Some small progress

I am slowly getting my quilt quilted.  It is taking me MUCH LONGER than I anticipated to finish this quilt.  I am a bit more than half way done, but ran into the problem of the backing shifting on me.  I laid out the quilt again and repinned it, ugh!  But, it is still shifting a bit.  I will keep working on it between chauffeuring duties.  My children have had camps at opposite ends of the county this week.

In the meantime, I did get my pillows finished.  I have two square European pillows for the bed that we use to lounge on while we read or watch a movie.  I wanted to get new covers made for those.  Originally, I had thought to use flower prints that I made in the main quilt, but as I got started and was laying the quilt out on the floor I decided that I did not like them mixed in.  Having the flower prints mixed in the main quilt made it too busy looking for my taste.  We have a very spare and modern house, somewhat Scandinavian in feel, so I like spare looking pieces.  So as not to waste the prints, I used two of them in the pillows.  These are prints that I made late last summer.

I used the prints in the middle of the pillow top, and then used the scraps I had left from the quilt to surround them in the log cabin type of layout.  I then sewed them onto a cotton muslin and then made the pillows from this fabric. To fasten the back, I reused the buttonbands from two white shirts.   I know that the fabrics don't match exactly, but the button bands are on the back of the pillows and will not be seen.  Plus, as an "old fashioned" quilter, I prefer to use "old" materials rather than buy new, plus I hate making buttonholes and these served me well.

Finally, I then sewed the binding on around the pillows.   I do admit I bought new fabric for the binding.  Otherwise, I already had the white fabric for the pillows and quilt back left from another project from years ago when I was lining curtains.  And, the shirts were damaged ones from my husband in one of our favorite colors, blue.  (yes, I know, how boring to have the same favorite color as most other people on the planet, but I can't help but love the color of the sky and the deep blue sea!)  Here are the pillows in place, just calling me to use them to finish my latest read, The Language of the Hive by Laurie King.  (Here is a plug for these books.  I don't usually read mysteries anymore, especially since Dick Francis passed away, but I found this intriguing looking book in the new section of my library and looked it over.  The premise is that Sherlock Holmes has retired to the country and meets a very smart teenager and takes her on as an apprentice.  The teenager grows into a young woman named Mary Russell, and comes of age just as WWI begins.  These books are fun, well written, and witty.  I decided to start with the first of the series rather than the one I found in the new book section.  If you are interested, the first book is The Beekeeper's Apprentice.)

Now, back to sewing on my quilt.

New Quilt

Well, I have fallen well short of my goal to post about redoing my wardrobe.  I should have known I would.  I have to say I do lack a certain discipline when it comes to work.  I work better under hard deadlines.  I also have a tendency to jump around.  I am always amazed at those people that can work with singular determination and concentration on one subject, be it quilting, painting or a particular field of study such as genetic algorithms.  I get, not so much bored, as worn out and needing a change of venue rather than sticking to one thing with single mindedness.

But I digress.  The point being, I have not worked on any wearables in weeks.  The end of the school year is upon me.  I worked all week in the school doing end of year kind of activities with different grades, I have run my son here and yonder to soccer practice, and have tried to get a few things together to send to school for end of year parties and other such things.  I have one more full day of school which gives me one more full day to myself, then summer is here.  I will have little time for weaving or quilting, and will spend a lot of time in the car shuffling children to camps.  I won't miss having to get up at the crack of dawn to get lunches ready and drive to school.  I love a slower pace.  My daughter sure won't mind the longer mornings, she is a little night owl who hates to go to bed and hates to get up early.

In the meantime, I ordered new sheets for our bed, something I haven't bought in years.  The old ones were wearing out, so I replaced them with linen sheets.  Summer is almost here and our down comforter is just a bit too hot to sleep under.  Last year I decided I would make a quilt for our bed and started cutting up old dress shirts that my husband had worn out and that I had been stashing away for a couple of years.  The pieces then sat for a while until last month, motivated by my new sheets I started cutting out pieces again.

 I had seen a beautiful pillow in a magazine years ago made by a quilter named Richard Killeaney.  He was featured in Organic Living magazine years ago, and I cut out the article and saved it.  The magazine went defunct years ago, but is now reincarnated as Motherearth Living magazine.  You can read the article online here,  and here is the photo that got me started thinking about a men's shirt quilt.

