Sun bonnet trial

When we first met little “Sweet Pea” (our nickname for our new little granddaughter) it was quite clear that she was going to need a sunbonnet for the summer. She had a knitted hat from when she came home from the hospital but it was huge and was going to be too hot for summer so I knew what I needed to do……

When I got home I searched for a pattern for a hat crown that I could adjust to a size small enough to fit her wee head. I found one (but it also was huge) so proceeded to reduce it by percentages with Photoshop. Well of course it reduced in all areas so it became not just narrower but also shorter! The seam allowances were also reduced. It was mainly the shape I was looking for. I had a multi-coloured seersucker fabric in mind with a white ruffled brim for this bonnet.



Crown pieces cut - pink lining the new length!

 
So on I tread. Once I had cut the seersucker crown and pinned it together to get a feel for the size, I knew at once it was not long enough. I had lots of fabric so cut a ‘head band’ on the bias thinking that I could always insert some elastic to make it fit. A bias band would create visual interest so that was good. I cut the lining in a light weight batiste long enough to match the new outer layer.

Stitching the seams for the crown was the first step. (Be sure to stitch three ‘wedges’ together and press the seams open as you go.) My pressing mit was perfect for this job. If you don’t have one for pressing curved seams, roll up a washcloth or small towel into a ball and use that. When you have two sets of three ‘wedges’ sewn and pressed, match up the centre points and stitch the last seam. 

Crown and press mitt

Right sides out before the bias band

I added the bias band and matched up the ends of the bias – couldn’t believe they worked out perfectly! All seam allowances were only ¼” so it meant no trimming required. Repeat the process for the lining but this time stitch around the base of the lining at ¼”. This will give you a ‘hard’ edge on which to turn your seam allowance accurately and also keep the seams from coming open if you forget to back stitch.

Next I cut the ruffle. Looking at the crown I chose to make the ruffle 1 ¾” wide (finished width). I cut the fabric 4” wide by twice the length of the crown circumference but since my piece of fabric was not quite wide enough I had to cut two!



Offset the raw edges and 'roll and whip'



Here is the seam I used to join the two pieces, a rolled seam. You can use this here as there is never any pressure on the seam and it is almost invisible when the project is finished! To make such a seam join, you lay the fabrics one on the other with right sides together and edges offset by a mere sixteenth to one eighth apart.

Set your machine to a medium zigzag width and stitch length of ‘1.0’. Stitch down the length of the fabric. The bottom layer should roll over the top and give you a very neat narrow seam much like a ‘rolled and whipped’ edge in heirloom sewing.
 

 

 

Ready to stitch!

 

I made a ¼” seam at each end of the brim and turned it right sides out before running two rows of gathering (at ⅛” and ⅜”). Matching up the CF of the hat to the CF of the brim, CBs and so on around the crown, I pulled up the gathering threads and distributed the fullness evenly. Once that was done I stitched the ¼” seam and pressed it towards the crown.

Done and right sides out

 With wrong sides together I matched up the centres of the crowns and then the seams of the lining to corresponding points on the band. Using a slip stitch I joined the two. Done for now. All that is left is a chance to try it on little Sweet Pea.

 

From the inside

Well it seems I measured her head wrong! I was out by 1”! (She was quite squirmy and brand new the day I measured.) The bonnet only just fits! And that won't be for long.....  

Stretch - "This photography stuff is such a bore!"

Well off to the drawing board again - thank goodness I have lots of fabric. Dear Daddy couldn’t understand how the bonnet didn’t fit. It was all a bit too complicated to explain and I finally just gave up.

When she was napping (the best time to try measuring a newborn) I measured again and this time got three measurements – head circumference, front to back over the crown and from earlobe to earlobe over the crown. Well the next one will be larger for sure and will include a little elastic to draw in the fit! It is all a learning curve.

Like me, just keep stitching……

 

Manual Buttonholes - not that tough!

Recently I was up at our cottage with my little Elna Lotus sewing machine doing some stitching for the new baby's arrival. This little machine has only straight & zigzag, multiple zigzag and a zigzag blind hem stitch. It was one of the first Lotus machine they made so it didn't have a built it buttonhole.

