Category Archives: Sewing

Tracing Paper Troubles

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tracing1I had to take a break from making my wallet because the pattern has oodles of fold lines and guide dots that needs to be marked on the fabric. When I was doing redwork, I used a makeshift light-box to trace the designs on my fabric. That method won’t work with my printed fabric. I decided to use tracing paper to make sure I get the placement guides and fold lines in the right spots.

I have a pack of tracing paper that I bought about 1985. I used tracing paper a lot in them days. I sewed constantly back then making toys and clothes. I went to my old sewing box and got out my old tracing paper and my tracing wheels. I lined the tracing paper in the fabric and pattern. And began to trace a test spot… imagine my surprise when no line was on my fabric. I tried a dark color and again no marks.
Well, horse-feathers I reckon that after 3 decades my old tracing paper doesn’t work anymore. Imagine that? :/

Time to go shopping:
I went to 2 different department stores: they had fabric, patterns, pins, scissors, buttons and many other notions, but not nary a bit of tracing paper. ~bummer~

I know that sewing is a fairly big industry since so many folks are running home businesses selling homesewn bags, clothes, accessories, etc… A lot of patterns have fold lines and guides that needs to be marked or traced.  I think tracing paper is best for that task. I went online and nosed around to see what the sewers are using now-a-days. Well, I discovered that the favorite suggestions was to either use a long baste stitch along the pattern guides or take a sheet of paper and heavily scribble/color on it making it tracing paper; they did warn that it was awfully hard to remove the traced color lines from your fabric.
Um, nope… I don’t want to fight with removing color marks from my fabric. If the color lines won’t come off, the newly sewn project would be odd looking.
*I’ve always used a baste stitch for darts. However, I choose not to use basting stitches for marking oodles of fold lines and guides.

tracing2I shopped online and ordered some tracing paper. I had to wait for a few days for it to arrive.  Of course when I have to wait, I get sidetracked with other projects. Finally, the tracing paper arrived, but I haven’t used it yet.  At least it’s on hand whenever I need it. Hopefully, I’ll have an updated sewing post on my wallet soon.

Do you use tracing paper or something else for guides, fold lines or darts on patterns, when you sew?

Do you have problems finding supplies for your crafts and creations in your area or do you have to order them online like me?

Wishing you all much success in your creative projects.

*Just an added note here:
I haven’t finished my redwork project. I stopped working on it in early 2014. I put it away until I’m ready to work on it again. I hope to get back to it and finish it someday.

Sewing & Juicing

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Except for doing repairs and making some adjustments, I haven’t sewn anything in a while. I’ve been in the mood to make a wallet or clutch or coupon keeper or whatever you’d like to call it. I chose this pattern ‘McCalls Fashion Accessories M6768’. I’m making the yellow wallet in the pattern photo; mine’s going to be greens & beiges. I’m going to attempt to go by the pattern as close as possible. It’s a real challenge for me to follow a pattern because I always want to make changes (and complicate things.) I hope this wallet works out okay. I’ll post an update and let you know if I made it or tossed it away.

P1030970Last evening, I had a brainstorm of an idea for my tomato juice. If I freeze it in water bottles, it’ll take up less space and can be thawed out for drinking and/or cooking just like the juice frozen in the bowls. My husband liked the idea too. So today after I made and cooled the tomato juice, I poured it in bottles and set it in the freezer. Hopefully it’ll do just fine.
*I’m going to edit this photo into my tomato juicing post as another idea for freezing containers.

That’s all for me at the moment.

I hope you all have an enjoyable rest of the week.

2015 WP Weekly Photo Challenge – ROY G. BIV

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2015
WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge
~ROY G. BIV~

When our Grandson, was old enough to climb out of his playpen, we bought him a new twin size bed. We set it up, put on new sheets, but we didn’t have a comforter set for it yet.

I immediately wanted to make a quilt for the bed. My Mom was always quick to make new quilts for new beds or new folks. It took me a couple of days to search for a pattern and I didn’t like any of the ones I found. In the tradition of my Mom,  I sat down and designed my own special pattern for our Grandson’s quilt.