The pillow sitting on top of the stack is made from men's shirts.  I loved the look and it stuck in my mind as a project that I might someday get around to doing.  Once I started to think about the quilt, I searched for images online and found another image of a quilt he had done with men's shirts.   I thought this quilt was stunning.  So I set out to make something similar with the shirts that I had onhand.  You can find more of Richard's work here. 

I cut out 3 inch strips from all the dress shirts I could find, my husband's and my son's.  For a california king quilt I used 10 men's shirts and two boy's shirts.  I ended up sewing it into two sections.  The quilt is about 93 inches long and 105 inches wide (42 strips 2.5 inches wide once sewn together).
Once I had the two sections sewn I laid them out on the floor and found that the one that I had just thrown together was pretty much square, and the one I had started with and sewn with care was totally skewed.  I had already spent two weeks trying to get the quilt top put together, now I had to spend two days taking it apart and two more days getting it square.  I finally got it somewhat square and then search the internet for the best way to put the thing together.  The suggestion was to lay it out and tape it to the floor.  So that is what I did.  I vacuumed the floor, because goodness knows it wasn't clean, and then used a tape measure and string to lay it out square.

Once done with that I put the wool batting on top and spread it out evenly and neatly, and finally I spread out the backing which is a plain cotton cloth.

Finally, to hold it all together, I had purchased 300 quilting safety pins for the job.  I ran out about 3/4 of the way through and had to scrounge for more around the house, but it finally got together.

Now, I am finally quilting the thing.  I thought about having someone else do it on a long arm machine, which may have been a good idea.  But, I didn't want to wait for someone else to get around to quilting it, and I didn't really want to shell out the money to have it done.   I have to admit my quilting skills with something this big are not too good.  I have a bunch of not to straight lines.  Managing a quilt this big in a regular sewing machine  is challenge.  But I am sure that I am the only one (at least I hope so) that is going to realize where all the goofy lines are.  

 At this point, I am almost halfway done.  I have quilted in the ditch, and then down the middle of the stripes.  Next, I will take it to pick out a binding fabric.  I will post the photographs of it when I am done and it is on the bed with my lovely new indigo sheets.

Another Reason to Make My Clothes

I have been aware of unfair wages and poor working conditions among factory workers overseas for a while.  However, the most recent fire in Bangladesh really brings the point home.  The average worker in Bangladesh makes $37 for about 400 hours of work per month.  That works out to 9 1/4 cents per hour and working about 14 hours a day 6 days a week.  So, the clothing that we see at all those big box stores are coming on the backs of these poor souls working in these horrid conditions.  I am as guilty as the next person of wanting a good deal.  And, I admit that mainly I started sewing because I couldn't find clothes that fit me well and the ones that I loved were outrageously expensive.  I figured I could sew them to fit me and with better quality fabric than what I could buy.  I also have to say, I am less likely to give something up that I have labored over and sewn myself.  I am more likely to hold on to it and revamp it.

A friend mentioned the other day that it is funny that so many of us worry about where our food comes from and that we should buy local and organic, but many of these same people have never thought about where their clothing comes from.  Another trend I heard about lately is Haul videos up on Youtube.  These are videos made mostly by teenage girls that describe all the clothing that they have bought in their latest shopping hauls.  There are now over 700,000 of these videos on Youtube now, and some of these girls are now getting paid to make videos as a job for retailers.  When these girls should be out exploring all kinds of things in their high school years such as art, music, sports, and craft.  They are out buying as a hobby.  I do love to shop also, but I hope to instill the idea of how to make your own in my children and to have them think about where the item comes from and how it was made.  

Here is a photo from our recent trip.  In this photo, my daughter is wearing a skirt that I made from fabric that I bought a few years ago.  (There must have been a bit of wind, because it fluffed out like a bell!)  I am wearing my $4 goodwill jeans.  I often purchase jeans from goodwill, looking for jeans that fit.  I then bring them home and modify them.  These pants had bell bottoms which I detest.  I cut them down and installed jean zippers, and for $8 I had skinny leg jeans that I love.  

Here is to ingenuity and a little elbow grease!

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"New" skirt

We went to Spain last week for our children's spring break.  It was a lovely trip through the northwest countryside of Spain.  We decided to give our son a special trip for his 12th birthday.  He will only be at home a few more years, and my husband decided that while the kids still enjoy our company and before the teenage years we would give him the trip of his dreams.  He loves soccer, so we went to see his favorite soccer team,  Real Madrid, play in their home stadium.

