Tutorial on how to make (feathered) friends!

A post a bit out of the ordinary this, but as 'tis the season to be kind and compassonate, I want to share with you a great way to score some last minute brownie points with Santa!

It is no big  shock for anyone who knows me, that I am very fond of animals. Always have been, and always will be. I don't disciminate, either. I think all animals deserve to live a full life, and if I can help when things are tough, I will.

Not my photo, but I've had lots of these pretty birds coming to feed :)
source

Winters here in Norway can be hard for our small wild birds. And I guess this applies to many other areas of the Northern hemisphere, too. The daylight hours are few, and the little critters spend most of their day trying to find food just to stay warm. There are no insects this time of year, and seeds can be covered by several feet of snow. It surely is a scramble for survival.

These two fell for my bribery!

So far this winter, it has been very mild and it has hardly fallen any snow. This is good news for the birds, but things rapidly change, and today it is frosty. 

Since having more time on my hands, I have enjoyed setting up a birdy restaurant in our garden. It is right outside of my sewing room (aka the dining room), and I can sit and watch them come in. Mr P even made a copy of our house, with a detachable roof, to put seeds and breadcrumbs in! 

You can buy fat ball for wild birds in various stores, but I have found they are old and rancid and contain quite a lot of sand. Poor value for money, and poor nutrition for the birds. So I decided to make them myself :) And my rep as a birdfeeding establishment has gone through the roof. I now have three times as many different spieces as before, and it is really fun to watch. And I am hoping for squirrels, too :)

Here's how to get new friends. You will need:

• 500g coconut fat, or (unsalted) lard if you don't mind using animal products.
• Leftover wholegrain bread (about half a loaf/ 300-400g)
• 1 cup of rolled oats (use the small, steamed ones)
• Sunflower seeds without husks
• 250g peanuts (dried, unsalted, non-roasted) for birds
• 2 cups of wild bird seed mix
• Whatever else you have in your cupboard (I found some outdated sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds and hazel nuts)
• Small containers
• Twine or cord of some sort

Melt the fat slowly, do not let it boil. Put aside.

Take your dry bread and tear into small pieces and put in a blender. Blend to crumbs. Lightly blend your peanuts and various seeds, just to get a bit smaller pieces. You dont need to blend the sunflower seeds, or wild bird mix.

Put all your dry ingredients in a big bowl. Pour over the melted fat, and mix it with a spoon. Get out your twine and cut into foot long pieces, and tie the ends together, forming a long loop. Leave the ends a couple of inches long, as they will secure better in the finished ball. Get out your containers. These can be anything from little yoghurt cups, to coffee mugs or tea cups. Milk cartons or any other cartons, halves of coconut shell, you name it. I used candle holders and coffee cups. Put them on a tray with baking paper (you will spill some.....). Fill your containers, and be sure to put a twine loop in every one. Use a spoon to tuck it down to the bottom. Set to cool.

The recipe is just an idea of what you can put into them. You could also put berries in along the seeds. I have budgies, and they don't always finish all of their seeds, so I blow off the empty husks and save them for when I make wild bird food.

When the balls are completely set, dip the containers it hot water, to get them off. Hang the balls into trees, if you have left overs, put them in the freezer for later.

All that's left is to enjoy all your new birdy company!

Corset storage bag - and how you can make one, too!

Hello again!

I'm back, to show you all my latest project I told you about the other day.
After making my corset, I found I needed something to keep it in. You know, to keep it free from dust and to protect it from anything that could harm it, like zippers or velcro. Something good for travelling, too. I needed a storage bag of some sort, and here it is!

I drafted a pattern for it myself, after measuring the length of my corset. It is really just a simple drawstring bag, with a round bottom. It is made from two layers, and all raw edges are encased for a clean look. I used plain white cotton, but I bet a nice 1880s lady would have had a silk bag for her corset.

I knew I wanted some embellishment on it, and first considered doing a monogram like on the chemise. But then I remembered my tatting. Wouldn't it be nice with a little bit of me-made lace? Yes:) (funnily, I now want to put tatted edges on everything...)

