Sew What Community Sewing Group September Project: Bias-Wrapped Jacket

Two days ago, our sewing group met for the September class to start a jacket project, "Bias-Wrapped Jacket," which is also called a "Fat Quarter Jacket."   With seven in attendance, and eventually three husbands stopping in to see what we do, we had a very good class!

This Bias-Wrapped Jacket is made in 100% cotton fabrics, with horse and horseshoe motifs and a plaid that color-coordinates with the prints.  I usually wear this jacket around Kentucky Derby time.  (I guess you know that since I live in Kentucky, we have a lot of Derby activities going on from Mid-April up to race day on the 1st Saturday of May!)

These jackets are so comfortable and easy to make, without much fitting necessary.  I have made several out of different types of fabrics, so they are truly versatile!

On this Derby jacket, bias binding was used for all of the edge finishes.  The plaid was used for the front/neck bindings and a wider bias band was used for the lower edge and cuffs.  I just realized the cuffs don't show up very well in this photo, but they are cut wide enough so they can be turned up on themselves.  Because they are cut on the bias, they turn nicely.

This Bias-Wrapped Jacket is made from rayon fabrics, which drapes so pretty.  I put a serger edge all around, using my Babylock self-threading serger.  It is a dream, by the way!

The stitch is called the Wave Stitch.  Two colors, black & white, were used on the front/neck edges and red/white were used on the lower and sleeve edges.  That makes the edges look like they have a separate trim sewn on.  The thread is a 40-weight rayon and seems to be holding up very well, even with all the wear I'm giving it.

This one is also very comfortable to wear and is easy-care.  I just wash it on gentle in cold water and hang to dry, which is how I wash most of our clothes.  I rarely use our dryer!  Maybe only two - three times a year.

This jacket is made from a suede-finished, hand-dyed, 100% cotton.  From a distance it looks like real suede cloth.  I put serger crochet on all the edges to finish it, using 12-weight cotton variegated thread.  The ruffle effect is quite nice, I think.  I do have to be a little cautious when wearing this jacket because of the loopy crochet edging, as it sometimes gets snagged.  But, when I take it off, the snags are easily pulled through with a tool called a "knit fixer," so I don't let that stop me from wearing it.

With all the muted colors, this jacket can be worn with many different outfits, so it's also very versatile.

This Bias-Wrapped Jacket is my favorite, but is the most delicate!  It's made of a lacy knit fabric that I just had to have when I first saw it, but had no idea what I'd do with it.  (Maybe you can relate to that?!)

Again, I put serger crochet on all the edges, but with this one the crochet edging is wider.  I believe it's eleven rows wide.  If you look closely at the bottom of the jacket, you'll see threads hanging down.  Well, that's where the ruffle snagged while wearing.  I really, really have to be careful when I wear this one!  But, it's good for dressy occasions and goes with almost everything in my color palette.

The flower is from Hope Yoder's Layered Flower In-The-Hoop design made from 100% cotton fabrics.  The center is an embroidered, covered button (flatback) from Hope's Borders and Frames design for her Button-Ups system.  I just glued it onto the fabric and then sewed a pinback onto the back side so I can switch it around to other garments.

I have also made two of these jackets for my mother out of upholstery fabric.  I don't have photos of them, but will take some and add them to a later post.  She loves wearing both of them and gets lots of compliments on both.  She says they really are warm.  We haven't tried to wash either of them, yet; but I'm going to try washing one of them, after washing some scraps and having success.  The other one has drapery trim on all the edges, so it will definitely have to be dry-cleaned.

All of these jackets were made on my serger, with some of the trims/bias bindings sewn on with a sewing machine.  There really is no reason this jacket cannot be made on a conventional sewing machine, so that's the way I taught it at our Sew What group this month.  When we have some more finished jackets, hopefully next month, I'll post photos of them.  This project is one of the more challenging projects we've worked on in our monthly group, so I'm hoping those who are making it are having success!

Lined Drawstring Christmas Gift Bags

Now, on to making Christmas items!  Our Sew What?! November class project was this lined, drawstring Christmas gift bag.  These little bags make great re-useable gift bags, which can be given as part of the gift.  They don't necessarily have to be made in Christmas fabric.  They'd be cute in other holiday-themed prints, children's prints or winter, spring, summer, fall prints - whatever you'd like.

