The obligatory mother's day gift. From the latch-key craft that they teach you just to keep you occupied on rainy days to the carefully chosen card. They have all been well crafted, and usually heartfelt, but none were really my choice. I changed that this past year. By using one particular project I picked up on my own.
Making fleece scarves.
There are the scarves that I gave to various family members which are just 1/8 yard cut pieces of design covered fleece with the salvage edge cut up about five inches. Warm, comfy, and just a little bit shedding. I have no idea if any family member still has their quick gift.
For my Mum, however, I stepped up the game ones year: it was fleece sewn to silk with fringe trim on the ends.
Sewing these projects has always been a bit of a problem
First off: Silk and Fleece have dramatically different stretch.
Secondly: Fleece and Silk have dramatically different bulk.
Imagine trying to sew a washcloth to a piece of paper.
It doesn't necessarily stop you from getting the project done, but it does hinder many things.
When I was younger I made the scarves on my Great Grandmother's Sewing machine, which was mysterious and sat in my mother's cabinet most of the year. With that, I hardly know what I did to get the project done, besides cutting and sewing.
This time around on my lower end Janome, I encountered problems I had never seen on the machine I used growing up. The main problem being the fleece stretching out and getting longer as the project was sewn.
Obviously experienced sewist are going to cringe with the very notion that I didn't use pins. Yes, I tried sewing it completely without any pinning, at first. This in the past, and on that ancient machine, never caused a problem. I made many, many projects on that machine with little to no pinning. So my pinning skills were definitely lacking.
The next round, I tried pinning every few inches, this decreased the stretching, but left bunches at the next pin, or if I removed it, pushed the fleece to stretch just as if I hadn't pinned it.
Finally I broke down, I asked Uncle Google for the answer and found a link which talked about pinning the ever lasting dickens out of the fleece. So, that's what I did, in a methodical manner. Pinning each end, then one in the middle, sub-dividing each section as I went back and forth across the edge of the work. In the end, I had a pin about every 1/2 inch.
This made the silk and fleece move along together perfectly. Standard zig-zag foot and life was good.
Now, how did I actually construct the thing?
Almost exactly like a pillow.
I attached small segments of fringe to the short ends of the silk, right side to right side. Zig Zag stitch to hold it into place. Placed the fleece, right side down on the right side up silk. Pinning any stray fringe into the center and away from my stitch line. Pinned all the way around the fleece/silk, except one short end. I stitched around with a straight stitch, giving about a 1/2 inch seam, which on the long sides of the scarf I cut down after the sewing was finished, but before turning the project right side out.
Following turning the project right side out, I checked the fringe, freed it from it's pinned to the silk state, and folded up the open end, so that I could stitch it closed with the fringe hanging out. Following that, there was the top stitch around the whole thing, about a half inch in from the edges, so that the whole thing would remain a rectangle.
Photos Pending.
Making fleece scarves.
There are the scarves that I gave to various family members which are just 1/8 yard cut pieces of design covered fleece with the salvage edge cut up about five inches. Warm, comfy, and just a little bit shedding. I have no idea if any family member still has their quick gift.
For my Mum, however, I stepped up the game ones year: it was fleece sewn to silk with fringe trim on the ends.
Sewing these projects has always been a bit of a problem
First off: Silk and Fleece have dramatically different stretch.
Secondly: Fleece and Silk have dramatically different bulk.
Imagine trying to sew a washcloth to a piece of paper.
It doesn't necessarily stop you from getting the project done, but it does hinder many things.
When I was younger I made the scarves on my Great Grandmother's Sewing machine, which was mysterious and sat in my mother's cabinet most of the year. With that, I hardly know what I did to get the project done, besides cutting and sewing.
This time around on my lower end Janome, I encountered problems I had never seen on the machine I used growing up. The main problem being the fleece stretching out and getting longer as the project was sewn.
Obviously experienced sewist are going to cringe with the very notion that I didn't use pins. Yes, I tried sewing it completely without any pinning, at first. This in the past, and on that ancient machine, never caused a problem. I made many, many projects on that machine with little to no pinning. So my pinning skills were definitely lacking.
The next round, I tried pinning every few inches, this decreased the stretching, but left bunches at the next pin, or if I removed it, pushed the fleece to stretch just as if I hadn't pinned it.
Finally I broke down, I asked Uncle Google for the answer and found a link which talked about pinning the ever lasting dickens out of the fleece. So, that's what I did, in a methodical manner. Pinning each end, then one in the middle, sub-dividing each section as I went back and forth across the edge of the work. In the end, I had a pin about every 1/2 inch.
This made the silk and fleece move along together perfectly. Standard zig-zag foot and life was good.
Now, how did I actually construct the thing?
Almost exactly like a pillow.
I attached small segments of fringe to the short ends of the silk, right side to right side. Zig Zag stitch to hold it into place. Placed the fleece, right side down on the right side up silk. Pinning any stray fringe into the center and away from my stitch line. Pinned all the way around the fleece/silk, except one short end. I stitched around with a straight stitch, giving about a 1/2 inch seam, which on the long sides of the scarf I cut down after the sewing was finished, but before turning the project right side out.
Following turning the project right side out, I checked the fringe, freed it from it's pinned to the silk state, and folded up the open end, so that I could stitch it closed with the fringe hanging out. Following that, there was the top stitch around the whole thing, about a half inch in from the edges, so that the whole thing would remain a rectangle.
Photos Pending.
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