Mrs. Mole, what fun!

Today on Facebook, Janome had an item about “Mrs. Mole” and her blog.  I clicked Janome’s link and read the article “Powered by Janome: The Anonymous Seamstress” describing Mrs. Mole’s blog.

I quote Janome --
“Her posts aren't mean-spirited, but people make some funny choices when it comes to clothes so the names are omitted to protect the innocent. But if you've ever been asked to do any kind of alteration, you'll enjoy her stories.”

When I visited Mrs. Mole’s site http://fitforaqueen.wordpress.com/ I thoroughly enjoyed her posts!  I take it she is from Australia, but they seem to have the same type of customers that we have in the USA!  I’ve had similar experiences when I have done some sewing for others in years past.

Now that I am a quilter, I have gotten these kind of comments --
“I heard you’re a quilter, do you shorten pants?”
“I heard you’re a quilter, do you repair zippers?”
“I heard you’re a quilter, can you alter my daughter’s prom dress?”
“I heard you’re a quilter, can you make a cover for my sofa?”

I’m sure you’ve heard similar comments.  Go check out Mrs. Mole’s blog, she’ll give you a laugh, or two!

Gotta love Publix

The employees at my local Publix supermarket always seem to give just that little bit more in their service.

Today, I ordered a half-sub and the man in the Deli said - for a $1.35 more, I could get the whole-sub (on sale).  I said “why not, it’ll be tomorrow’s lunch”.  And then he extra-wrapped the “tomorrow’s half” in plastic wrap, saying “just keeping it fresh for you tomorrow”.

Then, when I went to my van to load the groceries, I noticed a Publix employee parked at an odd angle in the space next to mine.  (He had his Publix badge & apron on)  Wondered what that was all about.  Well, it turns out he positioned his van so he could give a jump-start to someone’s dead battery.

What good things!
I think if we keep our eyes open, we will see good things happening all around.

PBS Sewing Shows

For those of you whose PBS stations no longer carry “Sewing With Nancy”, no problem!  You can watch her shows online at Wisconsin Public Television  http://www.wpt.org/sewingwithnancy/

Nancy’s most current shows (52 of them) are available.  Streaming.  And FREE!  If you’re not in the US, I’m sure you can watch them on the internet, too.

Visit Nancy’s blog, too -- nancyzieman.com   She has a lot of things to offer.  Always learn something from her programs.

On TV, I found “Sewing with Nancy”, Fons & Porter and Donna Dewbury on another PBS station that my cable company offers.  It’s called “PBS Create”.  It comes with my basic cable. 

Go to http://www.createtv.com/  and see if you have PBS Create in your area.  Lots of good programming.

Quilt a motif

I’d like to share how I got a quilting stencil onto a felt Kindle cover that I recently made from items in my stash.  I love when everything I need to create and finish an item is located in my already-on-hand sewing supplies!
First thing you have to have is a motif.  You can trace them, you can draw them or can get one my favorite way – from Electric Quilt’s QuiltMaker Stencils.  I have Volume 3, a stand-alone program. You don’t have to have a version of Electric Quilt to use it.  But, if you have a version of Electric Quilt, you can position the motif in EQ on a drawing of your creation.
Even though I am not making a quilt, I made a “quilt layout” in EQ the size of the area that I had to put the motif in.
When I need to place a motif in a certain area, I like to work on  a “grid”, makes it much easier to center.  In the Block Worktable, I drew a 7.5” x 5” grid and placed it in Layer 1(in the Quilt Worktable) and placed the butterfly in Layer 2.  I could size the butterfly and move it all around that area until I was pleased with the placement.  It was easy to get the placement on the actual article cuz I had that grid to reference to.
That is one of the butterflies from the “Animals & Bugs” section. 
I determined that I needed a butterfly motif that was 4” x 3” and that is what I printed out from EQ.  I traced that image onto some “Stitch & Ditch Stabilizer by ThreadPro”.  It is heavier than tissue paper, very pliable and the back of the paper is soft & grippy so it doesn’t slide around the fabric.
Looks like a lot of pins. There are pins to mark horizontal and vertical centers and pins to hold the stabilizer in place.  I also drew lines on the stabilizer, for the horizontal & vertical centers – and matched those to the pins marking the horizontal & vertical centers of the fabric.  I then stitched the butterfly thru the stabilizer & fabric.  Tore the stabilizer away when stitching was complete.
The fabric is a textured felt square that I found at Joann’s a couple of years ago.
And here’s the finished Kindle Cover --
I decided to have the seam allowances on the outside of the Kindle Cover.  It was easy to construct that way and then found out it gave extra protection to the edges of the Kindle.
I had to make the inside of regular felt, cuz I had made 2 other Kindle Covers and ran out of the Brown Textured Felt.  Maybe one day I’ll make a more durable cover, but, I think this one will last a long time and I like it.

