Going round in ovals

Not a typing error.

I could have done circles, but I doubt the effect would have been satisfactory!

Pattern booklet

This is a jelly roll rug. I bought the pattern years ago with the best intentions, but once I’d read the first three pages of it, I was much too lazy a bit intimidated and put it and the jelly roll aside. For years…

Finished size of mine is 48 x 27 inches but may vary. It was easy to make, but the preparation is pretty tedious and took twice as long as the actual assembly. None of it is hard, though. I do think the pattern instructions about the assembly are unnecessarily complicated, as they involve shifting furniture about. You do need an L-shaped return of some sort on your sewing table to hold the growing size of the mat as you stitch, but that’s about it.

You need a jelly roll. You join it end to end with neat diagonal seams until it’s all one strip. You cut batting strips a fraction narrower (the pattern says the same size, but I found that resulted in making it hard to fold the strips), and I cut them at 2¼ inches wide. You can join these strips too, with batting tape, but I didn’t bother.

Finished rug

You lay the batting on the wrong side of the jelly roll strip. You fold both edges towards the middle and fold the whole thing in half lengthwise. Pin together. Repeat this for the whole endless length. You taper one end down to half an inch, over a distance of about 6 inches. Stitch the strip down along its length, about ¼ inch from the open edge.  You end up with a sort of flat, chubby ‘yarn’. Roll it into a ball, secure with a pin. Start the rug with a straight length (1 used 16 inches) and spiral out, securing with zigzag stitch. You need to ‘feed’ the free yard actively towards the stitching or it’ll get tighter and tighter and end up as a bowl, edges curving upwards. End up with the tapered end tucked neatly under. It’ll need steaming and pressing and possible a night spent under your heaviest books. Total time: 2 days.

This rug is going into the caravan, between the bunks, and will be cosy under foot instead of the vinyl planks.

ScrapHappy May

Welcome once again to ScrapHappy Day!

It’s the day my friend Gun in Sweden and I host ScrapHappy, a day for showing something made from scraps.

I’d fully intended to have my little scrappy fabric-covered drawer unit ready for today, but it kept getting pushed to the back of the queue. Never mind, I will get it done for a future post. In the meantime, I have a small scrappy project I did get done and another one that’s singing a siren song to lure me away from other more constructive things.

Firstly, a small key pouch to go in my colourful backpack, using scraps of the backpack fabric and pieces from the Harlequin coat. I had some leftover piping I couldn’t bear to throw out, and it seemed to be telling me it would look very nice around the outside of a small scrappy pouch. Keys are hard on bag linings, and this one is double lined to preserve the interior of my lovely new bag. The zipper is a recycled one from an old pair of pants and actually determined the size of the finished thing, the ribbon pull is a scrap from a garment swing tag.

The other thing is all the fabulous Harlequin scraps. I simply cannot let them go. I trimmed them out very frugally to tidy shapes, throwing out only the barest slivers. Jigsawed together, they form a piece about 80cm square. I would need to join all the pieces together with sashing, but it would be a spectacular piece of scrappiness, and I believe there might actually be the potential for at least part of another garment in there. Maybe a waistcoat/bodywarmer? These bits are all basted to the charcoal grey 60% wool batting, so it’d be moderately cosy for the forthcoming not-very-cold North Queensland winter, and although there’s not enough for a whole anything, I could easily cut a pattern and piece something together using some other fabric to supplement it. No silk lining on this one, of course, but I have plenty of quilting fabric needing a home.

ScrapHappy is open to anyone using up scraps of anything – no new materials. It can be a quilt block, pincushion, bag or hat, socks or a sculpture. Anything made of genuine scraps is eligible. If your scrap collection is out of control and you’d like to turn them into something beautiful or useful instead of leaving them to collect dust in the cupboard, why not join us on the 15th of each month? Either email me at the address on my Contact Me page, or leave a comment below. You can also contact Gun via her blog to join. We welcome new members. You don’t have to worry about making a long term commitment or even join in every month, just let either of us know a day or so in advance if you’re new and you’ll have something to show, so we can add your link. Regular contributors will receive an email reminder three days before the event.

Here are the links for everyone who joins ScrapHappy from time to time (they may not post every time, but their blogs are still worth looking at). The list below is the most current one I have, so if you’d like me to update something, let me know in the Comments. Please note that Jule has asked to come off the list as she will be turning her attention elsewhere for a while, and we are delighted to welcome Hannah for the first time.

