sew more, faster: HSTs

So while my mom was here last weekend, she showed me this awesome trick for making a bunch of half square triangles and fast. Using triangles to make HSTs can get messy due to the bias cut. I am sure most of you know how to make them using squares sewing 1/4" on each side of the diagonal. But this method was new to me. You start out with your squares like the other method.

I compiled a list of what size square to start with to achieve a certain finished HST size. Some of them may have been a little more accurate if measured to the nearest 1/16" in, but the nearest 1/8"in should get you pretty darn close.

For finished size:      Cut:

1.0"                          1 7/8"

1.5"                          2 5/8"

2.0"                          3 3/8"

2.5"                          4"

3.0"                          4 3/4"

3.5"                          5 1/2"

4.0"                          6 1/8"

4.5"                          6 7/8"

5.0"                          7 5/8"

5.5"                          8 1/4"

6.0"                          9"

So next, sew 1/4" seam around all four edges of the squares right sides together.

If you pivot at the corners, your open seam pressing later will be much easier. Finish the last side off by crossing over your initial seam.

Here is the finished square with all four sides sewn.

Cut on both diagonals using the 45 degree line on your ruler and your rotary cutter. 

And shazam! You have 4 HSTs that need zero to minimal trimming and require just a little zippy sewing. Hope this is helpful! I used this method while making my next Farmer's Wife block (number 7 in the book) and my 1.5" HSTs turned out perfect!

Happy sewing!

Envelope Pillow Tutorial

This week was not a good sewing week for me. I didn't get much done, at all. But! I did have an opportunity to churn out one of the curves class projects that I was most excited to do. Here is my clamshell pillow.

Yes, I bit the bullet and cut up some of my Good Folks scraps. I have so little left at this point but, I figured if the Good Folks quilt was going to live out on the couch, a pillow to accent it would just be lovely. I also hugely stepped out of my comfort zone with the background color. I LOVE neutrals, but this pillow insisted that it needed a color to really create a pop.

I am still pretty new to pillows, but I have learned that I love the envelope method. Why? Because you can change out pillow covers with tons of ease, no messing with zippers, and you pillows still have a gorgeous, clean, finished look.

The pillow I had to cover was 19" from seam to seam, so my measurements will be based on that. However, if you scroll down, I have created a table that should help you create the right size pillow cover for many pillow sizes. Hopefully that helps!

Ok, here we go. For my 19" pillow, I cut the front into a 19.5" square. This would allow me a quarter inch seam on all sides. For the backing, I cut two rectangles measuring 15.5 x 19.5".

Here is where you adjust these measurements based on your pillow size. If you are covering an existing pillow and you aren't sure how big it is, use a flexible measuring tape to measure from seam to seam. 

If you have a:

10" pillow - front:10.5" square

                    back: two rectangles 10.5 x 6"

11" pillow - front: 11.5" square

                    back: two rectangles 11.5 x 7"

12" pillow - front: 12.5" square

                    back: two rectangles 12.5 x 8"

13" pillow - front: 13.5" square

                    back: two rectangles 13.5 x 9"

14" pillow - front: 14.5" square

                    back: two rectangles 14.5 x 10"

15" pillow - front: 15.5" square

                    back: two rectangles 15.5 x 11"

16" pillow - front: 16.5" square

                    back: two rectangles 16.5 x 12"

17" pillow - front:17.5" square

                    back: two rectangles 17.5 x 13"

18" pillow - front: 18.5" square

                    back: two rectangles 18.5 x 14"

19" pillow - front: 19.5" square

                    back: two rectangles 19.5 x 15"

20" pillow - front: 20.5" square

                    back: two rectangles 20.5 x 16"

Ok, now that your pieces are cut, fold over one edge on each back piece 1/2" with you iron. This should be an edge that measure the same length as the front on your pillow (i.e., on mine, it was a 19.5" edge). One you have these edges pressed, run a top stitch (in a matching color) on the right side of the fabric about 1/4" away from the pressed edge to lock it in place. These will be the edges that show on the outside of your pillow.

Now, lay out the front of your pillow, right side up. Match the raw edge of one backing piece to a side of your front piece, wrong side up (see below).

Notice the hemmed seam is in the middle of the pillow rather than matching a raw edge. This is important! Now, lay the second backing piece the same way on the opposite side of your front piece. Raw edge to raw edge and wrong side up. 

Before you start pinning, be sure you have right sides together and that neither of the hemmed seams are touching an outside edge.

