24 Hour Leather Hobo

I have a new dress to wear to a Christmas function tomorrow night, but it has come to my attention that it doesn't go with any of my bags. So I'm going to have a bash at making a "You Sew, Girl!" Hobo bag from some leather that I have been saving for such an occasion. Can it be done?

Linking up with more Creative Peeps over here.

How to Sew a French Seam

A french seam is a nice way to finish a seam. It hides the raw edges, and is a great alternative if you don't have an over-locker or cover-stitch machine, and is actually a nicer way to finish seams even if you do. The technique I have described is for a half inch seam allowance (12.5mm).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Apparently, the French call this "Couture Anglaise", or English Seam.

I wonder why no-one is taking credit for it?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To start with, take your fabrics and sew them together with the wrong sides facing each other. A 1/4 inch foot is a great tool to use if you have one. To get an accurate seam allowance, I need to adjust my needle position one notch to the right.



Use thread to match your fabric. I have used black thread here so that it is easy to see what I have done.



So, after you have sewed a 1/4 inch (6mm seam), give it a little press and trim off about half of the seam allowance.



Press the seam open and then fold along the seam line, so that the right sides of the fabric are together.



Sew another 1/4 inch seam, encasing the raw edges of the fabric inside.



Press your new seam to one side (usually towards the back) and you are all done.



You can see the seam from the back, above and from the front, below. Now that was easy, oui?

Apples for Grandma

This is the fabulous doll quilt I received from Nic in the EB Doll Quilt Swap. Nic obviously knows what I like and this will be going up in Amélie's room.



Little Red Riding Hood is one of my favourite nursery book characters, and Amélie already has a few Red Riding Hood themed items in her room.



Amélie is also a fan of apples, both to eat and to look at. This mini quilt has a delicious looking basket of apples and also matching apples on the tree.



I love the bow under her chin, and that sweet little round face.



I love the beautiful little bird on her apron, and her stripey tights!



Aren't I lucky?!

You can see the quilt I sent here.

And some of the other quilts, here, here, here, here, here, here and here

From a Blouse to a Dress

Can you believe that this dress was once a blouse? I've been meaning to do this for so long, and finally got around to it last Friday. The blouse was mine, but it was too short (story of my life), so I never wore it. The dress is pretty short too, but that makes it really easy for her to monkey around in the back yard.



I really like all the details with the inset lace and the pin-tucks. I love that I now have that effect on the front of the dress without all the effort!

I chopped the front of the dress from the front of the blouse. I really tried to line up the buttons down the centre front, but I mucked it up slightly. If I was doing this again, I would make up a full pattern, rather than trying to cut it on the fold.



The back of the dress was cut from the back of the shirt, and I cut the facings from the sleeves. The pattern instructions only had you interface the facings at the top where the button holes and buttons go, but I interfaced the entire facings.

The pattern is Kwik Sew's 3211, which I believe is now out of print, but you could do the same with any number of basic pinafore type dresses - or even trace yourself a pattern from an existing dress.



I also made Amélie some cute bloomers. The bloomers are cut from the Bettsy Kingston Baby Ruffle Pants pattern, but without the ruffles. I also used bias binding around the leg holes, as I find it a bit easier. You can get a pair of bloomers up to Amélie's size out of a fat quarter of fabric, so that's pretty awesome. Obviously, you need more fabric if you are going to add ruffles as well..

Poppy Breeze

My swap partner, Kylie, received her quilt on Thursday, so I can now reveal what I sent. This is some of what Kylie had to say about what she would like to receive:

I like just about anything. Brights or rich tones - especially reds. Not a fan of cutesy stuff, loving abstract designs at the moment. Not a big fan of lots of embellishments. Finished quilt will be hung.

I designed the entire quilt by myself. I decided to do poppies, because poppies are red, but then ended up doing them in these colours because the fabric was sitting there, calling to me... The grass has bees on it, which I think might me a little bit cute, I hope Kylie doesn't mind.



I pieced the sky using various pieces of blue fabric, radiating from the bottom left corner. I used some fabric from my stash and some I went shopping specifically for. The original idea was to give it a bit of a sunset type look, but I ended up sticking with just blue fabrics to keep it simple. The sky includes fabric with planes, raindrops, umbrellas and spots.



I really enjoyed quilting feathers into the sky, I'd never done feathers before this project and although it is more of a traditional style of quilting, I think it works in this more modern style of quilt. I think it looks a little like clouds.

The poppies were attached using raw edge appliqúe before placing the backing fabric on and I later quilted around them. I like how this gives them a puffy look.



I added the stems after all the quilting was done, which was really tricky and I had to use pliers to pull the thread through all the dense quilt stitches as it was so tight. I could have stitched them before I did the quilting, but I was a little worried about quilting catching on my thread, preferred not to quilt around the stems and didn't really want to quilt over them either. It might have been a little easier to have them show on the back as well, but I wanted to keep the back all white. I stitched the stems on an angle to give the impression of the poppies bobbing in the breeze.

EBDQS Sneak Peak

I've almost finished my doll quilt for the swap. I've learned a new skill, the feather. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I hope my partner likes the finished quilt.

Blogtoberfest Wrap Up

Wow, what a month October was. Whilst I did get behind with a couple of days of Blogtoberfest, over a weekend which was just too busy, I still managed to catch up. I am pretty happy with what I achieved. Let's have a look back at October...



My Snakes and Ladders game quilt appeared in Homespun magazine.



I participated in the Kids' Clothes Week Challenge and managed to make an Oliver + S skirt for Amélie, later hacking the pattern to make her a Chevron Skirt. I also made her a pair of Dortje Pants, and made "Make it Perfect" Snappy Ties for the boys.



We welcomed a new Grandson/nephew.



I made a pencil roll as a gift for a birthday party Liam attended.



I showed you how to finish off your overlocker threads and found a better way to keep my bobbins tidy. I also showed you how to make some pipe-cleaner Octopuses with your kids.



I did some pattern testing for Nikki, making a Beauty Case and a USB Key Fob. (I also showed off the Poppet purse, though technically, that was made in September.)



I also did a little pattern testing for Jodie, and introduced Elsie to Amélie who promptly stole her from me and took off her clothes.



We did a little gardening and are planning to climb great beanstalks to the sky and meet with ferocious giants, and my mum and I had a fantastic trip to Melbourne, visiting the Polly Pratt pop-up shop in the Olive Grove, Cleggs, Tessuti and the Craft and Sewing Show all in one day.



Phew!