Not a problem as when I used to sell these machines back in the 'olden days' in Eaton's, part of our sales demo was to do manual buttonholes and free motion embroidery for monograming or darning (yes, they promoted darning back then!) It only took a moment for it all to come back.

I thought perhaps some people might find it helpful or at least interesting to see how to make manual buttonholes in this day of auto and computerized everything.

At home I have a Bernina 1530 (also an older but like my Elna machines, a true workhorse). My Bernina has many buttonholes to choose from, also a special butthole foot and a bobbin case with a 'stitch finger that allows you to tighten the bobbin tension slightly when making buttonholes.

Bobbin case with 'stitch finger'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So here is a buttonhole on lightweight batiste.  You can see how it puckers at either end and I haven't even cut it open yet! 

Many patterns for smocking and heirloom sewing do not require any interfacing and thus there is no support for the machine stitching as you can see in the photo above.

The first thing you need is medium to heavy weight tearaway stabilizer.
You should be able to purchase this at your favourite sewing store. It also comes in black for dark colours. You might want to pick up a tenth of a metre or an eight of a yard of both to have it on hand - this much should go a long way of you are using it only for buttonholes!

To make a manual buttonhole you need to set your needle to extreme left hand position. Your width should be set for 2 and the stitch length to near satin stitching. (If you have a machine that only lets you set at specific intervals such as 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 etc. you will not have as much flexibility as one that has a dial for the settings.) On some machines satin stitching is very tight so you may need to back off the stitch length a bit. On my Lotus I had to play a bit to find the right density and then recorded it.

Reduce your upper thread tension so the thread tension is uneven and the upper thread is pulled slightly to the wrong side. This results in a more satin appearance of your stitching.

Normal tension - reduce to 4 for a more satin appearance of the stitching

Lay a piece of  tearaway behind the fabric before starting and you can use a pencil to mark the buttonhole position on your fabric - you are going to stitch right over top of it and cut on it so no one will see it!

Begin at the top, needle position L and needle swinging into the mark on the right.



Stitch down the length of the pencil line. End with the needle on the right on, the pencil line. Lift the machine foot and pivot the fabric so there is space on the left side to run a second row of stitching. You are ready to stitch the bar.

 

Ready to make the buttonhole bar.

Now you need to drop the feed dogs while you make the buttonhole bar. If you are not sure how to do this refer to your machine manual.

Change the stitch width to 4 (double that of the buttonhole sides).

Stitch about four stitches for your buttonhole bar, ending with your needle on the left side.

Bar done!

Now it is imperative that you return the feed dogs back to normal or stitch position!!

If you forget you will end up stitching a big blob.

 

Next you must return the stitch width to 2 so you can stitch down the second side.

Go slow and stop when you are one stitch from even with the first side.

When you have reached this point, drop the feed dogs again and stitch the second bar using the same number of stitches as you used for the first end.

 

Buttonhole finished all but ending off. You can stitch up the side of the buttonhole with the shortest stitching and then snip off the threads.

 

See how perfect and satiny the stitching is!

Or you can leave long thread ends at this point. Take the threads to the back and thread them up with a needle to bury them along the side of the buttonhole. This leaves no bulky knots or thread tails. You will pull the threads a bit taut before snipping them off at the fabric surface.  You are nearly finished....

 

Now you need to turn the buttonhole over and remove the tear away stabilizer. The stitching will have perforated it along the buttonhole sides. With your scissors, cut it free at the ends.

 

 

Your next step is where Fraycheck, a liquid seam sealant, comes in. 

 

 

 

Apply a bead of this liquid to the stitching. Be careful to keep it as much as possible to the stitching. There may be some 'bleeding' into the fabric and this should not be a problem.

I prefer to do this on the back of the buttonhole as that is where all the action is - the bobbin thread as well as the top thread that has been unbalanced.

