Sewing bee challenge.

Since watching the second year of the sewing bee , I have had a great desire to make clothes with my new sewing machine. Time has been my problem really , but right now I am in a lull whilst thinking over my next felting project and waiting for some supplies to arrive. So I decided to test myself on a challenge to remake a favorite garment out of stretch material.

So I made my pattern, the trickiest part was the curve on the sleeves, I guess there are some rules here. But I just approximated. My mother could tell me how to do this I am sure if I ask her. I cut my fabric nervously leaving only 0.5 cm turnings as was required for my sew and neaten in one go stitch . I realised that the construction method of my top was not the traditional , sew the shoulders , sides and sleeves seams.and set in the sleeves , but rather sew the shoulders , sew in the sleeves and then sew sides and sleeves together all in one. Not a lot of room for error here but a time saving idea.

Here you can see a little bit of tacking and my magic disappearing marking on the neckline.

My super fast heming stitch.

 

Binding the neckline which is proving a bit tricky.

Learning so far me .

Accurate cutting and placement of the pattern pieces is critical .

Iron the fabric first to ensure it is totally smooth is required otherwise forget the accurate cutting effort.

I must understand curves on sleeves better.

The stretchy of fabrics and their thickness effects the stitches on the machine and I need to test and adjust before starting.

Overall I am please with my almost finished top but could I have made it in 2 hours. No way .

 

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Seams

When asked how to fasten two pieces of felt together I go back to my sewing roots , and think straight seams and French seams. With more thought I realised that with felt the possibilities are enormous. You can of course sew felt in a traditional way and get a traditional effect. But if you sew it at the prefelt stage , well you can either create an stand out seam or you can make the seam almost completley invisible.

Here is an example, a very small sample.

It almost looks like piping.

Then of course you might want an invisible seam , and these example would be almost invisible if I had chosen a more sympathetic thread colour.

My favorites seams are using a fabric or yarn to make the seam , I think this could look really cool , with slightly more exciting colours , and adds a flexibility that could be very wearable in a felted garment.

All I need now is to work out how to make a jacket so I can use my seaming skills.

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Samplers

In my head, samplers are regular organized pices of needlework , usually with a psalm or poem incorporated. A bit like this one , made quite a long time ago.

According to wikepedia they did not start like this. Women used them to record a stitch they had seen and did not want to forget. This was in the 15th and 16th century . The samplers were 6-9 inches wides and were totally covered in stitches. They were highly valued and often passed down through the generations. By the 18th century they became a way of showing skill at stitching and at this point started to incorporate religious or moral quotations.

So I have gone back in time , and I am making a felt sampler to record the effect of stitches, added before felting , at the prefelt stage and after felting. This sampler is currently just about to start the stitching after the final felting stage and Is pretty disorganized affair. I have tried to keep to a purple /pink theme and tested hand stitching and machine stitching. Until I read up about the origin of samplers , I wasn't so happy with my work. But understanding the history has made it all make a lot more sense. Here and some examples of my stitches so far.

Stitching onto pongee and then felting it all in . The transparency of the silk , means the underneath stitches are visible. Not so good. Underneath some stitching at the prefelt stage , I like the couching , but the chain has become too loose as the fibres shrunk.

Stitching on bought prefelt , with my machine and adding it on top of the fibres. Quite effective.

Some stitches made after prefelting. I like the effect of the knots and the pleat, but I am not so sure about the blanket stitch around the eyehole.

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Samplers

In my head, samplers are regular organized pices of needlework , usually with a psalm or poem incorporated. A bit like this one , made quite a long time ago.

According to wikepedia they did not start like this. Women used them to record a stitch they had seen and did not want to forget. This was in the 15th and 16th century . The samplers were 6-9 inches wides and were totally covered in stitches. They were highly valued and often passed down through the generations. By the 18th century they became a way of showing skill at stitching and at this point started to incorporate religious or moral quotations.

So I have gone back in time , and I am making a felt sampler to record the effect of stitches, added before felting , at the prefelt stage and after felting. This sampler is currently just about to start the stitching after the final felting stage and Is pretty disorganized affair. I have tried to keep to a purple /pink theme and tested hand stitching and machine stitching. Until I read up about the origin of samplers , I wasn't so happy with my work. But understanding the history has made it all make a lot more sense. Here and some examples of my stitches so far.

Stitching onto pongee and then felting it all in . The transparency of the silk , means the underneath stitches are visible. Not so good. Underneath some stitching at the prefelt stage , I like the couching , but the chain has become too loose as the fibres shrunk.

Stitching on bought prefelt , with my machine and adding it on top of the fibres. Quite effective.

Some stitches made after prefelting. I like the effect of the knots and the pleat, but I am not so sure about the blanket stitch around the eyehole.

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Distracted

I have to admit to be totally distracted from starting the second year of my intermediate felt course with ArtyBird by playing with my new sewing machine. I started with the idea of getting a new a machine , thanks to Els , when my old one , which was second hand from my mother and about 25 years old , went from only having the one speed of very fast to not going at all. I did mange to get this fixed but my then I was pretty taken with the idea of a new machine.
So my new beauty is electronic , with lots of nifty features. I have discovered A needle threader , the ability to wind a bobbin without un threading the machine , eyelets , button holes, and all kind of fancy stitches, needle up and down buttons , memories , basting "
So first I played just randomly stitching and testing.

Then I have made some Christmas table mats using this lovely cheery fabric. They still need some gold stitching to finish them .

Then I did a bit of uneven stitching on some felt. This needs to get better !

One of the things I love about living in the Netherlands is all the wonderful , fabric , " stoffen" you can easily buy. Next weekend the big stoffen market comes to town , so that should provide me with some more opportunities to be distracted.
Seroiusly I have received my first second year assignments , and I am sharpening my pencils ready for some drawing.

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