I know a lot of you have really enjoyed The Quilted Fish's new fabric line, Delighted. Check out this free emagazine Amanda has published with fantastic inspriation for projects with her new fabric. The designs were made by some of The Quilted Fish Design Team members. There will be a couple more emagazines coming out soon with new projects and ideas for you. I'll have one coming out in the third magazine. Hope you like it. There will be free tutorials for all these projects that you find in the emagazine.
The magazine is free, so go check it out. Also, all the photos in this emagazine were shot in a house built to look just like the house in the movie Up! I love it! Check out the kitchen. I want that kitchen SO BAD!!!
Congratulations to Amand Herring for her first emagazine and to The Quilted Fish Design Team members for their creativity! I am having so much fun being a part of this team.
Sorry I have been such an absent blogger lately. I am really struggling to keep up with everything. I bit off more than I could chew this semester at work. That's always been the story of my life, but this semester, I really, really did it.
I still owe you a post about my trip to Columbus, OH, and we had a great art quilt group meeting the other night. But, first I want to blog something that I am totally excited about.
Sweet Pea is turning 7 years old at the end of this month. Papa Pea isn't much of a birthday party kind of guy. He says they didn't always have them when he grew up, so Sweet Pea doesn't get one every year. We offered to give her one this year (her first one since she was about 1 year old), and she's really excited. We are doing a little sleepover with four of her friends, and she decided she wanted it to be a "bring your favorite doll" theme. I'll blog about all the preparations later.
But, she has been wanting a sleeping bag for her doll (I made it to fit an 18" doll or an American Girl doll), and I thought it would be fun to make one for each of the girls as their "party favor." So, I got to it this weekend, and they turned out so cute!
First, I googled "doll sleeping bag tutorials." I was surprised that there wasn't too much out there on it. There was one pretty good video tutorial from expertvillage.
This is the first clip in the set of instructions. The tutorial is divided into a series of clips, and it's hard to find them all and to sequence them. (You'll have to look for them on YouTube.) I think I found most of them, and I found this style of sleeping bag most close to my taste, and the tutorial was really clear. I based my sleeping bag on this and will show you the steps I used to create it. I want to be clear that I really copied what expertvillage did...this is not my own design. But I thought it might be helpful to have all the steps in one place.
Also, if you feel so inclined, you might want to stop by YouTube and leave her a comment on how nice her tutorial is. I was reading the comments others had left, and I couldn't get over how rude they were. People making fun of her souther accent, calling her doll a "baby doll," her drapes in her living room. Totally appalling, especially considering she is sharing her idea in such a nice way and free of charge. I really can't believe some people.
Anyway...I thank her for her inspiration, and here is what I ended up creating:
Sweet Pea and I found some cute party invitations in a turquoise and red color scheme, so I ordered a buch more Sugar and Spice fabric (from The Quilted Fish and Riley Blake). I totally cannot get enough of this fabric. I used the flower on the outside, the striped ticking look on the inside, and the big polka dot for the pillow.
Here is what I did:
After watching the instructional videos with me, Sweet Pea drew me a picture of how she wanted the sleeping bag to look. She cracks me up. This was on Sunday morning, and she hadn't even brushed her hair yet. Forgive me. Also, my sewing room is also my laundry room, so you'll see laundry in the background sometimes. Sorry. You'll have to deal with it! :-)
I think I began with approximately 5 yards of fabric. (EDIT: I mean 5 yards of lining fabric AND 5 yards of outside fabric.) So, I folded it selvedge to selvedge and trimmed off the left-hand side. I have the fold lined up with the bottom of my cutting mat, and I cut a length of fabric at the 21-inch mark.
Next I wanted to cut it to be 13" long. My long ruler wasn't this wide...it's only 6" wide. So, I butted up another ruler to it, and aligned the 7" mark along the fold. 7" plus the 6" of my other ruler equals 13".
Here is a close up of how I have my ruler aligned. Notice the folded edge is at the bottom. You don't want to cut off the fold. You are going to cut along the selvedge edge.
After you cut this, you have a piece that is 13" folded by 21". So, if you opened it up, you'd have a piece that is 26" by 21".
Repeat this process for the fabric you are going to use for the outside of the sleeping bags.
You can save the scraps you cut off on the selvedge edge for the pillow, if you want. I was using a different fabric for the pillow. I'll just save those scraps for another project.
Repeat this step one more time with batting....same measurements. I used a variety of different battings for this. I just used up some of the scraps I had. But you might want to use a fluffier polyester batting if you want it to look even more like a sleeping bag.
