practice…

2 whole pieces pinned – look closely and you’ll see tiny puckers I just couldn’t get unpinned – pins gave me a fit

cross grain stretch

with-the-grain stretch

The machine’s back, and it’s time to put the foot on the pedal and get started.  Meanwhile, that cotton/lycra knit remnant from earlier in the week is washed, ironed, and on the board to be cut out.

Remembering The Great British Sewing Bee (TGBSB) comments, I pinned the life outta the 2 pieces to be  cut.  Took a long time because the pins all seemed dull. Better get new ones, and toss these vintages away.

This knit has 4-way stretch, which means it stretches on the grain and across the grain. (Tried to show this with 1 hand, while taking the photo with the other.) Although I’m not entirely pleased with the final layout, it’s the best I could do with the pins available at the time. Onward!

combination of projects for today… see the white rickrack? leftovers from last summer’s skirt… and a second towel for hanging!

Got the zigzagging done on the rest of the summer dress.

Finally time to play/practice.  With all the decorative stitches finally at my fingertips, I decided to start with them, as part of a project on hold since I moved into my current teeny kitchen, with no place to hang hand and dish towels.

I don’t use bias tape much, so didn’t have much in my stash. However, had a bit of green that seemed to match some green pumpkins on a hand towel well enough.  Time to start improvising!

There’s a bar-type handle across the stove that’s right next to the sink. It’s close, which is why any towel I put there winds up on the floor very quickly. But with a couple of ties, that wouldn’t happen. So…

Measuring off 24”  the single fold bias tape then folding it in half, I stitched the ends together and tried to decide which decorative stitch to use. Why use 1 when there’s room for 2, one of each half of the tape? That became 4 when I made the other tie.

Discoveries along the way ~

• Keeping the 2 sides of the single fold tape together whilst doing decorative stitches ain’t easy.
• On the second one, I stitched down the binding on each side before doing decorative stitches in the middle.
• If you’re trying to hit a design (like the center of these strips), finding out what part of the design the stitch begins is key.  I didn’t get these centered!

Much more practice needed.

matches? close enough!

2 more practices – straight, but not very centered

finally a towel that won’t immediately land on the floor!