Baby Fence Rail - Pt V

Well I think it is safe to say I have crossed the border with the Baby fence rail quilt top.

The first border finishes at two inches.  The pattern instructions are to make the border oversize (both width and length), sew it to the quilt and then trim it down to two and a quarter inches in width.  That's why I have the cutting mat and rotary cutter on the floor (mind the carpet!).  The eagle-eyed amongst you with notice that I added borders to the long sides first and then the shorter ones.  I feel that this makes for more pleasing proportions.

The outer border is made from the darker tone on tone leaf fabric.  The pattern instructions are to trim this down to four and a quarter inches so that when the quilt is bound in (yes you've guessed it) the yellow fabric four inches will be showing.  The effect of adding the darker petrel blue border quite startled me.  I don't think I've made the quilt top too gender specific by doing this?

My progress with project has ground to a halt this week because I have no suitable wadding [batting] or backing materials.

I bought 2.3 meters of plain green cotton which is not only the wrong colour but also slightly too little for the job [silly Mr G] and when I went to buy batting the shop didn't have enough of the cotton/poly blend I liked so much when I made the last quilt.

I am now on the look out for some cotton which is the rusty red colour of the little owls - unless someone can suggest a different (better) colour.

As for the green?  Well at the risk of ending up looking like a stout Robin Hood or a geriatric Peter Pan I may use it to make a shirt... ...or shorts... ...or something...

Hamming It Up!

One of these days I am going to make a shirt and with this in mind I have been reading and re-reading Peter's sew along at Male Pattern Boldness.  One of the notions I have read about in David Coffin's book and Peter's blog is the tailor's ham.  This item is intended to make the pressing curved seams easier.  There are those who say it's very difficult to manage without one.  With all of the advice dancing in front of my eyes I decided to see if it would be possible to make a ham all of my very own.

There are dozens of tutorials on how to make your own tailor's ham.  I found this one at Chance of Rain which has an easy to print pattern piece and clear photo strip instructions.

The ham is made up of three layers of calico, one of cotton poplin and one of wool [?crepe?].  Here I have tacked the layers together and am now sewing them right sides facing.  It's a while since we've seen the Singer 15K80 so I thought I would give it an airing.  It sailed through the layers like a hot knife through butter.  I back tacked the ends of the seam by turning the work in the machine.  Not my favourite way be easy to do with small goods like the ham-shell.

Here is my ham-shell after clipping the seam allowance and turning.  The pattern advises keeping clipping to an absolute minimum so as not to weaken the seam.

Anyone for porridge?  No it's wood shavings - well softwood bedding to be exact. It's cheap enough and easier to find here than your actual sawdust. It has a wonderful smell that reminds me of my Dad.

Here is my ham after I had stuffed and sewn it shut.  The finished size is approximately six by nine inches.  I'm not sure if I got it stuffed full enough but it feels pretty firm.  I'm looking forward to seeing if it is large and curvy enough to be useful.  

There's something quite cute about a tailor's ham don't you think?  It's certainly tactile.  I can now see why they used to stuff soft toys with sawdust!

Singer Black Box

This box of tricks arrived here a few weeks ago, hot on the heels of the Singer 99K.  Up until now I haven't made time to photograph it but yesterday evening the light was quite good so I got to work.

It's full of shiny goodies.  This mass of twisted metal is the standard kit that would have been supplied with a Singer sewing machine when new.  

This particular set has three class 15 bobbins which would tend to indicate that it once belonged with a 15 machine.  I understand that the ones for Singer 66, 99 and 201 had the same kit but with class 66 bobbins.  As far as I can tell the attachments should fit any low shank machine.  Instructions on how to use all these attachments was included in the second half of the manuals that came with the machines.

15 class bobbins

large and small screwdrivers

quilting foot and guide

slotted binder foot

seam guide and fixing screw

tuck marker

narrow hemming foot

I am not yet confident that I can remove all of the contents from the box and manage to get them back in the right place so I took the attachments  out one by one to photograph and identify them.  Some I am familiar with, some I have used and like and some I am looking forward to trying out for the first time.  Who fancies my chances quilting the Baby Fence Rail Quilt on the Singer 201k with the help of this quilting foot?

adjustable hemming foot

ruffler foot

under braider

Tiny Dress Techniques

I was inspired to make this tiny sun frock after watching BBC TV's  The Great British Sewing Bee.   

I have never made a frock before so I thought I would start small.  The dresses they made on TV were very cute.  They had shirred bodices and rouleau straps.  What struck me, when watching the judging of the dresses made by the contestants, was the number of different techniques that could be demonstrated in such a small garment.

I don't have any shirring elastic in the house.  In fact I haven't seen any since I was a little boy and my Mam put some in the cuffs of one of the sweaters either she or Gran had knitted for me.   It was blue flecked wool with a crew neck and I rather liked it.  I would put money on that same bobbin of shirring elastic still being in my Mam's mending box 30 years later.  I must ask her the next time we Skype - I digress.