I layered these three layers together to form a quilt sandwich. The fabrics are both facing right side out, with the batting in between. I basted simply by spraying some starch on the backside of one fabric, putting the batting down over it, and ironing the together. I then sprayed starch on the batting and layered the other piece of fabric on top, ironing again. This held it together just fine. I put my walking foot on and did some straight line stitching down the fabric. I used my Aurifil, white cotton thread, and it worked like a dream. I think most sleeping bags would have horizontal quilting. I did mine vertical, because that is what way the stripes went, and I could just use my quilting bar to follow a line and quilt. This made it so quick and easy. My quilting lines were as far apart as this quilting bar is from the needle.
After I had quilted it, I folded it in half along that original fold again and marked the halfway point along the 21" side using pins. I marked both the front and back piece here.
I used 1/2" double fold bias tape to finish the edges. I could have made my own, but I was keeping this quick and easy.
Oh, yes, one more thing I did...I didn't want to have to make that bias tape go around a sharp corner, so I rounded the corners of my sleeping bag. I used a lid from a jar in my sewing room and traced around it.
I then trimmed it off. I still have it doubled here, so I trimmed both at the same time so they would match perfectly.
Now open it up, and starting where there is one of the pins, start sewing the bias binding around the first 1/2 side, around the top, and down the other 1/2 side to the next pin. Don't worry about the raw edges on the bias binding. It will get covered up later.
I left my walking foot on tof this step. You can see I stitched close to the folded edge.
Easing around the cornders is always a little hard for me, but it was okay. I found it helped to pull on the binding a bit to stretch it around the corner so as not to get a tuck.
It should look like this when done with this step.
Now, fold it in half (like you did when you first cut it), matching up the two corners that already have the bias trim on them. I sewed the bottom half of the sleeping bag together, with the trim covering both raw edges. I started where the raw edges of the bias were. I folded under the edge of this piece of bias, so as not to have an exposed raw edge. I started a little above the raw edge on the previously-sewn part to cover those raw edges. I sewed down to the bottom, around that last corner, and across the bottom.
As I neared the edge, I cut off the trim and folded it under so as not to have an exposed raw edge, and I sewed all the way to the end.
Here is a close up shot of where this piece of bias started. See how the edge is folded under and covers up the other raw edges?
Above the folded edge is where I sewed the first piece of bias binding. The part below is the second one I sewed, where I sewed the bag closed along the side and bottom.
Sweet Pea wanted a button placed at the point where the sleeping bag opened. I also wanted a bow, but she'd have nothing to do with a bow!
So, I just sewed a couple of buttons on to cover the overlapping point.
To make the pillow, I cut two pieces of fabric 10.5" by 6.5".
Then, I cut two pieces of trim 6.5" long.
I basted my trim to the short edge of one of the pieces of fabric. This would have been much easier to do with my zipper foot.
Do that to both sides.
Sandwich the trim in between the two pieces of fabric, right sides together.
Sew all the way around, leaving an opening for turning. It was a little tricky sewing around all the pom poms. I had to cut some of the ones on the edges off to make sewing the corner possible.
Turn right side out and press. Looks like a cute little rug, doesn't it? haha.
Stuff and sew the opening closed.
Viola!
Too cute!
I ran out of red trim and had to use pink on some of the others. It pretty much took one whole pack of bias binding to do one of these. There was enough left over to use as a bow, if you wanted to. That would be cute. On these, I used a little crocheted trim with red, white, and pink pom poms, which I picked up when I was in the garment district with my sister in California. I hope it doesn't cause fights or hard feelings to have some different when the girls are here.
I wrapped the pillow inside and tied it with a bow. This is how they'll get put in the gift bags for the little girls. I made all 5 sleeping bags in about 4 to 5 hours. Not bad. It took me another 3 hours or so to do the pillows. Had I not included the trim on the pillows, it would have gone a lot faster. :-)
I think the girls will really love them. Sweet Pea is already playing with hers. She loves them. I have other fun stuff planned for the party. I'll keep you posted.
I have to run right now. Hope you enjoyed the tutorial. I'll be back later this week with the other good stuff I mentioned earlier!
First, the pincushion kits that you all requested are just about ready to ship out. What I lack in timliness, I'm trying to make up for in presentation. I hope you like them. I actually had more than I thought I did, so a few more of you are going to be getting e-mails to ask for your address. :-)
Second, remember in my post about the pincushions, I said you should decorate a pin and send me a photo? Some of you have asked questions about that. I'm trying to do a quick demonstration of one idea of what I mean, and I'll try to post that later this week. Remember, you can be in a drawing to win this charm pack of Delighted! by playing along. More information in my post about the pincushions.
