Making a mend(s)

So one day a girl walks into her wedding cleaver.

Oh wait, there's no joke there.  I walked into our cleaver (doesn't everyone get a cleaver for a wedding present?) and it cut a few tiny threads in my favorite, favorite jeans which I knew would turn into a full fledged hole in a few days.

And lo, it did.

So I decided I should finally learn to mend. 

Before I started on my favorite pants ever, I, of course, practiced on things I didn't care about: an old pair of sweatpants, ripped jeans I don't wear anymore, a zip hoodie I only wear to work, and my husband's pants.

I started off with some ripped jeans I never wear any more.  They are pretty faded already, so finding a shade to match would be kind of hard... so i went contrasting. 

ripped jeans back

patch close up

ripped jeans knee

This zip hoodie has probably reached the end of it's life.  I've had it for a good 6-7 years, it's thin, there are holes I don't think I can patch, and should probably be thrown out.  I didn't mind the ones near my wrist, but the one on my elbow was noticeable to the point that I had a customer (at the job where I have a company shirt and the only dress code is no jeans) comment on it. I'm pretty happy with the results.  I had to back the elbow patch with scrap (which was black/white check) to cover the hole, but I don't mind.  I think the other elbow is about to go though....

wrist

elbow patch

So finally I felt comfortable working on my own jeans. I picked out some some thread I thought would match, but I think I matched it to a slightly less faded part of the jeans, because it doesn't blend in like I thought it would.

The cleaver hole!

cleaver hole close up

First off, I cut a piece of interfacing to slightly cover the hole and ironed it onto the inside of the jeans.

interfacing ironed on to inside of jeans

Then I used my machine to run over and over over and over the hole until it was covered with stitches (I used the default stitch length). I didn't get any pictures of that step, but this blog post has great pictures of the process. 

the patch!

My end result doesn't look exactly like hers, but I'm 100% positive I'll end up doing this again and I'll get better at it. I love that this saved my jeans! I don't feel comfortable wearing them to work any more (not the job where I wear the patched hoodie, the job where I can wear basically wherever I want as long is it is neat and not revealing), but my mom got me an early birthday present of this same cut so I have jeans to wear to work again! So now I have patched jeans for every day wear and nice jeans for work/date night!  It's a win-win situation.  I'm very happy. 

It doesn't disappear, but it doesn't scream "patched!" either

Christmas Stockings

I am still alive and working (yay! I got a part time job!) and making and baking things, but lately it's all been Christmas presents.  I would love to post those, but some of the people receiving them read this blog... so that's out til after Christmas. 

I did make my husband and I stockings. This project has been in the works for a long time- I got the faux fur from my mom's stash specifically to make these in June! Nearly a yard of red linen blend was found in remnants in September after the local college's sororities had used most of the bolt in the name of school spirit.

Yes, this is instagramed.  I have horrible lighting in my house.

It just took me til last week to do anything with the materials.

First up, I had to have a pattern for the stocking shape. If you own a stocking, you can just trace it and add about 1/4-1/2" all around for your seam allowance.  Since this is our first Christmas, we have very few decorations and the stockings we grew up with have stayed with our parents: hence the need for me to make some. A quick google image search turned several shapes you can download, trace, enlarge, whatever. The stocking won't fit anyone anyway, so as long as you're happy with it, it's fine. If it doesn't include the size of fur strip you'll need, then you'll need to make your own pattern piece. First, how thick of a cuff do you want?  Copy/trace that amount of inches from the top of the stocking onto another piece of paper, marking which end is the toe and heel end.  Fold the fur in half and place the toe end of your pattern piece against the fold, then cut (you'll get one long strip instead of two pieces. You could also do it with two pieces, but I did it with one).

The red stocking part is incredibly simple.  I serged my pieces because the fabric would fray like crazy otherwise.  The cuff was the hard part.  

Faux fur is incredibly weird to work with. It sheds more than my dog and that's saying something. Most tips I found suggested small cuts using scissors or craft knifes on the wrong side of the fur and not to cut through the fur itself. But how does one finish off a cut end? I couldn't find a tutorial, so I modified a technique I found to make a vintage faux fur collar. She has great pictures that explain each step.  

I cut one faux fur strip and one same sized lining (I suggest white cotton, but I'm not entirely sure a liner is even needed for a stocking.  However, the faux fur collar used one, so I did too). Tack the lining to the faux fur using an uneven, shallow basting stitch that just catches the fur backing (I basted on one and didn't on the other.  I highly suggest basting). Sew twill/hem tape to the edge of the right side of the fur using a zig zag stitch.  I had silver hem tape in my stash and didn't feel like purchasing white.  Festive!  And cheap!  Cut off any excess cuz this is going to get thick.

machine zig zag stitch to the edges of the fur.

