D319: complete - Junebug Dress

It's done!

I took an inch off the hem and turned it up 1" then 1.5". I'm thinking of adding a red ribbon near the hem too, but undecided... Still, pretty happy with it!

Pattern: Junebug dress by Jess at her blog Craftiness is Not Optional http://www.craftinessisnotoptional.com/category/junebug-dress 

Fabric: A walk in the dark woods by Zesti, via Spoonflower on poplin http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/382063

D316-8: Pins finished, dress coming

I finally stuffed and closed the ball and pins. The bells inside are much more rattley than dingly, but it doesn't matter.  I intend them to be a "Congratulations on becoming a big brother" gift so won't send them off until the event confirms it! I'm not superstitious, but it feels jinxy to congratulate about babies before they're born.

Aren't they special? Getting them to stand will be as challenging as knocking them down!

And the dress! Buttons machine sewn on, sleeve elastic inserted and cased, skirt side seams done, and skirt attached! Only the hem is left to be figured out once I can check it against Bub's height. It seems like this has just popped up, but I've really nibbled at this over a few days.

I used a top stitched neat-finish style to finish the skirt seams.  I probably should've tried a French seam, but don't regret my choice.

 Hub and I both agree it looks huge, but I feel that way about a lot of her clothes. Also, this isn't stretchy like nearly everything else she wears, and it's a bit roomy with the gathering, so it'll be the biggest dress she's ever worn anyway! 

In other news, I still have my cold. It's as strong as ever, at a month old, and keeping me up although I think I have a bit more energy in this last fortnight. I'm beginning to thinking it's a sinus infection but I'm hesitant to see a doctor coz, well, I'm still breastfeeding. Everything other than a nasal flushing thing isn't something I can have. Blergh! Blergh everywhere! :)

D314&5: A little dress

I've begun this little dress for Bub.  I'm hoping it will be good for one of her birthday celebrations.

This will be the Junebug Dress by Craftiness is not Optional blogger (http://www.craftinessisnotoptional.com/category/junebug-dress).  I've pinned quite a few of her gems. They're just gorgeous.

See how that panel is going to go on the front bodice?  

The print is "A walk in the dark woods" by Zesti, at Spoonflower (http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/382063), on poplin. This was the first print I favourited in Spoonflower and I love it's subtle Red Riding-hood story.  I'm surprised at how little red there is compared to my memory of it.  Nevertheless, red buttons are destined for the font panel.

Hub and I are still sick.  The cold is barely marginally better in the last few days.  I don't recall ever having a cold that's be this bad for this long.  Blergh. 

Bits and Pieces

There are a few other things I've chipped away at in the past fortnight.

I went to a friend's fortieth and made some little cakes to share.  Turns out the Awesome Vanilla cake will convert to about 40 mini cupcakes.  I made up an orange glaze with some vanilla-orange sugar gifted to me.

I also bit the bullet and bought some capsules for my toy projects.  This is one of the few less-than-a-hundred-items I could find and thoughts I'd give it a bash.  Fingers crossed.

This means I've held off finishing the bowling pins and ball.  I'm still thinking of sending them OS to my nephew.  He's about to get a new sibling, but the baby's gift is still only on paper.  How much does my butt need to get in gear over that?!  I'm hoping, once this lurgy passes, I'll be able to spend a few hot hours over the machine and punch out this single-bed quilt in a few nights.  Bam, mothergoosers.

D312-3: Regulating my stitches!

I've spent these days getting used to the BSR (Bernina stitch regulator) attachment.  It's a foot with a mouse device built in, which detects how fast you are moving your fabric and adjusts the speed so that stitches are the same length.
There are two modes: 1 is stitch while the sewing pedal/button is pressed, 2 is stitch only when the fabric moves.  You can also detach the cord and use it as a regular darning foot.

Read these from right to left...

At least I got better...