Finally, I think I have a few European readers out there. I'm leaving a week from Sunday for Granada, Spain! I can't wait! It's for a conference for work, but I arranged it so I'll have a couple of days to play. I am wondering if you have any suggestions for me as to what I must see in Granda, any side trips that might be fun for a day, or any fiber/craft-oriented shops I must hit. I would love your help! Thank you!
I'll tell you what you do! You drop EVERYTHING and you teach her!
The day had finally come! I had been wanting to teach Sweet Pea to sew FOREVER. I had offered to draw lines on paper and let her sew on them with threads of her choice. But she just wasn't interested. She enjoyed watching me sew, collecting her fat quarters, helping me now and then, etc. But I couldn't get her to sew.
Then, two weekends ago, she said, "Mom, will you teach me to sew today? I want to make a blanket for my doll."
I was so happy! I had so much else to do. But I dropped it all and said, "Sure!"
She got out her collection of fat quarters and said, "I want to make it out of these fabrics."
"Okay," I said. And I started cutting 4.5" squares out of her fabrics. Why? Well, I figured they were big enough to add up quickly but small enough for her to easily handle. And I had a ruler that size.
I laid them right sides together, lined up the edges, lowered my chair all the way (so she could reach the foot control), showed her how to use my 1/4" foot (which has a blade on it to line up the fabric), slowed my machine all the way down, had a little discussion about safety and keeping her fingers away from the needle, and helped her sew her first to patches together.
She learned to lower the presser foot by herself.
Within just a couple of patches, she was sewing all on her own!
Here she is on her third patch. Already independent.
She wanted to sew with purple thread. I let her, even though it didn't blend all that well with all the fabrics. It made it more fun and exciting for her.
She was so proud! "I did it!" she said.
So we did another, and another, and another.....
She even had some patches she wanted fussy cut. Sure! I cut those for her the way she wanted.
We didn't pin. She did fine without pins on these patches.
I did pin when we were sewing rows together, and she managed pin removal just fine.
She even got confident enough to start adjusting the speed a little faster. And she figured out how to control the speed a little with the foot control.
She sewed for about an hour and had the whole top constructed. (We fussy cut the fairies she wanted, and the LOVE letters were fussy cut from a panel she had picked out once.)
Then, she found some fur/minkee I had and said she wanted it for the back. Oh, great. I love the stuff, but it's not the greatest stuff for a beginner to work with. But I obliged. I sewed a few pieces together for a back. I didn't do the greatest job. I got pretty crooked on one seam. That stuff can be so tricky to work with. I left it, because it was a doll blanket, and I was afraid I'd cause a hole if I unpicked it. It was so hard to see the stitches with the fur.
I really wanted her to have it finished that day so she could get some instant gratification and reward. So, I did a quick-turn binding method. (I placed the top and the fur right sides together, and I put a piece of batting on the wrong side of the top. I trimmed it all the same size as the top and then sewed around the edges, leaving an opening for turning. I turned it and whipstitched the opening closed.)
Then, I put on the walking foot, and Sweet Pea stitched in the ditch on all the straight lines. She did a great job with that! She wanted to stitch with hot pink thread for her quilting. So, we switched to that thread.
In about 2 hours, she had a really cute doll quilt!
Then, she asked if we could make a pillow out of the leftover furry stuff. "Okay," I said. I sewed a liner out of some white Kona I had. I went to stuff it with stuffing and found out I was out. I did have some of those little plastic pellets for making stuffed animals, so I asked her if she wanted to use that instead. She said, "Yes!" So, that's what we stuffed it with. It's a heavy pillow! It feels like one of those buckwheat neck pillows. Not bad.
Then I sewed a pillowcase out of the furry fabric, slid the filled liner inside, and whipstitched the opening. What's funny is Sweet Pea actually prefers to use it this way. LOL.
Sweet Pea is so proud of her accomplishment. She has drug this quilt, pillow, and doll everywhere with her. We went out of town last weekend (I'll show you more about that tomorrow), and she took it all with her there.
I think she did great, and I'm so happy she is excited about sewing. She's DEFINITELY getting the Hello Kitty sewing machine from me for Christmas this year! She's totally ready for it! Don't tell her! Shhhhh!
