Projects – Page 4

November 6, 2020

Shower Power: Sew a Fabric Shower Curtain

Nothing’s more fun than sprucing up your home and as sewers, a little refresh is easy to do. So, why not start in the bathroom with a fun fabric shower curtain!

Choose a bold print, fabulous stripe or even a luscious solid cotton or polyester fabric.
Decorator weights work well and often come with coordinates for window treatments.
A standard size shower curtain will take 5 yards of either 45” or 54” fabric; if you opt for a wider fabric (like 108” or 110”) then you’ll need only 2 ½ yards.
Remember that you may need extra fabric if you have a print that requires matching.

A standard shower curtain is 72” square, so be sure to measure your tub/shower before you buy fabric and adjust as needed.

Preparation

From 45” or 54” wide fabric, cut two panels 88” long, trim the selvages and seam the lengths together. Press the seam open. Trim the seamed piece to 80” wide. Use the extra fabric to trim towels or make a fabric basket for the bathroom.

Making the Curtain

Press a double 2” hem on each side of the curtain and stitch in place close to inner fold.

Press up a double 4” hem along the bottom of the curtain and stitch in place close to the upper fold. To make the shower curtain hang smoothly, include a plastic covered weight in each corner of the hem, or if your tub is metal, a plastic covered magnet for a sure hold.

To make the top hem, fuse a 4” strip of medium-weight interfacing to the wrong side of the upper edge, abutting the seams as needed for the entire width. This provides support for the buttonholes or grommet openings. Press a double 4” hem at the top and stitch close to the lower fold.

Top Treatment

Shower curtains can have one of many options at the top, but a 72” curtain should have 12 openings for attachments of some sort, either metal or plastic hooks or rings. The openings can be stitched buttonholes, or metal or plastic grommets—either large or small–so choose your desired feature. You can even choose spring clips and avoid creating holes altogether.

If you opt for buttonholes, you can hang the vinyl liner on the same rod using the hook/loop set. If you opt for large grommets, then you’ll need a separate rod for the vinyl liner.

For buttonholes, evenly mark 12 hole placements 1” from the finished upper edge. Stitch a 1” long buttonhole at each mark. For quick and easy marking, lay your vinyl shower curtain liner on the wrong side of the fabric curtain and mark through the liner openings so they’ll align. Carefully cut open the buttonholes after stitching.

If you’re using either small or large grommets, follow the manufacturer’s instructions for insertion.

Decorating idea

As easy as it is to make a shower curtain, stitch some for different seasons and holidays to change up your décor. Or if company is coming, try a different theme they can relate to. Personally, we have friends who love everything Disney, and a Mickey print shower curtain brings a smile to their faces when they visit.

~Linda Griepentrog
Linda is the owner of G Wiz Creative Services and she does writing, editing and designing for companies in the sewing, crafting and quilting industries. In addition, she escorts fabric shopping tours to Hong Kong. She lives at the Oregon Coast with her husband Keith, and two dogs, Yohnuh and Abby. Contact her at gwizdesigns@aol.com.

December 6, 2019

Creative Fixes

OOOPS!

Much as we love sewing, things don’t always go as planned. Sometimes an accident happens in the process from cutting to finishing, or even at the first wearing. Rather than using any of ‘those’ words, it’s a lot more fun to try to figure out a creative solution to the problem that looks like it was intentional. Let’s look at three of those possible occurrences:

Not enough fabric

We’ve all done it, thinking we can outsmart the pattern company requirements. Maybe we’re trying to use up fabric in our stashes, but somehow there’s not quite enough. Two creative solutions are pattern mixing and color blocking. Instead of cutting all the garment pieces from the same fabric, mix them up for fun.

Make it seem like there was a plan for your artsy touch. Look for prints in similar colors and/or motifs. Fabric manufacturers often make coordinated groupings that are made to go together. Choose fabrics with similar motifs—for example, garden or flower prints. Select prints of similar scale and contrasts. Solids are always a good go-to tie-together—pick a color found in the print(s) or go with one directly across the color wheel for a bolder look. Just remember when cutting, you’ll need a left and right half to the garment and it’s easy to forget to flip the pattern piece over.