The lining allows the bag to have a little more stability and style with the lining peeking above the top edge as a faux piping effect.  I have lots of satin ribbon in 3/8" width for other projects, so the choice of ribbon was easy to make since that's the width needed for this casing.

The red bags have a red satin lining and red satin ribbon threaded double through the casing to make two drawstrings (one for each side).  The green/red/white bag has a red cotton lining with green sating ribbons for the drawstrings.

The finished measurement on these is 6" X 9 1/2", but the drawstring bags could be made in any size you want.  I'm thinking of making some infinity scarves for Christmas gifts this year and I'm not sure they'll fit into these smaller bags, especially if the scarves are very long, so I'll probably make some larger gift bags to accommodate a larger gift.

I hope you like the way these cute little drawstring gift bags look.  They go together fairly quickly, especially when making several.  As you may know, the more you make of one item, the quicker they go together!

Thanksgiving Turkey Tea Towel

My Thanksgiving Turkey Tea Towel project got finished just in time to drape it over my oven handle, or better yet - hang it from the drawer of my antique pie safe where it won't accidentally get used!  I decided to use my serger for a rolled edge all around the flounce edges with a gold metallic thread.  Then, I stitched it onto the tea towel with a zig-zag stitch using the gold metallic thread in the needle and clear thread in the bobbin.  The metallic thread sparkles nicely.  (I like sparkly things!)

At our October Sew What? class, we had a lesson on how to calculate the size needed for the circle pattern that would be used to make the flounce on the tea towel.  Then, we determined the width we wanted for how wide the flounce would be.  It was much more easy than it sounds!

I had a lot of fun working on this tea towel project.  It was begun last year for our November Sew What? class project; but, I had to put it on hold due to some health events.  Everything is back on track, now.  All the praise goes to God!


My birthday was on the 25th and my Mother gave me three stamped, ready-to-embroider tea towels as a gift, so I guess I'll be doing some more hand embroidery - which I am rather enjoying.  They are really cute, with days-of-the-week printed on them.  When I get them stitched, I'll post them on my blog, but don't hold your breath - it could be a while!

This is my favorite holiday of the year - no presents necessary, no decorating necessary, unless we just "want to".  Let's all remember to give thanks to our Heavenly Father for the abundant blessings He has given to us and to our wonderful U.S.A.!  Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Mr. Gobbles Stuffed Felt Turkey Door Decoration

After years of looking at this project in an old Hancock Fabrics project booklet, I finally made myself get the necessary felt colors, trace the pattern and get the turkey project finished!  Wow!  I guess I'm a procrastinator, huh?

I don't do much hand embroidery, but lately I've made two projects for Thanksgiving: this stuffed felt turkey project and a tea towel.  I find that hand embroidery is very calming and soothing.  I know my blood pressure went down a lot!  I'll post the tea towel project in a few days, after I get it finished.  The tea towel project was what I taught at our October Sew What? Community Sewing group meeting.  Everyone did a great job on their embroidery!

I really didn't follow the exact color combination that the directions give.  Honestly, I forgot to look at the suggested colors for the turkey project before I went to the fabric store to cash in on the sale price for the felt - and to be able to use my discount.  The orange is supposed to be "cardinal red" and the light tan is supposed to be gold, but I used gold embroidery thread for the blanket stitching around all of the feather pieces.  I thought that would make the stuffed felt turkey show up a little better on the front door.


He's really a table-top project, but one of my students said she wanted to make her turkey project into a door hanging.  I thought that was a great idea!  Since I'm partial to Thanksgiving (we tend to overlook that holiday), I wanted to show my "Thanksgiving Spirit" by placing my stuffed felt turkey on my front door.

Here he is on my front door.  I hung him on a door hook - I think it's called a wreath hook.  It's a little high, but I think it shows up really well.

This is how the turkey looks flat on the floor.  If I make a second one, I'll make it for the table, to sit upright in a basket of fake straw.

Isn't he cute?  I just love him!

Let's remember to give thanks for this great country (USA) and all the bountiful blessings God has showered down upon us.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Sew What! Community Sewing Group Sews Cute Flowers

Yesterday was another day of sewing class for our Sew What! Community Sewing group at the Jeffersontown Library.  Our regulars are so faithful in showing up month after month, and yesterday was no exception!