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, 
Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, Edith
 Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Debbierose, Nóilin, Viv, Karrin,
Amo, Alissa, Lynn, Tierney and Hannah

We also have a special one-time guest appearance by Kym’s blog, The Byrd and the Bees, featuring creative scrappy recycling by her husband, The Engineer. You’ll find it here, so do pay a visit.

Batala/Harlequin backpack done

It was a really good pattern.

Two big sewing sessions were enough to get the job done. I did take a few liberties with the pattern as written, mainly because I was making the bag from leftovers and needed to improvise. I didn’t have quite enough of several things. So, for example, the lining has several seams in it, I made the drawstring instead of using cord, the straps are fitted to size rather than adjustable, and so on. The fact that I could do this within the parameters of the pattern was a mark of its versatility, in my opinion, and doesn’t compromise the end result.

So, we have a small, neat but capacious bag with three pockets: two internal and one external, two of them zipped, a flap with a magnetic clasp to cover the drawstring, straps attached to a D-ring which doubles as a hanging loop, and lastly, an opportunity to showcase a really pretty fabric.

It’s also very light, feels sturdy and sits comfortably on my back. I don’t think it’s firm enough to hold anything very heavy or bulky, but as this is essentially a handbag rather than an actual backpack, I feel that’s perfectly OK. Obviously, I ended up using the paisley straps, but this was because I simply didn’t have enough of the geometric. Some-times the universe makes decisions for us.

If I ever want a heavier version, I’ll make it in leather, oil cloth, canvas or decorator fabric. 10/10 would recommend. #batala backpack #pinkponydesigns. The pattern is available to download on Etsy.

And because even sewing isn’t enough, I tried out a new bread recipe/process.

Four ingredients. Zero effort. 100% delicious.

Tender, open crumb, crust a combination of crispy and chewy. Can’t wait to see what it’s like as toast…

And now, on with the next thing.

Batala/Harlequin backpack

What’ll it be, then?

Which of these two webbings will I use for the Batala/Harlequin backpack?  My personal preference is for the colourful geometric one at the bottom but I’m inviting opinions in case someone has cogent reasons for preferring the other one.

So, progress: I’ve got the front and back panels done, the flap done, the D-ring hanger done, and the dark blue sides attached to the colourful front and back. There’s also a zippered pocket on the back panel you can’t see. Still to do: the phone pocket, second zippered pocket, the straps and the lining. That last bit will be fun, since the whole thing is attached to the outside, and then the whole bag has to be turned back out through a 3 inch slit in the bottom of the small zippered pocket on the back. Which will be fun. Not.

So far, I’m impressed with this pattern. If anyone is planning to make it, I strongly recommend mounting the pattern pieces onto card and then cutting them out. This is partly because you have to draw around things several times. Not only is it harder to draw round just paper, but the card will stand up much better to this treatment long term.

Making the bag is easier than I feared. The piping is the hardest part, and even that isn’t hard so long as you have a zipper or piping foot for your sewing machine, and you handle the bias strip gently.

I think I’m probably over halfway through, and it’s going to be fab!

The Harlequin Coat #8

Well, rats…

Those ribbon froggings were a spectacular fail. I pinned them on and got stitching… endlessly. Only to discover towards the end of the process that the ribbon coils were held together with a single thread that wasn’t properly secured. They not only fell apart very quickly, they were also pretty hard to use successfully because the satin ribbon was very slippery and the turk’s head knot that was the ‘button’ would not stay inside the loop once any slight pressure was applied.

I re-did all the tedious hours of stitching. But in reverse. 😬

Time for Plan B.

I found these black metal clasps on Etsy and ordered two pairs. I’m hoping they’ll do the trick. Otherwise I might end up having to use the dreaded toggles; this is not a duffel coat. On the upside, I got the pockets on and the coat is done apart from the closures.

In other news, as if I didn’t have enough on, I’ve decided to make myself a purse/backpack to match the coat. I’m no bag designer, so I once again resorted to Etsy to find one that was a) simple and b) interesting. There are so many of them out there, but I wanted an adult/classy version without a frenzy of pockets and zippers.

In the end, I chose this Batala backpack design from Pink Pony Design, and while mine won’t be in purple and green with a tiger on the flap, I promise you it’ll look good with the coat, since I have a large piece of my favourite fabric left, plenty of the dark blue and some fun contrast fabric for the piping. Fingers crossed I don’t discover any issues on this project. All reviews of the pattern are very positive, and I’ve seen photos of some completed examples which look great. I really like all her bag designs, so this may not be the last one I make!

Now I just have to hurry up and wait for those clasps.

The Harlequin Coat #7

And it’s a full garment at last.

