Showing posts with label embroidery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label embroidery. Show all posts

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Making Napkins and Tablecloth

I have a really long table in the dining room.  Tablecloths that are long enough are usually hard to find and often expensive.  The fabric on these store-bought versions has never been that great either.  After making napkins using directions in Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts, I decided to take Martha's advice and make the table cloth as well.  I've posted about my Martha mitered napkins before.  I dearly love them.  They are so very easy to make.  You iron squares of cloth and sew some straight lines.  You just cannot make a mistake with these! 
I did a white-on-white embroidery design, but these look elegant without a design as well.  Here is a pic of those awesome and so easy mitered corner.  The fabric is a medium-weight linen blend from Joann Fabric.  It washes beautifully and comes out of the dryer without wrinkles--a real plus!  
A 50% off coupon for the fabric got me over being nervous about dealing with a large piece of fabric for a tablecloth. The fabric I used was wide enough to give me enough overhang on the sides even after hemming.  I squared off the fabric and used the same ironing, pinning, and straight-line sewing used to make the napkins.  It was finished while watching television in one night. 
I left a fairly large overhang on the ends in case I lose my mind and buy an even longer table someday.  I chose to go with white because it goes with everything and fits every holiday.  To bring in color for some occasions, I'm making squares or runners to put on top--or not.  I saw this colorful light-weight linen blend with poppies while shopping for the white fabric and decided to make a Springy looking square to center on the table for Easter.
 

This poppy fabric requires ironing, but it irons well, looks like pure linen, and is so freaking pretty. I used a wider hem on this piece.  It is 1-1/2 inches folded twice instead of the half inch and one inch Martha suggests for the napkins.

Next on my agenda, is making some sets of these napkins to put aside for gifts.  Joann's has the medium-weight linen blend in a number of colors. Quick, easy, beautiful, inexpensive, AND good for the environment.  Happy Easter Y'all!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

A Martha Stewart Napkin

It's from Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts.  Martha "claimed" that this would produce a napkin with beautifully mitered corners.  I love nicely mitered corners but have always found them to be difficult.  Following the directions (for once), I ended up with this.


I love Martha.  This napkin is perfect.  Look at these beautiful corners!



It was so nice, I was afraid to embroider anything on it.  It took me weeks to decide whether or not to put something on it, more weeks to decide what design to put on it, and another week or two to get up the courage to actually do the embroidery.  I don't know why.  This napkin was so easy to make.  You iron it, sew on a few of those creased lines, and do some straight stitching around the edge.

I finally decided on a simple floral design for the embroidery because I'm a bit tired on initials right now--I overdosed on my towels.  I used a slightly off-white on the bright white cloth.  I'm not sure that the placement is conventional.  I folded the napkin the way I would use it and put the design on the top.  It is off-centered when the napkin is open--one of the reasons I chose white-on-white.

I used a fabric from Joann's that looks like linen.  It washes beautifully.  No ironing needed at all.  I've had linen napkins before.  They were lovely but HAD to be ironed.  I like ironing, but who has the time especially around the holidays when you will most likely be using them?  Now I just have to finish the other 17 I want.  I know better than to put down an exact date for them to be finished here.  Life has an annoying way of interfering with my well-made plans.

I really do love Martha.  I want to be in her audience.  I don't want to meet her, though.  For some reason, I find her completely intimidating.  Could it be her awe-inspiring talents and boundless energy?  Yes, I know she has a hoard of people coming up with lots of ideas, too.  Martha did, however, create the whole venture and keeps it going strong.  Great napkin, Martha!  I just know she reads my blog ;-}

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

The Latest Quilt

I like to make simple quilts.  More than anything else, this is because I have the WORST time choosing fabrics that  go well together.  Sticking to just a couple of colors works best for me.  I also like to use up left-over fabric.  Since I needed a throw for the sun room and there was a good bit of blue denim left over from reupholstering the furniture (pics in another post), this quilt with blue and natural denim was born. 



Even the natural denim was left-over from making valances for the sun room.   I'll post about them later.


The quilt is machine embroidered with red work designs (or I should say blue work in this case) of the flowers for each month on 10 1/2 inch natural denim squares with three inch blue strips between.


I used off white fleece from Joann's for the backing.  With the weight of the denim and the fleece, there was no need for batting.  I sewed the front and backing inside out leaving an opening to turn it right-side out.  There is machine stitching around the inside of the squares and about 1/2 an inch in on the entire outside edge.