Fold the binding tape over on one side so that the faux fur edge is contained and use a running stitch to tack it to the lining. The other end will be attached to the stocking proper.

Pin the right side of the fur to the WRONG side of the stocking (i.e. turn the stocking inside out) with the tape folded towards the top of the stocking. The zig zag stitch on the right side of the fur should be hidden by the tape folding over itself.  This is hard to see in the pictures, but the second one below this paragraph shows it slightly better than the first one.  After I pinned it together, I stitched the  fur together for that back seam in the first photo (taking care not to get any red stocking in the seam).  I feel like there was probably a better point/time to do that step, but I'm not really sure what it is since I knew that my paper pattern wasn't very exact. I straight stitched the fur to the stocking using the bottom of the zig zag as a guide.

RIGHT side of fur pinned to inside-out stocking with fur seamed

Hard to see, but I stitched a straight stitch using the bottom of the zig zag as my guide

Then I turned the stocking right side out and folded the faux fur cuff over. You can make a simple tube out of the red material about 1.5" wide and 6" long and stitch it to the stocking so you can hang it. My tube is still inside out because I found the fabric too thick to turn right side out without a super cool tool made for turning tubes right side out. 

Yay, all done!

There. All done. Now we have our very own stockings.

Bread Bag

Since I started making bread more often, I've discovered that it smells wonderful, tastes better, and I have no place to put it.  It doesn't really fit in a gallon ziploc.  I've reuse store-bought bread bags, but after a couple times of using them, I'm afraid things might grow in it.  My host family in Germany had a nice wooden bread box, but those aren't as common here.  Some plastic food storage containers that might work, but is that the best way?  I took to the internets to find a solution.

does this make my bread look fake?

reusable duster

I'm a fan of Swiffer products.  The original Swiffer was genius: not a broom, not a mop, but somewhere in between.  I'm also a fan of the disposable aspect.  Not because I like spending money on something to throw away, but because reusing things like old fashioned mops are disgusting (old school mops? How much of that dirt/disgustingness doesn't go out with the wash water?).  Last month I made a reusable Wet Jet pad; today I made a reusable Swiffer duster that I can toss in the laundry basket with it. 

blues!  dustin' for clues...

Leashes and Leash Bags

it's really difficult to simultaneously hold a leash, take a picture, and get a dogs attention.

I hate to run.  Absolutely hate it.  It hurts my knees and I don't like how it works my body.  Walking?  Love it.  I would rather walk five miles than run one mile.  My husband says I "Yankee walk" because my normal walk is so much faster than his Southern stroll (after trying to walk in the Southern summer though, I've started to understand that).  When I'm walking for exercise though, it's even quicker than my normal "Yankee walk."  When I was in jr. high, I would get up at 5:30am to work out before school.  I have no idea where that motivation came from; these days I barely have the willpower to get up at 8am to go walking (keep in mind, I am jobless so getting up at 8am on a daily basis IS early for someone that has very little to do all day).

My New Serger

Meet my new baby.

unnamed new serger.  then again, my sewing machine isn't named either.

She and I haven't really gotten acquainted yet (just got her yesterday in the mail from my mom) but here's what I do know:

1.) she's a serger (wikipedia link there because some people, like my husband, have no idea what a serger is), Janome My Lock 234D to be precise
2.) she originally was bought or fixed or something requiring a claim ticket from Montevilla Sewing Center (which happens to be where my sewing machine comes from, yay!)
3.) she was purchased c.1996 and is pink/purple (a decidedly mid '90s hue)
4.) she comes with accessories (different needle plate, tweezers, nets, oil, needle threader, needs... stuff like that)
5.) her little suitcase/carrier is the most adorable sewing carrying case I've ever seen

I do not yet know exactly what I'm going do with her (besides experiment and take over the world) but I'm crazy excited to find out.

most adorable carrying case ever

accessories!  instructions!  claim ticket!

gratuitous top down shot 

Applique Apron

I like wearing aprons.  Partially because I'm a klutz and spill things on myself and partially because I forget to take them off for hours after I'm done baking or cooking.

I've been wanting to make another apron since I finished my $5 dress.  I wanted to use my extra fabric that I cut off to make the waistband and pockets and use some brown and cream striped fabric for the rest.  It was a match that could either look really good or really bad, so I decided to check my other scraps to see if I had something that matched a bit better and ended up changing my mind about how I was going to make the apron.