On the back with Fraycheck

When the Fraycheck is totally dried you can cut the buttonhole open. Everyone has their favourite tool for this job. I find that if I pierce a hole between the sides of the buttonhole with my seam ripper and position a pin across the end, I can use my fine scissors to cut it open safely.

 

Ready to cut

No Fraycheck - buttonhole fraying

Finished buttonhole treated with Fraycheck

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see the difference in the finishing when the buttonhole is treated with the liquid seam sealant. It prevents the threads along the inside edges from fraying and seals the stitching and the stabilizer together for longer service and a stronger buttonhole.

 

Even if you continue with automatic (computer) buttonholes, you will find these little tricks with the tearaway and the seam sealant improve your end product.

The key with the manual buttonholes as with any is to first practise with all the same products as in your garment (including the same number of layers of fabric) and then record your settings. With a bit of practise you will find this type of buttonhole is not at all intimidating!!

 

 Good luck and keep on stitching.....

 

 

The tiniest antique bonnet!

I've been working so very hard on a new pattern that I've neglected 'The Blog'. Sorry. So today I dove into my drawer of antique bonnets and found this tiny gem.

 

If you look carefully you will see the hand-stitched perfectly spaced pin tucks. Such fine detail! The laces insertions have been whipped to the fabric and the hand-embroidered floral insertion. Can you imagine making that embroidered insertion? It is perfect!

Here is a back view and you can see the little circle which draws in the fabric to shape the bonnet. With all the hand work that has been done this little piece has been applied by very fine machine stitching - the only machine work I could find.

From the inside - almost good enough to wear this side out!! You can see the raw edge of the fabric which has been whipped to the lace and the embroidered insertion. Very neat and precise. The ties are of a single thickness of the bonnet fabric. The edges have been turned twice and a running stitch used to secure the hem. Interesting.... 

Below is a close-up of the embroidered insertion from the back.

The thread carried from motif to motif is an indicator of hand work in most cases.

Here you can also see the back of the ruffle with the tiny lace edging.

Below are detailed shots of the ruffle and the finishing from the right side and the inside.

 

 

 

One quick look at the hand stitched pin tucks - such attention to detail.

 

And lastly here is a close-up of the centre back. Such a neat job and those tucks line up nearly perfectly!

 

 

I hope you enjoyed a look at this stunning, wee bonnet. I just wish I could meet the lady who made it and talk about all those fine details I would love to find out how long it took her to make it. I think we would be hard pressed to create a tiny bonnet, even with all our high tech machines, that would rival this one.

 

So until next time, keep stitching....

Finishing a baby quilt

Many years ago my mother made a baby quilt for my son and started one for my daughter. It got packed away and only a couple of years ago when my sister was moving did she unearth this second quilt - I have no idea how she came to have it as mom passed away in 1988! But what a treasure to pass on to a new generation!

The quilt as I received it

She was certainly ahead of her time some might think with her choice or a strong yellow broadcloth but in truth, I am sure she was trying to avoid gender stereotypes and had a very limited choice in fabrics considering they lived in the country. The puppies are hand appliqued and embroidered. At first I thought I was going to have to do all the assembly and quilting so you can imagine my surprise to find that it was finished all but the binding.

Now I am the first to admit that I am no quilter! Years ago I took a quilting course that covered many types of quilting so I have a pretty good idea of how to do it but like all things, techniques change and it seems that binding are done differently today. I learned quite a little bit when I went searching for fabric for the binding at the local quilt store and chatting with the sales girl.

I often make submissions to A Needle Pulling Thread magazine and Carla, the chief editor and owner, insisted that young moms don't want pastels any longer and so I went searching for something to 'tone in' with the colours of the embroidery and help to calm the bright yellow that was too much for me. I found a delightful print with just the right bright colours, gender neutral and not too much like a nursery print. And since a binding (the way the sales lady described the modern style to me) is fairly narrow, not a whole lot will show anyway.                 

I decided to make the binding half the width of the outer sashing (a bit wider than what I saw in the quilt store) and made use of the grid in my cutting mat to cut the correct with - 6" - rather than drawing lines on the fabric as a guide. This was against all my training to use proper straight grain by pulling a thread or tearing!