Ok, pin alllll the way around. 

And now sew around all four sides, backsitching when you start and when you stop. Make sure you don't leave any holes as this does not need to be turned right side out through a raw edge. I also like to pivot at the corners (see picture below) rather than start and stop at each to maintain the integrity of the seam. 

Once you have finished sewing the four sides, you can turn your pillow right side out through the envelope enclosure in the back and, you have a nice new pillow cover!!

Im so happy to finally have such a great pop of color on my boring white couch!

Camera Strap Tutorial

I looove my Anna Maria Horner Good Folks fabric, particularly the green one with the diamonds (Buttoned Up in Sea). I knew I needed to make something out of it so I could see it every day, but I didn't know what. I was taking pictures of my Modern Medallion when the idea struck me to cover my camera strap! After some trial and error, here is how I did it.

Besides your fabric of choice, you will need a ruler, rotary cutter, some pins, and a sewing machine.

First, I measured the strap I wanted to cover. Mine was an even 19 inches long and 1.5 inches wide. Allowing myself some wiggle room and room to fold the ends under, I cut my piece of fabric 20 inches long by 4 inches wide. I added a 1/2 inch to each end of the length of the fabric so I could fold the ends for a clean look. For the width, I doubled my measurement (1.5x2) plus added 1/2 inch to either side for folding again (3+0.5+0.5) leaving me with 4 inches. 

Next, I folded the short ends of the fabric over 1/2 inch since I cut my piece 1 inch longer than need be. Before you sew anything, you want to measure your folded piece to make sure it is the length of your strap. If it is too long, just fold a little more under with your iron.

I sewed these folds down using a wide zig zag stitch in a dark blue thread that just blended right in. The seam was 1/4 inch of the end of the fabric as with most piecing. Once both sides are sewn, measure again to make sure your length of fabric is the same as the length of your camera strap. 

Next, fold the long sides over 1/4 inch with your iron. This will leave your fabric piece wider than your strap, but that will be accounted for when you attach the fabric to the strap. Again, it is better to have too much fabric here than too little. 

Once more, I sewed the folds down with the same zig zag stitch 1/4 inch off the edge of the fabric. My piece of fabric with all the ends folded and sewn over measured 19 inches by 3.5 inches. This gave me the exact length I needed to cover the strap as well as some extra fabric to overlap when folding the fabric around the width of the strap. 

To attach the fabric to the strap, I first changed the needle in my sewing machine to one that is a little heavier weight. At first, I wasn't sure if my machine could handle the leather on the Nikon strap, but the needle slid through it like butter. I was impressed. I pinned the first side of my fabric down the middle of the inside of the strap (the part that would touch your neck), taking care not to catch any fabric on the underside of the strap

I then did the same zig zag stitch down the center of the strap to tack the fabric on. 

After that, I wrapped the remaining fabric snug around the strap and pinned in it place.

Mine crossed right in the center, so I was able to sew down the center line again to tack the final piece in place. 

This time, you do sew through all of the layers of fabric, so you want your bobbin thread to either be an accent color or an invisible color since it will be on the outside.

Then you are done! This is what each side of my strap looked like in the end. I used blue on the inside and a suuuper light grey on the outside. 

The only challenge left was how to take a picture of the finished product when the finished product was part of the picture taking device. 

Hope you enjoy! It is super easy and quick and adds the perfect amount of personality to an otherwise boring camera!

Retro Flowers QAL: Curves are friends not foe

Ok everyone. The day is here. Time to tackle curves. Now while curves may seem daunting, they are actually not that scary once you get the hang of it. Pinning curves is the most traditional way to do them and is the method I will be using.

You may have heard of the curvemaster foot from some people in the flickr group and/or the pattern. It is another great tool in tackling curves. I personally have never used it, but I hear its fab! If you have any questions about using your curvemaster foot, I am sure everyone in the group would love to give you tips.

A couple quick things -

• If you are new to curves, you might what to give it a trial run on some scrap fabric before using your beautiful quilt fabric, just to get the feel for it
• Expect to un-sew. My stitch ripper is never far from me, and I do find myself having to un-sew on the regular
• Remember this is fun! Don't stress yourself out over curves. 
• If you need any more tutorials or explanations, you tube and the blog world have tons of videos and posts about curves. 