I compared a couple different apron patterns I have and really liked the fullness and length of D, but wasn't too wild about the rick rack or faux needlepoint part of it (the center one was my second choice but the lace makes it and I don't have enough of it or the right color).

It looks like a picnic with rick rack

Reusable Sandwich Wrap

I made a sandwich every morning for ten years. At least. My mom (wisely) had my brother and I making our own lunches for school more or less as soon as we could wield the peanut butter knife without hurting ourselves. As a result, I can pack a lunch in 5 minutes flat while brushing my teeth and packing a school bag (ok, not quite). Every morning of the ten years I made a sandwich, I used a paper towel to set the bread on (because our counter was clean and I didn't want to get it crummy) and a sandwich bag to carry to to school in. If the paper towel hadn't gotten jam on it, it might double as a napkin for the day. When I studied abroad in Germany in college, a fellow student was packed a sandwich by his host father in wax paper. Fascinating. This was the first time I had not seen a sandwich not wrapped in either a.) a plastic bag or b.) plastic wrap. What else were people using for their sandwiches?

Several years later, the resuable bag movement became more mainstream and I found out. Reusable sandwich bags that ranged from simple bags that mimic-ed a Ziploc bag with cotton and velcro to those that could double as a placemats.

How much trash had I produced in ten years?

I wanted one of these resuable bags, but I had fabric, a sewing machine, and not much money so I didn't want to pay for one. I researched (read: looked a pictures on the internet) and began to think about what style would suite me best. I quickly realized I didn't really like the Ziploc mimics. They seemed like they would get crumbs in the rough side of the velcro and that's no fun. I also liked the idea of a placemat because then I could get rid of the paper towel in the morning and also not get crumbs on my desk. So a placemat. Here's the first one I made about December or January (Just because I didn't post on here for a year doesn't mean I wasn't making stuff)

I like it. I also refer to it as my sandwich diaper. It was essentially a mock up and I had plans to make at least one more. I finally did and you can see it on my etsy shop. My husband recently started law school and when I got up in the morning I would find a plate with crumbs, a jam encrusted knife on the breakfast table, and one fewer ziploc bags in my drawer. Since my husband had already laughed at my sandwich diaper and the apples weren't exactly mansculine, I decided to try one more time at making a reusable sandwich wrap. I realized I don't have much fabric of the appropriate weight and content that is masculine, but I found some nylon my mom bequeathed me and some thin denim from a backpack my mom and I had started when I was 10 (it's still unfinished). Here is the result.

How I made these
1.) Pattern fabric
2.) Trial and error

What I used
1.) cotton (cuz it's plentiful)
2.) nylon for the lining (so I can wipe off the jam that always spills out when I cut my sandwiches in half)  

Why I like these
1.) Isn't that what this whole post is about?
2.) They can be thrown in the wash whenever they need a deep cleaning.  The nylon liner makes it easy to wipe jam spills off without having to wash the entire thing daily, but it can be thrown in with a load of wash.

A Dog's Bed

Dog Bed
I've put off doing laundry for a few days because my dog needs a new dog bed cover. I need to wash the one that's on hers, but until about an hour ago, it would have meant taking away her dog bed for two days (we don't have a dryer). Today I finally made one. Basically, it's a pillow cover. My original idea was to do more of a European Pillow sham closure by altering this pattern, but it basically became exactly what the pattern describes how to do. With buttons.





A word about the fabric: the pictures don't accurately convey how incredibly glow-in-the-dark pink that is. I got it in an awesome pile from my mom (which also contained the terry cloth for the wetjet reusable pads). I don't blame my mom for having this fabric, but I do blame the early 90's for making it. There used to be another double sided fabric that was black and a nice cerulean blue that became many, many, many canvas style bags (I think some were made for a church thing) that I liked. This fabric? I don't think it was touched because I have a LOT of it. Since it's home decorating fabric (60"), I don't just have yardage, I have width. So why did I decide to use it? It's sturdy and able to handle a dog's nails, licking (yes, my dog licks her bed), flopping, and being on a hard floor that has the potential to grind rocks and dirt into the bed.

I would like to say that I utilized the unique nature of this fabric by putting the contrasting pink on the bottom.... but I didn't. In fact, when I showed my husband the fabric, I told him I was only going to use the navy side. I pinned it wrong. By the time I realized this, I'd sewn two sides and decided to just go with it. Ironically, I had been thinking throughout "oh, remember when I pinned that dress backwards and I had to rip out a bunch of stitches? That sucked."

