Ench By Sew-020- Mind of the Maker

Hey! 

The latest Enchanted by Sewing Podcast has been published!

Listening Option I) You can listen to the show right on the web by clicking on this link 

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Listening Option II)  Click on this link to iTunes  to download this and other Enchanted by Sewing shows to your mobile device (iPhone, Android, etc.) free from iTunes

Did I miss any links mentioned in the show? If so, please post here and share them with everybody

Email- EnchantedBySewing@gmail.com

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- Pensamientos Primero  

Reflecting on Making

For some people, sewing is just practical . For another segment of society, and I’m one of them, sewing is an important creative outlet that helps us to stay healthy and happy.
- Entonces /Then

She B. Coole

Live talk from our local Makers Faire includes extempore  interview with professional embroideress (Tapistres?) Barbara Coole (B. Coole)
o B. Coole Shares
• Thoughts on the realities of garment sewers investing both time and money into modern machine embroidery equipment and know-how
• Her advice on choosing an embroidery machine

- Pensimentos Finales:  What I’m thinking now, when it comes to my dream embroidery machine

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Web Resources

This Steam Punk Sewist
is right at home at
Makers Faire

My Regular Sewing Blog Me Encanta Coser http://www.meencantacoser.blogspot.com

She B. Coole - Barbara is a professional embroideress and textile artist.  As Barbara (B. Coole) reminds us embroidery is “… an art form that’s been going on for thousands of years.” People have sent out their embroidery to be done by professionals,  for hundreds of years.  B.Coole  does detailed projects involving professional couture embroidery to order . She also sells a wide variety of embroidered bits and pieces, parasols and more along with embroidery motifs that sewists and non-sewists can add to their garments, bags, hats, etc.  http://www.bcoole.com
bc@bcoole.com
(707) 575-8924

You’ll find that under-pocket cat embroidery created by Hiroko Kubota, along with other embellishment ideas on this pinterest board. http://www.pinterest.com/lrshimer/embellishment-sewing/

The Steam Punk Esthetic http://www.pinterest.com/lrshimer/steampunk-era-or-state-of-mind/

I have several sewing inspired boards at pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/lrshimer/

Maker’s Faires are found in many different cities http://makerfaire.com

She’s Hep With Tech  

Mind of This Maker
http://www.hepwithtech.blogspot.com/2014/05/mind-of-this-maker.html

What Would Beethoven Print? (3D Printing)
http://www.hepwithtech.blogspot.com/2014/04/but-what-would-beethoven-print-3d.html

The Perfect Machine - Dreaming

Sewing and Quilt Expo: My Land of Dreams!

I went to the Sewing and Quilt Expo in San Mateo, to get some new scissors. I went straight to a really good vendor I've gone to in the past. (http://www.scissorsales.com). I found my scissors - a pair of Stag shears, a pair of Gingher shears, a new pair of pinking shears, and OK :-)  some of those really darling tiny embroidery snips with the cool animal designs.... 

Then I went to the Brother dealer's booth. This particular vendor, AAA Vacuum and Sewing,  had been recommended by a classmate, who's been a customer for several years. (Also a lot of their satisfied customers dropped by the booth.) There I fell in love with a new machine. It's a Brother Quattro 3 . I want a more up-to-date machine for both garment and machine embroidery* Of course, it's not actually in the budget now...... I just wanted to get an idea of what I'd like to have someday. 

But it's like shopping for a car when you're not ready to buy one (I'm not actually into cars, but I get why people are tempted). I felt absolutely drunk reveling in all of the things this machine could do embroidery 'wise. It does a number of things I never imagined being able to do (like - for one thing- scanning a piece of printed fabric and digitizing it's own designs from the fabric - which you can then embroider over the fabric design, or recreate on another piece of fabric. And don't get me started on using the little monitor to re-place embroidery objects.)  That's in addition to all the newer basic stuff - like downloading designs from the web, magically threading your needle, offering multiple sizes of different decorative stitches - I can't do with my now quite old, bottom of the line Viking (It still uses cards and can't download designs - but works well, and yes I always keep it serviced). In addition to the embroidery coolness, the Quattro handled my heavy weight denim like a dream. I hardly even played with the garment construction features, except for using the 'hump jumper' and going over old Levi seams. But there's a lot more to checkout when I get serious.

The challenge is, it's just not our family budget.  It's about a third of the cost of the car we need to buy to replace one that's getting on in years.... Also for me sewing is a hobby. This is not a business expense..... I'll just have to wait for the day when a newer and even more imaginative machine comes out, and  people start trading this gorgeous, capable machine in for that newer model!

Daydreaming about a new machine is definitely keeping me....

Enchanted By Sewing

  
 * I used to be into quilting but for me I had to chose between garment and quilting - garment won

Technicos:Embellishing a Tee - Machine Embroidery and Stabalizer

Woven stabalizer below
Film stabalizer on top
Then the top part of the hoop nests in
The part that attaches to the machine is beneath the tee

As I've mentioned in a past Enchanted by Sewing podcast , my machine embroidery is not accomplished using the latest, snazziest machine model. I use a Husqvarna Iris, which I purchased as one of the lowest end embroidery models about nine years ago. I bought my machine in August, as I'd been told this was traditionally a time when sewing machines are discounted. True? Maybe! Well, I'd always wanted a machine with this kind of capability and the somewhere around one thousand dollar price tag on this machine was possible because I'd made a little extra money the previous year. Husqvarna may consider this a budget-oriented machine, but for us it was a big ticket item.