On to pins. I went out and bought a whole extra box of pins for this project. With curves, the more pins you use, the better your curve will turn out. Side note, this same process can be used with dissolving fabric glue that you can find at most craft stores. I have heard a couple people talk about substituting the use of it for the pinning.

Step one. Fold your pieces of fabric in half (right sides together) and press them tightly with your fingers in the center of the curve. This will leave a crease that is easy to see but not as permanent as one made with an iron.

Then, you lay your pieces (right sides together) on top of one another like the picture below matching up your creases. This ensures you are matching the centers of each piece.

Then pin through the pieces at the crease

And at each end. Once all three pins are in, your pieces should look like this. 

The next part gets tricky. Here is where you have to really watch your fabric. You want to start filling in pins between the ends of the curve and the center pin. As you do, make sure to wiggle your fabric to get the edges to line up all the way around. Since the fabric is cut on a curve (that goes through the bias) it will STRETCH. It is very very important to be cognizant of just how easily the fabric will stretch.

This is why pinning is important. You don't want to stretch the fabric to make it fit, more try to mold it into place. Also, you want to try at all costs to avoid pleating you fabric accidentally. After a couple tries, your finished pinned piece should look like this. 

I have done so many of these in the last few days that I have gotten comfortable with just six extra pins, but I encourage you to use more than that! There is no such thing as too many pins!

Sewing your curve is just like sewing any other seam, only you follow the curved edge of the fabric with your presser foot instead of just going straight. 

Now, I have a secret. I know it is wrong, and I know it is bad for my machine, BUT, I sew over my pins. Gasp, I know. Anyway, I find this helpful when it comes to keeping the fabric in place.

The biggest thing to watch out for while you are sewing is pleats. If you see one coming, put your needle down, lift your presser foot up, and wiggle the excess fabric around to help the edge lay flat. Pleats in the seam will show up in your background fabric after it is pressed, and we all know how much fun unsewing is. 

Continue to work your way around the edge of the fabric and that's it! 

Another tip: it is important to make sure you are sewing with a 1/4 inch seam. Don't trust that just because you machine says it is a 1/4 inch, that it actually is. If you measure the seam with a ruler, you can be sure of how big it is. If you find that your machine is off, just move your needle position or change the foot. I have to move my needle 2 places to the right to get a 1/4 inch!!

Once your are finished, your piece will look like this (the pins remind me of a peacock tail)

When pressing, I have found that pressing the seam towards the 'petal', or in my case the print fabric, is very important. 

If you have a light background and you press your seams towards the background, you will be able to see them after you make your quilt sandwich. I made that mistake when making my single girl. It's not the end of the world. I was 14 rings in when I realized it so needless to say I did not fix it. But, if you haven't started yet, its something to be aware of.

Phew this post is long. Lastly, to make this whole process go faster, I have found that it is much easier to pin a whole bunch of petals and then sew them. If you pin one sew one pin one sew one it is never ending. It is super easy to just sit in front of the TV or whatever and pin until you run out of pins, and then chain piece them on the machine. I have no idea why, but it feels like it significantly reduces your time. 

Well there you go. I hope this helps to put rest the fear of curves. Once you get to know them, they are just like any other seam, they just need a little extra love and care. I cannot wait to see all of the beautiful pictures of your petals start popping up!!!! If you have any questions still, feel free to ask and/or check out the flickr group. There is always lots to learn! 

**AMENDMENTS**

Since there was an amazing cry for pin-less curves, I figured I would look into some resources for you all. For those who took Rachel's curves class, likely none of this will be new to you. Nova graciously let me borrow the video she made for the Single Girl Quilt Along, but the same principles apply. 

I can't for the life of me figure out how to embed it so I will link you to it here.

This is another great resource that someone shared in the flickr group. 

You can also find the Curve Master Presser Foot here. This foot helps to guide your fabrics together without pins and maintain the 1/4 inch seam you need for this quilt. It seems you can apply this same method using a basic 1/4 foot with a side guard. 

The biggest principle of sewing pin-less curves is making sure you DO NOT stretch your fabric. I can't emphasize enough how easy it is to do this. I am not sure if the Single Girl Support Group is a public group, but if this link works for you, you can see why it is important to be mindful of stretching. 

In the videos I have watched, everyone seems to make a conscious effort to never actually hold the fabric pieces, but just to guide them along in an effort to mold them under the presser foot. This seems to reduce stretching issues significantly. You want to minimize pulling on that bias edge as much as possible. 

