Slow Progress

I'll post pictures of our Halloween costumes on my blog, as long as my computer holds up.

I basted Seth's quilt on Monday. Basting is when you temporarily sew or bind something so that you can sew it the way you need. For a quilt like Seth's you simply want to make it so that the three layers stay in the same place relative to each other. There are a few ways to do this. If you are hand quilting, you can use the traditional way, a quilting frame. I find that quilting frames take up way too much space, cost a lot, are hard to store, and I'm not a big fan of hand quilting anyway. If you are machine quilting there are a couple of ways you can baste your quilt. One way is to use spray adhesives, something that I have never done, although I have some and plan to try it some day. Another way, the way I use is to lay the quilt out on the floor and pin it with large safety pins.
When I baste Bailey's quilt, I'll post a tutorial.

Dirndl und Lederhosen

Willkommen in Deustchland!

Last year's (and consequently this year's) costumes were really difficult for me. Why? because there are no mainstream patterns for Lederhosen and dirndl. I couldn't find any patterns for Lederhosen, even when I searched in German. I found a couple for dirndl, but they were really expensive. For each costume, I basically had to make my own pattern:

Lucy and Abby's were the easiest. I started with this:

and ended up with this:



all I really had to do is create the design on the front of the dress. I added the embroideries on the aprons this year, as I now have an embroidery machine!

Mine was harder, but not as hard as the Lederhosen. I started with this



I used this pattern (the white one in the back) because the bodice was fitted the right way and it had the neckline that I needed, although I had to modify it, to be lower. To create the waist I just cut 5/8 inch below the waist line on the pattern. The skirt was just three rectangles that I cut and then sewed onto the bodice, gathering at the top.



The shirt pattern had to be modified to, as it was, it showed a little bit too much skin. I might use a different shirt pattern this year, if I have time to do it.

The result was this (I'm thinking about adding embroideries to mine, but I haven't found the right one yet. I don't think the pattern I did on the girls' will work on mine. I'll post new pictures if I do it.)



The Lederhosen are not made from leather, although it would have been fun to learn to do the leather work, time and especially money greatly hindered that idea. Luckily I found some cloth that worked perfectly on sale!

Here is what I started with:


I literally took measurements off the picture, which I got off the internet and printed out. I then used some of my awesome math skills to figure out how big I should make the different elements of the Lederhosen. I used a friend's embroidery machine to make the designs on the pants. I used thread close to the same color as the cloth to make it look like the designs had been pressed into the leather (from a distance, it works). Most of the lederhosen I saw in my research either had green embroideries or designs formed in the leather. The only thing that I regret about these lederhosen is that the front pieces are only decorative. I never got the chance to look at a pair of lederhosen up close, so I couldn't figure out how to make the front peice properly, so I opted for the easy way out. The basic pants pattern came from pajama pant patterns.

I ended up with this:

Here's Bailey in his costume (from last year):

I'm really excited to create six new costumes for next year. We are already trying to hash out plans for them, but you won't find out until next Halloween what they are!

Halloween and Christmas

I'm still working on Seth's quilt. Mostly, I need to take the time to clean the floor in the kitchen so I can get the quilt basted so that I can stitch it together.
I've got two costumes to make for Halloween, we are going to do the same thing we did last year, because we are in a new place, and I don't really have time to make six costumes from scratch this year. Lucy will be getting a new dress (dirndl) and Seth will get a little pair of lederhosen. Last year's costumes should still fit the rest of us.
I've started working on Christmas presents, they are simple, but fun, and I can't post them until after Christmas, I wish I could. Jamie is even going to attempt to sew something, it should be fun! Wish him luck.

Baby Quilt

I finally finished all of the squares for the baby quilt! It shouldn't take me very long to get it sewn together, but getting it quilted will be a different story... If you look close enough you can see what we are going to name the baby.

Nursing Covers

I'm of that age where everyone around me seems to be having a baby and many of those women are choosing to nurse. I love nursing, but was always frustrated by needing to nurse in public. With my second child I practically gave up on trying to cover up because she would invariably pull the blanket off and I'd be exposed anyway. When I had my third baby, a friend of mine had one of these nursing covers. Another friend got me started making them. I love this nursing cover, and they are super easy to make.

Materials

• 1 yard of cloth of your choice, woven cotton, or woven cotton poly works best


• 2 ea. 1 or 1.5 inch D-ring


• 16-18 inches of boning, I usually buy Ridgelene, Walmart doesn't have it, Hobby Lobby does, as does JoAnn's, any local cloth store should have it
  


• thread to match the cloth

Equipment

• Sewing machine that can at least do straight stitches, zig zag is useful if you can find one with zig zag, I recommend using a machine with decorative stitches because it adds a fun touch.


• Scissors


• Iron


• Ironing Board

1. I usually wash and press cloth before I do anything else with it. It allows the cloth to shrink before you try to form it into something. I've also had a tight schedule and haven't done this. Fabrics are made so well today that I'm not sure how much you really need to do this, but old habits die hard.

2. Fold the cloth in half with selvages together, right sides facing each other. The selvages are the sides of the cloth that are specially woven so they won't fray. The right side is the side you want facing out in the end. Iron so the fold is nice and clean.