The class centered around making "Cute Flowers" from a class that I taught at Austin's Sewing Center in March of this year, and at the Bullitt County Cooperative Extension office in June.  These flowers are all made by hand and are great for embellishments on headbands, on purses and tote bags, as brooches, or any other application your creative mind can envision.  The rick rack flowers are taken from Kari Mecca's book, Sewing With Whimsy.  The book can be purchased on her website at www.karimeaway.com., or if you live in the Louisville, KY area you may purchase it at Austin's Sewing Center in Fern Creek.


Sew What! students had a fund workday learning new techniques on making three different flower projects: felt flowers, sheer ribbon flowers, and rick rack flowers.

 We made four layers of petals cut out of felt, then stitched them together in the center to make a pretty flower to use as embellishment on headbands, totes, purses, or as a brooch with a pinback sewn onto the back side.

This flower was made complete when some black eyelash yarn was added to the center behind the button.  (I forgot to take a photo of the completed flower - sorry!  It really looked finished with the yarn.)

 Here, students are working on cutting the felt flower petals and layers of organza to place in between the felt layers for their project.

My students are so very creative and I really enjoy seeing what ideas they come up with after I've given them some hands-on instruction!

This felt flower is the sample I made as I was going over the printed instruction sheet.  I layered the felt petals with some organza and some sparkle bridal tulle to give it a different look.  It will look good on a lilac knit top I have, or on my pink one, don't you think?

 This student had just completed her rick rack posie flower project from Kari Mecca's book.  We ran out of time to complete the other two rick rack flowers I wanted to teach, so we'll continue this class next month.

If you'd like to learn how to make these cute flowers, please join us on the fourth Thursday at the Jeffersontown Free Public Library from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.  We'd love to have you join us!

Sew What! Community Sewing Group is at it Again!

Our community sewing group, that meets at the Jeffersontown Public Library every 4th Thursday, has been hard at it making shoulder bags for our 2012 community service project.  So far, the students have made 167 bags since January! 

The original intent was to send bags to a Haitian orphanage to be used for school bags by the children so they would have a bag of their own for their belongings.  It turned out that the school master let us know that they had enough bags for the current school year, so I needed to look for another group who has need for the bags.

As God would have it, a group at Walnut Street Baptist Church is planning a mission trip to Applachia later in the month of May.  The group leader had asked me for any extra bags that wouldn't be needed for Haiti, so I called her and told her that I could provide her with 24 bags.  Needless to say, she was thrilled!

 One of my students called on a Saturday to say she had 11 more bags finished and could she meet me at church for pickup since she couldn't come to our April class.  I picked them up and then delivered them to Walnut Street the following Monday.  That made 35 bags for the Appalachia trip!




 

 So, at our regular class meeting last week, two more students brought plastic bag, after plastic bag, full of more shoulder bags - 132 in all!  They also brought a bag full of more Comfort Caps for two of our local cancer treatment centers (our community service project for last year)!







All of the fabric for these bags was donated to our group by a fabric store in a neighboring county.  I want to throw out a tremendous thank-you to everyone who has contributed the fabric, thread, and their sewing time to this project!  What a blessing all of you are, and will be, to the recipients who will have their very own bag for personal belongings!

I'll post another picture of the bags as soon as I can get them sorted out for a photo-shoot.  Check back in a few days to see how beautiful these bags are!

Comfort Caps Delivered!

Today, Lee and I delivered 82 comfort caps to the cancer treatment centers at Baptist Hospital East and at Suburban Hospital.  Both centers were in great need of more caps for their chemotherapy treatment centers.

Thank you so much to my Sew What! students who have made almost 200 caps, to date, for donation to the treatment centers!  You're all amazing and are a blessing to those in need of head coverings after their hair loss!

More Comfort Caps Made by Sew What! Class Member

More comfort caps!  

This is the second of my posts to brag on my Sew What! community sewing class attendees.  Patsy, one of my regular students, made more comfort caps for donation to those who have lost their hair due to chemotherapy or other reasons.  Patsy brought about 12 caps to our November class, and these 21 caps were brought to our January class.  Patsy has become a comfort cap-making machine!

All of the caps have been embellished with either iron-on or sew-on appliques or flowers or buttons.  As you can see in this photo, we love the University of Kentucky!  Go Cats!

