Week 12--Sowing While You Sew--Final Amazing Guest Blogger

So this is the final week for Sowing While You Sew!  I can't believe time has flown by.  I'll do a little recap post next week with some of the catching up thrown in (I have a new camera--yeah!!), but this is the final project.  And who better to present it than the amazing Catherine, better known as Super Woman (Can you believe she was competing in 2 competitions and finished in the top 2 of both...at the same time?!).  She truly is not only talented, but full of grace...like her blog.  You should check it out!

Here she is with her lovely daughter to share their experience making zippered pouches.

Hello everyone! I am Catherine (and Emmie) and I blog over at cathgrace, where I pretty much do a bit of everything, but sewing is my ultimate passion! I am so excited to be over here at Daisy Chain Creations today, I think that Sowing While You Sew is such a lovely theme for a series!!! I have been sewing with my children (and more specifically my Daughter as soon as she showed a particular interest) for years now, and I think we have some of our loveliest conversations working side by side creating things. 

She was 8 when she started making clothes for her American Girl Dolls (I actually teach adults to sew using 18" dolls, since they can practice with commercial patterns, and any type of fabric that suits their fancy without any major traumas or financial loss if anything doesn't work out!)

This year Emmie got a sewing machine for Christmas, (I was tired of finding her in my seat sewing every time I got up to iron something!) And she cutout and pieced this entire quilt herself! (she's 10 now.) I helped with 50% of the machine quilting because she was very worried about ruining all her work with the quilting, so I would take turns with her every other square (I did all the squares that have plaid in them.)

For our Sowing While You Sew project, Emmie and I are making lined, zipper pouches. Emmie has never worked with zips before; so in addition to learning how to put in a zip, we will be working with french seams, full lining, and top stitching. 

Emmie measured and cut out all of her own fabric, after watching me cut out mine (my project is not really shown here until the end, it's a lot easier to photograph her while she does things.) 

 Emmie's squares are 10" x 10" and there are four 1.5" x 1.5" squares. We used fat quarters for this project, so Emmie could pick what ever 2 fabrics she wanted.

 I sewed all the steps first, one at a time for Emmie to watch, and then she repeated the step with her own project. 

The zip that Emmie ended up picking out  was a hidden zip, but we put it in so that the green showed, since that's actually why she picked out the zip in the first place. (I would generally recommend a regular zip for this, but we live in South Korea, and the color selection at our local store was fairly slim.)

Step one was to sew the small squares onto the ends of the zip, we sewed the outer fabric square and the zip right sides together, across the end at the correct finished zip length.  

 Next we sandwiched the zipper with the inner fabric small square, keeping the first seam on top and using it as a guide for the new seam. After both fabrics were sewn onto the zip, they were folded back and top stitched down.  

Here's what the finished zips look like with the fabric sewn to the ends, you can see that they are finished both front and back. The third image shows my zip in the line up too, since I have a different style zip then Emmie has, both of our's were trimmed to width in the last picture too. (The finished length on Emmie's zip with fabric is 10") 

Now we sewed down the length of the zips, using a zipper foot, with the outer fabric first, 

and then we added the lining fabric in the same fabric, zip, fabric sandwich that we did before, and sewed down the side again, using the first stitch line as a guide. (You can just do it all at once, but I like the stepped approach so there is less to control at once.) 

Finally we folded both fabrics back, and top stitched them away from the zip.

here's what the front and the back look like with the one side done for the left two pictures, and then on the right two pictures we folded up the outer fabric to the other side of the zip, and stitched in place. 

 Then we folded up the lining on the other side and sewed it down.

 Here's the shape that happens, sort of a double loop of wrong sides out. To turn the project, simply flip the outer fabric over the lining fabric. Top stitching this new side was a little tight, bit still doable with slow stitching and keeping control of all the fabric.

 At this point the bag can have several different options, the zip can be offset towards the top, in the center, or fully on the top of the pouch.