My machine uses cards - no digital downloads. Those cards are no longer available for purchase from the manufacturer (a nine year-old machine is practically an antique these days). I found that out when I finally decided to break down and buy an additional card (I had one that came with the machine, and one that I had purchased for $150 when I bought the machine.) Luckily I found a few cards on EBAY for $50. I bought three. Would even more designs be fun? Would I like to be able to download digital designs or maybe learn to digitize my own? You bet! 

But am I satisfied with what I have for the time being? Yes. I don't spend my life, or even most of my sewing time, embellishing. So I am satisfied with what I have, and enjoy doing a little machine embroidery. I've also found that I enjoy repetitively stitching out certain designs like this dragonfly.  I can turn it different directions and make a bigger or smaller version.

I've also learned how to do machine embroidery on my tee shirt projects without getting the knit fabric stuck and gummed up under the needle (though I seam to recall it makes a pretty neat noise when this happens!).  

Here's what I do....

1) I hoop the back of the project with traditional stabalizer. Sorry I don't known what kind that is. It's the regular somewhat stiff, heavy kind I use for a woven cotton or linen. 
2) I put my hoop bottom piece below that sheet of for-wovens stabilizer, 
3) then I add my tee shirt. 
4) On top of the tee - and before I fit the top of the hoop in- I lay a piece of film-type stabilizer. 
5) The smaller hoop piece (it nestles inside the back/bigger hoop part that fits onto the machine) goes on top of that. Then I screw it in place and away I stitch. No more stuck needles and gummed up projects.

I hope this will help me and others
Locate this film stabalizer that tops off my tee shirt/knits
machine embroidery projects

I found my stabalizers at a Sewing Expo, at a booth that specialized in only that kind of product. I've noticed that sometimes it's hard to locate stabilizers in fabric stores, and when I do the clerks, even those who are also sewists, may not know about these products. So I plan to start taking better notes about what I've purchased the next time I get a chance to talk to a knowledgable vendor. If you know of links that explain what to choose and when, please post them or email them to me EnchantedBySewing  AT gmail.com.

Taking a tee-shirt beyond the basics with embellishment like machine embroidery, is one of many things that keeps me....

Enchanted by Sewing!

Spring Break:Disneyland Plain Sewing

Me in my my Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Shirt)
on a quick spring break at Disneyland

As regular followers of this blog may have noticed, I spent a lot of time focusing on improving my sewing techniques over the last couple of months. The green and golden jungle print shirt (previously blogged about as my Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Shirt) in this photo, was the product of that work. 

After so much effort when it came to crisp edges, pattern fitting and alteration I had fun making a couple of simple tank tops with no pattern at all and the simple joy of scissoring wherever I wanted. The results were perfect as layers under a travel wardrobe for a recent quick-hop Disneyland trip with my grownup daughter. With my new green shirt as a top layer, I managed to pack light - using just a very small rolling suitcase for the trip. My simple shirt and tees wardrobe,  made a second floor motel room and return-by-Amtrak trip really easy - no problem hefting that bag up steps, onto the top shelf of the luggage area, or pulling it up the gap between train and track.

I loved this opportunity to use machine embroidery
I almost forget to use a top layer of stabalizer between
the needle and knit fabric! You know what happens if you
forget, right? The fabric is sucked down and gummed up
 under the throat plate and it's awful.

I enjoyed using machine embroidery to create this lovely zebra, the only motif on the green shirt for which I had a match on my (now) old-fashioned embroidery machine, which uses cards instead of the more modern downloadable designs. I also made use of an inexpensive white tee - which I totally cutup and simply used as fabric. The binding (and headband - which you see simply tossed over the hanger here) was the remains of a tee that didn't work out. I loved the 100% cotton knit fabric when I found it - at Stone Mountain and Daughter in Berkley-, but it had an awful lot more stretch than I realized and the long sleeved tee I made  out of it is too broad and too short. It just didn't work out. But the remnants make great trim for this zebra shirt. Now that I've experimented with this tee, and another, I'm hoping to make a similar one out of better quality white cotton knit. I think I've still got enough of the black and white remainder for binding and enough black thread for another zebra too!

If you have machine embroidery capabilities and haven't done so on knits, make sure you use a top layer of stabalizer as well as a bottom layer. I use the kind that looks like saran wrap. You tear it away and any remainder washes away.

This is my kind of uniform
Something I can put on any day
and pretty too

As I've said before, I like making pretty clothes that I'll get a lot of wear from. Whether I'm in the land of Princesses and castles or back home on my bike, I'll get a lot of use out of this zebra tee. And I'll always enjoy pulling it out of my drawer.

Machine embroidered tees like this, keep me enchanted by sewing.

