Oh Frabjous Day!

Left the office this afternoon to go to an appointment.

Something was wrong. I couldn't see very well and I was too hot. I felt a bit like I had a fever.

I had to take my scarf, coat and cardigan off. Actually off, I was that warm! All around me other people were stumbling around in similar states of distress, hands held over their faces. There was a strange glowing ball in the sky - the blue sky. Light. So much light.

My GOD! Could it be? Could it actually be the sun?! Could this horrible, long, dreary, cold, grey, wet, MISERABLE winter actually be over?

Today, for the first time this year, I'm wearing sunglasses. I have only one layer on and I am a very, very happy girl.

Finds - Flying Saucers?

I recently went away to Bath for a few days. We stayed in a lovely B&B that was just down the road from THE LARGEST ( unheated) SECOND-HAND BOOK BARN IN EUROPE.  And all the books are only £1! It was everything I dreamt of and more.

I bought less than you might have guessed. It was unheated and unsorted, except in the loosest sense, but I did find something fantastic!

He's looking for his cape



I'm not sure what's so strange about the visitor. It's clearly Batman.

Friday finds - Fabric

I will be broke by the end of next week. I love so much of the stuff here:

http://www.spoonflower.com/welcome

Right. Off to design my own perfect fabric!

Sewing Lessons - Lesson Two: The Shoulder-bag

Difficulty - Easy

Following up last week's book cover, this week we are making a simple shoulder bag.

For this project you will need:

A sewing machine
Some fabric**
Pins
Scissors
A measuring tape (not a ruler!)

** A note about fabric. You can use pretty much anything to make a bag, but the tougher the fabric the better. I recommend canvas, drill or cotton duck (all basically the same type/weave/weight).

In this lesson you will learn:

How to sew longer seams (well, to get more comfortable with long seams)
How to sew French seams
How to use the zig-zag stitch on your machine


Step One: Work out how big you want your bag to be

This bag is going to be a rectangle, with the short sides at the top and bottom. It will have two cloth straps. Those are the basics. you can decide how big you want to make it and how long you want the straps because all of the sewing is the same regardless of size.

I've cut two rectangles 40 cm x 30 cm for the body of the bag and two long strips 85 cm x 10 cm for the straps. This includes my seam allowances. 




Step Two: Long Seams


It's fairly easy to control the fabric and maintain a steady pace over a short distance. It takes more practice to sew accurately over longer distances. More practice, but not a lot more skill.

Lay out the strips you are going to use for the shoulder straps. Press a narrow strip along both of the long sides, wrong sides together. this narrow strip should be about .5 cm - your seam allowance.

Now fold the strap in half longways and press again.

Make sure that the two edges of the strap are even and sew all the way along the edge. To make sure that you catch the seam allowance, line up the edge of the fabric with the edge of the presser foot on the machine and use this edge as your guide rather than the printed lines. If you make sure to watch the fabric rather than the needle and go at a comfortable pace it will be easy to keep the stitches straight.

Take your time. Remember, you don't have to sew quickly to sew well.

Once you have sewn both straps, press them again and set them aside.

Step Three: The Body of the bag - French Seams

Last week we didn't worry about seam edges. This week we will.

Decide where the open edge of your bag will be. Press a very narrow hem along the top - about half the usual seam allowance.

Now fold that edge over and press the same amount again. You should have a neat edge.

If you unfold it, it looks like this:

Press the double folded edge down really well and sew along the top of your bag, using the edge of the presser foot as your guide again.

Unless you have an overlocker/serger, the problem of fraying seams and hanging threads is always going to be there.

After you cut your fabric, it doesn't take long for it to start to do this:

The edges fray and you get loose threads hanging everywhere.  Unless you use French seams.

To make a true French seam, lay out to two sides of your bag with the wrong sides together.

Sew along the sides and bottom. Again, you will want to use the edge of your presser foot to guide your seam width.

You should now have a rectangle, sewn on three sides, but with the ragged edges showing on the outside of the bag.

Cut the corners off at the bottom, careful not to cut through the stitches.

Now turn the bag inside-out. Your corners will be lumpy and hard to get out:

Use something with a slightly pointed end like a crocet hook or pen lid to push the point of the corner out. DON'T use something really sharp like your scissors or a knife. You could punch a hole in the fabric. the corner won't be perfectly square, but it will be pretty close.