Emmie decided that she liked the offset towards the top look best, so we went with that one for both pouches. The top left picture has had the sides sewn down, RIGHT SIDES OUT. The top left has been trimmed closely, with a little less than 1/8". On the bottom left, Emmie decided she wanted her bag to have a wrist strap, so she added a piece of elastic, we set it down from the top a bit, so it didn't affect the corner. Then the final picture is the key to finishing the whole bag professionally, we turned the bag inside out, and sewed 1/4" seams down the side on the inside, making french seams, and hiding all the raw edges that were on the outside.

Finally we turned the bags right side out, and pressed them with a hot steaming iron. My bag is made in the exact same way as Emmie's, just slightly bigger, and with a ribbon tag rather than an elastic wrist strap.  

 Emmie is so proud of the work she put into this project, I think tackling a zipper was a big deal for her, and she loved the french seams. I think that adding the fabric ends on the zip, removes a lot of the problems that can arise from making a zippered bag, so she didn't have anything bulky in her seams to fight her, and was set up for success. 

Thank you so much for having us Sally, we had a lovely time working on this together, and have a whole bunch of new ideas, for what we want to do to embellish our next set of zippered pouches since we have the basics down now. There are a lot of small orphanages here in Korea, (children can be legally orphaned by divorce here) and we think that making some treasure bags for personal items could be a really nice project; and one that is totally doable for just the two of us in an orphanage with only 15-16 kids!   

Sowing While You Sew--Week 11 Yet Another Amazing Guest Blogger

It's Monday, so that means another amazing guest blogger.  This week it's Stacy from the Land of K.A. and her lovely daughter, Anya and they are making a tote bag. I love how Stacy still sews for her older children (she has a boy too).  She is one of the people that has inspired me to keep sewing for my 9 year old (I've given up my 12 and 14 year old boys as a lost cause).  I love her style and how she includes her children in that style!

 

If you are wanting to do something for charity, that is a little different, nursing homes take walker caddies, which are very similar to tote bags.  Really the only difference is that you put the straps on one side only and add velcro to the other.  Here is a tutorial for you, if you are so inclined.  Now on to our guest post...

Hello, Daisy Chain Creations readers! My name is Stacy and I blog at The Land of K.A. I have been blogging for probably 6 years or so, and my blog is some sewing, some cooking, some photography...it has evolved and changed over the years. Right now I have been pretty lax in my blogging (and sewing!), and I am hoping that changes soon. I am very glad Sally invited me to participate in this series. It has been fun to read and fun to finally get my daughter to sew something. Anya was really interested in learning to sew this time. This tends to be something we struggle with here. Sometimes she wants to learn and then she gives up in about 10 minutes. This project really allowed her to do a lot of the work and stay engaged. The straight lines on the tote bag are pretty easy to do for little kids. First, she picked out her fabric:

Then, we decided how big we wanted it to be. I marked with fabric chalk the line she needed to cut, so it was easier for her to see what she needed to cut:

She cut along the line:

I introduced her to French seams. I wanted her to use the sewing machine and not the serger, which doesn't have a "turtle" speed on it. In doing so, the edges needed to be finished in some way. First, we did the side seam, and then we did the bottom of the bag.

We just did one long strap, and I ironed the seams down for her before sewing. She sewed all the way around it, and then it was attached to the bag. I went over that whole, Don't-sew-over-your-pins-or-it-can-break-and-shoot-you-in-the-eyeball rule of thumb.

All done and she is very happy with it!

Now she wants to make some clothes. We shall see how that goes! Thanks, Sally for having me!

Thank you Stacy and Anya for stopping by!  I totally love the fabric choice for the bag...great job Anya!

Sowing While You Sew--Week 10--Another Talented Guest Blogger

Can I just tell you that I think the most fun for me in doing this series (besides sewing with my daughter--which I've been bad not blogging about, but I'm having camera issues), is seeing how all of these amazing bloggers pass on their love of sewing to their children.  This week we have yet another wonderful woman, Marnae, who is not only talented, but is juggling a newborn at the same time. So here she is...

