Shams' Sewing Tips Video #1

Happy Tuesday eve!

I have several little updates for you.

My briefest update is this: with my last post I exceeded 2 million views on my blog! Woot! Thatsalotta views! THANKS!

And here are the rest:

• Shams' Sewing Tips video #1
• Making Jewelry
• Mini Movie Reviews: Iris and Dior and I

Shams' Sewing Tips video #1

I was recently preparing for a sewing get together—some friends and I were going to learn how to make jewelry using narrow tubes of fabric. Turning lots of narrow tubes of fabric turned out to be a pain point for all of us. One friend was using a Fasturn tool to turn her tubes, but the wand broke. Another was using a small safety pin to turn her tubes, but it was causing her hands to ache.

When I mentioned that I keep a bobby pin near my sewing machine for this purpose, they were unfamiliar with the technique. So I decided to document this little trick.

My original plan was to ask one of my friends to shoot a quick video using my iPhone. But Sarah, who loves technology, suggested that we use her camera and then she offered it edit it together.

So, thanks to Sarah, here is my first video, a short tip on using a bobby pin to turn a narrow tube of fabric. It works with knit tubes, bias tubes, and straight-of-grain tubes.

Margy pointed out that when you buy bobby pins at the drugstore, that you are compelled to buy at least a hundred of them. No worries, why not use the extras to make a bobby pin necklace! (I took this photo at Puyallup.)

If you notice the credit at the end of the video, that is Sarah herself. She celebrated her 70th birthday by bungee jumping off the Kawarau Bridge in New Zealand. She is pretty amazing! She also taught us the technique she developed for making the jewelry.

THANKS, Sarah!

So, what do you think. Should we do more quick videos?

---

Making Jewelry

See, it happened like this: When I was in Puyallup this year with Sarah and Sue, Sarah brought along several necklaces that she had made featuring "beads" made from fabric tubes.

Sarah wearing one of her necklaces at Puyallup

Sue and I admired Sarah's bead necklaces. I actually made a necklace similar to this more than a year ago, but when Sarah described her technique, I couldn't quite visualize it. One evening, in our hotel room, I had Margy on the speaker phone and the four of us decided to get together at some future date to learn Sarah's technique.

The necklace I made 1.5 years ago

Last week, Margy flew in for our little get together. But before the jewelry-making commenced, we attended a local sewing gathering. I include the photos here, because you might recognize (and miss) some of these wonderful sewists, and you will certainly enjoy seeing the clothing of these stylish women!

Ann and Margy. Margy has blogged about her outfit, but Ann is wearing a Liberty shirt that she recently made.
Dorothy, Ann, Arna, and Margy. Dorothy, Ann, and Arna are each wearing the Liberty shirt.
Heather is wearing a beautiful jacket made from OOP Burda 7364. (And you can bet that I tracked down this pattern!)
Margy, looking stunning in her Marcy Tilton crinkle raincoat.
Dorothy in her snazzy prescription sunglasses

From there, we proceeded to the jewelry making!

Margy is just getting started
I love this pic!
Margy makes a mega-bead!
Margy and Sarah, two technology mavens
Focus...
Sue finishes her necklace
Finished!
Sarah's whimsical necklace
Sarah and Margy compare their self-made black-and-white bags. Margy's post about this bag was her first blog post ever. Sarah used the Poolside Tote Pattern by Noodle Head.
Filming the video...
... with Sarah
Sarah is also an amazing cook. This is her asparagus soup topped with black lentils (and some other stuff) and her homemade cashew cream. YUM!

---

Mini Movie Reviews: Iris and Dior and I

Both of my kids were far away on Mother's Day, so I was happy when Jillian suggested that we go see some fashion-themed movies! We saw two movies, back-to-back.

First we saw Iris, about Iris Apfel who, at 93-years-old, is a genuine style icon. The movie follows Iris through her incredibly busy life, talks about how she got started as a decorator and later moved into textiles. She worked on the White House under several presidents, including Kennedy. She is funny, witty, with a strong sense of her style, and a gigantic heart. It was particularly sweet to watch her interact with her husband, who celebrated his 100th birthday during filming. It's a real love story.

I liked this movie more than I expected—highly recommended!

Following Iris, we saw Dior and I. You might remember John Galliano, the head designer for the House of Dior until 2011, when some of his ugly behavior caught up with him and he was ousted. In 2012, Raf Simons, a Dutch designer who had been designing for Jil Sander, was hired to replace Galliano.

This movie picks up when Raf is being introduced to the employees at the House of Dior. He speaks minimal French (his English is good, but most of the employees don't speak English) and he has eight weeks to prepare for the Dior Haute Couture Spring fashion show. Eight.Weeks.For.Haute.Couture.

This movie chronicles Raf's journey, and the journey of the highly skilled and dedicated artisans of at the Dior atelier. The movie is also interspersed with voice-over excerpts from Dior's memoir, "Christian Dior and Me", written in 1956. The parallels between his memoir and Raf Simon's experience is fascinating.