Vintage Threads: Downton Abbey Inspiration (Embroidery on Black)

If it's British it Must Be Good!

I'm a big fan of British Costume Dramas. I'm also a big fan of Cora's black embroidered dress from Downton Abbey. Does this inspire anybody else to think about creating some machine embroidery using a similar layout? Though it would be gorgeous on a wool crepe dress, it would see a lot more use in my closet if I did something like this on a nice dark knit tee shirt.

Get behind me Satan! Don't give me another excuse to put aside less-than-exciting plain sewing projects aside. 

But it's certainly given me some ideas for a not-too-distant future project.

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Good Night My Someone: Red Plaid Nightgown

The chicken illustrations are something I created for my
art journal a few years back.
This chicken lives with my neighbor Jen, and is named for me.
I'm proud to say that she (Laurel Chicken) and I appeared in Sunset Magazine's
The West's 100 Best Pets Contest:-)

Sunday morning, I finished the last of the night wear projects I talked about in my December Enchanted by Sewing podcast. 

I've been continuing to look for the missing pattern for this many-times used, Tried and True nightgown, while doing major cleaning and reorganizing holiday-time domestic projects -so far no luck.

Wonder how long this latest flannel addition will last..... I'd guess at least two years but would be surprised if it holds up for four. This was budget, on-sale flannel. I made my husband's nightshirt out of what could be higher quality, but maybe I was simply swayed by the description and the feel of the material. I wonder if better quality flannel fabric has a higher life expectancy, or merely feels better? Perhaps when I get to the textiles class in the fashion program at Cañada, I'll find out more about that.

I noticed while sewing this gown how very loose the weave can be in flannel. The plaid lines moved around no matter how many pins I put in. To give the bodice more oomph, I interlined/underlined the bodice with some blue flowered cotton, a remainder from another long-ago sewn spring nightgown. You can see it peaking out from the back bodice. The interlining was in addition to the interfacing I used down the front to support the buttons and buttonholes. I also used black decorative stitching to further support the button area. 

I did the machine embroidery on this bodice last winter. I think if I were embroidering similarly shaped bodice I'd probably do twice as much. My embroidery machine is older and I think this is the largest size motif I can create.

Working with flannel on this nightie is making me think about what I'll be doing with the flannel vest I'll be sewing soon. I'm wondering if interfacing the entire thing would be overdoing it? 

Good Night My Someone: Sewing Flannel Nightgowns

My favorite nightgown pattern
is missing in action

This plain sewing nightgown pattern, whether made up in flannel for our brief cold season, or in light weight cottons and eyelets for warmer weather, has been a long-time tried and true pattern for me. Machine embroidery and decorative stitching make this long time favorite even more of a pleasure to wear.

I sure do wish I could find where I've put this gol durned pattern! Luckily, I have one more of these gowns cut out in red flannel. Maybe I'll try to trace the cut pieces and assemble a close-to-it paper pattern, because I can't find any current nightgown patterns in this style, with this style of deep yoke.

I talked about sewing nightgowns, and robes, in the December Enchanted by Sewing Podcast. The show is freely available in the iTunes store for download to a mobile device, or you can listen on the web without downloading by clicking on this link.

Pensamientos: Machine Embroidering Tee Shirt Creations

My machine embroidery setup is not totally modern and up to date. I bought my Viking Iris new maybe 7 or 8 years ago. I had to buy the embroidery designs on cards, not as digital downloads. When I bought the machine I only had the bucks to buy one extra card. There was also one that came with the machine. A couple of years ago I thought I would break down and buy another card and, guess what? I found that Viking no longer sells the cards, because this machine is now considered to be out dated.

I managed to find a few cards on EBAY. The good thing is that I have enough cards now (5 I think) to provide me with enough designs to keep me happy for several years. It's still sad that a sewing machine goes out of style with the manufacturer so quickly. Maybe in 5 or 6 years I will buy a used machine for embroidery that uses digital downloads, probably a machine that is just coming out now. I wonder what technology will replace that and make it impossible to get designs?

I like having the machine embroidery capability and enjoy stitching out the designs and choosing colors, but I don't spend a ton of time doing it. Sewing time is part of my recreation time and most of my sewing recreation time goes into sewing the actual garments. But I've been doing machine embroidery on tee shirts lately. I love making tees because

a) My time is well invested. I get a lot of regular, every day use out of them.

b) I can fool around altering patterns and re-cut inexpensive boxy tees for fabric to test out pattern alterations. I buy two of the same color (which I often find on sale for $2.50 each) and turn those two into one. That allows for darts, gathers, and any other goodies I come up with. These budget fabric test garments are highly wearable, they aren't just toilles. They help build my confidence for sewing tees when I buy a pricier knit, at Fabric.com or that great fabric store in Berkley Stone Mountain & Daughter.

When I machine embroider my tees, they really look like something special.

Technique: What works for me is to use two kinds of stabilizer. I put a regular stabalizing layer for knits underneath the hoop. Then I put the wash-away kind that looks like saran wrap on TOP of the hoop. That seems to work pretty durn well.