Tiny Tip - threading a sewing machine needle...

 

The older I get, the harder it is for me to see well enough to easily thread the needle on my sewing machine. I have found something that truly helps. I just take a tiny piece of white paper and hold it behind the eye of the needle and then it is MUCH easier to see.  

A simple needle book...

 

I have a daughter-in-law whose name is "Elizabeth."  Everyone I know calls her "Beth." The other day I was watching a show where a little girl was called "Betty."  It sounded like such a pretty name.  I asked my daughter-in-law if she had ever been called "Betty" and she replied that someone had long ago. I asked her if I could call her "Betty".  She replied, "I would love that!"

I wanted to do something to celebrate this interaction, and after contemplating it, decided to make her a little needle book.  Do you know what a needle book is? It's a small fabric book where you can store your hand sewing needles. Then, they are easy to keep with your hand sewing project.

So, you see there, above, what I came up with.  She loves "Forget me nots" and so I embroidered a few of those on there and added her name. She said, when it came in the mail, "I absolutely love it!" She appreciates hand made things... it's so nice.

Here are a couple of pictures of the inside of the little book.

Blue Jean hems - an historical perspective.

 For 11 years I took in sewing, mending, and alterations to raise a little more money for us.  My "bread and butter" was hemming blue jeans for my customers.  I was thinking about that this morning and how when I was a girl, we did not hem jeans that were too long.  We just folded the hem up, like this!

This reminds me of the old adage, "The cobbler's children have no shoes."  I will happily hem jeans for other people, but for myself?  I put it off and put it off.  I've finally just returned to my roots.  :)

A rescued quilt top...

 About an hour away from here, during the warm months of the year is a huge flea market.  They are open on Wednesdays and there is always TONS of fresh produce for sale.  Two of our daughters and two granddaughters and I went there a couple of weeks ago.  I spied a little threadbare quilt top and I asked the seller how much she wanted for it.  I think she said $2.  So, I got it.  It was obviously lovingly made, all by hand,  by a person who did not have any extra money, out of odds and ends of fabrics. It deserved to be honored and rescued.  Tonight I backed it with some heavyweight unbleached muslin and repaired it with my sewing machine.  I think it's sweet.  It will make a very nice decorating item, or even a tablecloth. I hope the person who made it would be pleased.

Couldn't help myself...

I also made a new dress for the 1 year old granddaughter's birthday.  :) I had the fabric and supplies on hand.  This fabric is cotton/polyester and very smooth and soft at the same time being a little crisp.  Perfect.  I bought it, a few years ago, from www.gehmanscountryfabrics.com

A friend for the new dollie....

I made the doll for a little granddaughter.  Her brother is having a birthday very close to hers.  I made this bear from some white terry cloth that I dyed with RIT dye.  I'm very happy with it.  Here is a link to the pattern I used.  It is free.  I was pleasantly surprised how nicely this turned out. His eyes and nose are "safety" so they are not a choking hazard, except to maybe the family dog.

http://www.eldrbarry.net/im/meg/simpbear.pdf

A new dollie....

Our youngest granddaughter will be turning 1 year old soon.  I made a doll for her.  Here she is. :)

EPP pin cushion...

So, I took that English Paper Piecing patch and

made myself a pin cushion!  I kind of had

to hold my mouth just right to figure out how

to put it together, but it finally worked. 

I stuffed it with wool fleece. 

My first attempt at English Paper Piecing.

This was really fun.  I might get addicted.

I made a memorial quilt....

A dear young friend lost her one month old baby boy to Sudden Unexplained Death several months ago.  My sweet sister-in-law cut out 5 inch squares of various cute prints from her fabric stash for me and told me how to make this quilt. I tied it with pearl cotton.  I am giving this to my friend.  It was a labor of love.

Hankies...

                 You may not be aware that there was a time, when I was a young child, when there were no such things as Kleenex (facial tissues.) We all (men and women) had pocket handkerchiefs (hankies.) When I was a little girl, my blessed mommy, who adopted me when I was 3 and my parents died, sent me to the local Assembly of God church.  I attended their wonderful Sunday school. That is where I first learned to love Jesus. I always carried a hankie in my pocket with my little coins for an offering tied into the corner of it. We had opening exercises and then would divide into classes.  The teacher would pass a little basket around the room and we’d put our offerings in there.  Then she would open the classroom door and set the basket on the floor outside of the room, and close the door.  She told us that the money was for Jesus. I thought if she’d just leave the door open, we could see Him come and get it.

                Now, a hankie is something you put in your pocket and use the same one all day. Then it goes into the laundry. Yes, that’s what we always did.  I still use hankies a lot of the time. There may come a time when you are out of money and out of Kleenex at the same time, so you might want to make or purchase some pocket hankies, just in case.

                For these hankies, I cut some lovely soft pink flannel into 10 inch squares. My sewing machine has the decorative overcast stitch you see in the picture.  I do not have a serger, or I could have used that. After I did the line of stitching all the way around the perimeter I then used those little scissors to trim off the excess fabric.  When I launder these, they will fray a small amount, but that will quickly subside.

These are very nice.

                

                

I made a new dolly !!

Our first great-granddaughter is having her 1st birthday party soon.  So, I made a rag doll for her.

Here she is!<3 p="">

Replacing a Zipper in a coat/jacket

Sadly... before you know it, winter will be here, so I am re-posting this!

Replacing a Zipper in a coat/jacket

Here you can see a perfectly good jacket. The problem is, the zipper is broken! Replacing a zipper is really not difficult, but it is tedious and takes considerable time. If your coat/jacket is nice, and/or you love it, it is more than worth the trouble to replace the zipper.