Both Jillian and I felt that this movie had a slow-ish start, but by the middle of it we were totally engrossed. Another great film—highly recommended!

I'm sorry that I don't have a photo of Jillian, because she was wearing a gorgeous vest that she made from a Kantha quilt—it is very Meiko Mintz. I asked her if she plans to blog about this vest and she said yes, so maybe it's a good thing that I don't have a photo, because you will enjoy seeing it first on her blog!

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Vogue 8741 - Marcy Tilton Hobo Bag & Pattern Giveaway!

More pictures

Pattern Giveaway!

I rarely sew purses. I always think I will, but I don't.

I purchased this fabric a couple years ago from Fabrix. I love this fabric and would have bought yards of it (at $3 a yard), but only one yard remained. It is a woven rayon blend (I think) that has been embossed with a leather texture. It is very easy to cut out and sew - it's nothing like a pleather - and it has a great look and feel.

I decided it should be a purse and, finally, it is.

The pattern calls for a fashion fabric and two contrast fabrics. The difference between View C and View D is in how the contrast fabrics are used. This bag is reversible. This fact is not made obvious on the website or on the pattern - you would only know this when reading the instructions. I think this is unfortunate and it's a side effect of the minimal description Vogue now provides for each pattern.

The purse is reversible, but it's wonderfulness doesn't stop there. It features compartments and a zippered pocket. If you like purses with lots of different places to put things, this one is for you. I used one contrast fabric, not two. If you choose to use different fabrics for contrast 1 and contrast 2, it would be much easier to find things in your purse, based on the different fabrics/colors, but I am happy with my single contrast. :)

This purse is, essentially, a purse within a purse. It has four layers: the outside, the lining, the inset, and the inset lining. Sometimes the bag is sewn to the lining, and sometimes the lining is sewn to the inset lining. This creates the inner compartments that makes this bag so useful.

My inside fabric is a waterproof print that I purchased long ago at Fabrix. I bought this fabric to use as bias trim on another project, but I ended up not using it and it sat in my "donate" pile (because I had no real use for one yard of a waterproof fabric) until I realized that it matched the outside fabric perfectly. I used it for both contrast 1 and contrast 2.

By the way, I don't plan to use this purse as a reversible purse, but if it were pouring rain, I might!

Materials & Notions:

• Textured (embossed) brandy-colored rayon blend, from Fabrix.
  
• Pellon fleece, to underline the outside fabric. This is optional, but it made my fabric look even more like leather. I did not use fusible fleece, but I don't see why that would not work.
  
• Dritz Spray adhesive, for adhering the fleece to the outer fabric. (Or a similar brand, but this is what I had in my sewing closet.)
  
• Waterproof chartreuse fabric, with a monochromatic tropical print, from Fabrix.
  
• 7" zipper. I used a decorative zipper.
  
• Thread. I purchased regular thread to match the outside fabric, and the lining fabric, and top-stitching thread for the outside fabric. Or so I thought. When I got home, the "top-stitching" thread was 100% cotton thread (oops), so I used regular thread for the top-stitching. But top-stitching thread would have been nice. :)
  
• A tool for turning a narrow bias tube. I used my favorite technique which requires a bobby pin.
  
• Fray Block. This is optional, but I used it on the end of each knotted, bias fabric tie.
  
• A Dritz tool for making 1" bias tape and a safety pin to pin the tape to the ironing board as you create it. You can make the bias tape in any method you prefer, but this tool worked well for all the yards of bias that this purse requires.
  
• Sewing pins!! I mention this only because I bent many pins on this project. When pinning the final layer onto the base layer, there are 16 layers of fabric, including the pleats on four layers, the two base layers, and the fleece layer throughout. Many of my glass head silk pins bit the dust during this process.
  
• Sewing machine needles! For most of this project I used a single MicroTek needle (by Schmetz). This worked well, until near the end when it was trying to go through many layers and it shattered. I finished the project with a jeans needle.
  

Construction Notes:

• This pattern uses 1/2" seam allowances. It is easy to miss this fact.
  
• This purse confused me at first, so let me explain how it works. It is made from 4 layers: the outer layer, the lining, the inset, and the inset lining. The inset and the inset lining are used to create compartments, so the purse has the inside bucket, and two compartments on either side. In the innermost layer (called the inset), there is a zippered pocket. There are self ties to keep it closed and the purse is reversible; if you turn it inside out the zippered pocket will be on the outside. This is a large purse.
  
• I made the 1/2" opening for the zipper in the inset as directed. At first I planned to use a standard zipper. But after the opening was completed, I noticed a decorative zipper in my stash and decided to use that.
  

  
  

  The standard zipper opening is too wide for the decorative zipper, which was an afterthought.