These caps will be divided between two locations at Baptist Hospital East: the radiation treatment center and the chemotherapy treatment center.   This week, I found out about a third location that needs caps, at another local hospital's cancer treatment center.  So, I'll be donating a portion of the caps to them, also.

Thank you so much, Patsy, for your wonderful work and willingness to donate your time, fabrics, appliques and effort for those who are in such need!

Sew What! Community Sewing Group Update

This is the first of several articles I'll be posting about what our community sewing group, Sew What!, has been doing so far this year.

The first is about our project to sew shoulder bags for an orphanage in Haiti.  This is a photo of the bag I made as a model to teach the class how to make the bags.  Our Louisville Area Master Clothing Volunteers made 39 of these shoulder bags at our work day in January.  There were 10 shoulder bag kits left, so I brought them to our January Sew What! sewing class and taught them how to sew the bags together.

The students took them home to finish.  At our class last Thursday, they brought back 13 finished shoulder bags!  Thank you so much, Bonnie, Patsy, Rebecca and Jan!  Patsy even made 8 more out of some upholstery fabric she had at home!  You ladies ROCK!!!!

This is the same bag that's in the photo above.  It's been reversed.  These shoulder bags are reversible and are sewn primarily of upholstery fabric.

One of our Master Clothing Volunteers drew up the pattern for the bags so they are easy to make, but are very functional.  I had one shoulder bag kit remaining, so I gave it to one of the students who wasn't able to come to the January class.  I know she will bring back a beautifully made bag to our March sewing class.

Here are some of the shoulder bags that were brought to our class on Thursday.  The bag kits were made with upholstery fabric that was donated to the project by a fabric store in Shelby County.

The fabrics look like a mish-mash of patterns and colors, but they turned out to be very cute.  Everyone did a great job of combining what they were given to make the flaps and the linings go together so well.

These shoulder bags can be used for carrying books or personal belongings.  They have a shoulder strap, but it isn't really long.  I think the length of the strap is good for children, so the bags won't be uncomfortably long.


My heartfelt thanks goes out to my Sew What! sewing students for taking on this project with such ease, for a job well-done!  You ladies are the greatest!

Purse Accessories and Organizer

Last Thursday was my June meeting of Sew What! community sewing group.  Our lesson was on how to make a purse organizer, which completes the second part of the purse accessories set.

 

This photo shows the purse organizer filled with essential items that we all need to carry around with us.  Mine holds my wallet, a pen, a pencil, a sunglasses case made from the same fabric, and is part of the purse accessories set, my cell phone, and a tissue holder made from the same fabric as part of the coordinating set. 

The purse accessories set includes a quilted cosmetic bag, as well.  It could fit into a pocket, if you should choose to make a pocket to fit it, or just use it as a separate accessory.

The purse organizer is made with a very stiff interfacing and two layers of fabric.  Pockets are stitched according to the size of the items you want to store inside your purse.  When the purse organizer is filled, it can be rolled up to fit almost any size purse.  You can then lift it out and place it in another purse and not have to change each individual item when you want to change purses.

This is the purse organizer I made for my Mother's birthday.  She really loves it!  She had been looking for something that would hold her essentials that she could move from purse to purse as a unit.  When I found this idea, I knew it would make the perfect gift for her.  I made her a cosmetic bag with two sections in it to keep items separate, a sunglasses case and a tissue holder.  She loves showing it off to her friends.

This is the two-sectioned cosmetic bag.  My Mom puts her pill bottle on one side and her lipstick, etc. on the other side.  She likes the way the sections keeps everything separated so she can find them easier.

Here, one of my students is stitching in the pockets on her purse organizer.  She had already made her tissue holder and cosmetic bag.  She used the same fabric on both sides of her organizer, which simplified the decision on which side to use as the lining side.  Smart!

Our Sew What! class included a lesson on how to crochet, taught by my expert Mother!  One of the students brought her granddaughter so she could learn to crochet.  My Mother has made hundreds of white snowflakes, over the years, for Christmas gifts and for my Christmas tree.  She loves to crochet!

      I think she was really getting the "hang" of it!

                                                             During the last thirty minutes of our class time, almost everyone was crocheting up a storm!  I'm looking forward to seeing some finished projects next month.