Here is the zipper I ordered over the internet here. This company is wonderful. They have everything and excellent customer service!



A closer look at the invoice:



The zipper I purchased cost $6.03 including the shipping, and so for a nice coat, you can see that this would really be worthwhile.

Now, don't be afraid. Breath. Relax. Here we go.

FIRST ~ set your sewing machine to its longest stitch length. Sew a line of stitching along the jacket opening, far enough in from the edge that you do NOT catch in the existing zipper. This is to hold everything together nicely and make the reassembly easier. Do this on both sides of the jacket.



Here I am doing the same thing on the other side:



SECOND ~ take your little seam ripper and do (carefully and don't stab yourself) whatever it takes to remove the broken zipper:



Here I've gone a little farther in the process:



Here I am removing some stitching from the surface:



And here is what it looks like with the zipper removed. Now you will see the wisdom of doing that basting line of stitches so the jacket doesn't blow up and get all weird.



THIRD ~ carefully remove all the bits of loose thread:


FOURTH ~ Thread a sturdy hand sewing needle with a doubled thread and run it through some beeswax so it will be less likely to tangle while you are sewing. Rosin will work instead of the beeswax, too, or if you have neither, find a piece of candle or even hand soap to use!




FIFTH ~ I hope you took the time to observe how the old zipper was positioned. You are going to unzip the new zipper, and one side at a time, you will put the new zipper in, and pin it in place and then hand baste it in place:



See? Here is one side basted together:



And here is the other side:



Oh, yes, and it is very helpful to have a fuzzy cat walking around under your work table at this point:



SIXTH ~ Before you sew the zipper in with your machine, zip up the jacket to make sure it is going to work!



SEVENTH ~ Now, simply, using a normal stitch length, sew along the same line where the old zipper was sewn in like this:



Make sure to replace any seams or stitching you have removed:



Be sure to remove any basting stitches. On this one, there was the nice little tab on the old zipper, so I just transferred it to the new one:



That's all you need to do! Even if it doesn't turn out perfectly, it is better than throwing away a perfectly good coat.

Please feel free to ask questions if I can help.

I'm not an interior decorator, either...

When we moved into our trailer almost exactly 2 years ago, I brought the sheer curtains from our old house and hung them at the windows in the trailer... (a.k.a. "mobile home")  That was fine, for a long long time... until a few weeks ago, I was visiting our oldest daughter, and she was getting rid of some clothing and other items.  There was a very nice cotton valance in there.  I said, "Can I have that?"  So, here it is at our kitchen window:

Well, like the story of the peasant man who broke his shoelace, this new addition to our home made me dissatisfied with the sheers I had at the windows.  Sigh....  so I bought 3 yards of muslin and 1 yard of a print at our local Walmart and made valances for our 3 other windows in the "great room."

If you look closely, you will see that I applied some lace trim above and below the strip with birds on it.  I have had that lace for a number of years.  I probably got it at a thrift store.  It was obviously purchased new well before the internet.  The printing on the card it is wound around says, "Home-Sew Bethlehem, PA 18018".  I looked online and found the company!  They have some really good deals on there: if you sew, I urge you to take a look!

www.homesew.com  

Winter is coming! Replacing a zipper in a coat or jacket...

I originally posted this nearly 4 years ago.  Today is September 1st, so I am thinking now would be the time to replace zippers in any coats or jackets that need it, before the snow flies!

Here you can see a perfectly good jacket. The problem is, the zipper is broken! Replacing a zipper is really not difficult, but it is tedious and takes considerable time. If your coat/jacket is nice, and/or you love it, it is more than worth the trouble to replace the zipper.



Here is the zipper I ordered over the internet here. This company is wonderful. They have everything and excellent customer service!



A closer look at the invoice:



The zipper I purchased cost $6.03 including the shipping, and so for a nice coat, you can see that this would really be worthwhile.

Now, don't be afraid. Breath. Relax. Here we go.

FIRST ~ set your sewing machine to its longest stitch length. Sew a line of stitching along the jacket opening, far enough in from the edge that you do NOT catch in the existing zipper. This is to hold everything together nicely and make the reassembly easier. Do this on both sides of the jacket.



Here I am doing the same thing on the other side:



SECOND ~ take your little seam ripper and do (carefully and don't stab yourself) whatever it takes to remove the broken zipper:



Here I've gone a little farther in the process:



Here I am removing some stitching from the surface:



And here is what it looks like with the zipper removed. Now you will see the wisdom of doing that basting line of stitches so the jacket doesn't blow up and get all weird.



THIRD ~ carefully remove all the bits of loose thread:


FOURTH ~ Thread a sturdy hand sewing needle with a doubled thread and run it through some beeswax so it will be less likely to tangle while you are sewing. Rosin will work instead of the beeswax, too, or if you have neither, find a piece of candle or even hand soap to use!




FIFTH ~ I hope you took the time to observe how the old zipper was positioned. You are going to unzip the new zipper, and one side at a time, you will put the new zipper in, and pin it in place and then hand baste it in place:



See? Here is one side basted together:



And here is the other side:



Oh, yes, and it is very helpful to have a fuzzy cat walking around under your work table at this point:



SIXTH ~ Before you sew the zipper in with your machine, zip up the jacket to make sure it is going to work!



SEVENTH ~ Now, simply, using a normal stitch length, sew along the same line where the old zipper was sewn in like this:



Make sure to replace any seams or stitching you have removed:



Be sure to remove any basting stitches. On this one, there was the nice little tab on the old zipper, so I just transferred it to the new one:



That's all you need to do! Even if it doesn't turn out perfectly, it is better than throwing away a perfectly good coat.

Please feel free to ask questions if I can help.