  The 1/2" opening was too wide for this zipper, so I added a strip to narrow the opening - I could have added a strip to each side of the opening, but decided to put it on the top only, so the raw edges would be absorbed into the top of the pocket. When applying the zipper, I folded the ends under, at both ends of the zipper, and top-stitched it to the pocket. The rest of the pocket was constructed normally.
  

  

  The narrow strip added to the top of the pocket.

  

  The completed zipper. This is the first time I remembered to use one of my new fabric labels!

• In step 8 of the pattern instructions, you put the lining layer together with the inset lining layer, right sides together, and baste the lower edges together. From here until step 20, these are treated as a single layer. In step 9, you stitch them together, in the ditch of the lining seams, to form a pocket. It was not clear from the directions whether you should do this on both sides of the purse. In the end, I did do it on both sides, because I decided that the compartment would be very large if I didn't. But I don't think it matters that much, so do what you think is best.
  
• I found some of the construction steps confusing. Therefore, I took pictures as I went. Hopefully these pics will help clarify the steps for anyone else who might also find them confusing. The numbers of the steps correlate to the numbers on the pattern instructions.
  
  • Step 16: The bag has been pleated and pinned to the base. I was concerned that the pleating would be difficult, but the instructions recommend that you not obsess over this and I agree. It's actually fun. Also, the instructions state that the size and spacing of the pleats will depend on the fabric. I found this to be very true, as the outer layer/batting pleats were a very different size than the pleats in the lining fabric.
    

    

  • Step 17: The bag lining/inset lining (the two layers are basted together at the hem as one layer) have been pleated and pinned to the base, on top of the outside layer.
    

    

  • Step 18: The lining for the base has been pinned, wrong sides together, to the base. After each step, I machine stitch that layer.
    

    

  • Step 19: The inset, which contains the zippered pocket, has been pinned to the base. After this is sewn, the inset is pulled up over the rest of the purse and all four layers are now attached.
    

    

• A pattern piece is included to create the ties that can be used to hold the purse closed. At first I followed the directions to turn the raw edges under to make the ties. But this created very chunky (approx 1/2" wide) ties. I hate chunky ties, so instead I created a 1/4" tube from each piece of bias. I trimmed the edge of the sewn seam and used a bobby pin to turn the tubes inside out. I tied a knot in the end of each tie, as directed, and finished with a dot of Fray Block. This isn't strictly necessary, since the tie was bias, but I prefer to use a dot of Fray Block.
  
• I found an error in the pattern. A pattern piece is included to create a continuous bias strip. You cut one of this pattern piece. However, it does not create nearly enough bias. Bias trim is attached to the top of the purse, which has 4 edges. There are another 4 edges on the inside layer, for a total of 8 edges. Finally, you cut four 10.5" strips from the same bias strip for the purse handles. There was only enough bias to finish 7 edges of the purse plus one 10.5" purse handle. I had to create another 40" or so of bias to complete the purse.
  

Conclusion: I really like this purse! The only disadvantage is that it is quite large. I didn't realize from the photo on the envelope that it would be this large. I will save it for those occasions when one needs an extra large bag. With all of the compartments, it would make a good travel bag.

More pictures:

Because this pattern hasn't yet been reviewed, and because there is a lot going on in the purse, I attempted to document it fairly thoroughly.

Hanging on a hook. See the lovely texture of the fabric.

If you look carefully, you can see the tie closure.

Reversed. I don't plan to use it this way.

The ties, up close. You can also see the various compartments.

Inside

The straps, up close.

It's big!

The End. ;)

Pattern Giveaway!

I was given a copy of this pattern, but had already purchased it, so I have an extra. If you would like it, please leave a comment. I sympathize with folks outside of the country who can only purchase these patterns at full price, or with extreme shipping, so this is definitely open to you, too. I will draw names in a week or so.

Shams Sewing Tips Video #2 - Making Fabric Beads

Choker-length necklace worn doubled as a bracelet.

You asked for it!

Several weeks ago I posted a video on how to turn tubes of fabric with a bobby pin.

I was using the tubes to make fabric beads and using those beads to make jewelry.

Closeup of beads
Finished necklaces

You asked for a video on how to make the beads, so here you go!

Just in case it wasn't clear in the video, here are the tools and supplies that I used:

1. Ruler
2. Lighter
3. Wire cutters
4. Pliers - round nose and curved
   (though I mostly use the curved)
5. Super glue
6. Scissors (not shown)

1. 5.5mm bungee cord (solid black)
2. 5.5mm bungee cord (black with white polka dots)
3. 2mm round elastic, black
4. 5.0mm/5.5mm closures from Bead Landing
5. 24 gauge steel wire

Fabric tubes made from 1" wide strips approximately 18" long.
Wearing my necklace as a bracelet
Thanks, Sarah!
(Sarah is wearing Butterick 5891, view B, sans collar. I should have taken a wide-angle pic as you can't see the cute polka dot panels at the bottom.)