Hi Daisy Chain readers...I'm Marnae from The Powell Family blog. I was excited when Sally asked me to participate in her series--it gave me an "excuse" (or the push I needed!) to sit down and sew some more with my son. His first project was when he was about 5. I found a vintage sewing panel of a dog and an angel at a yard sale--you know the ones that have the cutting lines, and you sew them up and stuff them?? I thought it was perfect first project (with help, of course) and he really enjoyed trying to do it himself, although I had to guide the fabric most of the time. In retrospect, probably not the best choice for a 5 year old :)

See the little yellow dog?? (among his other entries to the fair)

Then, last year, I helped him make a skirt for the "Skirting the Issue" drive at Simple Simon. He loved using the machine..even going so far as to call it fun..repeatedly. But, I admit, I am a perfectionist, and letting him sew independently (i.e guiding the fabric and working the presser foot)- is hard for me. But, I was determined to show more restraint..as in letting him (now age 8) make some mistakes..this time around.

I made some crocheted ear warmers for my girls a few weeks ago, and they were all so excited about them. So, of course, if one sibling has one, the others must have the same...or in this case a good equivalent substitution. Carter originally asked if he could have ear warmers too, but I steered him away from them and towards a fleece hat that we could make together. He was in!

I dug through my patterns and found 2 that could work. One was an adult/youth pattern and one was a child/toddler pattern. It was fun starting from the beginning and looking at the pattern together, reading the measurements, measuring his head, and then deciding what parts of each pattern would work best.

He was really involved in the decision process, although admittedly this was not his favorite part of the process ("Mom, when are we going to be done looking at this pattern and start sewing???") My sentiments exactly:) It was good for him though, to see how much prep actually goes into sewing: measuring, altering patterns, reading patterns, laying out fabric, pinning/positioning patterns,and cutting them out--all before you even turn on a sewing machine!

He was good to listen to me explain about the selvedge, lining up patterns properly with the grain etc...and even used selvedge in a sentence as we talked!! Anyway, once we finally got through the pattern, he cut out the pieces and we moved to the sewing machine.

I showed him what pieces needed to be sewn together (we talked about basting) and he got to pinning and sewing! I helped him a little, but he really did most of it on his own.

I love picking out stitches..really, I do...

Hat without band...so excited to try it on!

At first he was having trouble keeping the seam allowance even, but did much better after I put a piece of Washi Tape along the 1/2" marking. Quite a simple trick, but it did wonders for him--at least on the straight parts. The curves on the crown of the hat were still challenging for him. But, he learned another sewing lesson on those curves: how to pick out stitching. Which really is a huge part of sewing...well at least MY sewing:) When he finally started seeing everything

Blue solid side of finished hat

coming together, he got excited and wanted to hurry and see the finished product (like mother, like son I guess) It was a really great experience for both of us--it was fun to see him excited about something that I have come to love so much, and fun for me to spend some quality time with someone I love so much! He loves his hat too..and is happy to be wearing something that he sewed himself.

Red/blue contrast side of his reversible hat

The football pose

And by the way, his sister thinks she needs a hat too (of course)--"But in pink and purple, mom!)

Lobbying for a hat of her own...and wanting in on the photo shoot!

Sowing While You Sew--Week 9 Another Amazing Guest Blogger

(If you are new to this series you might want to check out the 'why' and the 'past entries')

Today, we have with us a wonderful blogger who I've admired for quite a while.  I love all of her creations and how she uses her skills to not only dress her children with style, but to make her home a better place.  She is one talented lady and I present her to you today:

Hello Daisy Chain Creations readers, I'm Rachel and I blog at nest full of eggs. Sowing While You Sew is such a great series, I'm so glad Sally invited me to contribute. You know, when I was growing up I learned many types of sewing skills (hand embroidery, cross stitch, machine sewing, quilting) during 4th and 5th grade summer school (which was free). I also took some sewing classes during Junior High School. Nowadays I don't think many schools offer these types of classes anymore, so if we want our children to know some basic sewing skills, like how to sew on a button, for example, we have to teach them ourselves. And what a perfect opportunity to do to some sewing projects together would be during those 3 long months off of school during the summer, just something to keep in mind when you're making those plans for the summer.

