Fabric – Page 16 – The Craft Room

The Christmas present that wasn’t to be!

I have two weeks to get all the Christmas presents made/bought and into the post!

So I made a start trying to make a zippy pencil case.

This photo makes it look really good, like it was easy! Ha! Well it wasn’t!

The first sewing machine needle hit a metal bit and snapped.

The second sewing machine needle hit another metal zip bit and bent.

And when I’d finally sewn all the zips together and onto the backing fabric (some black cotton with multicoloured stars), I trimmed all the threads, trimmed the seams, turned it right side out, and admired my nicely lined up zips… … and then I turned it over: Oh bum! I’ve sewn the fabric on wrong side out 🙁

I sat and thought about how this could be saved. Having trimmed all the seams, unpicking and resewing would be just too hard. I considered sewing something over the back to cover it up, but that would just look odd.

So in the end I decided it would have to be scrapped and something else would have to take its place.

“W, I have a present for you!” – poor child gets all the cast offs not good enough for gifts and all the practice items!

He says “I love it!” – he’s easily pleased!

He likes it because it has lots of zips, and when you open it up there’s stars!

Modern QAL – November Block

I was eager not to leave this month’s block until the last minute, and have managed to complete it early on 🙂

This month’s block is called Pogo Stick. The tutorial for it can be found over on the Sew Delicious blog.

My version is a quite colourful, with more than one fabric. I read the information about the block in the Modern Blocks book:

and in there it suggests placement for different coloured fabrics. I thought that the block would fit in better with the others I have made if it used more than one colour.

Here is my finished block:

You can see all the other blocks people have made over on And Sew We Craft.

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Red and Green Colourblock Tee

This is the second t-shirt I started last week for Kid’s Clothes Week, but only finished the final seams today.

This one too is made from the Charlie Tee Pattern by Fishsticks Designs, and I colourblocked this one as well, but this time horizontally using red and green cotton jersey. I think I like the look of the horizontal blocks of colour better than the vertical split on the last t-shirt.

From the back the t-shirt is plain red. I went with black for the neckband as red and green ribbing sold in my local fabric shop doesn’t match the red and green on the cotton jersey. The sleeves and side seams were all I had left to do today, and they caused me more trouble than usual. Despite checking twice before pinning and sewing, I still managed to sew one sleeve on the wrong way round! You can’t tell now that it’s unpicked and sewn on the right way now though. I had to bribe this little man with getting the paints out to try it on and let me take a photo! But he says this one is better than the last, so I guess that means it will most likely be chosen to wear all day tomorrow 🙂

Easy As ABC QAL: Catch-Up

It’s been a big catch-up month for me this month. Instead of five letters for the Easy As ABC QAL, I’ve done twelve! But it means that I’ve now caught up and have completed all the letters from A to T 🙂

You can see the other blocks that people have made this month over on Blossom Heart Quilts.

There’s only two more months of letters to go!

Pink and Green Colourblock Tee

This happy little fellow has been asking for this t-shirt for weeks!

I finally relented and made it for him during Kids Clothes Week last week!

I used the Fishsticks Designs Charlie Tee pattern, and colourblocked the pink cotton jersey with green for the front … … while the back is plain green. The neckband is grey ribbing. The topstitching around the neck is green and matched to the fabric underneath everywhere else. W looks every happy with the finished product 🙂

Modern QAL – October Block

It’s now six months into the Modern Blocks Quilt Along – halfway! Only six more blocks to go!

Here are all my blocks so far:

May – Follow the Leader:

June – Spool:

July – Megan’s Star:

August – Quatrefoil:

September – Escalator:

October – Best Friends:The October block is the one I have just finished. It was a nice quick one to put together.

I’ve been looking forward in the book to see what other blocks are coming up.

I’ve been thinking about which colours to keep for which blocks – they’re going to look pretty 🙂

Here are all the blocks so far together. You can see everyone else’s and vote for your favourites over on And Sew We Craft.

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Modern QAL – August Block

I’m catching up this month with the August quilt blocks I missed.

First up is this block for the Modern Blocks Quilt Along from And Sew We Craft, a twelve month quilt along of blocks taken from this book:

The August block was called Quatrefoil.

I looked through the different colours I had in the spotty fabric and picked out the ones I had used least often in the previous blocks, so that when all twelve are complete they’ll be evenly spread across the quilt.

Here is my finished block:

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Stars and Stripes V-Neck

I have been doing some more sewing this week from the Sew Fab Pattern Bundle.

After the success of my first t-shirt I was tempted by the Vintage V-Neck by Blank Slate Patterns.I used the tips from the last t-shirt, of hemming before sewing, so you’re sewing a flat piece of material rather than a circle, which is definitely much easier.

The v-neck was the trickiest part as it took me several attempts to figure out how to position the ribbing so it would sit right. But after reading the instructions for about the ten millionth time and comparing what I had with the photos in the tutorial I finally got it right!

W chose the stars and stripes knit and has been patiently awaiting his completed t-shirt! He says it’s ‘very soft’ so I guess it must be comfy!

If you’re quick you have a little over 10 hours to get this pattern along with 25 others as part of the Sew Fab Sale. (sale finishes Tuesday 8am US EST/ 12pm UK/ 11pm AEDT)

The pattern can also be found on the Blank Slate Patterns website, where for this next week they are donating 50% of profits to the Komen Foundation for breast cancer research and services.

This post contains affiliate links.

Fancy Pants Leggings

I have been trying out some of the patterns from the Sew Fab Sale.

First on the list were two pairs of Fancy Pants Leggings by Titchy Threads. I did one pair in blue, and the other in purple, both with black ribbing for the waistband and sewn completely on my sewing machine using my twin needle. They are both in the size 6-12 months, which at Christmas will be just the right size to fit my niece! They are ‘fancy pants’ as they have a separate bum panel pattern piece so the bottom on your leggings can be a different colour or have a fancy pattern on it. For these leggings I switched the colours for the bottom pieces. The pattern has been updated and now goes all the way from newborn up to size 10, and has instructions for making shorts as well as leggings.

I think I shall try some shorts next 🙂

It is one of the 26 patterns for sale as part of the Sew Fab pattern bundle, which means that it costs just $1.15 when bought as part of the bundle!

Easy As ABC QAL: K, M and O

I’m taking part in the Easy As ABC Quilt Along, making five letters a month so that by Christmas I’ll have a finished alphabet quilt.

Except that I’m a bit behind because we went away, so I’ve finished A-E, missed all of August and have just done K, M and O of September’s blocks. October will be a big catch-up month!

I’m sticking with red and blue as my background colours, with different ‘boy’ fabrics for the letters.

K: M: I’m quite proud of this one, I think it looks pretty good 🙂 O:

You can see the other blocks that people have made over on Blossom Heart Quilts.