A jacket walks into a bar....

Okay, no jacket really walked into a bar, but it got your attention!

Last year, I bought a seriously ugly knit print. I have no idea why I bought it, but I did.

This year, I have an obsession with making cardigans to go with all my tees and tank tops for fall and then with blouses for the winter.

Boom! Ideas started brewing and then I got to thinking. I'll make a knit cardigan. I dread sewing with knits so tried to simplify the process as much as possible. I chose not to cut a facing, opting to go with hem tape (a lacy seam/hem tape) that matched the fabric. I stitched that on around the front opening and turned it under, then top stitched. Voila! Well, voila until I put it on. It fit right, I loved the pockets and the weight of the fabric, but that front was all wrong. It kept rolling out from wrong side to right, making it nigh on impossible to wear.

Dang, now what? Then the light bulb went off again. Yes, it did. 

I had ordered a tank top to wear (under cardigans, of course!) and really didn't like the way it fit. I'm not a fan of wearing what look like painted on clothes. I wore it once and decided I'd shelve it forever. 

Now I had two items that I was never going to wear. Not acceptable in my book. 

I cut the front off the tank top and then folded it down the center. I cut about 4" from the center on both sides, giving me about an 8" strip of shirt that included the neck opening, snaps, and a good amount of shirt. Then I pinned that to the inside of the cardigan with the wayward facing. I had to be extremely careful to not stretch to the left, right, up, or down; remember, I hate knits! I did this flat on a table with the cardigan front carefully placed over the pink tee. I used probably 3 times the number of pins I needed, but I really wanted it to not shift. 

And guess what? It worked. I actually have a two-fer that I love. You never know what your mistakes can be turned into. It wasn't a hard thing to do, just exacting. I don't mind exacting if I know things will come out okay. And here's the star of today's show:

It's not as frumpy on as it is on the dress form. You'll just have to trust me on that one. Totally machine washable and a toss it over your head kind of top. 

Now, someone stop me from buying a knit piece of fabric again!

Potholder fail lesson becomes making a cute pillow!

New techniques. Always fun to try, but not so much fun to fail!

I saw a lovely hexagon project where the hex was cut into 6 pieces and then strip pieced before being pieced into the final hexagon shape. Hey, I can do that! I rustled up some primary colors from my marbled solids and made bias binding from a rainbow colored fabric. My plan was to make a hot pad, so I cut a hex for the backing and some InsulBright for the batting. And I failed. But I know why - the 1-1/2" strips must not have been cut fussy enough, the seams must not have been consistent enough, and the matching of the strips upon construction of the hexagon was off. Here's the fail:

Yuck! I started to do the binding and then just gave up. The matchy matchy parts that worked are very good, but the ones that don't match so well, they sort of stand out like a sore thumb. 

Here's the better version (you can click these photos for larger pictures):
I decided to go for another try, using a modified log cabin type of piecing. I started with a small hexagon and strip pieced the ROYGBV around it. What I didn't take into consideration was that it would not be a balanced hexagon using that method. This one wasn't such a fail, though, so I got a piece of recycled denim and appliqued the now primary color flower via machine using variegated thread. Before I satin stitched the bottom, I added a piece of the rainbow bias tape I had made and called it a stem. I made some corded piping with the bias tape and added that around the edge, but not before I used the basic flower/snowflake function of my Bernina to add a little something around the edge of the flower. I used non-bias rainbow fabric for the back and stuffed it with PolyFil. It's no hot pad, but it's a cute 8" x 11" pillow.

The bottom line is that I practiced making bias tape and the piping, and used the embroidery feature of my machine, which hasn't been used in forever. I also took what I called a fail out of the trash and made a dog throw out of it.

Even when I screw up a little bit, I'm learning something and I'm sewing. the creative muse gets put to work whether I want it to or not!