The final width of the binding was only 1.5" and I will show you why and how I got these measurements. First I had to join the strips which I cut on the 'straight' grain not the bias. I was amazed at how well this worked - no stretching like I would have gotten with a bias binding! Next I had to cut the ends on the bias or at 45 degrees. Doing this reduced any bulk I might have had by keeping the joins on the straight grain. Again the cutting mat saved a lot of time and bother.

Follow the grid and use the ruler to keep the blade cutting straight.

Next step was to join these strips with 1/4" seam allowances and press the length of fabric in half.
Next I pressed the raw edges so they met at the centre fold. Finally I folded the piece in half again on the original fold and gave it one more press. Now I was ready to start attaching the binding.

Fold in half & press

 

Press raw edges to centre





Press in half on the original fold again

To attach the binding to the quilt, open it out so the raw edge, single thickness, lines up to the edge of the quilt.

 

 

 





Here you can see how the binding, when folded to the back side of the quilt is half the width of the yellow sashing. The fold you see on the right is the centre fold of the binding.

It all went together so well! I chose to mitre the corners but I see that many of the modern quilts don't do it this way and have 'square' corners much, much easier. But I am still a bit of a traditionalist and fiddled with these corners to get the perfect mitres. And they are perfect thanks to measuring.

 

Here you see the binding being pinned to the back of the quilt. The stitching done on the top to hold the binding in place now acts as a perfect guide to get the binding hand stitched in place.

Everything is ready now to sit in the evening and enjoy some handwork while I watch tv! I can hardly wait....

Hope you like this print as much as I do now - it kind of grows on one!

Till next time, keep stitching.......

Trying a new fabric...

I saw this 'cabbage rose' minky-type fabric at the local fabric store and once I touched it I just knew I wanted to try a "Buckleberry" teddy bear in this fabric. Now this is taking me out of my usual range of woven fabrics but it is a good thing to try new stuff, right?

 

They had a wonderful baby pink but since I don't know if this is going to a baby girl or boy I had second thoughts and chose a beautiful honey brown (not sure what colour this will be on your computer).

To give this little fellow a bit of definition, I found a soft satin in a similar colour.

The sales girl and I tested the pile to be sure it didn't pull out should the baby put it in his or her mouth. (We are now learning to think of safety first in all we sew) She tore the fabric instead of cutting it - quite a surprise in these days of rotary cutters. It tore like a dream, again a surprise as the foundation of the fabric seems to be a type of knit fabric. 
At home I started cutting out and quickly found I had 'fall out' everywhere. (When torn, there was no fallout!! so this mess came as a bit of a surprise.) But it became an easy clean-up job for my trusty hand vac! Working with it close at hand, I could keep things well under control and not end up covered in bits of brown pile.  Even each piece that I cut shed as I picked it up!

Lessons to learn: Cut single thickness with the backing side up for more accuracy. I am a strong believer in grain and this makes it easy to know how you are laying the pattern pieces.
Pins seemed to work better than weights - just don't forget to flip the pieces to get the left versus right sides.
Work with a longer stitch length such as 3 rather than 2.5. Makes it easier to see the stitches and lets the machine glide over the fabric.

The satin worked out beautifully for the soles, the inner ears and the underarms to give a bit of visual definition.

If you have ever sewn fake fur coats (does that date me terribly??) or even real fur you will appreciate how the seams can slip and slide and how the fur pokes out of the seams. What I found was that if I basted (yes, the 'B' word) the tricky seams like setting in the legs, arms and neck it took far less time than fighting with the pins as I stitched with the machine. When you pin to baste, you can push the pile out of the seams so you are lining up the raw edges accurately. So much easier!!

When I was finished I took some time to remove the basting threads, tie off and clip all the threads before stuffing. One more thing to do with this fabric is to turn bear right side out and with a pin or seam ripper go around every seam and pull the pile out of the seams. Give the seam a little rub with your hand and it all but disappears!

