I’m in this month’s Sewing World magazine and you can get a discounted subscription!
I was more than a little excited to open the post and discover a copy of this month’s Sewing World magazine, I *may* have let out a squeal of excitement and jumped around from foot to foot doing an enthusiastic a happy dance. It’s been a long time coming but I’m thrilled the day has finally arrived and my words are right there in black and white printed on something I can actually touch and flick through, accompanied by photos of some of my favourite plush makes. (more…)Sew A Child’s Skirt: Part Two Top Stitching Tips
Following on from this post, this is the second part of making a child’s skirt. I’ve not split these up as it’s an arduous task making this skirt, just simply because there are a few techniques I’ve used that are very transferable outside of little girl’s skirts so I figured it’d be an easy way to to take the bits you needed.
1) Use a foot with a bar
I often get comments about how neat my topstitching is and people often wonder how I can get a row of stitching so close to the edge of a garment and it be so straight! Well let me share my secret, I always use a foot to help achieve those dead straight lines. I have several “go to” feet for top stitching depending on where it is on a garment and how close to the edge I want to be. All these feet have the same thing in common – they all have a little bar that your fabric butts up against and you can use as a guide.
These are the three I use most often but if you have any other type of foot with a bar it will work too. You can achieve different widths by moving your needle position left and right (look carefully where you needle will come down so you don’t hit a bar!). The one that gives the narrowest results is the edge joining foot pictured on the right. I’ve never used this foot for edge joining, I *think* it’s supposed to be for attaching lace to garments but I cant be 100% sure and it was the first one I used to help me top stitch. Then when I started quilting I got a few more feet, and they had bars too – yay! The 1/4 inch foot gives you a wider top stitch and the stitch in the ditch is great when top stitching where 2 fabric meet, like here in between the piping and the skirt.
2) Increase your stitch length
When top stitching you’re often going through several layers of fabric, especially if you consider you’re often sewing through both the seams as well as the fabric. To give your topstitching the best chance of looking neat it’s a good idea to increase your stitch length. I generally increase from 2.5mm to 3mm, sometimes more if fabrics are thick, or there are more layers.
For my skirt I used a stitch in the ditch foot and set my needle position to the left and the guide nestled in the ditch between the two fabrics and left me with a beautiful, even and neat top stitch.
Next post will all be about the lining!
10 Minute No Sew Fabric Covered Mouse Mat Tutorial
I recently ordered some rather drab mouse mats from our stationery supplier, they are made of recycled car tyres so I felt rather virtuous purchasing recycled and all that, but they were *so* boring and not the least bit pretty so I decided to get busy and cover them with some of our *very* pretty fabric. It was the simplest thing and literally took less than 10 minutes to complete and you don’t even need the sewing machine.
You will need:
Cotton fabric of your choice. You’ll easily get 4 out of a fat quarter (mouse mat size dependant of course!) and it needs to be cotton as you’re going to iron it.
A rotary cutter (the 28mm OLFA cutter made this very easy)
Some Fray Stoppa
A mouse mat
Here’s how to make it. If you put the kettle on now you will be finished before it boils!
1) Cut out your Bondaweb and fabric a little larger than your mousemat.
2) Iron the Bondaweb on to the reverse side of the fabric. I always flip and iron the other side to make sure the adhesive is well and truly stuck.
3) Wait a few minutes for the Bondaweb and fabric to cool to ensure the glue is firmly adhered to the fabric. Remove the Bondaweb backing paper by scoring with a pin and then peel away.
4) Place the mousemat on to the now sticky side of your fabric ensuring the edge of the mousemat runs parallel to any pattern on your fabric to ensure it’s straight. Flip over and iron your fabric to the mousemat so the Bondaweb adheres, make sure you give it a good press.
5) Trim around the edges of the fabric with a rotary cutter using the mouse mat as a guide for your blade.
6) Dab some Fray Stoppa all the way around the edge of the fabric with your finger, brushing in the direction of the fabric threads. Viola! Time to make your cup of tea 🙂
