Open weave vest tutorial Part 1

I made this vest in the late 90s. I didn't really know what I was doing and there was no such thing as wash-away stabilizer, so there was a lot of paper picking to be done when it was finished. I still love it and wear it often, but was feeling like it was time to make another one. 

Find a print you like and make a whole lot of strips. 

I cut my strips (not on the bias!) in 2" widths, sewed them together, pressed the seams open, and then pressed the whole thing while folding it in half. I'd love to tell you exactly how long your roll of sewn strips needs to be, but I can't. I eyeballed it. The good news is if you don't have enough, you can make more. 

Ignore that shoe in the corner. You can see the fold here. 

Now, open the folded strip and fold the edges toward the center. You don't need to press at this point, but you can if you like.

Fold the two new edges to meet each other and stitch down the edge, finger folding as you go.

This is a little better view of the stitching the folded edges together. 

When you're done, roll up your now very long strip of stitched fabric and set it aside. 

You will need a vest pattern with no darts and no closure. You may be able to use frog closures or something unique, but there will be no way to put buttonholes in the front of the vest. I like this one: 

I did round off the edges at the bottom; it will make bias application later much easier. 

You will also need fabric for the back of your vest that complements the strips as well as a yardish of wash-away stabilizer. You will use this for making the front of the vest. You will be using a lot of thread making the front. A child's vest uses at least one bobbin's worth! 

Part 2 coming soon!

Christmas Stockings - You can make them too!

I'm working on a couple of Christmas stockings and remembered I have a tutorial so you can make them too. I've refined my method over the years (the tutorial was written in 2002!), but the concepts and processes are the same. I have names to put on these and then backs, but I do like the clean strip quilting on the fronts. 

If you want to make a Christmas stocking, click here for the directions. They're super easy and a great starter project. There are no rules. Do what you can do and make it your own. 

If you have questions, ask them in the comments section and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. 

Have fun and I'd love to see your own results. 

Crafty and not sewing stuff

You may have heard about rock painting. You paint a rock, label it on the bottom, and "hide" it in your town or somewhere else. When someone finds it, they post on the Facebook page (in this case Williamsburg VA Rocks!) that it was found. If you find one, you can keep it or rehide it. It's just a fun hide-and-seek thing to do. This is my first one. It's going out into the world today. 

I've been working on this whacky peg rack and this is how it started - painted black and then stripes taped and painted white. 

I'm almost done with it. I got the pegs themselves painted and the oogly eyes started around the edges. I have one side edge to finish placing the eyes, and this, too, will be sent out into the world for sale on Etsy.

Lastly, I've seen doll part drying racks online for anywhere from $9 to $25. I showed one to my husband and he got to work. A few pencils and a chopstick, a cast off piece of lumber, and a drill bit, and I have my own doll part drying rack. Now I have somewhere to place doll arms and legs when I paint them! It's like another set of hands.

That's it from the wacky world of crafting. I'm never sure what I'm going to do next. Peter Max tote bags one day and rock painting the next. Semi-retirement is suiting me very nicely. 

You can never have enough!

Tote bags, that is.

I got to sewing again this morning and listed these two bags on Etsy. Do I rule or what?

This one, I made a while ago. It has a yellow lining and pocket. It's bigger than most that I make, measuring 17W x 14H. Not sure why I made it that big!

This is the one I made today. It's more like it - 15W x 14H. I had to piece the back, but I like the way the designs lined up! 

I used a swirly blue for the lining on this one and a Peter Max remnant to make the pocket.

For a day that started out with no electricity, RIP squirrel that landed on the transformer, it is turning out to be a pretty good one!

Something different - Peg racks anyone? Creepy stuff!

Over the years, I've collected a lot of stuff to make other stuff. I do have some stuff! One of the projects I've been mulling and collecting for is peg racks. The idea is to use doll parts creatively and see what happens! I'll put them up for sale on Etsy if they work out. Here are the two I'm working on now:

I didn't get a picture of this one from the front, but you get the idea. A $2.25 peg rack featuring a teddy bear head. But oh no, that's now how it will end up.

First step is to take the ears off and pull the pegs out. I won't be using them. Two more pegs to pull out and a little sanding, and I'm ready to turn this teddy bear into something creepy and functional.

This little shelf with 2 pegs started out as finished wood with a heart painted on it. I had another idea. I sanded and then painted the whole thing black , then tried to figure out how to do white strips on the flat piece on the back. After consulting a couple of art type people, I went with taping the whole thing off and spray painting the white stripes. Individual striping wasn't working like I wanted.

I really like the way the stripes came out. They're rough around the edges and remind me of BeetleJuice.

I don't want to give away what comes next, but it will tie the whole thing together. I painted the pegs black and will re-insert them when I'm done.

I have 100 ideas for my altered dolls and peg racks. I had the unfortunate luck to lose half of my work, so I have more time than ever to work on the crafty goodies. I'll definitely post more pictures of my creepy crafts along with my sewing.

Don't worry, I have 20 sewing projects to do too! I was able to rescue the fabric that I had used for the Williamsburg Players production of Dandelion Wine. I now have some black and some Halloween polka dot fabric to play with! I opened a new Etsy shop (link is on the side menu) and need to make some stuff to fill it up. I feel a set of placemats coming on!

Keep sewing. It's getting cold out there and more time to tend to our arts is the indoor gift that keeps on giving.

A peek into the sewing room

It's been a while since we recarpeted, repainted, and organized the sewing room. I'm so glad to have taken the time to do this. My bins all match, I have a bookcase that doesn't show in the picture, and the desk is a great place to work on the laptop when I don't have it on my lap. The view is glorious. As I mentioned to someone today, my sanity is in that sewing room. The last thing to do is to change the light fixture; we'll get there!

Where the magic happens. 

Updating this and that

I updated the gallery of stuff I've made over the years. The link is to the right or you can click on the link here. Some of it may look familiar as I've been posting progress photos of items like Anna's and Alicia's quilts. The recent placemats photo uploaded are made with machine applique and strip quilting. You can find the placemat strip quilting tutorial in our links too.

Sometimes, I look back and go, "did I really make that?" Yup, I did.