Friday, February 28, 2014

Photo Tutorial - Zombie Apocalypse Panel Soft Toy

The Zombie Apocalypse has started at the Brisbane Stitches and Craft Show (20-23 March 2014). Come and visit us at Stand E15 to pick up a Zombie Toy panel which will only be available at the show.

We first saw Emily Taylor's Zombie Apocalypse doll panel while looking through images of the Riley Blake Designs booth from the Houston Quilt Market at the end of October last year (2013). To say we were excited would be an understatement.

Original Photo from Riley Blake Design's blog
There are only limited written instructions included on the panel so to help our newer sewists we thought a photo tutorial was in order. Please note that all seam allowances are 1/4" (6mm) unless noted otherwise.


ZOE the ZOMBIE GIRL
Step 1 - Cutting out the pieces: All of the pattern pieces are printed on the fabric and should be cut out on the printed line. Make sure you transfer the pattern markings for the arm positions onto Zoe's body and the pattern markings for the dog's ear and underbelly positions onto the body before you cut them out.


Step 2 - Zoe's Arms: Take an arm piece and fold it in half with right sides together. Stitch down the long straight edge and around the curve leaving the top edge open (the instructions say stitch from point A to B, this is incorrect). Clip the curve, we have used pinking shears on our sample. Make sure that you don't clip too close to the stitch line otherwise the seam will be weakened and may burst when you stuff the arms. Turn the arm right side out. Repeat for the other arm.


Step 3 - Zoe's Legs: Take a leg piece and fold it in half with right sides together. Stitch down the long straight edge and around the curve, leave the top edge open. Clip the curve. Turn right side out. Repeat for the other leg.

Step 4 - Stuff Arms and Legs: Stuff the legs and arms, leaving approx. 1/2 - 1inch (about 2cm) clear at the top. Baste the tops closed to keep the stuffing in place.

Step 5 - Attaching the Arms: Using the marks you made as a guide, place the arms on the right side of one of the body pieces so that they are facing inwards. Pin or baste in place. Zoe is Zombie on one side & pre-Zombie on the other. Make sure you put the Zombie sides all in the same direction.

Step 6 - Attaching the Legs: Place Zoe's legs on the right side of the same body piece so that the top leg seam is even with the bottom of her skirt and her toes are pointing up towards her head. I placed mine approx 1/2 inch (about 1.5 cm) to either side of the middle of the bottom of the skirt. Baste in place. Zoe is Zombie on one side & pre-Zombie on the other. Make sure you put the Zombie sides all in the same direction.


Step 7 - Zoe's Body: Place the body pieces on top of each other, right sides together with the arms in-between. Fold the legs down so that they are outside of the body and out of the way. Sew around Zoe's body leaving the bottom edge open a few inches for turning and stuffing. 


Step 8 - Finishing Up: Turn Zoe's body right side out and stuff firmly. Fold in the open edges and use ladder stitch to close.

BONES the ZOMBIE DOG


Step 1 - Ears: Place one spotted ear and one black ear piece together, right sides together. Sew around the ear leaving the top edge open. Clip the seams and turn right side out. Repeat for the other ear.


Step 2 - Bones' Underbelly Part 1: Place the underbelly piece onto the left body piece, right sides together and matching points F and E. Sew around the legs from point E to point F.


Step 3 - Bones' Underbelly part 2: Fold the sewn side of the underbelly up and out of the way so that you can place the remaining half onto the right body piece, right sides together and matching points C and D. Sew around the legs from point C to point D.


Step 4 - Bone's Body: Pin or baste the ears to the top of one of the body pieces using the ear placement markings. Sew around the top of Bones' body from points C/E to D/F catching the ears in between. Make sure you leave an opening for turning, I left open the section between the two yellow pins on his back.

Step 5 - Finishing Up: Clip around the curves and turn Bones right side out. Stuff with Toy stuffing and close up the opening using a ladder stitch.

Congratulations you have finished your Zombie Doll and Dog !!


For those of you who like to pin here is a pretty Pinterest image for you :)

Fabric Friday - It's in the Stars

Buy some fabric for the star in your life... even if it's you :)

As an added bonus, today's Fabric Friday collection will be 10% off for the day !!! 

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- Ky

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Serendipity Studio Camilla Insulated Lunch Bag Pattern Test Drive (with tips for sewing with laminated cottons)

For Christmas last year I made my Mum the Camilla Insulated Lunch Bag from Serendipity Studio. There are several sizes available in this pattern and it can be made as an insulated lunch bag or as a non-insulated tote bag.


Today I am going to share a few tips and tricks that you may find helpful when sewing up this bag.


I chose to make the medium size insulated version of the bag. To make things extra tricky I have used laminated cotton on both the inside and outside. Handy if you have a spill as you can simply wipe the bag clean.


Always use a pressing cloth so that you don't touch the iron directly onto the laminated side of the fabric.  I keep the temperature fairly low as well. Nothing is worse than melted laminate on your iron.


To add structure and insulation I used Insul-Bright by The Warm Company. The contents of your lunch bag is kept hot / cold by this specialty interfacing. It is non-fusible so the layers need to be quilted together. 

505 Spray Adhesive is great for sticking layers together while quilting. It holds everything in place but won't gum up your machine needle. When using a spray adhesive use a cardboard box or similar to make a spray booth so that you don't end up with glue all over your work table like I have :) If you are looking for 505 Spray Adhesive, we stock it in our showroom.


When topstitching or quilting the bag you can't sew directly over the laminated cotton with a regular metal presser foot. It sticks to the laminate and your fabric won't feed through the machine. A Teflon foot is recommended for sewing with laminated fabric, but you can also use baking paper. Just place it on top of the laminate, under your regular presser foot and sew. Once you are finished stitching, tear away the baking paper. You can also draw your quilting lines onto the baking paper which makes sewing straight lines a lot easier too!


Pinning beyond your seam allowance lines is also a no-no with laminated fabrics because they leave permanent marks. Clover Wonder Clips are a great alternative. You can use them to peg the baking paper to your fabric and not leave any holes.


Sewing on the velcro was a cinch once I basted it down with some more 505 Adhesive Spray.


A little mini iron is perfect for getting inside the bag to fuse the Peltex base. 


The final bag construction requires you to stitch through two layers of fabric plus two layers of Insul-Bright which makes for quite a bit of bulk. Even if you aren't using laminated cotton all of these layers would be too thick to pin together. Clover Clips to the rescue!


My mum loved her new lunch bag and I hope that this blog post has offered some helpful tips for sewing with laminated cottons.

- Ky