Mentors and mending

Learning to sew - we all did it and are still doing it. Can you ever learn enough? My friends and I made clothing for troll dolls when we were tweens. We helped each other out. Cutting, sewing, and dressing them was fun. It was never a chore. I was even allowed to use my mother's sewing machine! Later, I took home ec in junior high school because my mother made me. That included sewing an outfit using a pattern, from cutting to wearing. Mrs. Esther Batchelder was the teacher and she was encouraging and tough. But I must have learned a little something. I can still use a pattern and make clothing.

As time went on, I turned to hand embroidery and away from traditional sewing. I would sew with DMC floss nearly every day. My sister, Patsy, was my idol and my mentor when it came to embroidery. She would tell me the name of stitches and I'd look them up, learn them, and incorporate them in my pictures. It was like painting. 

Then came children and making clothing. My SIL and a friend (Jan) both sewed. I was grateful to be able to lean on them. Jan turned me on to Home Sew and all the fun sample packages you could get from them. I learned how to do facings without using extra fabric (a shortcut where you turn the existing fabric under and stitch it directly), put in sleeves, and space out buttonholes. Another friend, Sandy, was a pretty experienced sewer. She did a lot of fancy gathering and pleating, and her work was immaculate. She was a mentor by example.

Clotilde, who sadly passed away in 2011, was a mentor from afar. She had the quintessential sewing catalog. I received hers and the one from Home Sew back before the internet was even a gleam in the ether's eye. I took a class from her locally and we talked for some time about our mutual friends and interests. She made everything seem so simple. She wasn't just a mentor, she was a celebrity in my eyes.

The fabric store where I took her seminar, Fabrics Unique, is where I bought my Bernina and often lots of fabric. Two women who worked there were more than helpful, and don't even know they were my mentors. They made sewing seem normal. Not a lot of friends of mine were sewing. I didn't meet that large community until I worked for Sewing.com!  Susan and Betty were able to point me in the right direction many times. I looked up to them and still do.

So many mentors, most of whom don't even know it. No one lives in a vacuum. Part of the mission of this site is to pass along any sewing information we can. That's why it says "steal this stuff" on the front page of the blog. Pass it on - show a friend how to do a button. It's a start!

Now to the mending thing. I made a blanket for my dog to hop on on our bed. Over the years, it's been through a lot and from time to time, I take it off the bed and add patches. I chose today to do that again and lawdy me, it's starting to look like a quilt made out of the patch fabric - fabric with stones all over it. My dog doesn't care, but I do. The various levels of fading of the rock fabric shows the age and how many times the quilt has been washed. Lucky dog, eh?

Go sew something. It's a gloomy day in VA and I'm going back to the machine. 

Still sewing to beat the band

Masks, do I make them? Oh yes, I do. Lots of them. The good news is that this is a self-supporting endeavor, so I'm able to donate quite a few. I'm open to donation, so let me know if you need masks. 

On another note, Anna is having another baby (today, I think?) and I started her baby quilt. It's going to be made of Strawberry Shortcake printed quilt squares that are pieced together with strawberry fabric.

At the end of July, I couldn't sew a single mask. I needed to make a change. So, I got started. I have a long way to go, but I think it's going to be right cute! 

Another thing I've been doing is tie dying fabrics for mask backs. I had 30 yards of a really nice white cotton for the backings. Plus, I was buying all sorts of fabric for backs. So, with a little Rit Dye, some hot water, soap, and salt, boom! Red tie dye. I did black as well, but didn't leave the fabric in long enough, so I have a lovely gray tie dye. And yes, I use this fabric every single day.

And then there was Isias. The storm blew in with rain and wind, and we were ready. We prepped the deck, made sure we had fuel for our (not whole house) generator, and in general, did what we do before hurricanes. 

Nothing blew away and we had few limbs to pick up the next day. The plants are back on the railing now and all the furniture is back where it lives. 

The world continues to go crazy all around and still I sew. My coffee cup that says I sew to stay sane knows me well.

I hope you are remaining safe and finding your way through this pandemic, crazy behavior all over the world, and just the unprecedented weirdness of it all. Pick up needle and thread. You'll be glad you did. 

Oh, it is so time to sew!

I really, really need to sew. I have way too many ideas running around inside my head. I want to sew for my 18" dolls, for my great-niece (her dress is cut out and ready to rock and roll), for myself, for my home (I have a set of hand towels I'm working on that basically need to be sized/trimmed and edge finished), and just for fun.

I always have my hexagon quilt to work on. That's 100% hand sewing. i want to fire up the Bernina and get going!

I think my plan is to take advantage of my now semi-retired state. Sewing with Nancy used to tell us to make time to sew every day, even if it's only 15-20 minutes. I may not make it every day, but I'm going to shoot for a few days a week until I figure out my rhythm. My hand sewing has taught me patience; I do not need to finish everything lickety split! That should help with sewing in small spurts. My machine is set up (that's my machine in the picture) all the time and so is my ironing board. My in-progress pile has shrunken over the past months. I have no excuse. None. I need to just do it.

So, here's hoping I have more to share with you soon - how-to's, just stuff about what I'm sewing, pictures, or whatever. I finished Adam and Sandy's baby quilt. I'll take pictures of that in a day or so. It looks a lot like the progress photo, but now it's complete with hand made, bias ruffle binding. I could do a how-to of that, huh? Note to self: Do that!

Get to sewing everyone!

Adam and Sandy's baby quilt almost done

So, I changed my mind and didn't do the Dresden Plate quilt I had originally planned. I started really working on it and decided to go with a primary color Log Cabin design that would work for a boy or a girl. Adam is a big Eagle's fan, so the background fabric is their logo and the back of the quilt is made from this as well.

I posted an "'almost done" item on Facebook and here's the result:


I tagged both Sandy and Adam on purpose. Lil stinker, ain't I?

I am working on a binding that includes a ruffle made of Eagles fabric. I had to add a ruffle after I found out the baby is a girl.

For their younger daughter, I'm making a Smurf's dress and rehabbing an 18" doll and dressing her in essentially the same dress. I have the daughter's dress cut out and ready to go, but it's not quite ready for prime time, and I have to figure out what to do with the doll's hair.

And to add even more interest to it all, another nephew is having a baby in July, a boy. What to do, what to make? Eeep!

This is indeed a scrap project, by the way. I had the primary colors. I keep a stash of Michael Miller's jewel fabrics for all sorts of sewing. I did buy the Eagles fabric, but you can't recycle all the time! Plus, this thing will be washed a lot. I make baby quilts to use and abuse.