything you need:

Fabric

Ribbon

Knicker Elastic

Thread

Hand Needles

In The Kit

Crochet Cherries

Pattern

Instructions

A Sticker for good measure (Mine went on my tool kit) 

What you also need but isn't in the kit is:

A sewing machine

Bobbin, you'll need to load the bobbin from the thread given in the kit.

Scissors, for both paper and fabric.

And as the instructions rightly point out, you're gonna need time and patience.

So to start off with the kit says to cut out the pattern from the paper. Me being me I didn't want to cut out the size of the pattern I needed, I wanted to keep the pattern for all sizes, so out came the tracing paper, and I traced over the small pattern that I needed. This did involve sticking two pieces of paper together - The A3 paper wasn't big enough!! 

Once I'd traced around the pattern it was then time to try and very carefully cut out the pieces from the paper, which was quite difficult, as I didn't draw my lines bold enough... Lesson for next time.

Now the pattern pieces are ready, I can then cut the pieces out of the fabric. Now there are a lot of different ways to cut the fabric. The suggested method is to pin the pieces to the fabric and cut around them. Being an engineer the amount of inaccuracy that can happen using this method makes me slightly nervous, so I tend to avoid this approach. The other well known way is to lay the fabric out, hold the pattern down with pattern weights and use a rotary cutter to cut out the parts. Now I don't have many snazzy things to make my stuff with, so I have come up with a way of doing it that is accurate and doesn't need many snazzy items. 

First of all, I iron my fabric so that it lays flat, creases and bumpy bits add to the inaccuracy of the size of the pattern! Then laying the fabric on a hard surface, I place the pattern on the top and draw around the pattern piece onto the back of the fabric. Drawing onto the fabric can be done with a tailor's chalk, but I just use a biro pen. Biro comes out in the wash and will draw easily on the fabric, win. win. 

When drawing around the pattern piece it can have a tendency to wiggle if you're not careful, this is where pattern weights can come in handy, not having any of my own I used a heavy gin bottle. Anything that is heavy enough can come in handy for this, even your half finished cup of tea! 

Once all the pieces have been cut out it is usually a good idea to iron out any creased bits if there are any.

Now, Let the sewing begin! 

The general steps is to match up the bottom pieces of all three parts and sew them together, the front and back pieces facing each other and the gusset. Then the sides get sewn together and you have what seems like a large pair of knickers! It's looking great already! 

The next part is the hardest so far. It's sewing in the elastic. The method of doing it is easy, it just takes some fiddly moments, and a lot of patience (and in my case swearing!). The idea is that you put pins in the elastic, so it is separated into four equal sections and the same is done for the leg hole (or waist)  and then the pins are matched up with each other and the elastic is pinned into place then, sew together. The first leg I was doing great with the sewing, until I found out that I'd pinned and sewn the elastic to the wrong side of the fabric... Great. So I unpicked the elastic and put the project down for the next time. 

So this is where this post ends, but I will finish these knickers off and post the rest of the making soon!