All the sewing...

This week was dominated by Stacey's sewing projects.

Sewing:

Cross-back apron for Lee:

Stacey spent the weekend sewing up a storm.  She started with the cross-back apron mentioned last week for Lee, who had chosen this awesome Tula Pink Spirit Animal Lunar Otter N Chill fabric (affiliate link), which we have dubbed Space Otter.  The apron was super simple and straightforward to cut and sew and will work perfectly.

Tote bag:

Her next project was a Whistlepig Creek Productions #1144 Six Pack Stack Reversible Fat Quarter Tote, which has been gifted, and should have been received by the intended recipient.  The pattern was purchased from a local-ish quilt and knitting shop back in 2014, and was used in the first sewing class Stacey participated in, marking the start of her sewing adventures.

It is supposed to coordinate with a dark purple luggage set with bright blue and hot pink circles.  We're hoping that this goes well enough.  It was a bit of a struggle to find fabrics in the right color ranges, as they aren't the currently popular shades, but the proprietor of our local quilt store was extremely helpful in finding these fabrics.  I tried to offset the colors a bit to make the bag not seem to crazy, so the bright blue is on one side, and the pink is on the reverse.  The purple and black fabrics are a bit more mellow, so they are on both sides.

 

Stacey stopped paying attention while cutting at one point, and cut the pockets the wrong way in the fabric so they ended up shorter than the pattern called for.  The same thing happened with the straps.  She likes the look of the slightly shorter pockets, that seem to take up half the depth of the bag.  The handles are definitely still usable, but a few more inches on them would probably be better.

She also cut the corners at the bottom to make the box shape a little bit too large, a misreading on her part.  This error actually lines up the bottom of the pockets with the bottom of the bag when it is standing up, which has been perceived as a vast improvement in the look of the bag.

The bottom seam where the bag was turned right sides out was hand-stitched using the ladder stitch technique.  Look at this, you almost can't tell it was hand-sewn!  This shows a marked improvement in Stacey's hand-sewing technique since she started sewing a few years ago.

Stacey's cross-back apron:

Stacey then worked on her own cross-back apron, which she managed to cut out with the print upside down.  C'est la vie.  There wasn't enough fabric left to cut it out again, and it's just going to get messy in the kitchen anyway, so she just went with it.  Since the project was already mucked up, Stacey decided to try out some different stitches on the various seams of the apron.  The bottom hem was just a straight stitch.  The outside seams were done with the seam/overlock setting.  The armhole curve and inside strap seams were done with an S curve stitch pattern, which, in hindsight, may not have been the best idea as the clipped edges in the curve are not fully sewed down.  That can and will be fixed if needed in the future.  The top front seam was done with a rolled hem to encase the edge.  All-in-all, it fits and it'll hopefully prevent some clothing stains from kitchen messes, exactly as intended.

Slouchy headwarmer:

The next sewing project this week was the Patterns for Pirates Slouchy Headwarmer, which is one of their 2017 Holiday Freebies.  Stacey whipped this up out of remnants of the girl scout green lycra.  This project took about 20 minutes, including the hand-stitching at the end.  This is a super easy and versatile project, as it can be worn as a headband, hat, messy bun hat, or a cowl.  As usual, the tutorial from Patterns for Pirates is excellent.

Knitting:

Stacey continued working on her second Knit One, Crochet Too Ty-Dy sock in the Cherry Cola 1233 colorway, and managed to get to the toe decreases.  The stitch-marker is where the sock was last time it made it into a blog post.

Cross-stitch:

Dorothy now has a dress, and there's a rainbow on the Wizard of Oz block of the 2015 Story Time Sampler pattern from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.

Woodworking:

Lee spent some time in the workshop making a new crosscut sled. The old one went with the table saw it fit when he returned it to his father. The new crosscut sled has some improvements over the old one. This one features a stop block with a tape measure, two T slot tracks and an insert where the blade meets the front rail. The stop block is used to make accurate repeatable cuts without having to markup and measure each piece. The two T slot tracks can be used to clamp your material to the sled so you don't have to hold onto it or to attach a miter gauge that can be used to cut angles. Lastly, the replaceable inserts are used to get a clear view of where the blade will cut. When lining up your material to be cut its important to know where the blade will hit the front rail, the old sled got a little worn out which led to not knowing where the blade would cut without lining up each piece to the blade itself. Now if it gets a bit off, the insert can simply be replaced.