Press everything.

Now, going just beyond the edge of the presser foot - I've used the first line marked on my machine, sew all around the sides and the bottom again. you need to move slightly beyond the edge of the presser foot to make sure that you are not sewing across the raw edges of the seam. You want to be sure that all of the raw edge ends before the needle.

In the picture below you can see the edge of the seam that traps the raw edges inside.

Turn the bag right side out and use your crochet hook or pen lid to press out the corners again - it will be a bit harder this time because you haven't cut them off, but you can do it. Make sure to press the bag when you are done.

Step Four: Sewing the straps on - The zig-zag stitch


Cut a bit off of each corner of the shoulder straps.

You will be hiding the raw edge at the end by folding it under and if you don't clip off those corners, they are going to have a tendency to stick out.  Now, mark where you want your shoulder straps to sit. I recommend that they sit three to four inches from the edge of the bag. the bigger your bag, the further from the edges they should be.

Line up the edge of the strap with the top edge of the bag (*for some reason the following pictures have all come out upside down - I'm not actually sewing these to the bottom of the bag.) you want the long part of the strap to be lying away from the opening of the bag.

Holding the end of the strap even with the top of the bag, fold the strap over so that it hides the raw edge. You should pin this in place, giving yourself three to four inches of overlap. Again - the bigger your bag, the bigger the overlap should be.

Now, look at your machine. Get the instructions out if you need them. You want to find the seam width and the seam length dials. Mine look like this:

Width

Length

For the zig-zag stitch you need to adjust your seam width. At the moment it should be set to 0 - allowing you to sew in a straight line. I've re-set mine to 2, which will give me a narrow zig-zag.

I've also re-set the seam length to 1.5 - very small. I want my stitches to be pretty close together.

Take some of your scrap fabric and try out your zig-zag. The needle seems to move faster on this stitch - it does to me anyway - because it not only moves up and down, but side to side as well. This can be a bit unerving at first, but if you look closely at the presser foot, you'll see that it can actually only move within a very narrow channel. As long as you keep your fingers clear of the presser foot, you'll be fine.

I'm using the zig-zag here because it provides additional strength at a spot that will be under the most strain - where the handles meet the bag. I'm going to make two seams - one at the bottom of my folded strap and one at the top, near the bag opening.

Once you have sewn on all for ends, your bag is done!

I'm not sure yet what to do for Lesson three, but am open to suggestions or requests. :)

Happy sewing.

Sewing Lessons - Lesson One: The Book Cover

Difficulty: Easy

I have been sewing almost as long as I can remember. My grandmother taught me by handing me a needle and thread and some scraps of fabric and sending me off to do my worst. It's not a bad way to learn, but a few more directive lessons would have helped me to improve a lot faster.

SPECIAL NOTE: For these lessons I am switching to cm rather than inches. I'm doing so because, on my measuring tapes at least, the mm measurements allow me to be more precise than the inch measurements.

For this project you will need:

A book that needs a cover
A measuring tape (not a ruler!)
A sewing machine
Fabric (something that won't shrink when you wash it and isn't too heavy - a poly-cotton blend something like sheet material is best. It is cheap and comes in lots of designs)
Scissors
Pins
An iron

BEFORE YOU BEGIN:

Now is your chance to make mistakes and get comfortable with the machine before it matters so try out your sewing machine. Read the instructions on how to thread it. Practice three or four times until you can do it quickly and without checking the threading diagram. Get a piece of scrap fabric and practice sewing in random lines for ten minutes or so. Make sure you know how hard you need to press on the pedal to get it to go at a speed you are comfortable with. Find out what speed you are comfortable at. You don't need to sew fast to sew well. This is your warm up.

Okay, now you can begin.

Step One: Measure Twice, Cut Once

***I've gone on and on before about how important this rule is. Measure your book carefully. Be precise. If the book is 21.25 cm high, write down 21.25 cm.***

Measure the height of the book along the edge of the cover. My book is 20.8 cm high.

You also need to measure around the book, from the edge of the cover, over the spine to the other edge. My book is 30.4 cm measured this way.