Most recent effort, with notes

The notes show the BSR mode and stitch length, and then the last one was using the foot as a darning foot (detached BSR cord, feed dog dropped, regular straight stitch, length 3.0 I think).  The lines are where the lower thread has been pulled up to the surface.

I have a set of long margins and borders to quilt, and I thought this design would be a good beginner pattern.  This one below is also terribly pretty, very complimentary to the quilt, and I think it will cope with 'close enough for a beginning' quite well ;)

From Christina at A Few Scraps

 

There's no point me considering any of them, though, if I can't get my curves smooth.  And I've only been practising on a square foot of space - nice and light and easy to move - how am I going to go with a single-bed sized pieces! :S

The thread pulling seems to be a common problem with quilting.  I imagine it means I need to go slower around the corners.  It may also be that my upper tension is too high, but its' only at 4, so I'm not too sure about that...  I will be quilting this pattern on the back of the quilt though, so I'm not very worried about it because the stitches look fine on the front.

The reason I'm quilting "upside-down" for this part is that I need to draw the pattern onto the fabric.  However, I don't really have any spare fabric from the front design, so I can't test the pen and see how well it disappears.  Rather than take the risk, I'll draw it on the back, where I already know it will fade thanks to my practise pieces.  I can also manage the bulk I'm getting with the backing fabric having a lot of stretch.

Can I also add how rubbish it is to be sick?  It's only a passing sickness, but it's still no fun.  I have a terrible cold, just short of a flu.  My head is well full of clay, with achy teeth, cracked lips, watery eyes and a crackly chest.  I even have acne.  You know it's bad when your body tries to push it out via your skin. :(  I had gastro just a fortnight ago too.  Both these illnesses came via Bub and she coped with them well.  Her gastro was rubbish for a day, and the cold presented as three days of croup plus a few of misery, but my body's taken them on with full nerdy force and done both bugs with a thoroughness any librarian would envy.  Maybe that's why my blogging and craft have been so slack.  Anything I can't accomplish in front of the telly is a big deal at the mo.  Please get better body, for the start of term three!  I want to want to do things again!

D309-11: Stitching in the ditch...

... is all done for my gifted quilt.

Loving my walking foot with the ditch guide.  Not so loving the give on the backing and how it stretches to create bulk at meeting points.  Oh well.

D296: Toy bells!

No, not bells that are toys, but bells that go into toys.  I need cases to put around my bells so that they're not muffled by the stuffing.  A friend of mine has them - they're like big pill capsule cases. I went to my local spotlight this morning after having called to get something like these...

They were there, apparently, but after looking and looking their local craft lady said they didn't have them.  They had squeakers, but not bell casings.  Humph.  So I bought some cheap plastic shot glasses instead and thought maybe I could get some sticky tape or glue involved...

Poxy, I know, but desperate times... 

D295: Stuffed and stuffed

Today I learned that when a pattern says it 'uses' a 3/8" seam allowance it means that it's included that allowance in the pattern pieces. Sad face.  Had to chop some bottom off all my pin covers.  I'm not sure it's going to fix the problem but I'll make it work somehow.

Here is a different but related example.  Sewing the rings on the ring stacking toy are clearly explained in the text, but lots of pictures, but not in the pattern.  The sewing vs cutting lines in the four base pieces are less clear.  I think dotted and dashed lines could've been used more consistently and it would've been a great help.

So, a general request to pattern makers, please be as consistent as possible across pattern pieces. Note things on the pattern pieces: "6mm SA included" for instance, or even the name of the pattern! As it is, when it dig up this very simple pattern in the future, I'll still have to go back and scour the instructions to be sure I get it right and I'm sure pattern pieces can be more helpful on their own.  

D294: Today's sewing prowess

The green ring turned out, the blue ring and stand sewn up too, all ready for stuffing and batting. Three pin tops sewn, three more prepared (awaiting bases and stuffing) and a ball shell. 

D292: Empty rings

For a toy ring stacker...

