Done #5: Maddy's Blanket

Still catching up on blogging the Done's!...
This project began with an invitation… to my friend Carol’s daughter’s baby shower. I decided to make part of my gift, so I found some “fashionable” flannelette and purchased it to make a baby blanket.

Here you see the soon-to-be mama… Emily. (Thanks Suzanne for the shot).

I then used Garment Designer to create a quick ‘shape’ that I could use as a template for the corner for the blanket.

I cut out two layers of flannelette, and then proceeded to create the trim. Time was running short, and in the end, I didn’t like the trim I had prepared, … it just didn’t work, so I didn’t sew it in place, and took the unfinished blanket to the baby shower (along with my other little gift).

So… time flew, and the hunt for a better fabric for trim began. I finally found it, but the semester at the college took over, and I somehow never managed to finish the project.. Besides, the baby wasn’t born yet.

OK.. so, Maddy was born on Nov. 5th. I finally got to see her over the Christmas holidays, and I was able to deliver the final gift.

Here you can see me cutting the trim, a great polka-dot fabric.


I use this helpful tool to create the bias strips. Simply pull it the strip through and press as you go, and you get a folded bias tape.


Then, I sew the folded trim in place.

I decided to try the Embroidery function built into my Brother QC1000. Without reading the manual or anything, I was able to simply press in Maddy’s name, and her birthdate, and let the sewing machine do all the work! Wow!! I was impressed.



The finished blanket!

Here is Emily and Maddy, modeling the final product.

Twiddle Dee, Twiddle Dum… just another day of working at being a baby! Isn’t she gorgeous?

Creating the Veil

I had offered to make my future daughter-in-law's veil. I considered this a privilege
and an honor. Of course, the process of making the veil began to take a life of its own. In other words.. it was "Make the Veil .... take five". Sometimes, even simple things create their own challenges. I will look back on this and smile (as I am already doing).

The design of the veil was actually quite simple. It was to be two layers, the longest being waist-length. All was to be gathered into a comb. Keena, (Kendra's Mom) and I had gone out to look at a few veils, and we had a good sense of what was needed. So, I drafted a rough paper pattern which was basically the rounded corner of the oblong oval. I folded the tulle, and cut out the rounded corner. Of course, I soon realized I had folded the tulle wrong, and now I had a curve rising out of the center back. Drat... silly mistake. So, on to veil #2, and thankfully, I had purchased extra tulle. Well, it must have been the lack of sleep, or possibly still some jet lag, but I managed to make the same mistake again. I had just folded the tulle slightly different the second time. So.. off to the fabric store, and buy more tulle. The color wasn't exact, but at this point, I decided I was simply going to make a prototype.

I was having a lot of fun with my new sewing machine (a Brother QC1000). We wanted an edging of silver around the edge of the veil, so I experimented with a lot of the the fancy stitches. It was great fun. In the end however, Kendra chose one of the simple edgings, which was basically a narrow zig-zag stitch.


I then folded the oblong over to achieve the two lengths of the veil, and stitched a basting thread close to the foldline.


I gathered this end and basted it quickly onto the comb so we could try the sample on at the final fitting.





If you look in the prior blog entry, you will see my prototype on Kendra. It worked, and she made her choices with regards to edging, length, etc. So, now I went and bought the right color tulle, and cut out Veil #4. It was fine, until I started pressing it, and noticed that there was a flaw, a hole, in the middle of the piece. Veil #5 became the 'keeper'. Everything worked just fine with this one.

Here you can see me attaching the beaded trim to the top of the veil.


My mom sewed all the crystals onto the veil, which I feel brings the generations together more.



In the end, the veil was beautiful. You will see pictures of it during the wedding in an upcoming entry.

New Sewing Machine!!!

My new sewing machine has arrived! It is a Brother QC1000. As excited as I am, I have had to leave it in the box, as construction is happening in the room where it will live.

Here is a link to my new baby...
http://www.brother-usa.com/HomeSewing/ModelDetail.aspx?ProductID=QC1000

There will be more on this (and the new Studio) soon.

Susan is Going to Buy a New Sewing Machine

This year, I took a little time to research my new ‘sewing machine’. I currently sew on a 30 year old Elna, which I still love. Yet, I knew there were new things to be had, so I took time to sit down with vendors and see what is new. All I can say is WOW…. Things have changed.

I am currently siding with the Brother QC1000. It is designed as a quilting sewing machine, but I love some of the quilting features that I can use for garment sewing (although I do quilt). Primarily, I like its wide, wide sewing bed. I also love its long basting stitch, which I can see lots of use for, as I like to be precise, but I hate stopping to hand-baste. These two items are pretty unique to this machine. I am currently not interested in doing embroidery, so that simplifies my quest. If I change my mind (which is always possible), I’ll invest in a machine that specializes in embroidery, and use my garment sewing machine, for clothing.

Now, here is a list of what I am excited about on new sewing machines in general, although variations exist between models..

• The needle is easy to thread (for weary eyes)… simply push down a lever, and bingo.. there you are.
• You can control if the needle stays up or down when you stop.
• You can have the machine cut the thread when you are done, and the Brother machine even put both threads to the bottom of the fabric… how cool is that!
• There are LOTS of buttonholes, and I tried them on various fabrics, just to see how they work.
• You can control things from the front of the machine, with push buttons, which means you don’t even really need the push pedal.
• Most have touch-screens to choose your various options, stitch lengths, etc. This is where a lot of variation exists. I liked how the Brother display even reminded me how to fold the fabrics for the various blind hems.
• Free-form quilt stitching was easy to do, and I tried the stippling, which is something I’ve been curious about. It was great.
• Most good machines have some kind of pressure control, which allows you to sew over thick areas.
• There are, as usual, lots of attachments and specialty feet, to make your sewing fun

As I remember more, and as I get closer to buying my machine.. I’ll keep you posted.