Little Bits of Fabric

Fabric remnants are ideal for making outfits for little people. They’re small, they’re less expensive, and you can find really cute ones in the remnant bin. Like these:

cute remnants

The pattern presented itself in May 2015 Burdastyle UK.

Little Burda Clothes

I decided to experiment with the more ordinary remnants before taking on the premium Frozen item, the fabric roll on the far right in the first image. Good thing, too, because I discovered that I’d traced the pattern a bit wrong. The dress and top are the same pattern piece with two different lengths and sleeves. Sometimes it’s hard to see the tracing lines on the Burda pattern sheets, because they’re all mixed in with about a hundred other pattern lines. And you have to add seam and hem allowances to every cutting line.

top and shorts

This is my take on the top and shorts. I used small rickrack for top sleeve and hem trim, rather than the stretch lace trim called for. For the waist and leg bands, I used Dritz fold-over elastic from JoAnn’s, rather than rib-knit called for in the pattern.

Burda dress and shorts

The pocket trim on the dress called for elastic ribbon. What the? Never heard of it. But I had a little strip of teal piping in the “oddments” baggie, so I used that. I think the big giant pocket on the front of the dress looks kind of cyclopic, but maybe it will be fun for a toddler. For these pants, I did use the rib-knit, as I just happened to have a remnant of matching white in the stash. The waistband is a casing of rib-knit fabric stuffed with 1-inch wide elastic. The leg bands are just rib-knit with no elastic inside. And since both of these remnants have similar colors, I combined  them in the reversible bucket hat.

reversible hat

Oh by the way, you might want to get in on this opportunity to win a Janome serger from Burda. all you have to do is enter a fitting tip in the comments on their contest page. You might need to have an account with them and sign in to it, to do this…

An Easy Little Remnant Quilt

Of all kinds of quilting, I like the easy ones the best. You might not win the prize at the county fair for making one, but little quilts can be memorable, and provide hours of comfy relaxation.

I had this patchwork remnant from JoAnn’s in the stash for a long time. Whenever I see a patchwork remnant, I get it, because it represents added work, and therefore value. So the retail price of this sort of pieced-together fabric is about $25 per yard. Half-price as a remnant, the finished product makes it look like you did a lot of measuring and ironing and seam-clipping, but we know the truth. And if the truth doesn’t set you free, at least it gives you a reduced price for using a remnant.

lap quilt

I used a plain piece of flannel as a near-match in color. And I happened to have a small bit of batting in the stash that was pretty close to the exact size (ended up trimming off about an inch, what are the odds of that?) I chose to “channel-quilt” the top, backing, and batting sandwich. Why? By channel-quilting, I mean I stitched in the ditch from the top one way, so that I traced the patchwork squares by either their tops and bottoms, or their sides, not both, to outline rows rather than squares. I figured if I tried to outline all the individual squares there was more possibility for puckers. As it was, I only had to rip out a few feet of stitching and re-do it, and that’s a pretty good result for me.

I had one package of brown quilt binding in the stash, but I knew that wouldn’t be enough. So when I went to the store to get another one, I saw this luscious chocolate brown satin blanket binding, and I splurged for that. At $7.49 per 4.75 yard package (of course, I applied a 40 or 50% off coupon to that), it’s not cheap but one whole package was exactly enough. What are the odds?

I was thinking it would make a nice baby gift, but it seems to have a more sophisticated look to it. And I also messed up a bit on sewing down the corners of the binding, and added several rows of visible brown stitching at that corner (which would horrify my mom, no doubt) where it shouldn’t have had to be seen if I’d placed the entire binding on correctly to begin with. So I reasoned, not good enough for a gift, but good enough for us. The cats like it.

A Frozen Remnant Project

Sometimes the desire to be thrifty can take too great a priority in your life-script.

By that, I mean that thriftiness can rule your life to the point that you feel saving the maximum amount of money is your highest priority. Therefore, you are stymied when trying to make a decision, because you feel that, “What if I make this choice, then something else comes along that will save me even more money?” So you put it off, until you feel the coup de grace of remnant projects comes along. But it doesn’t, so there you are, losing creativity in the meantime.

