McCalls 6083 with some modifications

Pattern: McCalls 6083

Been a slow week creating wise because I've been battling the flu. I did however want to work on my outfit for the destination wedding I'm going to be attending. I bought the McCalls 6083 almost a year ago, but just wasn't ready to tackle. Well during this last slow week, I decided to give it a try. I wish I'd lengthened the top part to account for my ample busts, but the outfit is doable. I loved how it turned out. I used the top style for view D and E and then used the bottom length for view B.

I got 3 yards of fabric because it was napped and I wanted to be sure I had enough. Since it was 60 inches crosswise grain, I was able to fold and cut my fabric along the crosswise grain so that the stripes went vertically down my body instead of across. 

This was everything laid out. I even had some fabric left over to use as lining in my clutch. I haven't made that yet. 

Final finished product. I'm satisfied. As you can see, I didn't keep the loose bottom. Since the view B was already a shorter length, I folded it under at 2.5 inches and made three rows of 3/8inch elastic casings. Love the length which will be perfect for a beach wedding. 

Better Fabric labels without transfer paper using Freezer paper tutorial

Nothing's worse than doing a transfer print and forgetting to flip the picture before printing. Thing great thing about this method is there is no need to flip anything. Printing on fabric is pretty easy, but companies that sell "special fabric for the printer" don't want you to know that. You can use this method, but if you don't have freezer paper, don't be discouraged, the graphics fairy used spray adhesive, but that can get a bit messy.

What you need:

Freezer/Butcher paper. Usually found near the aluminum foils (used to stabilize the paper to feed through printer.
Fabric - light color especially if printing color (I used the quilter's fat quarters and got 3 sheets from it, Muslin works great as well)

Iron and solid surface (to adhere the fabric to the freezer paper)
Cutting mat, knife (paper), rotary cutter (fabric)
Pinking shears (optional)
Computer injet printer with pigment ink and not the cheap refills
Your designs (I used MSWord label maker for the labels, but had already made my logo in Illustrator a while back)
Vinegar (I haven't used this for other projects, but decided to give it a try thanks to Dolls and Daydream) It is said to set the ink and make it more permanent. Probably a good idea if your item is going to be washed a lot.
Ultrabond tape or sheet (optional)

For this project I have two types of labels. A fold and sew kind for my bibs and burp cloths and clothing, and then an iron on type for my purses and other products. When I did this the first time with the iron on, it was just too difficult to get the peel of the transfer perfect every time. Besides with this method, I paid like $4 for the freezer paper and 99 cents for the fabric quarter at Walmart. Transfer paper usually run you $10 for about 6 sheets. Buying fabric printing sheets was out of the question as well once I realize that this is pretty much the same thing they are doing on a bulk level.

1. Make you design in whatever program you choose. Make sure to spell check and don't end up like  me with a bunch of misspelled labels on products that's been sold. LOL. Print a test copy on regular paper and make sure that's what you want.

2. Prepare the fabric and freezer paper. I pull out and cut the freezer paper at full width x 11 inches. Then I cut out 2 8.5X11 (paper size) from that piece. You can cut your fabric to size first or just iron on the freezer paper and cut down. I prefer to cut my fabric to size.

3. Lay the fabric wrong side to shiny side of the freezer paper and iron. Make sure all air bubbles are out. You don't want to end up jamming your printer. NO STEAM

4. Take your "fabric paper" to the printer and place it according to the manufacturer direction in the printer. Cross your fingers and hit print.

5. When it's finished printing, let the ink set for about 15 minutes (probably don't need that long unless you're printing bigger images).

6. This is new for me, soak it in a vinegar bath for 5 minutes. Run under cool water to rinse the vinegar smell (which evaporates as it dries anyway).

7. Let it dry and cut as desired. For my fold and sew, I'll just cut, fold and iron everything and place in a zip lock bag for storage. For my iron on, I cut out a long strip of ultrabond and iron to each row of labels on the wrong side (I could cut out a whole sheet size, but I'd be wasting a lot of ulrabond). Cut with pinking shears and place in ziplock for storage.

 Laid out on a towel to dry.

I used the pinking shears on the sides so it wouldn't fray. 

I then lined up everything and cut across every 1.25 inches. Lesson learned is next time I'd fold first and see where things lined up before cutting. 

You can see where the writing sort or disappears on the fold. But that's not the end of the world. 

For the iron on labels, I cut out the strips of the ultrabond and ironed it on. 

 Peeled the backing off the entire thing. 

Then cut with the pinking shears to give it some style. At this point the adhesive would have kept it from fraying, but it looked boring just being a regular rectangle and cutting curves would have taken too long. :-)

Total labels done: 90 (30 folded, 60 iron on and 1 sheet of lost labels due to wetting the fabric too early)

Small hint: You can use this method to print pictures to use as lining for a personalized purse. Another tutorial coming as soon as I give the recipient her gift. 

More than just another fold and sew placemat purse

Thanks to many pioneers, I've fallen in love with placemat purse making. I, however, quickly got bored with the simple fold and sew. I started challenging myself to make purses that one would be hard pressed to identify the placemats in the purse.
I just completed this white vegan leather placemat purse that really challenged me. I wanted to put in zipper, but did not want to lose the integrity of the placemat. I ended using new techniques and even getting a rivet set for the vinyl.

Currently, I'm working on another one that I'm still trying to work my head around. 

Meanwhile, here are a few more. 

 Scalloped beaded placemat using zipper as closure.

 This used two round placemats  and gusset to achieve the look.

This was also two placemats used along with a vegan leather piece for the flap. 

African themed wear

Using Dana's method,  I made this adorable t-shirt dress for my niece. I didn't have her nearby and made everything based on what her regular shirt/dress size is. The tee was just a plain tee that I cut off some inches and used a strip for the ruffles down the center. 

 I mailed it to her mom and got back this beautiful picture today. It fit perfectly. I can see she also used the belt for a head piece instead. Absolutely gorgeous.

This other piece below was made of a onesie based on the size the mom said. It was a one year old's birthday present. I made the applique to add to pizzazz to the top and to make the two pieces seem more cohesive. Now I can start putting these in my etsy shop. 

Sewing Machine Needle Organization

I sew everything from purses to clothing and am constantly switching needles. The problem with doing that in the same project is you get lazy and set the needle down next to another and other than the size, it's too tedious to try and figure out what needle is for what. Especially if you don't know the color code. This was a quick and dirty fix using items I already had at home.

Materials used:
Piece of scrap cushion foam (1 inch) from a previous project. The foam works cause it won't damage your needle.
Piece of thin ribbon or yarn would do
School glue
Piece of paper for your labels

For the label I just put what the package said and then included the size.

Step 1:
Cut foam

 Step 2:
Make label. I made mine three or four across each row. Set aside.

 Step 3:
Use a long need to run a piece of ribbon through the foam. You could also pass it the short way and tie. I didn't want the ribbon getting in the way.

 Step 4:
Glue the label to the foam.

 Step 5:
Tie the string, stick in your needles per the labels and voila. No more confusing needles.

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