Errant scissor cuts

Let’s just say you accidentally cut a hole in your garment while trimming a seam allowance. Who hasn’t done that at some point in their sewing life? The creative solution: Add something to cover it—like a tab. But before you do, stabilize the erroneously cut edges by ironing a piece of fusible interfacing on the wrong side of the snip to hold the edges together and keep them from fraying. No one will be the wiser to your solution.

Stain game

It never fails, the first time your grandchild wears a garment you’ve painstakingly made, they spill something on the front of it and voilà—permanent stains, despite your best efforts. A fun solution: Use embroidered patches to cover the stains and add some fun. Embroider them yourself or purchase them from the notions wall at your favorite fabric store. Use invisible thread and sew around the edges and listen as people say, “Isn’t that a cute shirt? I love the patches.” We’ll never tell.

So, when something doesn’t quite go as planned, take a deep breath, don’t panic and find a sewing friend to help you come up with a creative resolution. Sometimes the solution is more fun than the original plan.

August 23, 2019

You Sew, Could You…

Whenever I hear those words, every cell in my body goes on high alert. I never know what will follow, but it is rarely good. “Could you replace this zipper—in my jeans?” “Could you hem my daughter’s prom gown, all six layers with ruffles?” “Could you make floor to ceiling pinch pleat draperies for my 6 dining room windows by next Friday, just in time for my Christmas party?”

Over the years I have cultivated the ability to say NO to most of these requests, but when a dear friend approached me recently, what she offered was an interesting challenge. She handed me two identical designer ties and asked me to make “something” from them as a gag gift for the wife of a co-worker. She explained that it was a long standing tradition that she gave a designer tie to the co-worker each year for Christmas, and she recently found out that his wife liked the ties so much that she “dressed” him around the ties. Now that he was retiring, it was the wife’s turn to get a tie. She left the ties with me. First mistake.

I have seen curtains, vests, skirts, quilts, and other items made from a collection of old ties, but I had never seen anything from just two identical ones. My mind raced with a million practical questions like:

How much fabric could possibly be in a tie?
What could be constructed from something that is only about 4 inches across at the widest point and tapers down from there?
How could I piece these varying narrow strips together and make it look good?
What would be worth my time creating that might be a gag gift, but still be practical enough to use and look good?

“With each question, the level of dread rose steadily. How could I have allowed myself to be sucked into this undertaking? Why did I say yes? Did I even say yes or did she just leave the ties?”

Off to my sewing room I went, armed with two ties and a seam ripper. The deconstruction aspect was not as tiresome as I feared. Actually, it was quite easy, just some hand stitching to undo and remove the designer labels. Oh, but there was a receipt in the bag. The ties had cost $20 each, marked down from $40. That meant that for the two ties, the equivalent of about a quarter yard of fabric, she had paid $40. It didn’t take a genius to do the math and come up with an equivalent price of $160 per yard, marked down from $320! Oh, no pressure! I think it took me about a month before I gathered the courage to make the first cut, and then I did so gingerly for fear of wasting even a tiny inch of fabric and coming up short.

Could I, Should I… Make a Purse?

Since I love making purses, I decided to go in that direction. The deconstructed tie yielded a piece of fabric that was 7 ½ inches at its widest point. I took two foundation pieces of fabric and laid the wide points of the ties centered on the foundation. Then I played with the remaining pieces and tried to match the swirls of color on either side of the main sections. Luckily the ties were close enough to being identical that I was able to get both the front and back to look similar. But how could I attach the pieces and make them look attractive and not just patched?

Time for some creativity…

I solved this dilemma by making very narrow piping to place between the sections. It gave the impression of an accent piece and was just enough to divert the eye from seeing that the prints did not match up exactly. And the black made the royal purple of the tie pop.

Once the three sections were stitched to the foundation piece, I gave the bag some shape by rounding the lower corners and making the front and back identical. From there it was easy. I cut a lining from the same black fabric that I had used for the piping, inserted a zipper between the two layers, then seamed around the outside edge, also using the piping to accent. I even made a prairie point accent on the front and sewed a gold button on it to bring a bit more glitz to the project. The handle was created from a piece of jewelry chain that I doubled and twisted together for added strength.