On a plus side, I got more experience with button holes. They aren't particularly hard, but it's always good to have more experience with what side of the buttonhole your machine starts the stitching, etc before doing it on something like a shirt. The buttons I used were leftovers from my wedding. When I worked at Cherish* in San Francisco, my fellow designer Stacy had an awesome idea for a flower garland to put in our store window. We used the die cutting machine to cut out many, many, many white flowers, sewed a button center, and put it up on a ribbon. Two months later, I made it for my wedding.



The buttons didn't quite fit in my buttonhole foot (too thick, tiny bit too wide), so I did a test of the largest buttonhole I could make with the foot to see if it would fit. Luckily, it did! It's a tiny bit tight, but since it won't be opened and closed a lot unless I'm cleaning, it's absolutely fine. The button also didn't fit in the button foot, so I handsewed those.

* I no longer work for Cherish or live in San Francisco, but if you are interested, they do rent out studio time where you can use their die cutting machine and make these yourself. Fabrix, a discount fabric shop, is next door and where we got all the buttons- they have a bin full of amazing buttons to dig through.

Reusable Wet Jet Pad

I grew up handwashing floors. When we had linoleum floors, we had mops (and they're probably still out in the garage), but by the time my mom started putting me to work washing the floors occasionally, we had wood floors and were using a spray bottle with wood floor cleaner and scrubbing on our hands and knees with rags. After a few years of carpeted dorms, I got an apartment that had hardwood, linoleum and tile everywhere but the bedrooms. The space was too tight to effectively use a traditional mop and Wet Jets were new on the market. I got one and loved it. We had just enough floor space that I could use 2 pads for the entire house.

Fast forward several years later. I'm married and living in a house with all concrete floors. It's trendy, loft-like, and great in this hot Southern weather, but the dust and dirt piles up FAST. We finally got a door mat to pick up some of the dirt, but still I have to sweep every other day (if not every day). Then we got a dog. Ideally we (mostly I) wanted a short haired dog that wouldn't shed too much. Nope, our lovely Puppy Dog (we didn't name her!) is an "average" shedder of her lovely black coat. And since we didn't have a dog bed at first, she claimed the door mat as "her" space when she didn't want to flop at our feet on the concrete.

My Wet Jet just doesn't cut it anymore.

First problem: I fill up a pad within about half a room. Second problem: these pads are expensive. Third problem: I was making sweet tea and spilled it all over the kitchen while transferring it to a milk jug. My Wet Jet barely touched the sticky mess.

What I Wanted:
Clearly I needed something that was more reusable (washable?), wouldn't cost much ($0??), and would actually scrub deeper than a a disposable cloth. Solution? Last time I was home, my mom and I went through her fabric collection and I inherited a bunch of awesome fabric. One of the pieces was about 2yds of cream terry cloth. Terry cloth is great, but just not thick enough. When I got married and we got a bigger bed, all my twin bedding became, well, useless. We used some of my mattress pads as moving pads/protectors for the larger items and I haven't been sure what to do with them now. Bingo.

What I Did:
I searched online and there are some etsy artists and others that sell reusable pads that I looked at them for inspiration, but pretty much all of them use velcro to attach the pad to the unit. I didn't have any velcro in my supplies and I have an older model with a scrubber on one side I wanted to use (new ones have them in the front). I used the terry cloth for the actual cleaning side and the mattress pad part to add some padding/stability to it. After I sewed the pieces together, I noticed the crisscross pattern on the bedding and decided to stitch along that through both pieces to add stability and decoration. I added the elastic last. It wasn't REALLY needed, but I thought it'd be good to have

Update: I just used my new washable pad and it's awesome. Since my floors are in need of a serious scrubbing, I rinsed the cloth out a bunch in the middle of mopping so it could pick up more dirt. I did noticed that I put the wrong side of the bedding out; the velcro tears it up far more that it would on the other side. After rinsing it out several times, I also discovered it works great as a cleaning mitt. It's not hard to get back on to the Wet Jet, but I was rinsing it a lot and it just seemed easier. Future moppings should be much easier though. :-)

$5 dress

Straight up inspired by this chick.

Went to Goodwill the next day and bought a $5 dress. I've had a dress of my grandma's for about 2 weeks now that I need to alter to fit me.... but I'm a bit terrified of ruining something that I actually care about. So I got this. I learned a lot of things about myself and sewing. First, sewing makes sense to me. Second, I always pin things in the wrong direction and am not above actually sewing them wrong.

Here's the before:

Here's the after:


What I did:
1.) made cap sleeves from the existing long sleeves. I dislike long sleeves. I love cardigans. Also, it had a cute puff that I didn't want to cut off.

