DIY Cloth Napkins

The next project in my month of "3D sewing" was to make some cloth napkins. I have had all these fabrics set aside for exactly this project for years!

I followed a tutorial by Lindsay Conner, because I know that she writes clear and easy-to-follow patterns. I found it here:

My goal was to make sets of six. Each napkin requires an 18" square, and I only had enough of the cute yellow toaster print to make two napkins. But then I remembered this awesome fabric by Cosmo Cricket, which is so funny because of the phrase "if we were meant to pop out of bed, we'd all sleep in toasters." And I had enough for four napkins, so I was able to make the set of six. Win-win.

The selvage on this cute bird print says "don't let the birds do the dishes." You better believe I'll be saving that selvage for some special project.

PATTERN: DIY napkin tutorial by Lindsay Conner.

REVIEW: This tutorial is very well illustrated and well written. Highly recommended if you want to make some napkins for yourself or as holiday gifts. The only change I made was to trim some fabric from the mitered corner so it was not quite so bulky. Easy peasy, and it made a big difference for me.

Break Dance Bag

In July while at my annual quilting retreat at Gruber's, I purchased a kit for the Break Dance Bag. The first thing that caught my eye was the luscious hand dyed orange wool. And the cute ribbon with the sheep. And the awesome black and white striped zipper.

The pattern shows three cute wool applique' sheep, but I decided just to use the ribbon as embellishment.

I also loved the bright striped lining that was included.

Although I sewed countless zippers into garments when I used to make my own clothes in high school and college, for some reason zippers in pouches intimidate me. Which is weird because they are pretty easy to install. Also, I have a love-hate relationship with my zipper foot. Let's be honest--mostly I hate it. I never feel like it has enough pressure to keep the fabric from slipping, and also I don't like that one side of the needle is exposed. So when I saw someone rave about a Juki zipper foot I ordered it immediately from Amazon.

Life changing! At least when it comes to zipper installation--ha!

PATTERN: Break Dance Bag by Tracy Trevethan.

The zipper (which was included in the kit as well) is from Studio Kat Designs (12" separating zipper), and for sure I want to purchase a few more of them.

REVIEW: The construction was easy and straightforward, although when it came to boxing the corners, I felt like you needed some previous experience. You cut a piece out of each corner, and there is a photograph showing that. However, there was no dimension given, so I kind of eyeballed it and cut a 1" square out of each corner.

 Also, I wish I had added some fusible interfacing to the lining to give it a bit more structure.

And now I'm off to order some more of those amazing black and white striped zippers. :)

Mini Maker Station

I'm embarking on a new project for the month of November--something my friend Rene' calls "3D sewing"--anything not flat like a quilt. I follow incredibly creative people on Instagram and   routinely purchase patterns for pouches, pincushions, tote bags, drawstring bags, etc. The problem is that the patterns get filed away and most often never get made.

A couple of weeks ago, aproaching my one-year anniversary of a breast cancer diagnosis, I suddenly realized that I felt great! My energy level seems to have returned to normal and overall I am feeling really good. It renewed my excitement to sew.

I am hoping that the projects this month will be low stress, fun, and bust through some of my excessive fabric stash--all that super cute fabric that I've been reluctant to cut into needs to be made into something fun.

I begin my journey with the Mini Maker Station, designed by Nicole of Lillyella Stitchery. It is a free download, and a project I've been wanting to make since she first released the pattern.

There are four parts to the Mini Maker Station: the main body, which drapes over the arm of your chair, the pincushion, the fabric basket, and the thread catcher.

I was making this for my friend, Janice, who had a birthday in October. She loves both Tula Pink and Kaffe Fasset, so I jokingly said if Tula and Kaffe had a love child, it would be this Mini Maker Station. :)

For the main fabric of the mat, I used my all-time favorite Kaffe print, Guinea Flowers. It comes in lots of gorgeous colorways, and my favorite (no surprise) is a luscious orange. But this was not for me, so I chose the Cobalt. Then I added another Kaffe fabric in the same colors, and three Tula Pink fabrics from her All Stars line--two polka dots and a stripe.

The main body has pockets on each side--great for storing your scissors and seam ripper. My friend, Stephanie, made one for me, and I also have wonder clips clipped along the top of one of the pockets. In the center portion, you insert a thin piece of sheet metal (hardware kits available from Nicole's etsy shop.lillyellastitchery.etsy.com

Next up is the pincushion. The hardware set includes four round disc magnets, one for the pincushion, and three for the fabric basket. When I took them off the sheet metal, they immediately stuck to each other. When I say they are strong, that is no joke. For awhile I wasn't sure if I would be able to separate them from each other! One goes in the bottom of the pincushion (I didn't take a good picture of it, but you can see the top of it resting in the fabric basket).

The fabric basket uses Peltex 71F fusible interfacing to give it some good structure. Three magnets go in the bottom of the basket. And I added this adorable label from Kylie and the Machine (who has a lot of really cute labels--I think I may need to stock up on more of this particular label).

The last item is the thread catcher, an easy make. Or should have been, but by now I was kind of tired. I had cute twill tape and wanted the words "create" and "believe" to show. But I sewed it to the thread catcher wrong side out. I get confused sometimes because you have to think ahead about how things will be facing when you turn the lining to the inside of the completed project. Also, the fabric sizes are cut at 4.75" by 4.25" for both the outer fabric and the lining. I wasn't paying close enough attention so which way I oriented the dimensions, and ended up with a thread catcher that was long and skinny.  But since I had messed up on the twill tape, I needed to remake it anyway. :)

I found the most perfect iridescent button to attach to the mat.

I also added a Live a Colorful Life label on the inside (also upside down, but I wasn't inclined to make it for a third time. Good grief...)

PATTERN: Mini Maker Station, by Lillyella Stitchery (free download here).

REVIEW: This is a well-written pattern and I wouldn't hesitate to make it again.

Vintage Hexie Quilt Repair

In what will surely come as a surprise to anyone reading this blog, I will be posting things this month other than Really Random Thursday posts!

Several months ago, a friend approached me about working on a quilt that had been made by her grandmother. It was a hexie quilt, hand pieced in the shape of diamonds, probably out of feedsack fabric. It was really beautiful. Someone had added borders on both long sides, but in the process of adding them had stretched the sides so that it rippled. She asked if I would take a look at it and see if it could be repaired and completed.

I thought, "Sure, how hard could this be??" Just remove the borders, get a backing and hand it over to Darby, who does all my longarm quilting.

So I removed the borders, and then realized that a lot of the stitching of the hexies along the sides needed to be repaired. And the top needed pressing. That wasn't too bad. I got a cute daisy print from Joann Fabrics for the backing, and handed it off to Darby.

Then came the most time-consuming part, which I had not anticipated--the trimming. When I receive quilts back from Darby, they are always always nice and straight, with 90 degree corners. So that was not the problem. It's that it was not straight to begin with, due, I think, to the hand-pieced nature of an English paper pieced quilt top. I finally chose a line through the center and measured out to each side and started trimming. The half-hexies along the edges are not all equal, but I don't think anyone will really notice.

I was able to use the removed border fabric for the binding.

It's a beautiful quilt and was certainly worthy of being completed to pass on to future generations.