A Gift From A Gift

My 11 year old niece was given a sewing kit for Christmas, consisting of threads, precut fabric squares, buttons, needles and other bits and bobs. Apparently she was absolutely thrilled with it all and quite excited about sewing some bits together.

When I saw her at New Year, she very proudly gave me two squares sewn together with a button in the middle. The items had come from her kit and she told me that it was the first piece of sewing by hand she had ever done. I was quite touched that she wanted to give it to me - well, I hope she meant me to keep it, as I didn't give it back! The sewing now sits in my study on a shelf with photos of her and her siblings.

I was slightly surprised that she had not been taught to sew before. I remember learning decorative stitches at school when I was about six and sewed a cushion, soft toys and a sun dress by hand at school when I was nine and ten. I guess it is a sign of the times, school curriculums have changed and old fashioned home making skills have taken a back seat.

I hope my niece continues to sew, being able to sew to such a useful life skill. I heard at the weekend that she hasn't done any more since but hopefully, with some encouragement she will soon.

Sunshine & Sewing

In the depths of winter, when it is freezing cold and pouring with rain, I am quite happy tucked up in my study at the top of the house. I can while away countless hours sewing, writing and generally plotting From Rags To Bags world domination. When the thermometer rockets and the sun shines though, I don't really want to be sat at my desk looking at a wall.

This weekend has been glorious, especially for the time of year. I decided to up sticks and move camp to the kitchen table. Having thrown open the patio doors, I am now sat looking out over the garden, listening to the birds chirping and enjoying the slight breeze flowing in over my toes.

Bliss!

Trouble is, it is so relaxing I actually can't be bothered to do very much now.

Things That Make Me Say @£$%&#£!!!!

When I am sewing, there are quite a few things that seem to make me say @£$%&#£!!!!

In the past couple of weeks, I have said it for all of these reasons:

• Not having the right coloured cotton/ribbon/buttons
• Not having quite enough ribbon
• Making a lavender bag inside out
  
• Sewing up a lavender bag without any lavender in it
• Not sewing in a straight line
• Trying to sew really good heart shapes
  
• Leaving an opening so small that I can't turn an item the right way out
• Running out of cotton part way along a seem
• Using a different coloured thread on the top and bottom in my machine by mistake
  
• Trying to sew in a zip without the zip foot on my machine
• Forgetting to put the fabric feeder back in place after lowering it for a button
• Forgetting to change the machine stitch back to straight from zigzag
• Snapping my sewing machine needle by hitting a pin too hard
• Loading far too much of a coloured cotton onto the spool
• Not matching up a pattern very well
  
• Losing my ruler
• Jabbing myself with a needle/pin
• Sewing a pin into a hidden seam
  
• My cat insisting on sitting on my lap whilst I am sewing and then digging claws into my stomach
• Knocking over my cup of tea whilst sewing
• Finding out that my pinking shears are really blunt

To be honest, having read through that lot I am amazed I manage to make anything! I'm sure quite of few fellow crafters will know exactly where I am coming from though.

Decorative Stitches

If you read my "Electric Dream Machine" posting you will know that I have bought a new sewing machine. Part of my reasoning for buying it was to have a greater variety of stitches to utilise in my bags. I have been so busy sewing in straight lines with the odd scallop, I haven't actually had time to try out some of my new options. Until just now.

It is actually really exciting trying a new stitch. I was supposed to be making some more rose petal scent sachets but I have snapped the needle I need for the scallop stitch. It suddenly dawned on me it was the perfect time to have a play instead.

I tried out the my 5 favourite stitches from the ones that needed a single needle, which thankfully was the ones I wanted to try anyway. From the top, they stitches are numbers 32, 33, 34, 23 and 39. As you can see from the photos, they aren't exactly like the diagram but they are quite effective in their own right. I will certainly utilise them all in some way in the near future. I have a few plans up my sleeve!

One thing I did find quite disconcerting was the motion of the machine whilst creating them all. I am so used to sewing in one direction only, it is really odd when the machine starts going forwards, backwards and sideways on its own accord and you don't quite know which way it is going to go next. It is quite therapeutic once you get into the rhythm of the stitch though, I felt I could go on for hours. You'd need an awful lot of cotton though!