Zipped bag for all those chargers

It’s been a long while since my last Blogger post.  Life gave me some twists and turns and changes.  I hope that I can come up with some things to share with you – I enjoy doing that.

On a recent trip, I realized that a light-weight zippered pouch/bag would be just the thing to keep all those chargers together.  You know – one for the cellphone, iPad, Kindle, camera, etc.  I had used an old pouch that I found in a drawer & knew that I could make a better one.

Why do pouches always have a zipper at the top?  I thought a zipper in the middle of the pouch/bag would make the contents more accessible.  And here’s what I came up with --

 

When I make pouches/bags, I like to encase the ends of the zipper in fabric tubes so then I don’t have to deal with zipper teeth or the heavy zipper tape in the seamlines of the bag.

 

Fabric Tubes for ends of zipper:
Cut each rectangle for tube 2-1/2” wide (this allows for 1/4” seam & goes around the zipper)
Length to cut – 2-1/4” is enough to allow for clearing ends of zipper tape and will be enough for a seam allowance of 5/8” on the bag.
So, for the Fabric Tubes on my zipper –-
I cut two rectangles -- 2-1/2” wide x 2-1/4” long

Right sides together, stitch the ends of the fabric tube(s) in 1/4” seam, down the 2-1/4” length.  Do not turn right side out, yet.

 

Slip the zipper end into the “unturned” Fabric Tube - that would be right side of zipper to right side of Fabric Tube.

 

Above pic shows the Fabric Tubes pinned to each end of zipper.

The orange dotted line shows the stitching line of the Fabric Tube to the zipper.

 

After sewing Fabric Tubes in place, pull the Fabric Tube over the end of the zipper tape; the right side of Fabric Tube is now showing and the end of zipper tape is encased in the Fabric Tube – no raw edges showing. Press.
This would now be called a “Zipper Unit”.

Now you can take that Zipper Unit and sew it into the bag, treating it just like a zipper.

There are so many tutorials on the web for making pouches/bags, I’ll leave the rest of the construction up to you.  And most of them will show you how to insert a zipper and you would just follow those directions and insert a Zipper Unit, which is just a zipper with covered ends.  I just wanted to show you how I did my zippers.

Before the sides are sewn, the zipper can be located anywhere on the bag
Towards top/bottom.
At top/bottom
or, centered on bag front – which is what I did with mine.

I chose to use French Seams on the sides of the bag, with the final stitching of the French Seam on the outside of pouch/bag, so I could have something to hold on to when opening or closing the zipper. For the 1st stitching of the French Seam, I use 1/4” seam allowance and then for the 2nd stitching, I used a 3/8” seam allowance.  That way, I did not have to trim the 1st seam.

Uh-oh, looks like there’s room in that pouch/bag!

Kitchen Parking Pad

We have a TV in the kitchen and I got tired of seeing this mess on the table … And … where’s the pen?

So, I decided to make a place for everything and everything in its place.  I call it the “Parking Pad”.

I drew around each item on a piece of Freezer Paper:I took those rough measurements and came up with this layout in EQ7:The finished Parking Pad:
  And how it looks with everything in its place:
What you don’t see is the little notes I can hide away underneath it.  An added benefit – if I’m sitting across from the Parking Pad, I don’t have to get up to grab a control or the phone, I can just pull the Parking Pad towards me.

It’s the little things in life …

Living vicariously

Today while I was at the grocery store, there was a young girl behind the counter in the bakery and she was talking to a fellow employee about going home to wash her face & put on new make-up and get ready to go out.

I said that I can’t remember the last time I’d talked to someone who said they were going out on New Year’s Eve and neither could all the other eavesdroppers! 

I asked if she could let us know her plans for the evening.  She said she was going to a Peruvian Restaurant with her boyfriend and his parents and then to Bayside in Miami for the rest of the evening.  I told her I would be living vicariously through her evening!

I remember when I went out to a restaurant on New Year’s Eve with a young man & his parents.  Fifty years later, that same young-at-heart man & I are staying home on this New Year’s Eve & will be lucky if we stay up as late as 10:30pm !

Oh, and at that restaurant of long ago – I had lobster.  It was $4.50.

Hope you have some Happy New Year’s Eve memories, too. 
Let’s all make a Happy New Year’s Eve memory …