Friday, April 24, 2009

Appliqué

Jumpers

Appliqué played a big role in my sewing career many years ago. I appliquéd fronts of jumpers/sweatshirts before sewing them up; selling all but a small quantity that I kept from the time my children were small.

I am aware of copyright when using images, hence why I could never sell appliqué created from images from children's books. They were fun to do for my children though.

I also did commissions as well with customers coming to me with an idea of what they wanted. Drawings were done and approved and then it was down to sewing business. I stopped counting the garments once I had reached one hundred. I often wonder if any of them were kept by their owners.

The process of these appliqués is done by drawing on a tear-away stabilizer, then baste it onto the wrong side of the garment fabric. I then pin around the drawn shape so that I can see the pin line on the front of the fabric. The pins are then used to guide me where to place my appliqué fabric so that I have less waste. Pin fabric in place then with a straight stitch, on the tear-away side, trace the shape with your sewing machine. You will then see on the right side of garment fabric, the shape of the appliqué that will then be trimmed back to the stitching. This is then finished with a satin stitch to tidy the cut edge, as well as cover the straight stitching. Once I am finished, I then remove the tear-away then sew up the garment.

Using t-shirt fabric for the appliqué fabric on fleece, I did use a light iron on stabilizer to make the t-shirt fabric easier to handle and not stretch out of shape. These garments were always tossed in the washing machine and as you can see, some are worse for wear than the appliqué itself. The garments received a lot of use.

With grandchildren now, I just may get a tutorial done for this blog in the near future.

Note: When appliquéing small areas, I build the pieces up  from back, coming forward.  An example is the arm of Popeye comes out of a sleeve, the arm does not sit on top. I build the layers so that the piece feels as if it has depth. I used terry towelling for the clowns hair so that it had more texture.

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Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Another Giveaway – Stitch Selection

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Image posted with permission from Stitch Selection

Mothers are special to us and with Mother’s Day fast approaching, we hope to be able to celebrate with them. Unfortunately my sister Lucky1 and I lost our mum many years ago. I thought it was a lovely gesture by my sister from Stitch Selection to have a Mother’s Day Give Away in honour of our mum, along with other mums that are no longer with their families, although I am sure they are in spirit.

Please do enter in my sisters giveaway and good luck! :D

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Monday, April 20, 2009

Tozz’s Corner - Giveaway

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Vicki who is the blog owner of Tozz’s Corner is having a giveaway.  I had intended getting this post up much sooner but was completely sidetracked.

Pop over to Tozz’s Corner and enter in Vicki’s 100th post giveaway as it is gorgeous. Even if you miss the giveaway, Vicki’s craft blog is worth a visit.

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Monday, April 6, 2009

A Tea Party

After such a big day yesterday at the Laura Folk Fair, these three girls each have a story to tell. While they wait for their tea to be served with scrumptious cucumber sandwiches, here is their tale.

Craft Dolls

One has had a bad hair day although her dress sense will pass muster and very happy to join Sue’s family.

The second is so busy doing her washing that she forgot to leave it behind and oh so sleepy from all her hard days work. Golly Sue did think she needed to rescue her from such a difficult life!

Now the sweetest of both, who’s name is Sugar Plum, well she was yet to be put together after being found by Sue. At an extra special price of 12 dollars, pattern, material, beads and hair, now lets face it, how could she resist.

Home Sue goes with her bounty of three girls, that she is sure in time will all get to know each other well.

Measure, cut, snip, tear, along with some stitching; hello Sugar Plum, welcome and please join the tea party!

Sugar Plum Doll

I do hope you have enjoyed meeting my little family.

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