So here is the finished little bear. Would I make another in this fabric? You bet. It is very forgiving if you don't get a perfectly straight seam. You are lucky if you can even see a seam!

I stuffed him with a bit less polyester so he would be softer and more cuddly than some of the others. I am hoping this Buckleberry will become as loved as the Velveteen Rabbit.

Hmm, I think I might try a pillow for the new mom from the left overs of this fabric to put behind her back in the rocking chair. One side cabbage rose and the other side - well this might require another little shopping trip; there are so many ways to go: corduroy, satin, velveteen, and on and on......

So till next time, keep stitching....

A Growth Tuck Hem

I had a note from a student asking about hems. She was not sure how much to turn up on a pre-constructed bishop she had purchased. I quoted her measurements according to the Canadian Standards for Infants but it seemed like she would be turning a huge hem for a 6 month old child's garment. So I suggested a growth tuck hem.

A growth tuck hem is machine stitched (some of you will cheer!) that allows the mom to let down the hem of the dress as the child grows taller and does not require re-stitching (do I hear another cheer?)
This is accomplished by the creation of tucks above the hem which are stitched with a basting length stitch so the tuck is easily removed and the dress lengthened.

I would strongly suggest that you work this all out with a long piece of paper, pencil and ruler so you know how much fabric you will need before you cut the skirt of your garment. This is the best way to eliminate errors!

So here is how you would go about it.
Working from the wrong side of the skirt, turn up the hem allowance. For ease of calculation I have used a 4" hem. Very lightly press with your iron. 

 

Next, fold back the hem to the wrong side. Lightly press and pin. Be very accurate!

 

 

Take the garment to your machine and stitch the width of the first tuck. For ease of measurement and calculations I have chosen to do 1/2" tucks.

 

 

Use a regular stitch length for this tuck.

 

Back to your ironing board for a quick press. First in the folded state and then open up so you are sure there is no fabric creeping up under the tuck.

 

Now fold back the hem and measure 1" from the machine stitching of the first tuck to the fold of the second tuck. This must also be very accurate - each step takes precision or you will have 'wonky' or 'wavering' tucks.

 

 

When you have measured, lightly pressed and pinned the fold in place, it is back to the machine to stitch tuck #2. This tuck is also at 1/2" on your seam guide. (Now I know that my needle stitches ever so slightly to the left of exact Center Needle Position so without an adjustment I will get a very slightly larger tuck but I can live with this. All it means is that you will not see the stitching of the first or second tuck when I am done.) 

 

So back to the machine and stitch tuck #2. This time switch to a basting length stitch (e.g. 5) so the tuck can easily be removed in the future.

 

 

Return to the ironing board to press and measure for Tuck #3. Don't forget to check there is no fabric creeping up any of the stitched tucks.

 

From both sides now....

 

 

So when you are finished three tucks should look very much like this:

 

 

The last two tucks are sewn using a long stitch (e.g. 5) so they can easily be removed starting from the top tuck.

 

Be sure to tell mom what to do. Years ago I made a little dress for my niece and my sister doesn't sew. When I saw the dress a months later to my horror, my sister had picked out the bottom tuck, let down the hem and re-stitched it at half the original width! She said she didn't know any better and had had a rough time reworking the hem. So what seems so simple to a sewer.....

 

If you anticipate the tucks are going to be let down then suggest that mom not press them every time the dress is pressed. Those press marks are hard to remove at the best of times.

 

There is nothing saying that you can not space the tucks. This is another reason for working everything out with paper - you can test what space you have in the skirt and what effect you can achieve. Just remember to keep the width of the tucks in proportion to the size of the garment.

 

You might consider adding touches of embroidery on the tucks themselves or the spaces in between if you are spacing the tucks. Or perhaps you know the tucks are never going to be released and like doing 'shark's teeth'. You can create some very attractive designs with this detail. A set of tucks can be strictly decorative and set apart with a row of two of lace insertion.

 

There are so many ways of utilizing these wonderful tucks. I hope this inspires you to be creative with your hems.

 

So till next time, keep stitching.....