With no shirring elastic in the house, and no desire to go and buy any, a shirred bodice was out.  I don't have a gathering foot either.  Does anyone know if the braider foot from the Singer 28K's archaic tool kit would work?  From what I can gather that foot, teamed with additional bits and bobs, was for braiding, quilting, hemming and binding - Dr Singer's Universal Cure All!  Anyway, I found this pattern online.

I had plenty of off-cuts of nice white cotton kicking around after I finished making the backing of the log-cabin quilt so I set to work.  I wanted this project to be a work out for the new (to me) Singer 99K and an exercise in using as many different accessories as possible.

1. French seams (seam guide)
   

   

   In the short time I have been sewing I have made the seam guide my right hand (this is almost literally the case when you are sewing with a hand crank).  The seam guide is so useful on little black Singer's that don't have markings on their needle beds.  I found Muv's video on French seams indispensable with this task.
   
   
2. Gathering (ruffler)
   

   

   Lots of people, I have read online,  are afraid of the ruffler foot that came with their machines.  I have never been afraid, more unsure, of how to control the results on a project I might already have spent a lot of time on.  This project was different.  The whole point was to try different techniques and attachments without getting hung up on the results.  I set the ruffler to 'gather' rather than pleat, set the Singer 99K for the longest stitch and the ruffler to the fullest gather.  By luck rather than hard work and good management the skirt ended up gathered to nearly exactly the same width as the bodice. WOW!

   
   
3. Corded piping (adjustable cording foot)
   

   

   This felt like a biggie.  I got to cut my first bias binding from a scrap of striped poplin shirting.  I used the corded handle from a gift bag and got to try out the adjustable cording foot.  I have used it to install the zipper in a hobo bag I made on the Singer 201K.  I think my first attempt is passable but it was more about the learning experience.  I am encouraged to use this technique in the future.
   
   
4. Hemming (adjustable hemmer)
   I did try this but it really wasn't successful.  It felt impossible to get the bulk of the French seams through the adjustable hemmer.  This fabric has a strong pattern of squares which was a gift for turning a regular hem so I did that.  Job done.
   
   

Baby Fence Rail - Pt IV

I cannot believe how quickly I am managing to piece this quilt.  

I read what I could find about blocking and decided not to get too bogged down in it in the end.  All of my squares had finished to within an eighth of an inch of the expected size.  I did trim some of the oversized squares down a bit but, in the event, I haven't agonised too much.

In this picture I have sewn the 12 units into 4 rows of three, laid them out and labelled them (A-D) so I know what order to sew them together in.

Here row A has been flipped over onto row B and pinned so that the seam lines match where they cross.

Here is the result, which I got The Much Belovéd to QA for me - it passed.

Here are all four rows after I have sewn them together.  I have already cut the fabric for the two borders.  The directions were to cut six strips of each fabric, cut two of each of those in half and to join the resulting four half-strips to the remaining four full strips.  I have already completed this so just a little more work will see this quilt top completed.  Then I will have to think about buying some  batting and how I will quilt the thing - more in the ditch work or any alternatives?

Baby Fence Rail - Pt III

I have been chain piecing the 48 squares into pairs and pressing them.  I had experimented with chain piecing when constructing the piano key border for the log-cabin quilt and I think it is the best thing since the invention of the lock-stitch machine!  It's hard to believe how much such a simple technique speeds up the piecing process.  I use a dry iron to set the seams and then I snip the units apart before "pressing to the dark side"

The 48 squares make 24 pairs which, in their turn, will be sewn together creating 12 four patch squares.

Here I have managed to sew together 12 of the pairs to produce six squares.  I stopped here because the light was starting to fail (to be fair it hardly got light today) and I wanted to get some pictures taken.  I used a couple or three pins to make sure that the seams all stayed matched at the centre of the blocks.  They've come out well so far and the 201K has behaved faultlessly.  The hinged presser foot has managed to glide over the pressed seams and pins beautifully.

I may carry on and sew the remaining pairs into squares this evening but I will need to spend some time reading up on "blocking".  The larger squares should measure approximately 12 and a half inches and finish at 12.  The ones I have completed aren't far out but I really want to be as accurate as possible.  From what I can tell blocking will help me establish the 'true' sewing line for when I piece the units together in rows.  One method advocates using a square ruler and a pencil to establish this line the other a rotary cutter to trim blocks down to size.  I think am leaning toward the drawing rather than the cutting method.  Less scope for disaster at this stage perhaps? 

Baby Fence Rail - Pt II

All eight strip sets have been sewn together and pressed.  Each one has been cut into six and a half inch squares.

The Radio is my constant companion in my sewing adventures

Each strip set yields six squares a total of 48.