3.Cut a 3.5 inch piece from the side of the fabric (not the selvage side). This will be the strap that goes around the neck.

4. Fold cut piece in half. I'm going to call this the strap from now on. Pin it and press it.



5. Sew the strap the long way using a 5/8" seem allowance.



6. Attach a safety pin to one end of the strap. Feed the safety pin through the strap, pulling the cloth behind it, and turning the strap right side out.



7. Pin the strap so the seam is on the side, press.



8. Zig zag, straight stitch, or fancy stitch down both sides of the strap.



9. Cut a 3-4 inch section off the strap.



10. Feed this section through the D-rings and straight stitch as close as you can to the D-rings.



11. Center the boning on the large piece selvages of the large piece of fabric. Mark on the fabric where the edges are.



12. Roll up and pin the long strap piece (this keeps it from getting in the way while you sew).



13. Open the large piece of fabric and pin the long strap and the D-ring strap to the cloth where the marks from the boning are.





14. Fold the cloth back, right sides together.

15. Pick a side of the cloth and mark where you would like an opening left. Do not do leave the opening on the selvages!!!!! Make the opening about the same size as the width of you hand, maybe a little bigger.



16. Pin the edges together.



17. Straight stitch with a 5/8" seam around the edge of the cloth, making sure to now sew the opening and that the strap pieces are sewn into the seam.



18. Melt the edges of the boning, this keeps the plastic from sliding out and poking through.



19. Cut the corners of the cover. Turn the cover right side out, poking the corners with the lid of a pen to force them into a nice 90 degree corner.

20. Taking the boning, push it through the hole to the top of the cover. Pin it in place between the straps. I usually pin directly below and at the very ends of the boning. Boning is very hard to pin through.


21. Pin the rest of the edges, being careful where your opening was to make it look like the rest of the cover (i.e. the amount of cloth folded inside should be 5/8". You can press at this point, avoiding the boning side as boning melts easily.

22. If you choose to Zig Zag or Fancy Stitch the edges, just sew right through the boning. If you run into problems, you might have to change needles, but most sewing machines should be able to do this. If you straight stitch, you can sew right though the boning, or you can sew directly underneath the boning and then go back and stitch at the ends. This creates a 'pocket' for the boning to be in. This is also an option if you can't get your sewing machine to stitch through the boning.

23. Roll the end of the strap over twice, using about 1/4" of fabric for each roll. Straight stitch the roll so it doesn't come undone. This is also called clean finishing.

24. Celebrate!! Because you just made a great nursing cover.

Machine Quilting

I've never really liked the look of tied quilts, even though it is fast, easy and popular, it just isn't something that I am drawn to. I went to duvets for a while to avoid tying the quilt. Bailey's and the baby's might end up being duvets, but I really want to quilt the girls blankets. I know that hand quilting isn't going to work for me, unless I can start and old fashioned quilting bee and have my friends over once a week to work on it. Any takers? So, I settled on machine quilting to make the quilts. I've done some machine quilting before. Here is an example:



It's a doll blanket and pillow that I made for my niece. This style is called stitch in the ditch. It is the "easiest" form of machine quilting. You just stitch along the lines that were created by straight line seams. Of course, in this case I cheated and used a preprinted quilt top.

I checked out some books at the library to see if this is something that I really want to do. "Machine Quilting" by Sue Nickels and "Easy Machine Quilting" by Jane Townswick. So far, they look like really good books (I read the reviews on Amazon before I checked them out, which always helps). I doubt now that I will get the girls' quilts done by Christmas, but I should be able to get the baby's and Bailey's done. I guess the girls will just get bedding and their pillows for Christmas. I think that is something I could get done. Besides, the pillows I want to make will give me some machine quilting practice.
The first thing I discovered was that I needed to replace all my presser feet. I lost all but my button hole foot and my standard foot a few years ago. I've been meaning to replace them, but I haven't really had a reason, until now. I also really want to get a walking foot, because they look cool and might make this whole adventure a lot easier. I'll just have to see how much one costs. Maybe I can sneak in a rolled hem foot too, we'll see.
Until I get those feet, I guess I just need to work on the quilt tops. I have about half of the squares for the baby's done. I guess that I will start on Bailey's after that, if I can round up what I need.
I haven't got my plans finalized for the quilts yet, and doubt that I will draw a plan for the baby's since it is so straight forward in my head right now. I will post the plans as soon as I can.

Quilts for kids

So, my first big project for are quilts for the kids. Lucy got a big girl bed about a month ago. Abby has been sharing a room with her brother who loves animals, she is a little starved for something pink. Bailey has always wanted a quilt with animals on it (currently he has one that is just bamboo print, I think it looks really good in his room, but alas he wants one with animals). And for me, I want to make a quilt for the baby that matches the animal stuff we already have in Bailey's room. Currently, I'm making drawings of what I want to do so I have plans. I'm not a very good artist, but it gives me a blue print. I'll post them as soon as I get them done. My goal is to get the baby's done by the time he is born, and the other three, I hope to get done by Christmas. It will be fun to decorate the kid's rooms over Christmas break. Don't you think?