I decided to go with a lake theme in honor of all the fishermen in our families. The fish are all the colors of the rainbow except blue. I decided to use the blue for the background representing a water in lake.

I was amazed at how easily my pattern went together. It turned out quite well.

Here’s the picture of the quilt top before I quilted it.
rainbowlake1lgI think Every special quilt needs a story with it and here’s the one that I made up for our Grandson.
The pinwheels in each corner represent the propeller of a boat.
In the 1st boat is Grandson and his Dad (our son)
In the 2nd boat is Grandpa & Grandma (me & my husband)
In the 3rd boat is his Mom and other Grandparents (his Mom’s parents)
In the 4th boat he could pretend that anyone he wanted to be in it. Sometimes he chose his sometimes his cousins, sometimes his friends, sometimes the power rangers, sometimes his aunts and/or uncles. His favorite was when he pretended that his and our puppy dog and/or kitty cat was in it. lol

The story line took on many different aspects and adventures as our Grandson got older, but basically the story is:
The quilt story is ‘Rainbow Lake’. We all are in our boats on a fishing trip. We have a wonderful time and our Grandson always catches all the fish. 😉

I know it’s a simple story and some folks might find it quite silly, but it has always been such fun watching and listening to our Grandson pretending about our imaginary fishing trips.

Back to my mention of our planning to take our Grandson shopping for a comforter set for his new twin size bed, well, he loved the Rainbow Lake quilt so much that he didn’t want a store bought comforter. I was so surprised and tickled pink. It sure did my heart good to see him so happy about a quilt that I made for him.

Here’s the quilt set all finished.
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I quilted the quilt on my sewing machine.
I used a low pile poly batting.

I made the dust ruffle a darker blue because the water in a real lake seems darker near the bottom. I made the pillow sham the same color as the dust ruffle to pull the set together, so-to-speak.

The set washes up beautifully.
It’s been washed regularly over the years and it’s colors has held up wonderfully.

It’s been about 12 years since I made the quilt and up until this past weekend, our Grandson still didn’t want a store bought comforter set… even though we’d put a full size bed in his room a few months ago and gave his twin to his little cousin. He still loved the quilt and the story that goes with it. I kept the quilt on the bed as a comforter even though it was way too short on the sides and looked quite goofy.

After much searching, I found a full size comforter that I thought our Grandson might like. It’s solid gray with geometrical lines and has matching striped sheets. I gave it to him this weekend and he was quite pleased with it.

Our Grandson still loves his Rainbow Lake quilt and it’ll always be here for him. I hope someday in the far far far future to give it his child. I do hope that they enjoy it as much and we have. There’s alot of special memories in that Rainbow Lake.

Wishing you all beautiful memories of rainbows and smiles.rainbow

The theme for this week challenge is ROY G. BIV. The first thing that came to my mind to share was about the Rainbow Lake quilt. I went back in my old files trying to find my original unedited photos, but I couldn’t find them, so I had to use old edited ones. I edited the photos to make them bigger and that explains the lower quality. For this challenge I hope the story helps makes up for the photo quality.

 ~*~*~*~

Wishing you all fun with the WP photo challenge!z00m

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Attention Computer Techs & Crafters – I have a question

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I’m thinking about making a fabric handbag/tote large enough to carry my kindlefire 8.9. I’m playing with the idea of making a flap with a magnetic closure to keep one of the large pockets closed.
I hesitate to use the magnetic closures because I thought that magnets tend to cause electronic devices (like computers or phones) problems and could damage them.
However, my kindlefire cover/case that I bought through Amamzon has magnets in the edges to keep it shut. Also, If I’m not mistaken when I close the cover, the magnets in the edges turn the kindlefire off somehow or another.

I decided to post this question and see if any of you folks have any thoughts on if the magnetic closures would damage an electronic handheld device like a phone or tablet.

I look forward to hearing any thoughts you may have bout this.

Happy Crafting!

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