You now have two measurements 20.8 high and 30.4 around. You can't just cut out a piece of fabric this big though because as soon as you make a seam you won't have something 20.8 high and 30.4 around. You need to add a seam allowance.

A seam allowance is the extra fabric that gets eaten up and hidden by the seam. A standard seam allowance is 1.5 cm.

So, in order to get the seam allowance for the book cover, you need to add 1.5 cm everywhere there is going to be a seam. That means 3 cm to the 20.8 measurement (seam at the top and seam at the bottom). So my new height measurement is 23.8 cm

There isn't going to be a standard seam around the book. what you need to add instead is the bit that keeps the cover on. To figure out how much to add you can divide the measurement around by two :

30.4 / 2 = 15.2

This gives you roughly the measurement of the cover.

Divide by two again to get half the size of the cover:

15.2 / 2 = 7.6

and round up to the nearest whole number.

= 8cm added to each side to keep the cover on.

So in order to have a piece of fabric that will make a book cover big enough for my book, with all of the seam allowances included that will also stay on the book, I need to cut a rectangle of fabric 23.8 cm high and 46.4 cm long.

Here it is turned sideways.

Step Two: Pressing and Checking

This step requires Adult supervision if you are not allowed to use the iron on your own!

Plug in your iron. Place your fabric wrong side up on the ironing board. (Wrong-side is the side you don't want to see when the book cover is finished.)

Measure your 8cm 'wings' and press them into the fabric as per the picture below:

 Now open your book and tuck the cover under the wings.

 So far so good. Close the book and make sure that the fabric still fits around the book. Look at where the lines you ironed are. Are they at the edges of the cover? They should be when the book is closed. If they aren't mark where the edges are and re-iron your fabric. The creases absolutely need to be at the edges of the cover with the book closed. The fabric should be tight, but not so tight that the book won't shut.

Mark the top and the bottom of each crease. Flip the fabric over so that it is right side up. Now press the creases the other way out so that the right sides are touching. Make sure you press along the same line as before. Check your marks. If you are not sure, do the check with the book again.

At the turned in edges, you need to create a hem so that the fabric doesn't fray. Open out the two flaps you have just pressed so that you have one flat piece of fabric again. Turn the edge over on itself once - as narrow as you can manage. Press. Turn the edge over again the same amount. Press.  Do this to both sides. Make sure that you don't iron out the creases you have already made - you'll need them in a minute.

It should look something like the picture below when you are done:

Step Three: Sewing

Sew down the narrow folds you have just pressed into each edge. Go slowly and keep the needle in the middle of the folded fabric. Go as slowly as you like. Make sure that you are only sewing through the area you have just pressed and not through the middle section of the cover. 

TIP: You can use the edge of the presser foot to guide you. The key is to watch the edge of your fabric and not the needle. I know you want to watch the needle, but it always does the same thing. Up, down, up, down, up, down. No changes. If you watch where the fabric is going, you are much more likely to sew in a straight line. (This is one of those things that I wish someone had mentioned earlier. I was about 14 before I figured this one out - not that old until you realise I'd been sewing for at least 8 years at that point.)

Now fold the fabric back along the creases you pressed to mark where it wraps around the cover. 

Pin along the top and bottom edges. 

This is turned sideways again.

Sew from the folded corner to the edge of the fabric with your seam on it. For now you will always want to start sewing at the folded edge. This way, any bubbles in the fabric get pushed flat by the presser foot and your measurements stay true. This means you will need to have the main bit of the fabric inside and outside the arm of the machine - like the pictures below. Normally you only want to have the fabric as per the photo on the left with all of the fabric on the outside of the arm. This project is small enough that it will be okay to do some of your sewing like the photo on the right. (In later lessons this will be Verboten and earn you 40 lashes with a wet ribbon.)

Also, if you put the pins in as per the photos above, you do not need to take them out as you go: the needle will hop over them as long as you are sewing at a reasonable pace. If you are worried about it, you can take them out just before each pin goes under the curved part of the presser foot.

Make sure that you are not making the seam more than 1.5 cm from the edge. If you look at the picture on the left you will see some lines on the sewing machine. (my seams are shorter than 1.5 cm so you can see these lines). The lines are there to help you measure your seam allowance. You should have these on your machine as well. Measure them to see which one is 1.5 cm away from the needle- it is usually the one furthest away. When sewing, watch that the edge of the fabric always stays along this line.