The inner and outer circles of the red right were done with a regular zigzag foot. The orange and yellow with the BSR foot.  But the green had the outer with the zigzag and the inner with the BSR as a darning foot.  I thought I might be able to use the circles to practise some freemotion sewing. However the BSR foot really needs the thickness of a quilt to work properly.  It was better as a darning foot (with the cable disconnected) because I could use the steady rhythm to map the needles around a steady curve. But even then, the thinness and  and my clumsiness wasn't satisfactory.  I didn't want to have the curve ruined by poor practise.

The other thing that made me think of the BSR foot was the joining seam, which is very tight.  See the green one partially turned out? It needs a seam 3/4 of the way around the circumference - that pinned raw edge - and it barely fits comfortably around a regular zigzag foot. It's certainly fiddly while sewing and very hard to maneuver the inner edge of it without catching the bulk.  The BSR as a darning foot has been worthwhile in that front, but...

Longer story shorter: I'm about to hand sew the green ring's joining seam :|

D268&288-91: Toddler pants completed!

Blogging is taking more and more of a backseat to making these days.  I'm not sure it's a bad thing but I will continue to at least photo-journal what I do, if only for myself.

There were a lot of days and steps for this and I kind of learned a lot doing this project.

I know I used a different fabric in the main pieces, and lining, so I think these turned out ok all things considered. I think it would fit better without the lining but I'm still learning how to work with stretch fabric on my regular machine.

I actually used the balance function on the machine!  This is the honeycomb stitch without the balance changed on the left, and then I turned it up after a few cm. 

The waist tie (above): I did not do a good job of this.  I'm not sure I would do this technique again. I just couldn't seem to get something so narrow through the feed without any stretching (which equals curling, even after pressing).  Maybe a walking foot?

The lining. I'd add a cm of length to this coz I wanted to cover the seam there with some hand sewing.  It wouldn't reach as it was.  Maybe a different kind of fabric would work better, but I'm not sure I'd be interested in substituting anything other than a flannel or stretch cotton for this cotton, which is kinds the same...

I'm still learning which stitches are best for what situation. Even though Bernina have helpfully provided a page describing all the practical stitches' uses, there seems to be so much overlap across them... I need a reference guide or something that shows the ideal situation for each stitch.

So when I say I 'kind of learned' stuff, I feel like I learned what not to do but I'm not too confident about what to really do instead. All the same, these I will be warm pants that will fit Bub, maybe in about two months (?) but certainly for a long time. :)

Instructional: How to make a Quarter Circle template with a straight ruler

This method is helpful for drawing circles of uncommon widths, or whenever you need a circular curve but have no circular ruler.  To jump ahead, here is a picture of the tool I made to draw the curves in this template.

Both pieces of my template, the 'pie' and the 'crust', overlapped to make a full square with seam allowances.

You will need:

• At least one piece of paper big enough for your quarter circle.  
• A pencil with a sharp point
• Scissors
• A ruler
• A pin
• Thick cardboard that's bigger than your circle (corrugated is good)
• Sticky tape (optional)*

To make:

1. Draw two squares that are the width of your chosen quarter circles.  (Having trouble making a square corner?  See **) 

My squares are 4" wide. (This would make 8" circles.)  You don't have to put seam allowances on these yet.  I did, but to remind me of my pivot corners without marking the square itself. 

Two 4" squares ready for quarter circles

2. Cut out a strip of paper that's at least an inch longer than your squares.  Mine is 6" long. 

3. Rule a line down the strip and mark a zero point near one end.  Measure your square's length from that point, as well as a seam allowance before and beyond that length.  My seam allowance is a quarter inch (6mm), so my marks were at 4", 3.75" and 4.25" respectively.

My completed paper compass.  First hole: Pie seam allowance. 2nd hole: Circle arc.
3rd hole: Crust seam allowance. 4th hole: zero, the pivot point.

If you want to use sticky tape, put a strip on the back to reinforce the paper.

Use a pin to put holes in the measured points.  Make the 'seam & allowance' ones big enough to take the pencil tip. (I used a darning needle for this.)

