Pinwheel Quilt

You need more color?

The quilt top came together in one weekend in November. It was cold and dark outdoors and I was trying to chase away the blahs indoors. The fabrics are from a Kaffe Fassett Collective charm pack. I was drawn to the bright colors and even though I haven't decorated with them in my house, I know I can find a place to incorporate a striking wall hanging. The block is a 4" finished pinwheel.  Cutting out this quilt went relatively quickly even though I was sitting on the living room floor watching a Hallmark holiday movie and had to keep shooing away curious feline attention.

I made a template from poster board for these trapezoids

The blocks were sewn together on my Bernina 717. This machine is in a cabinet that has a foldout extension.  Laying out unfinished blocks on the extension to the left and setting my ironing board up to the right made piecing blocks a smooth operation. This machine came all the way from Minnesota and I am so glad Lois was willing to share it with me. Thank you.

Finished pieces were pinned to the quilt behind the table and provided eye candy

The machine came to me with only one presser foot, but it is all I needed for this project.  The 717 sews so quietly, with such a precise stitch, and it feels so sturdy that I actually prefer piecing on this machine rather than on my newer 1230. Eventually, I think I will change out the bulb for an LED one, but that's the only change I intend to make. Working with this machine was like sitting down and sewing with a good friend.  Maybe there was less conversation, but we were both comfortably lost in our own thoughts.

Non-LED bulb

Here is the quilt top sans corner pieces

Reminds me of the windmill pinwheels people put in their gardens

A bit more shiny than the quilt, but both make the most of bright colors

About 8 months later, I finally sat down to finish the corners.Yes, 8 months later. I don't have a good reason for why I neglected this project for so long, but I am gearing up for a road trip to St. Louis and wanted to work on some hand quilting in the car.

Lazy corners--cut big and then trim

Quilt set out on the card table ready for basting

Basted with safety pins

The quilting will have concentric circles in the 4" white squares and then (maybe?) the pinwheels outlined. I made templates for my circles and cut them out of cardboard from a box of crackers.

Circles traced on

I have all my quilting supplies packed and am ready to go. Let's see what gets done on the road trip.

Butterfly Dress, Burda Style 6521

Beautiful butterflies

I loved this fabric as soon as I saw it. It was on the sale rack at Joann's and I took home all that they had left. It is a quilting cotton, but I was planning to use it for a summer dress. The colors are not overly bright though and could easily work into my early fall wardrobe if I wear a cardigan over the dress. This pattern was my first from Burda Style and it recommends using rayon, crepe fabrics, lightweight cottons, or silk. I chose to make view A (no sleeves and a pleated skirt) and cut a size 16.  I did one muslin for the top of this dress, but didn't end up making any changes to the fit.

Muslin front

Muslin back

When sewing the dress together, I used french seams. The fabric has a light colored background and I thought I may have to go back and line it, but it is turned out to not be see-through.

Side seam

The armhole was finished with bias strip and then top-stitched.

Finishing the armhole

There was a lot of fabric used for the skirt and I love the pleats in the back and the front. It took awhile to put these in, but they were marked well and went together smoothly. The zipper was basted in by hand with the hopes that it would be truly hidden. Basting is an extra step, but I find it really does improve the look of my finished zippers.

Lainie helped me baste in the back zipper

The zipper is hidden well even if the fabric pattern doesn't line up

I did not make make a neckband for the muslin, so I was hoping this would work on the first try. When cutting out the neckband I tried to place butterflies strategically for the front. You can see almost two full butterflies at the neckline.

Adding the neckband

Neckband from back

Neckband turned under and finished by hand

The hem on this dress was also finished by hand.  I could have used the machine for this, but I was on a roll with the hand sewing.

Lainie is back to help with the hem

Here is the finished dress.

A butterfly dress for any occasion

The fit at the top looks great

Plenty of room across shoulders and in armscye

Pleats in the bodice 

After lengthening the torso, I would definitely make this dress again.  There is also a version with short sleeves that looks promising. The sleeveless version here does require strategic placement of bra straps or perhaps a strapless bra.

Endless Possibilities

While shopping at flea markets last week in Missouri, I came across this basket full of vintage fabric scraps. A quick scan revealed that there were many different fabrics in medium, small, and tiny pieces. Today I spent about three hours ironing and sorting the basket's contents. I have a pile that will need hand washing, but the rest are ready to go. Now I'm free to dream up any number of projects.

What to sew?

Weaving Inkles

The following is a guest post from Courtney's mother, currently discovering the fun of weaving colored bands. Linda shares a bit about one of her recent weaving projects.

Inkle band inspired by colors in the garden

Pattern detail

 Merriam-Webster defines an inkle as a colored linen tape or braid woven on a vary narrow loom and used for trimming. That definition seems to have expanded to woven bands made from various fibers and on various looms, but it's good to know the basics. Before zippers and buttons, clothing was held on with woven bands. Tapes were used for garters, candle wicks, bag ties, tabs for hanging towels, and countless other necessities. 