I think it turned out super cute, and I am very happy with it. It made up in a couple of hours, and looking at it, I think it would be great for other things, too. Like storing shoes in, perhaps. Maybe as a gift wrapper, something to stick a winebottle into, to give to a friend?

So, although I know you are all capable of making up your own stuff, I've decided to add a little how-to if anyone want to make their own storage bag :) It is a quick, easy project, perfect for a beginner sewist.

For one bag, you will need:

• two rectangles (50x60cm), and two circles (20cm in diameter) in the fabric of your choice
• two metal eyelets/grommets
• a ribbon about two feet long

Here's how you do it:

1. Stitch together the shorter sides of your rectangles, 1 cm seam allowance. Press seams.
2. Pin or baste one of the round pieces to each of your tubes (making sure the raw edges are facing the same way). You now have to bag-like objects.
3. Set eyelets in your outer bag. Place them about 1" (2.5cm) apart, and 9cm from the (raw) top edge. (I placed mine at the center front, the side seam of the bag is center back.)
4. Take one of your bags, and turn it wrong side out. Put the other bag inside the first, so that right sides are facing each other and you can see raw edges both inside and outside of your bag.
5. Line up the side seam of your two bags, and the top edge, neatly. Stitch together at top, leaving a 2" (5cm) gap.
6. Turn your bag right sides out, through the gap in the top. You now have one long sausage-like object with all raw edges enclosed. Tuck the one half that doesn't have eyelets, inside of the other, to form a bag. Press the top edge, and hand stitch the gap closed from the right side.
7. On the outside of your bag, mark the stitching lines for the drawstring channel. Measure from the top edge, and have your eyelets centered between the two lines. Mine are approx. 2cm apart. Do not place the lines too close to the eyelets, or you will have trouble with your presser foot hitting (and sliding off of) the eyelet when stitching. I used my zipper foot for the seam, which enables the seam to get quite close to the eyelet.
8. Thread the channel with a suitable ribbon.

Congratulations! You have made a corset storage bag!!

Machine embroidered pockets - a tutorial

This whole thing emerged in my head while making my RAF trousers. Of course, at that point they were only trousers. Quite theme-less:)

The original Simplicity #3688 has got no pockets, but my rear really benefit from some kind of embellishment. High waisted things without, just end up up as a whole lotta unflattering flatness.

I drafted the pattern pieces for the pockets myself, but I also wanted them to have some decoration. I noticed that my trousers was the perfect match for my closet-dwelling Smooth aviator blouse, so it had to be wings!

Now, for this project, I could have drawn the design myself. So any image will work, self-made or "borrowed". If you draw something, you need to scan and save to your computer. If you find something online, download and save. So this would be your step 1.

Step 2 is prepping your paper on which you will print the image. Regular pattern tissue/tracing paper is nice and thin for your machine to embroider upon, but it can be tricky for your printer to feed through. So, take a single sheet of printing paper and tape a piece of tracing paper ontop. The size you need will depend on your image, but there is no need to cover the whole sheet. You only need to tape the upper and lower edge of the tissue. Place the sheet into your printer (the right way). It may be a good idea to have some extra paper inserted, I know my printer is a little fussy, and have an easier time grabbing the individual sheet if there is a stack of them in.

Step 3, open the image file and choose print. In the printing menu you will be able to adjust the positioning of the image in the preview window, and so on. I adjusted the side margins inwards so that there were sufficient space around the image. This is helpful when you attaching your paper piece to the fabric. When you're happy, print.

Step 4, carefully remove your tissue from the printer paper, and pin it onto your fabric piece. I made the embroidery before any cutting, or folding of edges or any of that.

Step 5, baste the printed tissue to your fabric and remove pins.

Baste close to edge.

Step 6, start sewing!
My image was rather intricate with all the feathers, so I made several passes over them. Start with the outline and just follow along all edges, and then filling in the "fatter lines". Go slow!

Slowly does it.
(Take breaks and stretch your neck!!)