4. Place your paper on your cardboard.  Take the pin and put it through the strip of paper at the zero point.  Now put it exactly through a pivot corner, pinning the strip and paper to the cardboard. (See pic below)

5. Short version: You're going to use the first and second holes (the top two) to mark two arcs on one square (making the pie piece) and the second and third holes to mark arcs on the other square (making the crust piece).   

Long version:
 

5.a  Poke your pencil through the hole for your circle edge (the middle of the three holes) and a draw corner-to-corner arc on your square, using the strip like a compass.  Here are both my squares with their quarter circles drawn.

Two quarter circles.  Note the pin is stuck through the cardboard.

Choose one to be your 'pie' piece - the quarter circle part - and the other to be the 'crust'.

5.b  On your Pie piece, pin the zero point to the same corner as before and use the outer pencil hole to mark your seam allowance arc.

5.c  On your other square (the 'crust' piece): again, pin the zero point to the same pivot point as before.  Use the inner pencil hole to mark a seam allowance inside (below) the quarter circle edge.

The seam allowances marked on both pieces.

6.  Mark a seam allowances on the corners. Using the same pivot point helps keep track of the pieces.  In the picture below, that's
- the lower and left edges of the top square for the pie, and
- the upper and right edges of the bottom square for the crust.

Seam allowance added to the crust piece (bottom square).

7.  Cut out your template pieces along the seam allowance lines. All done!

Both pieces cut and ready to go.

* I know in the US it's call cellotape, and such, but in Australia we call it sticky tape.  Coz it's sticky and it's tape. 
** If you only have a straight ruler, with no grid or right angle, it can be hard to make a perfectly straight square. The corner of another piece of paper can be a good guide.  However, a piece of firm paper (not wrapping paper, which can warp) folded twice - once to create a straight line and again in exactly the opposite direction - can make a good reinforced right angle to guide you.

D284: Cutting Pants!

I'm still into cutting everything out at the moment, dreaming of sitting down and just zip zipping everything together.  Foolish girl... As if it'll be that quick!! Any hoo...

These are the pieces for the City Mouse Pants from Ottobre 4/2011.  Yes that is a rather crazy lining, but it wont be seen.  It has a similar stretch to the fleecy outer and I wanted a bit of a wind breaker in these.  Murphy's Cousin strikes again.

D281: There was a sale!

As if you would've done better!

Finally bought these things for a neglected quilt!

Hey, at least I was sensible. I even did two purchases - one for the things I really wanted to get using my focussed take-no-prisoners brain, and then another for some other things with my wouldn't-this-be-luverly brain, once I was sure I had time.  So there.  
It's just that I could see the opportunity to buy without Bub's distracting was along way off in the future, and I'd already been putting off a few purchases for a while.  There are a few things I'd like to knock off while I think about the next quilt...

My cousin bought me an Ink & Spindle pack to make a single-bed quilt top for my 35th (?) birthday.  (It's very similar to this one, which is just droolingly good.)  I have pictures of myself working on it the night I went into labour, trying to get it done before the biggest interruption of my life, sitting on a towel just in case.  Well, now I hope to get it done before Christmas, not necessarily 'next'.  The animal one is coming along and I can't delay it if I can figure it out.  I'm pleased this stuff is here now, though, so I can at least baste it together if I find time, or need a break from quarter-circles!

This arvo I began using pencils to try and figure out how many of which colours to buy, but I haven't felt like I was really making progress.  I was trying to see how many browns, blues and greens I could get away with, and such.  You know how some explorations just feel like busy work, but you run it out in case you learn something, or until a better alternative reveals itself...?

Well, when I saw a batch of solids on sale I thought maybe working backwards might be more helpful.  The Kaufman Kona solids are marvellous, but I'd be lost with all that choice - I need a restriction, not 271 options!  The pencils aren't bright or bold enough and the few textas I have aren't a helpful range - but I do have enough to sorta match them to my new fabrics and plan effectively.  

