I finished the easter t-shirts.

Both designs are from here. Miss P’s is crooked, but there was no way I was unpicking it and trying again!

This egg turned out to be very squat.

I’ve gone back to basics: drawn my design on a piece of graph paper (the right size) and then digitised it.

This new design is slightly too big for one hooping –  hopefully this will mean the pieces won’t be so fiddly.

Both girls have decided they don’t want my egg design for their easter t-shirts, so I’ve let them look through my design collection.

Miss P picked this one …

And Miss A this one …

I finished the cushion for Miss P.

I was a bit disappointed with how the frill on the edges turned out. I should have sewn the zig zag bits from the front and used the seam joining the frill strips as a guide. Also, the pattern has two different dimensions for the back (one for the frill and one without), but as luck would have it I cut the back too small and then had to add bits. If I had read the instructions through completely this would have been obvious, but the second set of dimensions is only mentioned in one small spot (certainly not in the list of materials), which I think is poor form on the part of the patter writer. However, I do like how the frill is constructed.

I’ve finished the front of the dino cushion. The applifix worked really well and I will use it instead of vliesofix in the future.

For this applique I used normal machine cotton (last time I used embroidery thread), a blanket stitch (on my machine Mode 2, 35) and a width and length of 1.5mm.

My applifix finally arrived from here, so I’m back onto the dinosaur cushion. Miss P picked the fabric – the ladybird fabric is for the body and the other one for the spiky bits.

It is very humid today and the idea of using an iron is extremely unappealing so I don’t think there will be much progress on this project – maybe some more sock.

]]> http://sewwitty.com/2012/02/02/dino-cushion/feed/ 1 http://sewwitty.com/2011/11/29/another-christmas-card-2/ http://sewwitty.com/2011/11/29/another-christmas-card-2/#comments Tue, 29 Nov 2011 06:34:14 +0000 SewWitty http://sewwitty.com/?p=1364

This is my final card. The design is from here.

Just adding the design rather than trying to cover the front with fabric seemed to work better – not as crinkly.

So I am continuing in my efforts to get these cards right.

Yesterday (when I should have been doing something else) I came across a tutorial on Urban Threads for making a card using machine applique, but they don’t stitch out the satin stitched edges – genius! The satin stitching is always do dense the fabric puckers and it always looks a bit too perfect – I prefer a less perfect more home made look.

This morning I stitched the above flower card (using this design). I stitched out the applique placement line, placed the fabric on the design, changed thread to a matching colour and stitched out the applique tack down line. I then skipped the satin stitched borders. I much happier with this look – it wouldn’t work on anything that needs to be hard wearing..

I’m still refining these cards. The first thing I’m trying to do is work out the best way of attaching them to the card stock. The embroidery tends to pucker the background fabric a bit and then I get crinkles when I sew the fabric to the card.

I could stabilise  more, but I don’t want the fabric section to be too thick – water soluble stabiliser perhaps? And then I really need to decide if it is worth all of this effort.

Another Christmas card. The design is from here.

I’ve finished the cushion for Miss A.

A few things I discovered; vliesofix is fabulous, but there must be a cheaper way of buying it,  a finer blanket stitch was best (Mode 2 36 on my Janome 6600p), as the envelope style backing is quite generous a button is not required.

Here is a closer look at the applique…

I like the way the frill (extra bit around the edge of the cushion is created. Once the cushion cover has been assembled, turned right side out and pressed, you sew just inside the border seam.