I find it really difficult not to want something new to wear when taking a trip.  However, I had my pledge of buying no new clothing.  So, I dumped out my basket of knit fabrics and found two old t-shirts that my son has long outgrown and decided to make myself a skirt, a la Alabama Chanin.  I don't really know why we had two of his t-shirts of the same color, but lucky for me we did.  I used the short skirt pattern from her new book Alabama Studio Sewing and Design.  I didn't have quite the amount of fabric I needed, so it was shorter than I really wanted it, but I think it turned out well.  I used the grey t-shirt fabric for the top layer, and some white t-shirts that we were got free at a soccer game in DC from Geico.  I figured no one is going to know look at the lining fabric and see any of the print on the shirts.
Although I did not buy any clothing in Spain (although my husband bought me a locally woven scarf), I did buy some shoes.  Here are a pair of Visalis, which are incredibly comfortable.  Excuse the photo and my severe expression, my son, the budding fashion photographer is at school, so I took the best one I could using the timer.  The shirt I am wearing is one that I bought last year, again just before a trip, from a used clothing store here.  I am not so enamored of the color, I bought it mainly for the design which I thought I could copy.  I have yet to copy it, but...

I know that a few people have complained about the hems curling a bit on these skirts, so to stop that, I embroidered and beaded a border at the hem to give it a bit of interest.  I did most of the embroidery work in the plane on the way over, and in the car while we were there.

I love the designs from Nathalie Chanin.  They are comfortable, easy to wear, and really travel well.   They are easy to pack and look great.   Here I am on a street in Barcelona with my daughter.  We are both sporting our Alabama Chanin skirts that I made just before our trip.  

Flower Necklace Finished

I stumbled across a beading book in the library not long ago called Diane Fitzgerald's Favorite Beading Projects.  My nine year old daughter has gotten into jewelry making and I sometimes look at these books to see if she would be interested.  So far, she has not been interested in any of the books that I have shown her.  She goes her own way, which is probably best anyway.  However, I fell in love with many of the projects in the book.  I thought I would never get into beading, and probably still really will never do more than a couple of projects, but I fell in love with one of the necklaces and decided I had to have it.  It is called the Sea Urchin necklace, although I find the results look more like flowers than sea urchins.  It uses Czech dagger beads, which are not easy to come by, as I soon found out.  I went to the local bead store and they said they rarely carried them.  I then turned to the internet and finally found them at York Novelty Imports in New York City.  They mainly import Czech glass beads, and what lovely beads they are.

Anyway, I made the flowers and tried to make the necklace as outlined in the book, but found the weight of the flowers too heavy for the cord that was suggested.  The cord suggested was black braid,which I didn't like with the beautiful green beads.  Instead, I went to the fabric store and bought some velvet ribbon and thick cording.  I covered the cord in the ribbon, and mounted the flowers onto the ribbon.

To fasten the necklace, I made a loop and used a button that I had in my stash.

I bought some blue dagger beads also.  I am trying to decide whether or not to make a blue version of this necklace or try something different.  But, I am pleased with this result of my first foray into beading.  It is not something I will do much of, but it is nice to be able to make something so unique for yourself, and out of beads that come from my husband's father's country.

Trenchcoat: Finished except for lining!

I finally finished the main part of my trench coat yesterday.  It has been a bit of a long slog, and a couple of times I almost gave up.  But, I persevered and I am pleased with the result.  I have a few little details to finish, but I will show those in a minute.  Just so you can see, here is what I started with, the original trench coat, a large shapeless coat with raglan sleeves.

Here is the front of the almost finished coat.  It is a 3/4 length coat now, with a more fitted bodice, but with enough ease for me to wear a sweater underneath.

I did not have enough fabric from the old coat for the complete redo, so I used some fabric from a pair of my father's old wool pants.  I took all the good wool pants and jackets from my parents' house when we cleaned out after they passed away.  I have it all stashed back.  I put piping in the princess seams front and back as a border between the different fabrics, and I also put fancy braid behind the collars and pockets. 

I had three buttons which were handmade that I used.  I have had these in my stash for years and I am glad I found the place for them.  

I embroidered the lapels on the jacket using Mokuba embroidery ribbon.  Unfortunately, I ran out of ribbon, so I am trying to find more so I can finish the coat.  I have the back collar to finish and the cuffs.  There is very little fabric left from the original coat.  I am really pleased with the result.

Today I hope to finish the jacket lining.