So here it is: my set for the quilt.  All I'm missing is black and white.  I think I can get nine 6" quarter-circles out of each fat quarter.

Matching my new fabrics to the pencils and textas I have, for future planning.

D280: Cutting it all!

We're off to the in-laws' for a while and I'm hesitant to start on any new sewing, so I've decided to cut fabric in preparation.  I've even packed away the machine! It's strangely liberating and I've already cut two projects today (although one of them requires a lot of pressing and interfacing before I can sew).

More on the horizon I hope.

A toy that may go OS - not sure about the colours...

Another toy, awaiting interfacing...

D271: It all my fault! Yey!!

I'll start with the key point here...

Tip of the day: If you love your machine, use quality thread.  It affects the tension and the debris and build up in the machine (at least). The quality of your machine's performance begins with the thread.

The poor quality thread in the bobbin is fluffy

My sewing machine dealer provides a free lesson on any machine purchased.  Today I used mine.  While I waited for the previous lesson to finish up I mentioned I'd had trouble with my machine's tension and was worried about the timing.  The technician plugged it in and, after looking at my trial swatch, did these things:

• Changed the needle
• Oiled the only user-accessible oiling spot available.

Thunking sound gone.  :0  

Stitches even and beautiful.  :O

Me stunned. 

And delighted!!  It was me!  I'm not sure which thing made the difference - he didn't run it between the changes to see - but there are three things that may have caused the problem.

1. The needle may have been bent. This is highly likely when I think of the fifty or so pivots I've done, on the nine or so zigzags so far.  This involves manoeuvring a lot of heavy fabric, which I'm very careful about, but it's only the needle holding it in place.
2. The thread fluff may have collected in the oil.
3. The thread fluff or quality may have affected the tension pads.

A low quality thread, such as a brandless bulk-buy three-pack spool I may or may not have been using, it can be uneven in it's thickness and fluffy.  The fluff can pack up corners and lubricated points.  The thickness can make the tension pads lose their even grasp on the thread as they adjust from thick to thin patches.  Top-thread loops on the back of your work can ensue.

I thought that, like with my old workhorse machine, I could throw anything at this one and it would suck it up.  I wrongly assumed that a higher quality, more refined and sensitive machine would adjust itself it all sorts of thread - coz it's awesome right?  Nope.  It's sensitively means it needs consistency and, well, protection.  Cheap and nasty thread was okay on my old 807 as it wasn't sensitive enough to notice.  My 530 needs better quality thread.  Like I said, the quality of it's performance begins with the thread.  Also, like a commenter on my quilting forum discussion mentioned, it's not really the machine, in the end; crap thread is crap.

I also learned that 'quilting' needles aren't desperately important; regular universal needles are fine.  It's more important to match the needle to the thread thickness and to the fabric.  Can I mention my awesome Bernina, again, and the page in it's manual dedicated to different needles and their purpose? 

So, with all that under my belt, I finished quilting the white zigzags tonight.  I plan to tie up all the loose ends and remove most of the basting, and then do the coloured zigzags.

I'm working from right to left in all the initial zigzags because, even though I'm using a walking foot, I want to avoid twisting or pulling the fabric by working back and forth.  It means that I'm not sewing the quilt in the most convenient way, which would be to put whichever end is closer through the machine throat. Instead I'm putting the same side through and rolling up its bulk, when necessary, for easier management.

Here is me working through the last of the zigzags with as much bulk as possible being put through the throat.

Top: At the start, I support the length of the quilt over my shoulder and change shoulders as I zig and zag.

Middle: Managing the bulk of the quilt through the throat of the machine is challenging, especially midway when pulling it all back through as I pivot to go up the zigzag (the 'zig'!). I keep a firm hold on the roll to ensure my sewing area is flat.

Bottom: To keep the quilt weight from pulling on the machine I hold the tail of the sewing with one hand and guide with the other.  I don't know if I could do this with a full-sized quilt!