Anyway, today I'm going to share with you what I've done to teach my son how to sew.

Back when he was 4.5 years old, I cut out a piece of burlap from an empty rice bag, and placed it into an embroidery hoop.

 Besides sewing, I also knit, so I always have some yarn and a tapestry needle (thick blunt metal hand sewing needle) on hand.

 He took these tools and materials and hand sewed a yellow flower and white star.

 Fast forward 5 years to now when I recently told him: "I'm going to teach you how to sew. You can use my sewing machine." And my 9 year old son said: "Finally!"

The whole goal was to start out simple and teach him how to sew a straight line on the sewing machine ~ he started with a very easy instant gratification project called: canvas loose-leaf paper project.  It's such a great little project, it is simply sewing one red, then many blue straight lines on a small size rectangle canvas fabric. In the end you have a piece of fabric that looks like a piece of loose leaf paper!

The first couple of lines I placed a strip of yellow tape that he used as a guide...

 then the rest of the blue lines he used the edge of the presser foot as the guide. He quickly discovered that the harder he pressed on the foot peddle, the faster the sewing machine went and there were smiles and laughs when he went really fast!

 So after he got some practice done, it was on to the drawstring backpack. I wanted to make this fun for him, so I made sure to include his favorite colors. Solid yellow pima cotton fabric and red thread were used for this project. I also thought that a darker thread on a lighter fabric would make it easier to see what he was doing. This is a simple flat tote where the drawstrings are also shoulder straps. The 2 drawstrings are anchored in the lower corners and gather in the top hem channel. In case anyone is interested, this drawstring backpack is made out of only one piece of fabric cut 12"X32" and two cords that were cut 60" long. After sewing several straight lines, he was done! A drawstring backpack is a perfect beginner sewing project, I had no idea that it was so easy to make.

To add to the fun factor I made a teeny tiny sized drawstring backpack for his favorite tiger stuffed animal. 

 My son also created a LEGO sewing machine!

I gathered some resources that might be helpful with sewing a drawstring backpack:

• Make A Bag Chapter 3D: Drawstrings @ Ikat Bag
• Make A Bag Chapter 7: Unlined Flat Tote @ Ikat Bag
• Candy Corn Backpacks @ Ikat Bag
• DIY: How To Make A Drawstring Backpack @ Momtastic
• Drawstring Backpack DIY @ Punk Projects
• How to Sew a Drawstring Backpack @ Prudent Baby

Thanks so much for having me Sally! I look forward to the remainder of this series.

Gifts are for giving, so I encourage you to pass on your sewing skills onto your children. Have fun sewing with your kids!

Sowing While You Sew--Week 8 Skirts

This is the post where I usually give you a printable instructions sheet, but there are so many great tutorials out there, that I'd feel like I was kind of re-inventing the wheel.

So I want to come up with a good list of skirt tutorials that would be simple enough for beginner seamstresses to do.  If you have one you want to add, just drop me a note or comment and I'll add it to the list.

To start it off:

Lazy Day Skirt--Oliver & s

Circle Skirt--Dana Made

Then there is the simple gathered skirt with regular hem...same as lazy day skirt without the ribbon.

And then there is this one made from knit, so it might be a little more challenging.

I just folded a piece of knit in half, with one side being a little shorter.  On the fold, I made a casing in which to thread the elastic, so make sure you leave a little opening and sew it up after you put the elastic in.  The bottom hems, I just used a tight zigzag stitch and stretched it as I went to get the ruffle effect.  I would have them practice this a little before attempting it on the skirt.

Now do you have any suggestions?

As for the charity, the first thing that came to mind is Simple Simon's 'Skirting the Issue' challenge they did last year, with skirts being donated to go to foster children.

I'm kind of hoping they do it again this year.  I'll keep this updated with information about that.