Ice Cream Fun Camp

Hard at work

     Monday was a one day sewing camp that included a bit of 'cooking'.  The girls made an apron from a jeans' leg and some cotton fabric.  We spent the first part of the morning cutting apart the jeans and shaping them into an apron.  I found the directions here.   We did some patching of holes, Isy used some of her cotton fabric with a fancy stitch while Maggie used a denim piece with a triple zigzag.  Isy also opted to decorate her pocket.

Maggie and her apron and ice cream

     After morning break they started sewing on strips of fabric to cover the sides and then the bottom of the apron.  Maggie also opted to cover the top part of the apron while Isy and Monika just used the hem as the top part.

Monika and her apron and ice cream

     We also got the pockets sewn on and then it was time for lunch and ice cream making.  We enjoyed our lunch on the front porch while it was just drizzling out.  Then into the kitchen to mix the ingredients.  We opted to do the shaking of the bags in the garage, it was still raining.  After a few spills and some very cold hands we placed the bags of ice cream into the freezer  while they finished sewing.

Isy and her apron and ice cream

     They finished the bottom part and then it was time for the arm hole edges, ties and neck strap.  This was all done in one piece.  We measured to see how long everyone wanted their neck strap and marked that on the piece.  At this point, time was growing short so I helped by pinning and ironing for them.  They all concentrated on sewing, very little talking now.

YUM!

     Only about 10-15 minutes late but they finished their aprons and got to taste their ice cream.  It was declared to be yummy.  I did buy Oreo coffee creamer so I am sure that helped.

Quilt Pillows

All pillows

     Recently I had a client bring me an old quilt that her grandmother had made.  She had special memories of sleeping under in while visiting but now many years later it was falling apart.



     She wanted to share the memories with other family members and came up with the idea of

Cut and serged squares

making pillows from the salvable squares.



          I cut as many squares as I could from the quilt, some were smaller than others due to the damaged sashing.  I serged around the edges to prevent further fraying or loss of batting.


 

Cutting the backing

     We decided on an overlapped opening for the back.  I went shopping to find cotton fabric that would compliment the squares.

     I cut the backing to match the height of the front piece by 18 inches.  I then cut the 18 inches in half and finished the over lapping pieces.


         

Outer flap

     For the outer flap I made a double 1 inch fold and for the under flap just a narrow hem.

Under flap

            To make it more special I embroidered the grandmother's name and birth date and death date.

Embroidered back of the pillow

      I think these will be very special memories of a beloved woman.

Finished pillow

Summer Cotton Fun 2019

Projects finished in camp this week

      Just finished four fun days with Kara and Libby.  They did the Summer Cotton Fun camp which included a gathered skirt, a headband and a reversible bucket purse.

Kara and her skirt

      We started with the gathered skirt.  The girls learned how to do a basting stitch and then how to gather the fabric.  Kara's skirt fabric was a bit more challenging but she did a great job in getting it done.

Libby and her skirt

         The border print of Kara's made for an interesting design opportunity.

Kara and her headband

       Next up were the headbands where they once again used the gathering stitch.  They also got to use Wonder Clips to hold the ends together as it was too thick to pin.

Libby and her headband

     Kara made hers from a cotton print while Libby chose a polka dot flannel for hers.

Kara and her bucket purse

     Last up were their reversible bucket purses.  One side had denim and the other side was a cotton fabric.  Libby chose to do her band and other side from the same fabric, a silver polka dot.  Then we had some fun trying to cut some felt to make a flower to pin to their purses.

Libby and her bucket purse

             We finished with plenty of time left so they both made a 2 hour purse.  We also monogrammed their initials on the fleece backed fabric before starting.  Libby also made a second headband.

Beginning Sewing July 2019

Beginning sewing projects

     This week I had two more girls join me in learning how to sew.  I started using a different program this summer so I wasn't sure how it would work out.  Turns out the girls finished the three projects as planned and did a fourth quick project.

Maggie and her pillow

       Maggie and Monika are friends that wanted to learn how to sew together.  Neither had ever used a sewing machine before.  They started with the basics of sewing on paper and then on to sewing on fabric and making samples for their workbooks.

Monika and her pillow

         Their first project was a patchwork pillow.  Maggie chose to use one green square with all the rest a daffodil print while Monika chose all daffodils.  To make it more interesting we used them vertically and horizontally.  Maggie closed hers by hand and Monika used the sewing machine.

Maggie and her drawstring bag

        Next up was sewing some more samples, this time learning some edge finishing techniques.

Monika and her drawstring bag

       Then it was time to make some drawstring bags that incorporated the zigzag finished edges they just learned.

Maggie and her book bag

              The final samples for their workbooks included learning to sew curves and how to trim them.  They both thought that sewing curves was definitely harder than pivoting at the corners.

Monika and her book bag

                     Their last planned project was a crossbody book bag.  They learned how to pin on a pattern piece and cut around it.  Then it was time to use their newly learned skill to sew the curves of the bag bottom.  They were a little leery regarding the way the straps were being sewn on but I told them to trust the process.  They were so thrilled when after sewing on the lining and turning the bag right side out that everything was just the way it was supposed to be.








              Since they finished so quickly, I pulled out a project I had done with some others.  It involved fancy stitches on felt with different colored threads. They spent quite a bit of time figuring out what stitches they wanted to try and what colored thread they wanted to use.  They then finished the stitches, added a plain piece of felt to the back, sewed around three sides, added some stuffing and then sewed up the last side making a small pincushion.

Hard at work

     So happy to add two more people to our sewing circle.

Mickey Mouse Pillow

Finished pillow

     A client brought me a sweatshirt that she wanted made into a pillow.  She already had the form so I just needed to make this to size.

Back of pillow

     I interfaced the front of the sweatshirt to stabilize it.  Then I used part of the sleeve that had the stripes on it for one side of the overlapped back and the rest of the body of the sweatshirt for the other part of the back of the pillow.  I did not stabilize them as I felt it was a small enough pillow and the sweatshirt was heavier fabric than usual.

Showing the opening

    A cute little project for the holiday week.