The sleeves are in, after much swearing, stitching, ripping, re-stitching and poking of self with sharp pins. But they look decent, the inside is immaculately tidy and they aren’t going to fall out any time soon. The coat begins to look as I’d imagined, at last. I was silly to think the patchwork part was going to be the most time-consuming thing about this project…

Next step is binding all the open edges. The silk backing is fraying a little here and there, and stitching is opening in places, so the sooner I secure all that, the better. It’s going to be narrow, like the top edge of the collar, and double fold straight-grain binding for durability. Same inky blue as all the rest.

And finally, I’ve found some froggings for the closures!  Black satin rolled ribbon with turk’s head knots in place of buttons. I bought a pack of 6, so I have some flexibility. They had red as well, but I wasn’t quite as in love with the idea; the dark colour contrasts so well with the colourful background. Not sure yet how best to attach them, but it’ll probably involve insanely tiny  hand-stitching around the outside edge. Or maybe straight through the middle of each coil. Anyone got any suggestions or experience of these?

In the home stretch now. The final push will be the pockets, which need to be located once I’ve got this thing on and can decide where I want to put my hands!

Melbourne, get out your sunglasses and brace to be dazzled 😀

The Harlequin Coat #6

I’ve managed a few short sewing sessions.

The collar is bound and on. It looks so much better than I’d feared, and I have great hopes for the finished effect. Overall, things are looking really good, but I’ve realised that as it’s a winter garment, I need to be able to wear knitwear underneath. Which meant that in its current form it was a tad on the snug side. There was, fortunately, a simple solution, which was adding an extra strip down the front left (as you wear it) side. Most of this will be covered by the wrap-over, but it will allow for an easier fit. You don’t really notice it, so long as you overlook the extra strip of sashing.

The sleeves are still patiently waiting to be pieced in. It’s by far the trickiest job and I haven’t been mentally here for such fiddly work over the past days. I thought I might give you a sneak preview of the lining silk, though…

Hopefully in the next couple of days, I’ll feel up to the potentially fairly demanding job of inserting them. Can’t wait to try on the fully assembled thing!

I think I can promise this will be ready for our much-anticipated trip to Melbourne in June!

The Harlequin Coat #5

It’s all going rather well.

Perhaps I should be concerned, and anticipate some huge imminent disaster, but even the bits I thought would be scary (like spray basting the silk backing onto each piece) turned out fairly, well… straightforward.

So, as you can see, all 7 main pieces are sandwiched and quilted.  The bodice parts of the coat body have vertical quilting 2 inches apart, which splays outwards as it goes towards the hem, following the line of the coat skirts. The sleeves have straightforward vertical lines from sleeve head to cuff. The collar has parallel lines half an inch apart, following the curve of the top edge. For the quilting I used Rasant cotton-wrapped polyester-core thread in a lively shade of bright purple. Not that you can see the colour, really, but I know it’s there. The silk lining is also very, um, lively and I love it, but I’ll save the reveal of that for a later date.

Next job is to trim all the pieces out to the exact pattern size less seam allowance (joining edge to edge, remember?), and then start joining. I’ve already cut sashing strips. I know I said I was going to use black, but I’m actually going to use a very dark shade of navy. I tested both colours against the coat background, and the black was just too… dead. From a distance it will look like black; close up, you’ll be able to see that the colour has a bit more life to it. I’m also using a slightly narrower than usual doubled strip for the back of each join. Normally, I’d cut a 2.25 inch width for this and stitch in the ditch on the front to catch the doubled free edge on the back. For this coat, I think I’m going to hand stitch the free edge down for a more perfect finish, which means I need only a 2 inch doubled strip. More work, yes; more beautiful, also yes. Some projects are worth it.

Joining on the sleeve heads and collar is still exercising my brain, but I’ll work it out in due course. I also have to make the pocket fronts, but for that, I’ll need to be able to put the coat on to determine the most comfortable location for the pockets. Once that’s established, I’ll know what colours to use on the fronts.

Still plenty to do, but at this stage there’s no doubt this coat will be ready for our trip south in June. Exciting! I can’t quite believe how fast it’s going.

Let’s hope I haven’t just invoked Murphy’s Law…

ScrapHappy April

Welcome once again to ScrapHappy Day!

It’s the day my friend Gun in Sweden and I host ScrapHappy, a day for showing something made from scraps.

