Sometimes it is possible to whip up a quick something just before Christmas…I’ll have to back-to-back posts (I hope) about sewing for the holidays that include this tutorial on zipping up a quick gift bag and, next, the wonderful York Pinafore pattern from Helen’s Closet patterns.

I needed the Queen Sized sheet so it would be long enough for the red Luxe that is so silky soft. That meant I had quite a bit leftover…so I thought I’d make a garment (next post). Once that was made, I still had leftovers so I whipped up two gift bags and thought I’d share it as a tutorial.

Tutorial:

1. Cut two rectangles of fabric or one very wide rectangle. Place right sides together.
2. Clean finish edges. You can use an overcast stitch as I did (photo below) or use a french seam (google it, or I’ll do a tutorial eventually of some basic things every sewist should know). Using the Janome’s “M” overcast foot gave results as good as a serger.

3. Sew a simple straight seam just inside the overcast edges. Sometimes the contents of gift bags can be heavy, and especially with soft and stretchy flannel, I felt a little extra stitching was a Good Thing.

4. Turn your bag right side out.

5. At the ironing board, use a point turner to coax the corners out to perfect.

6. Hem the open end. The interior designer I worked for taught me about using poster board (or tag board or an old manila folder) to make templates for turning hems. When making curtains, the extra weight of a doubled hem helped them hang well. I called it the turn-turn hem, since you turn up two full hem-depths.

7. Press your seams to one side. Using a seam roll –in this case a piece of cheap stair handle from the big box DIY store. Dressmaking suppliers sell beautiful hardwood (maple usually) seam rolls for Lotsa Bucks. This pine stair rail handle was a few dollars for 24 inches. Sits flat on the ironing surface and does the trick.

8. Give your bag a final press, tuck the goodies inside, and tie shut. I think, having found that strip of green, that instead of buying ribbon I might “make” some from leftover bias bindings (unfinished on the edges) or making some straps (turn seam allowances under, sew folded edges together) to use as ties for future years. Here’s that original photo again:

The sconces in our house have made me crazy for years. The shades were made to fit on the old rounded incandescent bulbs…the ones you can’t find any more. The wires didn’t fit well on any of the smaller bulbs that suited the size of the shades and the fixtures–they were always tilting and crooked. And the “old West” look was SO not me! It was Candy Glendenning of Candied Fabrics who got me on the right track. Last year, Candy posted some lamps and shades she made using her wonderful indigo shibori fabric and blogged about them here and here. So I plotted and thought about it. I knew I wanted white, green paint mixed to my favorite shade, my own thermofax screens, and NOT black.

Here are the final shades, then I’ll share the process:

First thing I needed to do was see if I could spray paint the fixtures. Before we moved into the house, one had been damaged and removed (but kept in the basement). I bought some Rustoleum in Satin Nickel and it worked! I didn’t even have to sand!

I had planned on using a cotton-linen blend for the shades, but when I went to Fiddlehead Artisan Supply (quilt and art shop to die for and only a half hour away!) they were temporarily out of the blend, so I bought some coarser weave pure linen to try. Then I started searching out stuff to make new shades, starting with Candy’s source, I Like That Lamp website. I ordered the styrene–the rigid stuff to which you adhere the fabric–and glue from that site, but her rings only go down to 8″, and I wanted a 6″ for my sconces in the hallways. I found some 6″ size here, on Etsy.

Next, I needed to see how the linen would print. Using my existing printing board, the prints were blobby–the surface had too much squish in it for the somewhat more open weave of the linen (as compared to quilting cottons). So I made a new printing board with less padding, and learned that using paper towels under the linen did not affect the quality of the print and prevented less of the ink from soaking in to my new board.

Some good news: in August 2020 I will be teaching a 3-day surface design workshop at ProChemical and Dye in Fall River, Mass. (about an hour or 90 minutes south of Boston, minutes from Rhode Island) and we will cover the thermofax and paint technique.

The whole thing worked SO WELL that I am thinking I would like to make a set of seasonal shades for the floor lamp in the living room…one for Christmas/Winter, another for Spring, Summer and Autumn. I need to do some patterning as this lamp looks best with an angled shade, not a drum shade, and they are harder to make. I need to learn if I can do it with standard 44″ wide fabric given the flare on the shade. Stay tuned for more house fix-ups! Hope you’ve enjoyed this detour from the usual art quilts and family life.