When you have made four seams, take out the pins and clip off the edge of each corner, making sure that you don't cut off down to the seam:

Now turn the cover the right way out and press everything flat. If you place the iron down on one corner and pull the one across from it (making a straight line across the top or bottom, not an X) you will also pull the top and bottom of the cover into line and create a crease there.

 When you have pressed everything, open up your book and slip the cover on. You'll need to open the book really wide to do this - almost spine crackingly wide. Be careful. If you have done everything to the correct measurements, it should fit. The cover will be snug when the book is closed and slightly loose when you have it open for reading.

Ta Da! All done.

If your cover doesn't fit either you made some errors in your measurements or your seam allowances were off. Most of the time it is the seam allowances. Cut out another rectangle of fabric and give it another go. When you have mastered seam allowances and sewing in straight lines, you will be ready for Lesson Two - The Bag.

Sewing Lessons - Watch this Space

Apologies for the lack of Makeover Monday yesterday and the lack of Trash Tuesday today. I have been away and totally lost track of what day it was. This morning I actually woke up and turned the alarm OFF rather than getting up because I thought it was Sunday. (That excuse didn't go down too well with the boss, or Husbando who was also made late for work by my evil button-pushing.)

Makeover Monday is coming in an altered form later today and Trash Tuesday will be up tomorrow - I'll be reviewing Matched by Ally Condie.

A word about this week's Makeover Monday -  some of you have mentioned that you really like reading the entries but you can't sew. then last week a friend in Canada mentioned that she was trying to find someone to teach her kids to sew (she home-schools) and wished I was around. Another friend, also in Canada, seconded the request. So I've decided to teach via blog.

Later today I'll be posting the first sewing lesson as my Makeup Makeover Monday. It's going to be nice and simple - a book cover. Feel free to join in.

Overheard

At lunch.

Two girls standing next to a pigs head on a piece of carbboard  (yes a real one). The head has been painted green.

1st Girl: You painted a pig's head for your final project.
2nd Girl: I painted it green.
1st Girl: Why is green significant?
2nd Girl: (incredulous look) You clearly have no soul.

Trash Tuesday - Graceling by Kristen Cashore

If I could get away with just writing 'read it' this week I would, but I suspect that you probably want to know a bit about the book.

A grace can be anything - swimming, singing, dancing, fighting. Being a Graceling doesn't just mean being good at something. It means being very very good. Amazing. Unbeatable. It's also tough being a Graceling. You aren't exactly hated, but you aren't hugely welcome either unless you're useful. Katsa is a Graceling and an orphan. She lives with her Uncle, the ruler of the Midluns. King Randa finds his orphan niece very useful. Why? Because Katsa has the Grace of Killing.
Like the other stories I've reviewed on this blog, the story revolves around a young woman learning that she isn't powerless. I don't want to tell you too much because I want you to read it for yourself but I will say that Cashore has created a great world. It's got high fantasy flavour without the tongue twisting names or an incomprehensible back-story. Cashore keeps things simple: not everyone has a Grace and even having one doesn't make you special unless it proves to be useful to someone with power. Like Katnis in Susanne Collin's Hunger Games Katsa is often bad tempered. She hates relying on others outside of her few trusted friends and, like Katniss, this behaviour begins to change right at the point it starts to grate on the reader. All of Cashore's characters are interesting- even the ones we see very little of. Somehow she manages to avoid the pitfalls of letting them do the predictable thing and gives you page after page of fantastic writing.
Graceling is a bit of a departure from some of the other hit YA novels out there tight now. There are no 'real world' reference points in this for you. Katsa's world and everything in it is built from scratch. That holds true for the plot as well. Graceling doesn't go entirely in the direction you expect it to - and that's a good thing. Like Un Lun Dun the story you do get is satisfying and worth passing onto a friend. There are love interests, there is betrayal, there is peril, there are fights and it all falls together in just the right way.

Even if you don’t like Fantasy, Graceling is worth a look.

Browninan Points:


Day 1-7 : No real change in my opinion of this over the week. A solid 8/10 the whole time.