Sometimes that happens to me. But also, I have vague ideas for projects, I just need to ruminate about them for a little while until I’m sure I can pull them off. And I’ve also done projects where I rush into them, and they never quite rise to the level of greatness I first envisioned. So they either look bad, or they’re relegated to the UFO colony until I summon up enough enthusiasm to take them on again until completion.

This project sat in a pile of fabric until I had an urge to do spring cleaning in the sewing room. It consisted of a great little fabric remnant named CP51876 Sisters Framed Toss, copyright Disney for Springs Creative Products Group LLC that I snagged from the remnant bin at JoAnn Fabric. It could have been a great winter project, as it is a warm minky fabric. It could have been a Valentine’s Day project because it is pink and has hearts. But I missed the mark on both: now it’s spring, and though we don’t need warm blankets in Florida, I noticed last time one of my granddaughters came to stay overnight, she had a little blankie similar to this one, so I pressed forward. No little girl would reject a Frozen blanket, I thought, even if it could just be for playtime purposes and not a real bed linen.

All materials were in the fabric stash already, so I didn’t have to go out and buy anything.

sewing the blanket binding on

Yes, you know me, the project wasn’t completely trouble-free. I used as a backing, a remnant of white Ultra Cuddle (currently $10.99 per yard on Joann’s web site). The Anna and Elsa Frozen remnant was 1.79 yards, currently on sale at the web site for $11.99 per yard. Usually Joann’s remnants are a yard or less, but they will allow larger pieces for home-dec and fleece fabrics. Sold as remnants, these pieces of material go for 1/2 the regular price. The satin blanket binding has been in the stash for a long time. If you look very closely at the picture, you might notice that part of the binding is a wee bit lighter in color. I didn’t have enough of the pink to go all the way around the blanket, so I added what was left of a package of very light pinkish-white satin blanket binding that had been part of my grandmother’s stash. Yep, I do stuff like that.

Frozen blanket, made from remnants

One other annoying problem that came up, was the lack of cohesion between the three very different fabrics while trying to sew them together. The Frozen print is minky, a sort of ultrasuede one-way stretch knit, and the Ultra Cuddle is a plushy, stretchy-in-all-directions knit, and the blanket binding has a satiny appearance, but is a rigid, woven polyester. So I laid out the Ultra Cuddle on the dining room table, and put the Frozen fabric on top, and cut out all around it so the front and back would be the same size. But when I started sewing, the Cuddle stretched more, so that it was looking like I’d end up with a couple more inches of backing than front. I remedied that by using a roller presser foot. I held the back of the strip of binding, with the two fabrics sandwiched in the center of the folded strip, in one hand and the front of the strip in the other hand, and sort of fed that strip under the needle, then stretched out the next length to be attached in the same way.

roller presser foot

You could probably use a quilting foot or a walking foot as well. Now, if I wasn’t the thrifty person that I am, I would have waited and gotten another package of pink satin blanket binding so it would all match perfectly, and then it would look as good as a store-bought blanket. But the contrast between the two slightly different colors of blanket binding isn’t extreme.

Stretchy Remnant Possibilities

Spring is in the air! Excited to see soft and bright colors, in the landscape and in fabrics. It makes me think about sewing something.

Since I made a pair of shorts a few posts ago that I was not particularly proud of, I did a re-do of that project and added a contrasty/matchy leotard.

Jalie yoga shorts and Kwik-Sew leotard

I was happier about these shorts than the red pair in which I practiced using the double-needle. With this blue pair, I did much better with the double needle. Let me hasten to add, the process still wasn’t trouble-free. If I had a job doing this, I would have been so fired, by now.

My idea to make the girls a white shrug/sweater led me to this pattern, which also included a little dirndl-like skirt and a short-sleeve leotard.