Don't forget, you have a lot of great resources in the Flickr group! Numerous members were part of the Curves Camp, and I am sure would be glad to pass on their knowledge on the subject. Feel free to put your questions out to the public. 

If you find curves daunting, I would say give the pinned method a try. Once you are comfortable with that, give it a go without the pins. There are so many ways to skin this cat, I don't want anyone to get discouraged with their curves! Hopefully you will find the way that works perfectly for you. Happy piecing!

My Ironing Board was GROSS

I have had the same cute little ironing board since I went to college. It lived with me through 4 years of roomates and lord knows what else. It also has gotten some pretty heavy usage since I have been out of school and have been sewing much more consistently. At this point it is so gross and stained, I refuse to even put a picture of it up.

So amidst my packing yesterday, I decided that it needed to be recovered, and NOW. Rachel, from Stitched in Color has a fabulous tutorial on how to do just that. I got out my handy staple gun (that I am so proud of myself for owning), an old towel, and some pretty Amy Butler fabric that I had been hoarding, and went to work.

The first order of business was peeling off the old cover which was less than fun. Whatever padding was underneath there had begun to disintegrate. Ew. Once that was taken care of, I used the wooden board to trace and cut my towel and my fabric.

 

Don't you love apartment carpet? Anyway, then pretty much all you have to do is layer the pieces like so

 

and get to stapling, like so. 

 

It is best to start on the sides of the ironing board to make sure that you are pulling the layers tight enough around the board so that you get a clean finish on top. Then you slowly work your way around the nose of the board, again, making sure to pull everything super tight before you staple. Then you finish up the other end and you are good to go!

 

Ah, crisp clean new ironing board, I love you so. I can't wait to get moved and do a project on it now!

Getting Organized

I am taking the opportunity in setting up a new sewing room to attempt some organization. I found a 12 pack of mason jars at Walmart for only $7! Mason jars alone are really useful, but I wanted mine to be cute as well. This is what I came up with.

 

I am pretty positive I am not the first person to think of this, but I like the idea! I also figured out a pretty simple way to do it. All you need is a mason jar used for canning (meaning the lid has 2 separate pieces: top and ring), a hot glue gun, a scrap of beautiful fabric, a little pillow stuffing, and some scissors. 

I cut my scrap of fabric with a radius approximately one inch larger than the top of the jar. The fabric needs to be bigger than the top of the jar because it is going to end up being 3D rather than flat once it is filled with stuffing.

I will warn you in advance, I don't have a helper, thus I could not take pictures of myself gluing or actually performing some of the steps. If you are trying to do this and anything is unclear, do not hesitate to ask questions!

Ok so, I found the easiest way to go about this was to place the fabric on top of ring (right side toward the ring) and then the stuffing on top of the fabric. We are not gluing anything yet because you want to make sure you have enough stuffing to make your pin cushion appropriately dense. 

Then you push the 'top' piece of the jar lid down on the other layers. This should sandwich your fabric and stuffing between the two layers of the jar lid. In my picture, I am pushing it onto a hard surface. This was merely to allow me to use my other hand to take the picture. It works better if you hold the ring in one hand and push the top with the other. That way the fabric and stuffing are free to push out the other end. Make sure to push the top in until it sits firmly up against the ring. If you don't feel that you have enough stuffing, add some more and test drive it again until you are satisfied with the shape and density.

On to gluing. After you are comfortable with the amount of stuffing you have added, you want to tack the fabric down to the 'top' part of the jar lid. It is best to do this while it is inside the ring to retain your shape. Just dab hot glue underneath the edges of all of the fabric that is sticking up. The end result should look something like this.

Now, we still have not glued what I refer to as 'the poof' into the ring itself so you should not have any trouble popping it out like so.

You can then quickly run a line of hot glue around the inside of the ring. You will see that there is a lip that your poof (or normally the top of the lid) would sit on. This is where you want to put your hot glue. Then you quickly shove the poof back into the ring, and press it firmly against the lip of the ring until the glue sets. When you flip it over, it should look like this!

Once that is done, the jar is free to be used as decorative storage! These are great for thread, scraps, buttons, beads, zippers, you name it. You don't even have to use the 'poofs' as pin cushions. They can be labels or identifiers so that you can keep your jars organized. Personally, I can never have enough places to stick pins. I find myself desperately searching for anywhere to put them while I am mid project. Haha. Hopefully you'll be able to create some great storage solutions with this fast and easy project!