Come play with me on Thursday at International Quilt Festival…Easy Peasy Inside Out Bags, class 491, is in the afternoon, total play, and you’ll become addicted to making them. So far I’ve had every. single. student. nearly finish or finish a bag in the three hours including the quilting and zipper! Once you grasp the concept in the class, you can go home and make an iPad (or Kindle, nook, etc) case, a notebook cover, you name it. Here’s a link to registration and Thursday classes: http:// http://www.quilts.com/quilt-festival-houston-classes-and-events-thursday.html

AFTER you get home, you can have fun spreading your wings and seeing how to adapt the pattern as I did with my notebook cover:

If you’ve got questions, PLEASE DO WRITE to me…just use the contact button! Full class descriptions for all the classes listed below along with Supply lists are on my Class page. Here’s the list of all the classes I’ll be teaching…hope to see you there:

Hi everyone…is anyone else madly trying to figure out what to do for Christmas gifts?  Here’s a FREE pattern by me, with major thanks to Shannon Fabrics for the Cuddle fleece.  Literally you can make a couple of these in an hour or so–give yourself three hours and a yard and you can make half a dozen in production-line mode!

And here is what the hat looks like, flat:

Here’s the pattern in PDF form…and typed out below:

Shannon Fabrics Cuddle Hat in an Hour

You’ll need:

¼ yard (about 8 ½ lengthwise grain by 22-23 inches) fleece for main fabric

5” by 22-23 inches for contrast

Scraps or yarn for hat tassels

How to:

•  Measure your head around the forehead:  ______ + 1 “ =  ________  cutting width

Tip: In my case, my head measures 22 ½”.  I found that I wanted my hat to be snug so it would stay on in the wind, so I used a larger seam allowance.  My hat **finishes** at 21 ½” or one inch smaller than my head circumference. Depending on what you find comfortable, you may find that a cutting width exactly the same as your head circumference is just perfect.   

• Cut main body fleece 8 ½” high by cutting width.  Make certain that the lengthwise (not-stretchy) grainline runs vertically and that the stretchy cross-grain is what goes around your head!
• Cut hat band fleece 4 ½” by cutting width (if folding under) or 3 ½” by cutting width (if using raw edge).

Option:  vary the width of your band depending on how warm you want it to be and the pattern (if any) of your fleece.  My main fabric is not fuzzy on the inside and I wanted soft, so I have 1 ¼” of the red checked fleece on the inside and about  1” folded under on the outside edge so that there are two layers of fleece to keep my ears warm on a windy winter’s day.

• Pin seam and test the fit: now is the time make adjustments to snug it up if needed.
• Sew seams on hat body and hat band using a narrow zigzag, about 1.0 width and 3.0 length.
• Pin the seams open.
• Place the hat band and hat body WRONG sides together, matching the seams and overlapping about ½”. Stitch with a serpentine (wavy multi-stitch), 3-step zigzag or narrow zigzag to secure each raw edge.  You will sew two lines of stitching, one on each side of the overlap.

• 

  Because the fleece is thick, and because I wanted the soft part next to my forehead, I didn’t use a typical garment seam. Instead, I overlapped the two fabrics, wrong sides together, and sewed them with a serpentine stitch. I did this twice, on either side, so I would catch both edges of the overlap.

• Turn the hat band to the outside of the hat body and turn up.  If you are making a thicker band, turn under about an inch; if you are not making a thicker band, simply fold up.  Pin the edge in place; carefully put on the hat.  If you want a narrower contrasting band, now is the time to trim or fold under more.
• Sew the top edge of the contrasting band using the serpentine  / 3-step zigzag / narrow zigzag stitch.

Optional:  make some tassels. I used a 1” strip of fleece from the selvedge (leftover from another project) and folded it in half wrong-sides together and sewed with the serpentine stitch.  Cut into 9-11” (or thereabouts) lengths.  I opted for four strips which I then folded in half. 

• Turn the hat inside out. Centering the seamline in the center back, pin right sides together.
• If using tassels, tuck them into the seam at the corners so that the folded edge is even with the raw edge of the seam.  I placed two at each corner.
• Sew the seam using a narrow zigzag.

Tip:  sew from the center to the outside edge, pivot at the end and sew back to the center about ½.”  Repeat from the center to the other end.  This is easier than sewing all the way across beginning at the bulky outside edge.

• Turn right side out and wear with joy!

 

 

 

 

Do ya ever have those moments when you walk into your studio / crafting space / hides hole and have a near panic attack because there are so many mid-stream projects that serious ADHD kicks in and you can’t do anything because you keep getting distracted by yet another something?  Yeah.   It was one of those days.

I’ve  added enough books and class materials (classes I’ve taken) that my shelves are too full.   So I had to find a box and remove 15+ years of Threads magazines that I never look at to clear space because I’m tired of moving the piles from place to place.  And a bunch more tidying happened.   Really…it was like a minor panic attack.

 

But Ashley and Joshua are visiting.  And a while back Ashley mentioned that she liked the Apple Pin I gave her, seen here, so much she’d like to do a bunch for each season and holiday.  So I found my felt and the pin backs and made this little guy in under an hour.  He’d look adorable done with real hand stitchers!  I also need to find decent quality pi backs.  These are by Beadalon from my local quilt and fabric shop and they are junk!  Last photo is for scale.