Kwik Sew shrug/sweater

Everyone should have a white sweater in their closet, right? Except maybe Goth chicks. This little front-tying shrug can go with a lot of outfits. The fabric (not a remnant) is a white sweater-knit that is very easily snagged, so maybe it isn’t a good choice for kids’ clothes. Since there was a leotard included in the pattern, and it looked easy, I gave it a try. The Kwik-Sew leotard was easy and very basic, compared to the Jalie ones I’ve made before. And the sizing is different. This one is a size 8 or 10 girl, and I altered it some by adding 2 inches to the length of it, like I do with the Jalie ones. It looks huge. I may not have used all of the 5/8″ seam allowance, having been accustomed to the smaller allowance of the Jalie patterns. It’s a leopard leotard. The 1-yard leopard (they call it “Big Cat”) spandex fabric, and the turquoise (less than a yard) and silver (scrap) fabrics for the shorts, are remnants. The Big Cat fabric is normally $16.99 per yard, but half that price when sold as a remnant. From the yard, I had this much left over that I can possibly make a cute infinity scarf as part of the outfit shown on this pattern:

Big Cat remnant project with leftover fabric for another project

The pattern is Simplicity 1323, an American Sewing Guild Design. The retail price of the pattern is $18.95 but during JoAnn’s Simplicity sale it sold for $1.99. Thought I could give this one a try; it looks cute.

Does Burda Think its US Readers are Dummkopfs?

Sorry, I don’t want to be mean.

But when Burda, the Germany-based purveyor of popular European sewing patterns, launched a magazine in the US last year, I was thrilled—until I found out that all the patterns in each issue aren’t included in the attached pattern sheet, like they are in the British version. Some of the patterns are included, but the rest of them you must purchase from their web site and download and print them on your own dime! Yep!

And wouldn’t you know, many of the patterns I love in the magazine, are the very ones that aren’t included…oooh, that burns me up!

Now, take this one, from the recent Winter issue. Newsstand price for the one issue: $14.99.

Snow White scarf

Not sure why, but I really like the fluffy white scarf. AND I just happened to have a remnant of that fake fur in my stash, at almost precisely the required yardage. [Remnant= 1/2 price at the fabric shop] What are the odds? Except, the pattern for it is not included in the issue. I’d have to pay 99 cents and download the pattern, which, according to the sewing directions that ARE included, has 2 pieces of 59″ x 12″ fabric. So, I’m supposed to go on the web site, give them my credit card number so they can charge me 99 cents, print out about a hundred sheets of paper or however many it takes to assemble a 59″ x 12″ rectangle, tape them all together, then lay the sheets on top of the fabric and cut out the pieces?

Of course, I made up my own version, which may not be exactly the same, but I kinda like it, and it is very warm on a windy day, I must say. And it took me a very few minutes to make.

The Fluffy Fake

Remnants and Tween Skirts

Tweens, some may already know, are those girls who fall into the size range (as interpreted by the sewing pattern industry) of eight to sixteen. I discovered this when I looked at this cute pattern:

New Look pattern, sized for tweens

I thought the tee-shirt top, with its contrasting colors made up of small pieces of jersey knits, would adapt very well to remnant sewing, and I began foraging around the stash to find some suitable fabric options. But I actually had the skirts all thought out before I got to the remnant-project tops.

gator colors

This skirt, not made from a remnant, but trimmed with orange satin ribbon leftover from another project, is the box-pleated view D in the pattern. A few weeks ago Joann’s had a sale of 4 t-shirts for $10, and I snagged a bright orange day-glow t-shirt (matchy-matchy with the ribbon trim) that can be worn with the skirt.

View C, a little flarey but without pleats (and thus ten times easier to assemble and sew) was also not made from a remnant, but the fabric was also a downgrade because of this glaring gouge it had in it:

Yikes! a major flaw

Cute fabric + unsightly hole = discount for mama (heh, heh, heh…)

I had this great idea to put a fox’s head on the shirt instead of the Swarovski crystal star on the front of the pattern. But I also developed a reluctance to apply the crystals to this shirt. I decided to go to Plan B and put an appliqué on it. This one is called “peeking fox” and I found it at Embroidery Library, on sale, of course.

applique

I foraged in the box of potential quilt scraps, and of course, I found any number of little fabric treasures that would do nicely. The granddaughter had been consulted prior about the color of t-shirt fabric she would prefer to go with the skirt, and out of pink and black, she chose the black (yes!)