When it was done, I was amazed. It didn’t look like two ties thrown together. It looked pretty darn good! The finished bag measured about 9” x 12”, and there were still a few scraps left over. Not one to waste fabric (especially at that equivalent $160 per yard) I pieced the remaining sections together to make an eyeglass case and a credit card carrier.

Looking for handbag handles for your new bag? Amazon offers wooden handles, leather straps, chain, bamboo, cord, ribbon and more!

I was so pleased with the finished item, I took it to every ASG meeting I went to for “Show and Tell.” I was rewarded with not only their “ooohs” and “ahhhhs” but also requests to teach the project. These sewing friends gave me all the encouragement I needed to finally turn the purse over. And my friend was duly impressed. She said she couldn’t believe I had made something so large, attractive, and useful from those ties. She no longer thought of it as a gag gift, but rather a truly one of a kind designer purse.

So maybe I shouldn’t automatically say no when I hear someone say, “you sew… “ But I am still not replacing zippers in jeans!

ASG Members can access the instructions for making this Necktie Purse by logging in to Member’s Only and going to the ASG Online! area (under Education).

~Rosemary Fajgier

August 2, 2019

5 Ways to Reduce Fabric (and Other) Waste

We’ve been on a sustainable and slow fashion kick recently. If you haven’t read our posts on Alabma Chanin’s contribution to the Slow Fashion Movement, how to ditch fast fashion, and where to recycle your fabric scraps, now is a perfect time! We’re about to dive into five different types of projects you can create to cut down on waste – and not just fabric waste! These things can help you use fewer paper towels, paper bags, gift wrap, and more.

Before we get into the types of projects you may want to consider, it’s important to note that one of the best ways for a sewist to cut down on waste is to repurpose fabrics. Whether you grab some fabric from a thrift store, repurpose your curtains and sheets, or even make over an existing garment, used fabric can help you make something even better than the original.

Cleaning Tools

Sure, it’s easy to use a fabric scrap as an old rag to dust the house, but if you put a little bit of your skill to work, you can completely change how you clean every room of your house.

Make DIY reusable – and tough – antibacterial wipes by creating some simple cloths. Find a recipe you like for an antibacterial cleaner and then soak the towels. Store in an air-tight container or even in a baby wipe container.

Love your Swiffer? You’ll love it even more when you get rid of its expensive cleaning pads and opt for a homemade pad instead! By using a cloth diaper (for the section of the pad that gets pressed into the Swiffer) and a microfiber cloth (for the section that actually cleans the floor) you can make a Swiffer pad that can easily be thrown into the wash and used over and over again.

Have some nylon, even old pantyhose, lying around? Nylon is a useful fabric for scrubbing stubborn dishes – no sewing required! You can also put old nylons on the end of a broom handle to clean in small spaces, like under your fridge.

Reusable Gift Bags

This is a more specific kind of project, but how many times have you run out last minute to buy a bag for a birthday present, baby shower, or housewarming party?

There are plenty of different bag styles to experiment with. Fabric is a great material for making wine gift bags with standard handles. The muslin-style gift bags with an adjustable drawstring are great for things like jewelry, or gifts that have small pieces. You can even opt for a fabric envelope for gifts like photographs or other documents.

If you’re strapped for time or are a beginner sewist, a simple gift bag made with two pieces of fabric with a ribbon tied at the top will also do the trick!

Home Items

The possibilities are almost endless when it comes to using used fabric for home decor. Of course, old shirts make great material for personalized quilts or pillow covers. But if you think a little bit outside the box, there are unique upcycling projects just waiting to be added to every room of your house:

Reuse fabric as a photo matte in your frames
Create matching placemats and napkins
Combine fabric with a waterproof liner and add a zipper to make your own reusable snack bags
Use old fabric scraps to make a custom wreath for your front door
Make a recycled fabric banner for Christmas, birthdays, Thanksgiving and more that you can use over your fireplace year after year

Pet Necessities

If there is one creature that will definitely not care if their gifts are upcycled, it’s your four-footed friend! Used fabric and fabric scraps alike can make for some amazing pet gifts that cost a fraction of what the new stuff will cost you in the store.