D270: Resigned

So I tried sewing some lines last night and, once again, the timing was out. Or still is.  I had to redo a few lines, so I'm hoping it will get fixed at my lesson tomorrow.  Which is the hopiest hope you've ever seen coz there's no way that's happening.  It'll be gone for at least a fortnight, I bet. 

:'(

I've leant my old machine to a friend (which she loves, joy!) and I'm not dragging it back for just a few weeks.  My craftiness will just have to be spent sewing in the threads if the work so far and working on other hand sewing.  

D267&8: Happy and Sad

I was happy and now I'm not.  

I was chugging along so well, with another three rows done, and then I refilled the bobbin and something changed.  I'm not sure what but the tension was so sloppy I had to unpick two rows of zigzags and spent a good portion of my baby-free afternoon rethreading, looking, checking, sewing at various speeds, and redoing things with all sorts of language about that.  

I called the dealer to see if they had any advice and they talked about upper tension... Which it shouldn't be as I hadn't changed it.  The thunking sound it makes, while the tension is off, makes me a bit uncomfortable.  So, I've got a machine lesson with the Bernina dealer scheduled for next week but until then I'm hoping a post I've created on http://sewing.patternreview.com will turn up something.

Mostly I hope it's something mysterious I'm doing, or have done, and not something that requires a service.  I really don't want to have anything bad to say about my new machine.  

Sad face.

D266: Pink through grey

Today I quilted the white bands between the pink, purple and grey zigzags.  I love my machine.

I've also found it's easier to manoeuvre the quilt if the bulk in my lap is instead flung over my shoulder.  I swap shoulders at each pivot.  Around the time it's too short for flinging, and rests against my chest, is when the beginning needs folding on the tabletop.  Pictures later.

And can I just stress how important it is to dust around your work space? Maybe use a radius that's as long as your quilt...

D265: What a marvellous entrance, folks...

Sort of...

The practise run.  This is really easy! Why am I doing this? Yeah, don't get ahead of yourself, A...

Practise run, back & front, with different stitch lengths.

I'll do 4mm stitches, I thought, which will mean I'll go quicker! But the longer the stitch the harder it is to match it to the vertical seam, which is a pivot point.  It's a 7cm sewing line, so 2.5mm is a much more sensible stitch length, if you're going to be all mathy about it.

Things we're going so swimmingly with the practise that I decided to get on with the actual real deal.  Then, on the first zig, the machine took in the bobbin tail and chewed on the thread.  Hmph.  I trust that's what happened anyway - it looks suspiciously like the symptom of a not-properly-loaded bobbin case, or one that's popped out but since I've been sewing on this bobbin for quite some days that should be unlikely.  Hmmm. 

Anyway, after that inauspicious beginning, I was off and things looked pretty swish.

One thing the practise run doesn't help with is managing a larger quilt on the machine.  The rolled portions need pinning to be held in place, which I only did at the ends.  Here's my quilt at the end of a quilting line, folded for the easiest management.

It also took a while to realise that a zigzag pattern means you feed rolls of quilt through the machine throat, only to pull it back through after a pivot.  The last few zigzags are quite awkward.

I intended to work in the same direction for every zigzag so that any pulling of the fabric (which shouldn't happen much with a walking foot, but it's not magic) would be less apparent.  Going back and forth, while maybe helping to square the quilt, might created a sort of pulling of the fabric between the quilting lines.  However, it might be something I'm willing to risk when it comes to the edges so I don't have to manoeuvre a whole quilt through the throat of the machine.

Actual quilting!

The back looks nice.  It's a friendly  and soft fabric but I wish I'd had more conviction and chosen either a plain grey or persisted with a finer geometric pattern.  The zigzag lines are going to be really striking and unfortunately lost in this woodland print.  I'm quite annoyed about it but it's likely something the recipients won't even think of, thankfully.

One quilting line takes me 10minutes... That's 6 hours and 40 mins to go! Wheeee!