Today, I’m showing you the start of something rather than a finished project. A bit of background: The Husband drives a truck and spends long hours in the driver’s seat. It’s loud, it’s boring and he needs something to help pass the time, so he wears big Bluetooth headphones which enable him to listen to music or talking books, take a hands-free phone call, and protect his hearing from the noise. The ones he likes tend to break easily in un-mendable ways, from either deterioration after constant use, or accidental dropping. I’ve found a way of salvaging at least something from this situation, which is the packaging. It’s beautiful. There’s a nearly-square box and the headphone are packed inside a nearly-oval zipped hard case, nesting in a drawer with a ribbon pull. I’m using the inner cases already in a variety of ways, but the packaging waste was bothering me.

So I’ve decided to make something from them. I have three of them (so far, anyway), so I’m going to stack them into a small drawer unit for keeping my sewing tools (cutter, scissors, tape measure, etc). On the outside, I’m going to glue fabric scraps and seal the whole thing with Mod Podge. I like the orange and white colours, so I’m only going to cover up the bits with pictures and writing. I started it too late to have the thing completed for this month’s ScrapHappy, so hopefully you’ll see either more progress or the finished thing next time. I’ll certainly have some gorgeous scraps left over from the Harlequin Coat project I have on the go to use on this.

ScrapHappy is open to anyone using up scraps of anything – no new materials. It can be a quilt block, pincushion, bag or hat, socks or a sculpture. Anything made of genuine scraps is eligible. If your scrap collection is out of control and you’d like to turn them into something beautiful or useful instead of leaving them to collect dust in the cupboard, why not join us on the 15th of each month? Either email me at the address on my Contact Me page, or leave a comment below. You can also contact Gun via her blog to join. We welcome new members. You don’t have to worry about making a long term commitment or even join in every month, just let either of us know a day or so in advance if you’re new and you’ll have something to show, so we can add your link. Regular contributors will receive an email reminder three days before the event.

Here are the links for everyone who joins ScrapHappy from time to time (they may not post every time, but their blogs are still worth looking at). The list below is the most current one I have, so if you’d like me to update something, let me know in the Comments.  This month, we’re welcoming back Lynn after taking some time off from blogging, and Tierney, who’s creating something spectacular for you all to enjoy. Be sure to drop by and say hello!

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, 
Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn, Jule, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, Edith
Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Debbierose, Nóilin, Viv, Karrin,
Amo, Alissa, Lynn and Tierney

The Harlequin Coat #4

It’s going well.

I’ve got the colours for the fronts and sleeves sorted out. The front strips are sewn together but I haven’t yet attached all the strips to each other. I’ve only shown one sleeve, but the other one is laid out too. That leaves only the pockets and collar strip to assemble.

Two fronts, one sleeve. Once again, the colours are rubbish, with everything taking on an orange cast and the darker patterns flattened.

Once they’re finished, it’ll be time to assemble the quilt sandwiches. I’m going to trim out fairly close to the seam allowances so I can gauge exactly where to place the pattern piece on the fabric – with luck I can align most/some of the seams. The plan is to quilt in vertical lines from shoulder to hem, following the pattern outline. So the quilting will flare out at the hem and be less dense, hopefully allowing the skirts to move more.

I’ve worked through various options for assembly. Currently, the plan is to proceed as follows:

1. Make the two bust darts. Trim out inside if necessary and cover with sashing.
2. Join the two halves of the back with a flat sashed seam.
3. Join the two fronts to the back at the shoulders using a flat sashed seam.
4. Join the two fronts to the back by the side seams using a flat sashed seam.
5. Make the sleeve seams. (I have to work out if I can get in there with the machine as they’re basically two tubes. If not, hand stitching may be called for. Sash over the seam.
6. Bind collar top edge and attach collar with a flat sashed seam if possible, using bias sashing if necessary.
7. Insert the sleeves into the armholes, using bias sashing. Hand stitching may be necessary.
8. Bind all open edges (hems, cuffs, front edges).
9. Bind edges of pockets. Attach to front of coat.
10. Attach closures/fastenings.

Anyone see something I’ve missed? The only thing that’s worrying me really is whether the final coat will be so stiff that the skirts stand out rather than falling in folds. If that happens, I’m considering cutting slits to allow the panels to lie flatter, and binding the edges. Hopefully this won’t be required, but I should be able to test it once the body of the coat is done and before the sleeves and collar are attached.

The lining/backing will be quilted into the garment and is silk (another first for me, and I hope it goes OK!), so that’ll make putting the coat on a bit easier.

I’m going to bind the edges in black to make the colours pop by contrast. I’m also looking at various kinds of corded or silk froggings for the closure so I don’t have to attempt buttonholes through so many thicknesses and batting. There are some lovely black or black and red silk ones on Etsy. I briefly considered trying to make my own. I’d love to have a go, but not for this project. Life is too short.

Onwards with the job of joining all those lovely squares…