Sleeve seams sewn over Vilene bias tape

The remnant for the black t-shirt is rather slinky and I could imagine all kinds of stretching going on, hems not acting right, puckering behind my back, and to counteract that I stabilized the sleeve seams with Vilene bias tape, and all the hems with Emma Seabrooke’s Sew KeysE knit stay tape.

knit stay tape

Hopefully that sew-and-sew will do right.

t-shirt and skirt set

version 2

Fear of Sewing

Sometimes I am paralyzed with fear when it comes to starting a new project.

Many options

Being an analyzer, I try to find reasons to explain it away. Is it due to 1) retirement, 2) menopause, 3) stress, 4) lack of confidence, 5) an attack of the “shoulds,” 6) a feeling of disempowerment that is characteristic of females in an older generation who have been brought up in conservative households, 7) feeling bombarded by too many influences?

I think, the older I get, the less time I feel that I have, so I need to fill it with something important. When I retired, I felt that I needed to pursue all those interests that had been shoved aside while I was logging 8 hours a day working for The Man. I wanted to go further into many of those interests, but I had the nagging feeling that they weren’t very crucial in my overall development as a person. Now they are represented by the nine-tenths of my daily emails that I delete without even reading. Most of them require that I spend money, which actually furthers their agenda more than mine.

Which brings me to a realization I had yesterday, Easter Sunday. I listened to Kerrie’s talk in church about how repentance isn’t a punishment. It’s a way to disengage from all that frantic scrambling to get our needs met at any cost. Oh, it’s true. I need, need, need, a “do-over” often. Let me turn around, rethink this thing. I am sorry that I’ve missed the mark. I want to try again. And it’s beautiful that I have another chance. The whole concept of the Atonement of Christ has lots of facets, lots of applications in everyday life.

One time I went to a Relationships Anonymous group. Yes, it’s just like AA, a 12-step program for people who have been in addictive relationships. We all sat around a long table in a conference room somewhere and talked about “my name is _____ and I’m a….Relationship Addict? I can’t really remember, but one lady was just overwhelmed with everyone’s story, she always said she was sorry to everyone. Why? She just seemed to feel responsible for everyone’s awful situation, failed marriage, or even just a bad day.

I go to yoga class every day, and it’s mostly exercise, asanas, but occasionally some principle of yogic wisdom is bandied about in class or in my personal study. Like the yama aparigraha, not focusing on things to prop up our egotistical sense of what it is. But even Mahatma Ghandi spun and wove and made his own clothes. At some point, I know that I can stop frantically asking the Lord for things all the time when I pray, because I realize that I already have all I want and need.

I wonder sometimes, when I see someone who’s really unhappy, just miserable, mean, confused, or wigging out…what would it take to make that person happy?

More Totes than Ol’ Man River Remnant Project

Sewing and knitting come together.
In the midst of chaos and uncertainty, I stole a few hours of so-called free time and finished, finally finished, two projects. Two tote bags.

Cotton remnant-lined Fair-Isle Tote #1

Both of these have been featured on the Knitting Blog (see link to it on the side bar), but they needed a remnant sewing component to finish them off.

Sliced thumb made it difficult to knot the thread

I sliced my left thumb with a serrated knife at lunch the other day. It wasn’t so bad until I tried to finish the hand-sewing on these projects: I just couldn’t roll a knot in the end of the thread with a band-aid on my thumb. So I took off the band-aid and yuck, that’s an ugly brut (bruise-cut).

