Sewing the Straight and Narrow

Pre and Post- sewing solutions

Full disclosure here: I am by no means an excellent seamstress. Yeah, I've done some really nice projects, like footie pajamas and aprons but most of the time I start guessing the correct way to do things and I'm sure I end up breaking several unspoken sewing commandments.

 I always tell my fiancé that sewing is like driving- just press the pedal and steer straight. Well, to tell the truth if a sewing machine were a car I'd be pulled over doing field sobriety tests just pulling out of the driveway.

Thats right- I don't sew a straight line all that well  And most of the time, you wouldn't notice. I barely even noticed myself. Usually I'm sewing pajamas or other simple projects like aprons for my nieces with wide seam allowances with nothing in the project that amplifies my impairedness. So when I chose to make an optical illusion quilt (from this book), I learned just how drunken I seemed at the helm of my machine.

The quilt I chose requires sewing several long strips together, then cutting those blocks into strips and sewing them together another way. Some of these strips are nice and wide and quite forgiving to small errors. However, some of the strips are as small as 3/4". With 1/4" seams on both sides. Even taking too big of a breath while sewing can show on these areas of the blocks. 

The book has really good descriptions on how to cut very straight strips (another thing I didn't realize I did unsuccessfully).  It's a little tedious, but certainly plays into getting straight seams.

For sewing a straight seam, the author suggests using mole tape to guide your seams, placing it 1/4 inch from the seam.  However, I didn't want to go looking for mole tape (although it's probably easy to find at a pharmacy).  I was also afraid of it making my machine sticky or marking it, as well as the inconvenience of removing it and putting it on again if I changed projects (looks like I finally accepted the fact that my projects take me uh, just a little longer than planned, and maybe other things would get thrown in there in the meantime).

Needle moved over- you can see it doesn't line up with the red center mark anymore

My fiancé's mom suggested I use masking tape at the 1/4 inch mark, since it wouldn't mark my machine and I wouldn't need to remove it.  I tried this, but still didn't seem to get a very straight seam, since I couldn't really see the edge of the tape all the time.

Another suggestion from my fiancé's mom was to move the needle.  Sure enough, with a piece of graph paper I was able to determine that I needed to move my needle over 2.5 to the right to get a 1/4 inch seam along the edge of the plate.  For a little extra speed, I use my finger to help guide the seams.

Hopefully I'll have a completed project before we need a blanket again...

What tricks do you use to ensure straight, narrow seams?

A Stitch In Time

This past weekend was our county fair, and Saturday I had lots of free time to go around to the arts and crafts exhibits (which I'm sure my boyfriend was glad to get out of this year, as I was equally glad to not be drug on to the next exhibit before I was done gawking at admiring the intricate and beautiful work submitted).

The sheer amount of entries and the quality of the work is absolutely amazing.  To know that there is this much talent in our community is just amazing.  And the work is inspiring, because most of the pictures submitted are by amateurs, and most of the quilts, baked goods, and other crafts are done just as hobbies.

As I strolled through the quilts, I came across the most moving and interesting quilt I've seen yet.  (I apologize that I didn't snap a photo of the quilters' names, so if you recognize the work and know the quilter, by all means please let me know so I can give credit).  These woman really put a new spin on the t-shirt quilts that have been hitting the scene.

The story about the quilt was printed next to it (again I didn't happen to snap a picture so I don't have all the details)- the quilt was made from shirts and the inspirations left by a gentleman who lost his battle to cancer, but not without touching many lives.  A group of women put together this quilt for his son, incorporating t-shirts, button-up shirts, the collars to shirts, and the pockets to shirts.  The quilt was truly inspired by this man's spirit, but the one thing that drew me to the work was the quilting- the women stitched quotes from this gentleman, and (what initially made me notice the quilt and read the story) hands.

These women stitched the hands of people whose lives this man had touched, and sewed the cuffs of his shirts at the wrist.

At the end of the fair I was left inspired by two amazing ideas: fried cookie dough (the best of both worlds- warm, gooey chocolate chips and soft, doughy goodness) and the stitching on this quilt.  I became obsessed with this idea, and after talking about it for the past two days, I came up with another idea, one I'm planning on doing with my sister-in-law for my nieces.  We are going to trace the girls' hands every year (or maybe even using some of the rough tracings they'll make of their own hands in a few years), as well as saving some of their shirts to make a quilt showing them as they've grown.

Unfortunately, we're going to have to wait about 16 years to see the results, but maybe someone out there has copies of traced hands from their own children and would like to do this with them (which I'd love to see).

Another meaningful keepsake would be to stitch several children's/grandchildren's hands, one way to avoid waiting 18 years to make a beautiful quilt.

What are the most meaningful keepsakes have you made or received?