Sunday, January 18, 2009

Happenings

and sew it seams that time can get away ..... it's been a while since my last post. I've been very busy finalising the organisation of my new teaching space - the studio is all set up and functioning! Sew, what have I been sewing?



Firstly, I've made some sewing machine covers - not particularly exciting but totally necessary. I live near the beach and our beautiful coastal breezes are salt laden, so I need to protect my valuable possessions. The white material is table protector vinyl from Spotty. I attached a red cotton tape to the bottom. My first try at this wasn't great ..... lots of puckers ...

So, clever Clover came to the rescue ...


So I tried the walking foot and voila! I love a happy ending!

Next, and equally as functional, I attached some more red cotton tape and a red button to my red towels for the studio - I have gone a bit mad on the old red colour of late. So they performing nicely too.

Next, I'm working on some sample projects to display, to inspire my students ..... Here is my LOVE cushion...
and the back .....


I've been trying to transfer some appliqué designs straight from my computer to the fabric via the printer......... a friend told me about using the paper that photocopy paper comes wrapped in - the waxy kind, not the plastic feeling kind. Anyway, I have tried it a couple of times, you just iron the fabric onto a precut piece of the wrapping paper - I think it is much the same as freezer paper.


The paper acts as a "carrier" to carry the fabric through to be printed on - can't be done in a laser printer. I know that there are commercial products available that do the same job - mostly used for transferring photos onto fabric for memory quilts etc. anyway, they are really expensive. Basically, I'm trying to avoid the manual tracing method.

I had mixed success today - I did manage to print a "g" letter that I am appliquéing for a cushion, but I missed the top of Mr Elephant's ear (I know... a test run would have prevented this...!) - and after that nothing cooperated with me. So, I'll leave it again for another day. Does anyone else do this? Any handy hints?

A few more projects on the boil, sew watch this space!

1 comment:

  1. The studio sounds great, can't wait to see it and learn some new techniques. Amanda

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