I've not yet scratched the surface of the pattern possibilities in my own weaving. So far my bands are all plain weave, but there are so many variations to learn. A good basic resource is Anne Dixon's Inkle Pattern Directory.  

A current go-to resource

The choices on which loom to use can also be overwhelming. I've tried a Schacht inkle loom, a Glimakra band loom and a Gilmore Mini Wave. A nonweaver might ask why there are so many options for weaving a simple band. Ask three weavers the best way to weave just about anything, and you’ll get four or five answers plus a heated discussion as to why a certain method is best. A backstrap weaver incurs very little equipment cost, a loom with foot treadles allows more freedom of hand movement, the Gilmore Wave is the cutest little counterbalance loom imaginable. Since looms have been designed for centuries all over the world, it’s not surprising that the end results are so different. And each so well loved. 

Schacht inkle loom

Glimakra band loom

Gilmore mini wave

Yet to try? Backstrap weaving--the warp is tensioned between a strap around your back and a distant chair or doorknob or whatever is handy. At least a dozen different narrow tape loom designs. Even a regular floor loom--there doesn't have to be a minimum width on any warp there. 

Designing your own pattern is part of the fun. A simple comb/pick will test the colors and pattern in about ten minutes. This particular test showed me that I needed to tweak the pattern just a bit. 

Pattern testing

The band pictured at the top of this post was finished most recently. I used an athletic weight to tension the warp as I wound it on the Mini Wave, and there's a little animal grooming comb tucked in back to spread the threads evenly on the warp beam. 

See the weights across the room?

Perhaps I'll be back in a few months with bands woven using more elaborate techniques. These colorful and useful bands are proving to be a rather deep rabbit hole!

Blaire Top

My first Blaire Top

This is the Blaire Top, a Style Arc pattern. The fabric is a cotton Ikat purchased three summers ago from Ginny's Fine Fabrics in Rochester, MN.  Since the style of the shirt was boxy and not form-fitting, I cut a size 10 and hoped that it would be loose enough.

Inspired by the sample, I cut the stripes going one way at the top and perpendicular on the bottom

The button placket and collar pieces got iron-on interfacing

The directions for putting this shirt together would have been frustrating for me if this was the first shirt with a collar and buttons I had put together. The diagrams for the collar were helpful though and I like the suggestion for top-stitching.

Collar with top-stitching

The sleeve cuffs on this shirt took me a fair amount of time to put together, but I really like how they turned out.

Finished sleeve cuff

Following a suggestion I read on anther blog somewhere, I hemmed both the skirt and overlay before attaching them to the top of the shirt. I serged the bottom and then folded it under 3/8". This fabric handled the tighter curves well, but I could see where another fabric may bunch up or stretch in those curved areas.

Hem serged and turned under

Over lay and skirt with hem

This fabric frayed easily and I ended up finishing almost all of the seams with the serger.

Frayed edges before it gets sewn onto the bodice 

Button plackets sewn on before the collar

The first time I sewed the collar on it fit beautifully, but I mistakenly put it on the inside of the shirt.  After taking that out and making a second attempt, the collar finished well.  Since the seams are only 1/4" here, I was not able to serge them and I do worry about wear/fraying over time.

Perpendicular stripes on the back

I was very nervous about adding buttonholes. I have only done this on a couple shirts before and I am still gaining confidence in this arena. For this shirt I decided I wanted to try a new-to-me buttonholer on my Singer 201. The rest of this shirt was sewn using my Bernina 1230, but I wanted to try something else for the buttonholes. I read the instruction manual that came with the buttonholer and then watched a couple videos online on how to set it up. For the most part, things went smoothly and I liked the sound the buttonholer made as it was working. It's a very satisfying clacking noise. Before attempting any buttonholes on the actual shirt I completed several practice ones and then very carefully marked the placement for the holes on my shirt. The buttons were centered on the placket between the purple threads in the picture below. Each hole was made with three passes of the buttonholer.

Marking for button placement

I chose to put on 6 of the 7 suggested buttons

Buttonholes look fantastic.  I will definitely use the 201 for buttons again. When I tried on the shirt, I noticed that the collar fit too tight if I buttoned it. Since I would never choose to wear it buttoned up that far anyway, I opted not to add the button at the top.

There is no button at the collar

Headed out to the garden for some finished project pictures.

 I am pleased with my fabric choice for this shirt. Both the color/pattern and the weight of the fabric worked well for a summer top.

Shirt hangs well, could do with a little pressing though

Keep an upright posture so that belly doesn't show

When I make this shirt again, I will add 1 1/2 - 2 inches to the length. I know it is not designed to hang low, but I do not need to be showing skin every time I lean over or turn sideways. For pictures, I had to make sure the top of my jeans at least met the bottom of the shirt.

The sleeve cuffs and side underlay are such fun details

I had fun putting this top together and if I had a suitable fabric for the dress version I'd start in on that now. There's nothing, in particular, calling out from my stash to be made into a dress now though so I'll move on to the next project in the queue.