Blue Applique Tie Bag

I spent this afternoon finishing another tie bag. I cut it out over a week ago and haven't had time to make it up until now. I have to say, not having enough time to make things can be really frustrating. I obviously need to see where I can make more time.

Anyway, this bag is made from a pale blue wool fabric I bought about 20 years ago to make a skirt. I never made the skirt, so the fabric has been sat in my pile for years. The three ties came from a lady at my ceramics class. She had been into patchwork but had decided to change direction. Knowing I made bags, she kindly gave me about 20 mens ties to use. I love using them on bags as I think they look really effective.

I have used both ends of the ties, on each side, and two of the ties have also been used for the handles. The inside of the bag has been lined in a pale mauve cotton, taken from a man's shirt. The front of the bag also features a vintage diamonte brooch to give it a bit of added sparkle and bling.

Losing The Thread

I learnt a valuable lesson today - don't use cheap cotton! I was making lavender bags, as already blogged about and sewing a scallop stitch around the edges. The machine uses a double needle for this stitch and you therefore have to use two seperate cotton reels.

One reel was a Gutterman thread and the other was a cheap cotton I picked up in the craft shop. There was a more expensive one available but I was feeling like a cheapskate, so bought the reel that was about 30p less. Big mistake! I lost count of how many times the cheap thread snapped. The faster I sewed, the less the cheap cotton could withstand the strain.

It was really frustrating and completely my fault for buying the thread in the first place. It was interesting using the two threads side by side though as it highlighted the quality difference which I might not have appreciated otherwise.

Electric Dream Machine

I've had my current electric sewing machine, a Singer Stylist 367, for well over twenty years and I bought it second hand. The manual is copyrighted 1974, so that gives an indication of its age. I have to say, it has served me well and never let me down. It was serviced for the first time a year or so ago and passed with flying colours.

I have used the machine over the years to make all sorts of items from jackets, trousers and blouses to handbags, soft toys and curtains. Despite only having five stitch options, one straight and four sizes of zigzag, the machine has met my needs. Just lately though, I've had a niggling feeling that I would like a machine that could maybe do a few embroidery stitches as well. The niggle grew the other day and I found myself googling sewing machines.

The range of machines now available is quite overwhelming. The price spread is from £50 to the high hundreds, they are electrical, some are computerised, they do stitches I've never dreamed of, stitch in reverse and do a whole host of buttonholes. With so much choice, it was hard to know where to begin in choosing my perfect machine. The most logical starting point was therefore price.

I set my budget at £100 which was an amount I felt would buy an electric machine with a dozen or so stitch options. I didn't really need anything more than that. The trouble is, once you start looking, it is really easy to get carried away. I never knew stitch options could be quite so exciting! Trust me, they are! The fact that some machines have a monogramming option opened up all sorts of design ideas in my head.

Somehow, I ended up looking at Brother machines. Lured by the stitches on offer, I found a machine that I really liked, it met my needs not to mention a whole load of needs I didn't even know I had! The only problem was that the machine's recommended price was more than three times my budget. Always one with an eye for a bargain, another internet search threw the same machine up at half the recommended price. Finally a quick search on ebay found it bang on budget but in an auction with only a day to go. I put in my top bid and crossed my fingers.

A day later, I was the proud owner of a new Brother, all singing, all dancing and hopefully all sewing computerised sewing machine. Talk about exciting! I got it at 40% over budger but it was worth it. The machine is fantastic. Some of the features include forty stitches, five types of one step buttonhole (who knew there was so many?), forward and reverse stitching, monogramming, a free arm facility (I had to look up what that meant!), seemingly more feet than a centipede and my favourite feature - a picture frame. Yes, you did read that correctly, it has a picture frame on the side of the machine. Now, I have no desire to sound ungrateful, but why on earth would you want a picture frame on your sewing machine??!

Somewhat reassuringly, the machine also comes with an instructional DVD. All I need now is for it to be delivered - can't wait! Watch my website for some hopefully new and exciting products with decorative stitching. With so many new features, including dual needles for some of the embroidery stitching, I hope I can figure out how to thread the machine, let alone sew anything together with it..