Sewing along, summer 2019

A lot of what I sew, I sew for me. The rest of it, I sew for others, either to sell or give away. That's the way it's been so far this summer. I've been thinking of Halloween and winter holidays. I go through my stash and see what moves me. And I end up with things like this:

Baby balls hand sewn using pentagons, then filled with fluff and in the center is a noisemaker that jingles ever so slightly when it's moved. Machine washable and one of a kind. I'm not doing hand sewing right now due to recovering from a quickie hand surgery, but I'll be back at it soon.  I posted about making the balls earlier. There are also instructions here and there on the internet for sewing with pentagons.

Along with balls, I made a couple of bibs with upcycled denim and bandanna fabric. I've made these in the past, saw a picture of one, and decided to try a couple more.  I think they're too cute for words. These two are a bit small and the next ones will be a little bigger and have Velcro closure instead of tie.

Trick or Treat bags are a fun way to use Halloween fabric. I have a lot of ribbons, fabrics, and trims and put a few together. 

There are more, but you get the idea. The last one was made completely of ribbons. When I was very young and very broke, I bought assortments of ribbons and make things out of them. This bag is a throwback to an earlier time. Never say never!

And, of course, my go-to sewing - pot holders, this batch for Halloween and Hannukah. All are backed with what started as a 9-patch denim square cut to the circle shape and filled with InsulBright. The bias binding is all homemade. It's just easier and less expensive to make my own than to try and match store bought bias tape.

I've also been cutting denim squares of several sizes to use and to sell, made placemats, have done some repair work on my own and others' items needing mending, and started a Cathedral Window project made of bandannas and denim.

And sew, I sew.

How 'bout you?

Baby Balls Made with Pentagons (Tutorial in progress)

I'm newly obsessed with making balls for babies. I used to make them for my kids, but I used a sewing machine and now I'm hand sewing. The stitching is more precise with hand sewing and corners are tidier.

The method of sewing I'm using is English piecing. Basically, you have a paper pattern for the pentagon, the shape that is used for all pieces in the ball, for each piece of fabric. The fabric is basted onto the paper pattern, then the pieces are stitched together until there are 5 pentagons attached to the same central pentagon. When you have two sets of 6 total pentagons (the central one and the 5 attached to it), those two halves are attached to one another. (I'll add more about this as I construct the next one in line.) Leave open at least one seam so you can turn the ball right side out (this will make sense when I post pictures of construction), stuff it about halfway, add the sound maker (will add a photo of that too) in the center, and complete stuffing the ball. I stuff it tight, but not too tight; you want to leave enough play in the stuffing for baby's hand to be able to grab a part of it and maybe even shake it!

Color specific - brown

Black and white high contrast. 

Kid interest - Sponge Bob

I use a pentagon that I drafted. You can use pretty much any size bigger than 1". I would not go smaller than that. The side to measure is shown in the photo below. I use 2".

It's a pentagon (five sided) with each edge being 2". You can find pentagon patterns all over the internet or draw your own. There are 12 pentagons in each ball and they all have to be the same size.

I generally print off one page of templates and stack the printed page with some blank paper, then cut out a few at a time. That way I don't waste ink printing lots of pentagons. I like to cut through 4 pieces of paper at a time. Any more than that and the edges get a little off kilter. Remember, we're going to fold fabric directly on the paper pattern, so it's good to have it as precise as possible. 

After a few sessions of cutting, I have a bunch of pentagons ready to use when I'm ready to pick out some fabric and get going. 

The first step to sewing is to pin a pattern piece to a piece of fabric! I put down the paper and then cut at least 1/4" around the paper in order to have fabric to fold. Choose an interesting design to pin the paper to because that's what's going to show. 

Prepare a needle with a single thread that is in contrast to your fabric. Fold down an edge of fabric and take a couple stitches, fold down the next piece of fabric and take a stitch, and continue until you have all 5 sides basted down. I use a long basting stitch. You do not need to knot your thread. You'll be cutting the thread and taking the paper out later. For now, you want to fold all edges over the paper and baste each one down.

Here is one pentagon with the basting completed. You can see my red stitching in contrast to the white and black fabric. For each ball, baste fabric onto 12 paper pentagons.  

Here's a pretty simple tutorial on English piecing with hexagons. This one isn't mine, but I've made several hexagon projects using essentially the same instructions as I was taught them my a friend.  I'm not using hexagons, but the method of prepping the paper pattern is the same. They say it better than I can :) If for some reason you click and the site is no longer available, you can Google English piecing for several tutorials, including videos.

I'll update this post as I have photos of the steps required. It may take a while, but it'll happen!

Okay, this is what I'm working on - how about you?