I didn't worry about filling it in too perfectly, but if I were to make this design again, I would maybe use a thicker thread. I used regular cotton sewing thread. But again, it all depends on your design. It can also be useful to play around with your machine settings before cracking on with the final product. Check if you've got the correct tension and stitch length. If you've got a design with straighter shapes and thicker lines, you might be able to use a small zig zag stitch for example. Make some samples on a scrap first.

When your done, peel away the tissue gently. If you need to, use a pair of tweezers to get the small bits. Also remove the basting stitches. Et voilà! Embroidered pocket fabric. You can now go ahead and actually make the pocket,
and stick it onto your garment!

The navy ring is hand embroidered on.
The rest is Bertha:)

This method is also useful if you need to transfer something for hand embroidery. I don't own any good marker tool that creates a fine enough line, or can be easily removed. So I just use a thread matching the fabric color, trace the shape with my sewing machine, and continue embroidering by hand. It is great for small initials and other simple designs. That way, the markings don't get fudged while you handle the fabric, and are totally invisble after it has been covered by embroidery floss.

I hope you found this useful :)

Blocking a knitted garment

Hello everybody, are you all en route with your Christmas preparations? 

I sure hope so, and I am sure many of you agree it is quite the race! 

My holiday has officially started, I had my last day at work this year on Wednesday. And if I am honest, I don't know how I would get done with all my shopping and preparations if it wasn't for those two extra days off. It also meant I was able to finish my Knit for Victory cardigan!! Yay!

I cast on November 21st, and I never thought it would be finished this fast! But the pattern was very straight forward, and I had very few problems along the way. Don't you just love it when things run smoothly?

I did however have the nagging feeling of knitting a child size cardigan, the pieces just looked SO small, and there was really no way to tell how it would turn out. Other than knitting the darn thing finished, naturally :)

I knew I had to block it, and having never done it before, it was an exciting new experience! 

So here's how I did it:

You'll need bucket, water, detergent, tape measure, towel, pins, cushion and knitted wool string :)
(a bottle of wine is useful too.)

I first finished all my pieces (obviously), and washed them how I would the finished cardi. I soaked the pieces in lukewarm water, using a mild detergent especially for wool. My yarn is 100% new wool. I was careful not to rub or wring it, I just gently swooshed it around in the water and squeezed what water I could from it with my hands. 

Rock and roll :)

Then, I placed the piece on a clean dry towel, rolled it up into a sausage, and stepped on it a few times. Yes, people, I did, just to get the towel to absorb the water. It works like a charm, and the pieces come out nice and flat and just the right amount of damp :)

Take care with the edges!  If you get scallops like these,
it may help using more pins, and just work the shape til it's even.

Next step is to stretch the piece to the right size and shape. My pattern had an illustration with measurements, so I just got out my tape measure, took some measurements of my own body for comparison and started pinning the piece onto my blocking surface. I used a garden couch seat cushion, but any pinable smooth surface will do. Just be careful your yarn will not bleed any color onto your pinning surface, it can do that when wet. I used large upholstery pins, but I am sure regular pins are just as useful. If they are without heads, pinning them at an angle away from your piece will keep it from slipping off.

Much better even edge.

Stretch and pin the piece into the shape and size you want, but make sure any edges are nice and even. When wet the piece is springy, but once dry it will hold the shape it dried into, so if you don't care for scalloped edges, do spend some extra moments getting it all even.
Also, make sure to match the length of the sides where front pieces and back piece meet, and also the shoulder area, so that sewing together goes smoothly.

Not too shabby:)

Just to give an idea on just how much larger you can make your pieces (Thank Gawd!!), here's my sleeves pre and post blocking! WOW!!

From straight jacket to wearable in a couple of hours :)

When your happy with the result, leave to dry :) Repeat with all pieces.

Now all's left is to weave in all those loose ends, and assemble your garment (which I have), so stay tuned ;)

In the meantime, don't forget to relax a bit and enjoy the Christmas spirit!

Merry Holidays to you all ;)