My Creative Space

Last Sunday at our ASG neighbourhood meeting we looked at shirring. I've tried shirring once before with limited success due to incorrect elastic tension and fabric weight. I'm happy to say I have had more success this time around :)

When I was in Japan earlier this year I spotted an awesome fabric that was perfect for shirring, it is only 1m wide but each side is finished with a scalloped edge and embroidery of bats, skull and roses. Due to my non-imposing height this is long enough to make a myself a dress. I purchased 2m of this fabric in total, in hindsight I should have gotten more. It is a very light weight fabric but still heavy enough so that it isn't see through.

Bodice Detail

This time I started by hand winding the bobbin with the shirring elastic making sure that I stretched it as I wound it onto the bobbin so that it had some tension on it to help it gather as I sewed. By the final bobbin I had decided to just wind the bobbin on my machine's bobbin winder, this seemed to work fine as well. Each bobbin held enough elastic to do 4 rows of shirring.

I set my stitch length to 5 and sewed each row of shirring 1.5cm (5/8in) apart. I used the quilting gauge that came with my machine to help keep the rows evenly spaced.

Once all of the shirring was done all I had to do was sew up the back seam, I ended up with a 9cm seam allowance as the dress was a bit loose and I also needed extra fabric to make some straps.

Hem Detail

Now all that is left to do it cut off the seam allowance, make two shoulder straps and attach them. Hopefully I will have time to finish it off tonight.

- Ky

PS: I believe Kirsty is on holidays so there is no Creative Space link up on Kootoyoo this week.

Licorice Allsorts Beach Bag

Here is a bag I made up last night. I have had it cut out since just before last Christmas with the intention of giving it to my little sister. Now that it is finished she may finally receive it. Combining the striped fabric with the black webbing and binding makes it look a bit like a licorice allsort, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

The fabric is from a fabric swap game at a sewing guild Christmas Party, not something I would have picked on my own. All of the lining, webbing, binding and zippers came from my stash.
The pattern is from the book "Making Handbags: Retro, Chic, Luxurious" by Ellen Goldstein-Lynch, Sarah Mullins and Nicole Malone.

I have also added in a zippered pocket to the lining which isn't included in the original pattern, there is a great tutorial on how to do this at u-handbag.com.

Grug Softie

One of the ladies at my ASG sewing group made this awesome Grug softie for one of her grandchildren. She made him up from scratch without a pattern.

I read Grug books when I was growing up and would have loved a toy like this for Christmas.

Funky Friends

Last Sunday I decided that the activity for the day would be softies, which is the next challenge theme at Bulimba Belles. So while Cloud tried to design a voodoo rabbit softie with interesting mixed results, I decided to just make up a pattern I've had sitting in my cupboard since the last Stitches and Craft Show.

Meet Gertie gecko, from Funky Friends Factory and her twin sister Gertrude. Gertie (left) will be joining the Softies for Mirabel appeal and Gertrude (right) will be going to Polymonkey who proves that you are never too old for soft toys.

The pattern was easy to follow and mostly easy to assemble though I will admit to some frustration when it came to attaching the legs. They are attached once they have been stuffed and there isn't a lot of space in that narrow body to fit one stuffed leg while you are trying to fit it all under the sewing machine presser foot let alone all 4. Luckily the polar fleece stretches to give you a bit more room. The finished product is super cute though and I love the googly eyes and big feet.

The original pattern is for a wheat heat pack but for the Mirabel appeal I have filled Gertie with hobbyfill to make her child friendly. Gertrude, who doesn't need to be child friendly, has plastic pellets in her feet to give her some weight and hobbyfill in her body. I was going to make her a heat pack but Polymonkey didn't like the idea of microwaving a Gecko, even a toy one.

I have one more Softie for Mirabel half made, this one is made from cotton fabric and turning out to be a bit larger than expected. I will post about it soon.

Hearts and Bows Trapunto

In early May of this year Cloud and I attended the Brisbane Stitches and Craft show, which I must admit was a bit of a disappointment to us both. One of the good things we found was Annie London's Designer Stitches stall. Annie London designs and sells shadow and French Trapunto kits and patterns.
It just so happens that the activity for our next Bulimba Belles meeting was Trapunto so we just had to buy a kit each to take with us. All of the designs were beautiful and making a decision on which one to buy was difficult but we both decided to go traditional and choose a French Trapunto kit each. I chose the Hearts and Bows design and I think Cloud picked the French Tulips. In hindsight we probably should have chosen simpler designs for out first foray into Trapunto as these ones were quite large and detailed.

Finally, 4 months later I have finished mine, the final piece is 34cm square. I'm quite pleased with the finished result and I believe Polymonkey is planning on getting it framed for me.