A great sustainable pet project is a DIY pet bed. This is especially good for anyone who has a ton of fabric scraps laying around that they aren’t sure how to reuse. These scraps are great for stuffing the bed, and the cover of the bed can be anything from an old favorite blanket or a pair of curtains.

Playtime is just as important as nap time for our furry friends, and there are some creative ways to use old fabric to add some fun to your pet’s day. There are a variety of how-to’s for no-sew pet toys made from old t-shirts. The most popular is a braided t-shirt rope. If your dog is a more intense chewer, you may want to use an old pair of jeans instead. If you’re more of a cat person, used fabric is great for making those purr-fect cloth mice.

Fabric leashes and collars are also very trendy right now. Use an old holiday table cloth to make a seasonal leash and collar set and swap it out each season.

Baby Basics

Babies are expensive. And since they require a lot of diapers, wipes, clothing, etc., they can also be pretty tough on our landfills. In addition to making and using cloth diapers and making reusable fabric wipes, there are also a lot of other items you can create for baby using old garments or fabric:

Old sweaters can be used to make adorable baby hats and mittens
Use old baby clothing to make super soft baby bibs
Mom or dad’s favorite t-shirt can be repurposed into a romper
Use a special shirt or blanket to make a precious lovey or teddy bear

Hopefully, these ideas have you making a re-do to-do list as you read this, but we would also love to hear from you about additional upcycling/repurposing projects. Comment below or on the social media posts for this blog post and let us know what sustainable projects you’ve been working on!

~Jessica Mey for ASG

July 5, 2019

Travel Iron Caddy

Whether you are packing supplies to take to ASG Conference, or heading to a chapter stitching event, this caddy is the perfect way to safely and easily take your travel iron with you. I made the caddy to fit my Sun Beam Compact Travel Iron model #GCSBT-100, but there are similar size models by Dritz, Rowenta, and other Iron makers. It also fits nicely in my sewing machine caddy along with my 9”x 12” Omnigrid combination cutting and pressing board.

Materials

24” x 11” body fabric
3” x 11” body fabric for handle strap
24” x 11” lining fabric
24” x 11” Insul Brite fabric (insulated to protect from heat)
7” ¾” Hook & Loop Velcro
3” piece of Wonder Under
Quilter Ruler with 45 degree angle marking

Legend

RS = right side of fabric
WS = wrong side of fabric

Instructions

Strap: Fold 3” x 11” strip of fabric in half lengthwise WS together and press. Open and press both long edges in, ½” to WS then fold again 1” to WS overlapping, giving you a 1” wide strap. Now stitch lengthwise to reinforce the strap along both edges and up the middle. Set strap aside for next step.

Body of Bag: Layer Insul Brite, lining fabric RS up and then body fabric WS up. Insul Brite will be your bottom layer against the needle plate when you sew. Pin layers together around the inside of the rectangle to hold the layers together. Place long top edge of the strap to RS of body fabric layer 3 ½” down from top edge, double check your fabrics if using a one way directional fabric for your body fabric to make sure the direction of your strap and body are going the same way (Image 1). Stitch around all four edges using a 3/8” seam allowance but leaving a 3’ opening for turning on the bottom edge. Run an extra row of stitching over the strap edges to reinforce (Image 2).

Before turning, clip off the corners outside the corner stitching to allow for less bulk at the corners, be careful not to clip your stitches (Image 3). Turn and press, using a piece of Wonder Under to close the opening.

Closure: With panel facing RS up, place hook side of Velcro centered at bottom, ¼” up from edge and stitch in place. Leave at least ¾” on each end to accommodate your side seams, trim Velcro if necessary. Lining side up, place the loop Velcro at the top and stitch in place ¼” from top edge, lining up with the bottom edge placement.

With WS together, fold bottom edge up to 5” below top edge and stitch both side seams using ¼” seam allowance or as small as possible, back stitching at top edge to reinforce. (Image 4)

Turn the bag inside out and box the bottom seams. To box the bottom, use a quilter ruler with a 45 degree angle guide. Pin across bottom of the angle on both edges to create the boxed bottom and sew along pinned edges. (Image 5) Turn RS out.

This little iron caddy, with it’s bucket shape, will hold my iron and a few other small items. It also fits into the open space of my machine for travel.

~Carolyn Meyers, ASG Member, Bucks County Chapter