2.) It was a size too big for me, so I made an elastic waistband instead of making it more fitted. It has pockets! I didn't want to have to fiddle with making those fit if I took it in on the sides.

3.) Chopped off 7 inches from the bottom. It's about an inch or so shorter than I wanted, but that's because blind hems confuse me- I definitely have enough hemmed up to get it an inch longer. I'll probably take it out and lengthen it a bit... but later. Most of what I've done is taking out stitches, not actually sewing. The awesome part is that I didn't have to cut a pattern. I did become quite intimate with my seam ripper though.

4.) I have yet to tackle the neckline. It's not so bad when it's unbuttoned and I have about 3 camis that match the colors in it. I do want to practice on a neckline, so I might fix that later.


Best part? I'm proud of it. I completed something.

Reusable produce bags

As I was working on my everlasting knitting project recently (a shopping bag featured in last year's spring issue of Interweave knits... and yes, I've been working on it for a year with a nine month break between spurts) I started thinking about resuable produce bags because I HATE all those flimsy little plastic bags floating around in my refrigerator.

So I decided to make some reusable ones. After a bit of research online of what to make it out of (sheer fabric or tulle), a bit of browsing at an antique store, and a brief wait to collect my iron from a friend that borrowed it, I made some. (I would like to note I used Wisdom of the Moon for reference, but simple bags aren't that hard to make. It's a bag.)

I made a total of 4 bags: one tall and skinny for celery, carrots, green onions and the like, one for lettuce, one for small items greens (cilantro, garlic, lemons/limes) and a large "apple" bag that actually could hold many apples, onions, potatoes, etc. As I did not have any cilantro, garlic, lemons or limes on hand, I put three apples in that bag for the photo and a gigantic sweet potato and four onions in the large apple bag.

Anyway, I allowed for seams on one side of the bag, but for some reason wasn't thinking and didn't add it to the other side of the bag... as a result, all of the bags are 2 inches shorter than I was expecting. But that's ok, they'll work. Also, two of the bags (the large apple bag and the lettuce bag) have a drawstring that needs to be added to it as soon as I figure out what type of cord I want.
I'm thinking about making more of these and putting them up on etsy. It's an idea at least.

lettuce, celery, apples, oh my!

the print

lettuce help you carry fooood

celery goodness

knitting needle case, apron, felted gloves

So.... Good to see I haven't forgotten how to procrastinate on this little thing.

knitting
Ok, this isn't technically knitting, but it sort of deals with it. First up, the knitting needle case. Mostly because it includes a picture of my sewing machine (I love that thing). I can't remember the pattern company, but it's a nice little pattern with several other knitting/crochet related stuff. I completed this around May. Maybe.

all finished!

holds (nearly) everything!

sewing
Next up, my apron. Bad picture of me. Ignore that part. Think of me wearing a dress and pearls. I've had several people comment that it could be a (somewhat scandalous) dress by itself. :-) I love the lines it gives me on the front, I always feel so darn domestic when I wear it. I don't want to get it dirty!
Bad news though, I washed it and one of the back ties got a bit detatched from the dress. It's a rough tear, I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to fix it.
(Note to self, pin long strings to apron next time you wash it!)

actual knitting
GLOVES. My dad has asked me for a good long while to knit him some nice gloves and a long while ago he bought me the needles, yarn, and book on how to felt. I finally finished his gloves and promptly made myself some as well (mine are a beautiful eggplant color, but not yet felted because I am a slacker). The first photo is of them unfelted, and the second shows the power of the washing machine. I intended to give these to him for Christmas last, but could NOT get the last skein of yarn I needed (and he talked me out of getting originally) when I came home. I found it the first week I was back in Bham. I felted his around Valentine's Day (because I only have access to a coin-op at my apartment) and finished my gloves by spring. I'll probably felt them in October when I come home for some drs appts. Hopefully it won't be too cold before then.

pre-felting

post-felting

food
I made this lovely Italian loaf last February. It was the best loaf of bread I've ever made- just the right texture, flakey on top- mouthgasm just thinking about it.

Of course, it's from my fabulous New Best Recipe Cookbook.

deeeelicious!

knitting again
never quite gave an update on that phone cover, but I did turn it into a flash "how to" project for my New Media class last spring. I'm not a wiz at Flash and have very little interest at mastering the beast (I'm more of a book arts/print production person), but if you're interested, here's the link to my site. I basically ganked the images and what I had written on this site, stylized the photos, added a bit of motion, and called it good. Didn't both to go back and fix a few things after the critique, I didn't care enough.
http://myweb.students.wwu.edu/messinj2/dsgn354/howto/howto.swf