The pattern for the Sari-ribbon tote called for a store-bought leather bottom, which I didn’t have, so I made one out of a fabric remnant. And my knitted tote-bag body turned out to be a very different size than the one in the pattern, so I had to do some improvising on the lining, and then make the bottom.

improvising the purse bottom

Wonder where the word “tote” came from? “Tote that barge, lift that bale…” ❤

Sari-ribbon Tote bag

I used a remnant of .89 yard of outdoor canvas fabric for the tote bag bottom and lining that was a perfect color match to the Louisa Harding sari-ribbon yarn and leather handles. And it sewed like a dream come true! I used a Kwik-Sew shopping bag pattern bottom and altered it to fit, and after three tries and a lot of ripping and tearing, I got it together. Next stop: shopping? Beach? Picnic?

In the Beginning

an early remnant

If you want to see other photobloggers’ takes on Beginning, click here.

When I started this blog a few years ago, this exact remnant was a point of interest. Now it’s back on my work table, waiting to enter its new life of usefulness, as something other than a cast-off end of a fabric bolt.

I believe my first remnant redo project was a pink apron, from a linen remnant that had an embroidered edge, and was much too small to have a commercial pattern lain upon it and cut into anything conventional.

I asked my “audience”–Facebook friends, as I recall, what they thought I should do with the remnant. I think I lost followers as soon as they saw I wasn’t going to take their suggestions! But I just couldn’t keep on doing what other people have always expected me to do.

That was a much simpler time!

I was about to retire from my long-held office job. I needed something to do, new interests. I bought a new sewing machine that could do embroidery. I had lots of fabric, mostly remnants, and various notions. I could never have predicted that some things I found fascinating have no audience, and some things I wrote about that were simply aggravating turned out to be most-viewed posts. Like yo-yo’s. And things I didn’t like about my sewing machine.

This blog has evolved: I’ve gotten into photography a bit more, and jumped into the river of info flow in the bloggiverse, cascading along with the flotsam and jetsam of images and stories in this happy, eclectic form of communication revolution. That means I follow a lot of other blogs and am daily influenced by their posts and prophecies. Thanks for all your virtual friendship, input, and inspiration, and here’s to a great 2014!

Holiday Gifting Damage Control

Are you like I am? Do you like to make things for people and give them as gifts for a holiday occasion? But do you sometimes fall short of your projected gift list goals?

When the holiday got really close, I narrowed my to-do list down to 2 basic things: shopping bags and dish towels. I still fell short…

Mostly because of this little number…which by the way, is a fabric remnant project. Another Kwik Sew shopping bag.

the diabolical Snow White bag

In retrospect, I can see where the red flags should have driven me back, but I was very distracted. A lot of things happened that I didn’t expect.

Red flag #1: the embroidery was too big for the pattern piece.
Red flag #2: the embroidery was too complicated for the design and function of the item.
Red flag #3: my available time was cut short when people dropped by and I was asked to do things I hadn’t planned, so I set the embroidery going and left it to go and do other things…

So that I ended up with a finished embroidery that is a poster child for what NOT to do.

the puckered and distorted embroidery

The complex, busy, heavy embroidery was no match for the thin cotton center panel of the shopping bag, even with a sturdy tear-away stabilizer underneath. When finished, the shopping bag fabric was considerably drawn-up and needed some adjustments if the pattern pieces were ever going to fit together. I had to add extra fabric and cobble it together with some stitching. The straps went on a little crooked and covered some of the thick embroidered flowers, but what else was there to do? Aargh, some of the fabric ended up not exactly on the straight of the grain. I was in a hurry and it shows. Sigh. But the recipient will still get it (in January!) and she can decide whether or not she thinks it is too shoddy to use! I think she can use it for something though, as she loves anything Snow White.

Here are some shots of other holiday things that (in retrospect) seem a bit weird or short of their mark:

Bad Santa, lying on the neighbor’s lawn sleeping

Grayzie, hiding from Psycho Granny Claus, who’s holding her candle upside-down

tiny crystal Nativity Scene overseen by a giant cardinal that is the wrong color

Madonna and Child with large turtle over a brass buddha

A little eccentric, perhaps, but I have room for all.