This was one of the easiest and quickest quilts I've ever done.  I didn't need to worry about changing thread colors on the embroidery machine, I could do other work when the machine was running, and there was no worry about batting bunching or shifting.  While it is heavier than the usual cotton quilt, it drapes well and is soft and warm.

Matching throw pillows were from happy accidents.  I accidentally made duplicates of some of the flower designs.  My embroidery machine--which I love dearly (thank you, thank you Brother)-- does have a very small window.  I thought I was choosing the next design...  The newer machines are much better in that respect.  But, my Pacesetter produces beautiful pieces.  That's all that really matters; there's no need  to upgrade.

Friday, April 30, 2010

Bedtime book hanger



My niece, Binnie, came up with the idea for this project, and I got to find the embroidery design, and sew it.  There is a plastic sheet usually used for hand embroidery sewn into the back for strength and to keep the shape. The ribbon handle can hang on a door knob, hook, or drawer pull.  For the next one, I will probably use cording instead of ribbon--books can be heavy!

The embroidered section in front is a pocket for small books that sits on top of a larger pocket for bigger ones.  Binnie's idea was for the kids to not only have a place to put the books they have chosen for bedtime reading, but also to give them a sense of  independence and control.

I did the embroidery for the book bag on my Brother Pacesetter. I do love that machine. I had it in for a tune-up recently, and the guy acted as though I had brought in an original Singer pedal machine.  It's not THAT old! It does both regular sewing and embroidery incredibly well.  I will not be replacing it despite the repair person's nasty insinuations.
The Three Pigs


It is rather fitting that I made this since I almost always give Binnie's kids books as gifts. If you are thinking of getting some little person a book, take a look at David Wiesner's Three Little Pigs He does the traditional tale in a whole new and fun way.  It's not your mama's three little pigs tale!  



You all can probably figure out the design if you want to try one.  Give a shout in the comment section if you need any info.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

My version of John Murphy's monster plushie


In the fall I watched John Murphy's video tutorial on making monster plushies at Threadbanger's site.  By the winter holidays, I had the time and courage to attempt my own.  These are the first two I did.


Since the fabric used for the arms and part of each one's ears was called cheetah fabric, I  named them Tiger and Elliot.  I guess everyone can figure out how Tiger got his name.  If you are from New York State or really into politics, you may understand where Elliot got his.  Since these were not for little kids I went with button eyes.  Elliot had bloodshot eyes (much as he namesake's) as you can see here.  Yes, he is a blue blood.


I decided to birth some more of these for newly arrived grandchildren of my book club members, and Tattletales were born.  I do consider that my monsters are born rather than made.  They take on personalities.  I swear they do.  These new sweet things tattle on the new owners like Addison's below:


Yes, that says, "Addison did it.  Babies have it way too easy.  These little monsters will toughen them up.  I gave this one embroidered button eyes for safety purposes.   I think they look just as nice as the real buttons.  There is the added advantage of using the little beast to help with learning colors.  The nest came from a pattern by Michael Miller that you can find here.  THEY call it a soft basket rather than a nest.  There are a number of  great tutorials on the right side of the website.  Just scroll down to the "soft basket" one that I think should be called a nest. 


This tattletale was for Reid:

He has felt eyes sewn on that give him a bit of a condescending attitude with those droopy eyelids.  I decided to make his feet the same as the hands.  I like that three-fingered and toed look best.  Actually his feet tuck quick nicely into the basket, but I wanted to show his adorable toes.  Eli's tattletale sneaked out before I got his picture.  I'll have to see if I can get the family to take a picture.  If he behaves as badly as Elliot, they have probably thrown him out on the street.

Elliot is still with me.  My nephew, Randy, takes him home occasionally, but he tells me that Elliot behaves so badly he has to keep bringing him back.  Randy has, however, been teaching Elliot how to play lacrosse.  Or perhaps Elliot stole the equipment from Randy.  I'm not quite sure.  That is Elliot's mother in the background, the couch.  They are indeed cut from the same cloth.  Stay tuned for the story of the reupholstered furniture coming to this blog soon.
 


I got John Murphy's, "Stupid Sock Creatures:  Making Quirky, Lovable Figures from Cast-off Socks.  I'll post my first creation soon. I've had a bit of trouble gathering socks.   It's amazing how attached people are to their socks.  People react badly when asked to part with their them, especially the striped ones.