AilbheI've ordered a bag of crushed walnut shells. And I'm trying to decide what to do about binding. The pattern calls for the edges to be bound, but I'm making this from velvet and it's going to be much thicker than the designers intended. Maybe French seams? French seams conceal a multitude. #sewing
OR I could try to make my own extra wide velvet bias binding, but that's #ironing again.
Ok I'm not going to make a new thing until I work through a pile of #mending. I have sewing and gluing both queueing and it will be much less chaotic if I get them done.
Here's the A1 drawing board I use for my extra table space when I have something bigger than A4 to cut out. It currently also has an ironing mat and a laptop on it. #sewing
When I buy fabric for #sewing I do put it through a hot wash and iron it on high before I put it away, because that works better for me than trying to slot it into the household laundry cycle when I want to actually use it, but it still needs ironing before use because it's folded for storage.
Okay I ironed *just enough* of my brushed cotton flannel to cut out my pattern pieces and I'll tackle the velvet tomorrow. I think for the velvet I'll treat myself to a new blade for the rotary cutter. (The discarded blades for the cloth-cutter are reused on the paper-cutter, but I haven't found a way to dispose of genuinely finished blades yet). #sewing
I cut the velvet and I've laid all the pieces out to check the instructions and add the notches etc. I'm incredibly tired now and my heart rate went up from too much standing. #sewing #mecfs
EDITED TO ADD this is for a heat pack you can warm in the microwave.
EDITED TO ADD this is for a heat pack you can warm in the microwave.
I'm resting now but the next stage is to transfer the marks from the pattern pieces to the sewing pieces, and probably then thread-mark quite a lot. I still haven't decided what to do about the binding the original pattern calls for, because the velvet will give a thicker edge than the dress cotton they intended.
Ok I tried transferring marks. First I clipped the paper pattern back onto the cut piece, then I pricked a pin through each end of the "stitching line" marks, then I chalked over the paper and also used a paintbrush to dust some chalk dust over it, then I removed the clips and the chalk WAS visible on the velvet for JUST long enough to mark it with thread. #sewing
Of course then I had to go back and clip the paper pattern back on because I'd forgotten the notches and dots. I did the dots with a pin and chalk again and it worked fine. #sewing
I think today I'll get to do some of the sewing parts of this sewing.
So when I cut out the brushed cotton to be the interfacing, it was on my A1 size makeshift cutting table, but the bulk of the fabric was spilling off the edge and so it all cut a little wonky. Like the pieces are stretched diagonally when placed on the main pieces.
It's going to be fine, I'll pin the top edges and lift the pieces so the weight falls where it does, then pin the other edges and trim to match. But I'm glad it didn't happen on the main velvet fabric.
I am really tired but the pieces are all basted to the interfacing and I can start assembly tomorrow.
Two days later I think I might be able to sit at the machine and sew. Yesterday was a write-off.
I did a bit of sewing but I'm tired enough to have sewn the collar pieces right sides together instead of wrong sides together so then I did LITERALLY AN HOUR of unpicking.
I watched #CallTheMidwife with my youngest daughter instead of doing more #sewing, because I'm just too tired.
Today I stuffed and attached the collar, and swept and hoovered a lot of spilt crushed walnut shells off the floor and clothes. I used a zipper foot to get close to the stuffing and it worked ok but I did break a needle at one point, where I was going through eight layers of fabric. I got it out of the garment with a magnet and pliers. #sewing
EDITED TO ADD this is going to be a microwaveable heat pad for neck and shoulders
EDITED TO ADD this is going to be a microwaveable heat pad for neck and shoulders
Tomorrow I think I get to make velvet bias binding. #sewing
So far today, I've finished stitching the channels to fill with crushed walnut shells, and I've removed the thread-marking. I'm still trying to figure out how to make velvet bias binding. I can procrastinate this for ages though. Watch me.
I need 280cm of 6cm wide binding, which is 1680cm², so I need a bit of velvet about 40x50cm to cut strips from. This is my first go. I've started by cutting along the diagonal centre of the rectangle and I'm going to take all my other lines from that.
I've made almost 3m of velvet bias binding by finger-pressing it and rolling it around a drink can. I'm hoping that this will keep it in shape long enough to apply it, because I'm afraid to iron it.
I also filled my vest channels with crushed walnut shells. The pattern said 2¼ litres of rice and that was about the amount of powder it took to make the channels fairly nicely filled. I'm looking at it now in case I decide to increase or remove any. Once the binding is applied, that's final.
I'm a little concerned because the back is definitely heavier than the front.
Ok, I checked my bobbin, swept all the fluff out of the machine, and started #sewing the first side of the binding. I used a zipper foot to get right up close to the stuffed parts.
I had to stop before I'd finished because it's incredibly fiddly to manage the WEIGHT of all the crushed walnut shells in the stuffed channels, and the BULK of them doesn't help either. If I ever do another one, I'll apply the binding to almost all of it before I stuff ANY of it. Live and learn.
Ok one side of the binding is on but I need daylight to hand sew the other side so it will have to wait until tomorrow.
I'm handsewing the binding today but between needing daylight and my ridiculous hands, I got only about a tenth of it done. This was partially because figuring out what I'm doing is slow, so tomorrow will be a bit better. #sewing
I think I'm about a third of the way through handsewing the binding. It's not very exciting but I'm probably getting better as I go along.
I've almost finished the handsewing but I have to stop. Tomorrow will definitely be the last day of sewing this thing though, and then I can hoover it and give it to its actual owner. I'm not sure whether it's a heat pack or, like, a weighted blanket, though.
This is when I started this project. For me, this is quick work.
https://mastodon.art/@artbyailbhe/109587452443901441
https://mastodon.art/@artbyailbhe/109587452443901441
Ailbhe (@[email protected])
I wanted to do #sewing but it turns out that first I need to do #ironing. I've ironed the paper pattern and cut out the bits I need and folded the rest back into the packet, and I've read the instructions and figured out what fabric I need, and next I need to iron the blasted fabric. This is ridiculous. I don't want an ironing hobby.
Finished! One microwave heat pad for neck and shoulders, cotton velvet outer, filled with crushed walnut shells. I'm not delighted with the corners on the bias binding and if I make another I'll just curve those. I'm too tired for alt text but will try to fix later.
The heat pad was a Simplicity pattern and I'm hoping that my next project will be an Ellie And Mac Slow Sunday t-shirt. I'm figuring out sizing by using Marks and Spencers to turn a UK dress size into bust inches and the Ellie And Mac chart to turn inches into a size. It will either work or not but at least with M&S it shouldn't come out much too small.
Stage 1: print pattern
I did this when I bought the pattern, I sent the file to a printer and got it all on A0.
Stage 2: print instructions
That's 72 pages? What? I'm printing pages 12-25 and hoping that's adequate. I'm pretty sure it would be cheaper to get it done by a professional if you were going to print the whole file, first the instructions and then the whole pattern divided into A4 pages.
✅ Ironed tissue paper salvaged from shoe and lingerie packaging
✅ Traced first part of pattern from A0 printout onto tissue paper taped together
Ooh, tracing drew to my attention some fairly subtle shaping on the back. Cool.
I'm definitely too tired to tackle fabric cutting today. I might put some hanging loops on hand towels instead.
No, I do not know what's good for me and I did the cutting. Tsk. I could not make the sleeve caps match without wasting yards of fabric but I think I did make them balance.
Creative! Queer!! Autistic!!!@artbyailbhe I’m following, and I’m excited to see how this project develops!