Art

 C and I sewed a miniquilt the other day and purely by coicendence I managed to press each and every seam in the right direction so I could fan every seam intersection! Now this is what I call pure art...

and no, it is NOT crooked in front, it's just the picture, trust me....

 We both chose a different layout

Mine ofcourse, is the one without the pink :)

Only thing left to do is to figure out how on earth I managed this!

Smoke coming out of the machines!



This weekend I had a sewing spree and I made Sven ánd both of the Featherweights work for their money. Baking DD had some requests for starters.

She makes her tea with fresh leaves instead of teabags and uses a French press.

 

 

She needed a cosy. I immedeately showed her pictures of fancy cozy wraps but no...she had her heart set on a simple one.

So....after some measuring and a sample of ugly fabric...

Now, I can do a better pic that that. It looks like a silly hat this way! A bit more effort here please!

 

Ahhhh, much better!

 

Another request was a new shoppingbag. Her fav one was really worn out.

I duplicated that one but..more fancy if I say so myself

 Ikea plastic "fabric" on the outside, gingham inside and shoulder-as well as hand handles, just as Baking DD wanted.

 Next up some bags the Feathers needed to make for themselves. I do NOT trust the case's handles nor latches. After some research online I came across a picture of a bag looking like this:

( I do want to give credit, but cannot find the picture again..)

The bag stays on, latches are free so there's no need to take it of since the case can be opened easily. Extra benefit is that the case itself is protected too, from bumping (me with the hoover e.g. LOL)

The bags are lined with leftover batting and more not that pretty fabric.

I can carry the Feather on my shoulder, ánd in my hand; handles are long ánd short enough. Room for book too :)
Each Feather sewed it's own bag ofcourse...
Sewed some mini quilts/blocks too, but I'll save that for another time!
Time to give the machines some rest (I think I heard Sven panting) and to watch the Moto GP (Go Valentino Rossi!!)

Edit: found the "founder of the bag". You can find her blogpost here .

Hitting the road!

Last sunday C, Quilting DD and I, set the alarms and we headed off to a quiltshow/market. It has been a while since the three of us went on a trip, so we were looking forward to it! The show was in DD 's vicinity so C and I picked her up on the way.
First thing we did was check out the coffee and applepie stall and then we went for the quilts.
Let them speak for themselves!

 We really liked the next one. In particular how this quilter used a light patterned fabric for the setting triangles so it kind of flowed to the busy border. The fabrics were all French Provence.Very nice!

On the way back to the car, I saw pavement spools :) DD said it was hobby deformation.

 

Did we have a nice day? Sure we had!!

Singer featherweight sleeve tutorial

A few days off and not that great weather makes one productive. I wanted to sew a protective sleeve for the sewingbed of the featherweight. Searched the internet for a tutorial, measurments etc. but found zip. So I had to tackle that myself and while doing so, i thought other featherweight owners might want to sew a similar item...tadaa a tutorial by yours truly!
Here's how I did it :First I wrapped the Feather in dressmaking paper, top and bottom

Then I pulled out a piece of really ugly fabric to make a prototype

I came up with this pattern eventually. I can't make pdf files, so you have to draw your own, with the measurements written on the pattern.

Cut three: one outer fabric, one inner and add 1/4 " seam allowance and one fusible fleece without the seam allowance . The pattern is without seams!!

 Iron the fleece on the outer fabric.

Flip one side up and sew this side

 Box the corner a tiny bit, 1/4 " is quite enough

 Repeat to the other side and sew the inner fabric the same way. You'll get two sleeves. Slide them inside eachother, right sides together and sew all around, leaving a gap on the upper side for turning.

 align the seams!

Turn, topstitch and you're done!

 

 

 My sleeve has one longer flap and that's not just for protection

 You can slide it under your machine to use it as a threadcatcher, or to put your gear in, while sewing.
 I added some velcro so I can use it with my machine mat . The mat can be used with Sven too and since Sven is a lot heavier and bigger, I can't put the threadcather underneath him, hence the velcro...

 Questions? Something not explained clear enough? Feel free to ask :)
Meanwhile I'm very pleased with my sleeve (and with myself i might add haha)