On a Lark » Amy Butler

Reward for a job….done

Emily — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 23:44:32 +0000

When I first started my tee shirt quilt project I decided that, knowing myself, I needed some incentive to finish the job. So I only bought the fabric needed for the top and the batting. I left the binding, quilting materials, and backing as a reward for at least partially completing the project. And here we are, many many months later and I finally completed the top and bought myself some new fabric. I went with silver broadcloth for the binding and this beautiful fabric from Amy Butler’s new line Soul Blossoms:

I ALSO bought new embroidery floss and a giant embroidery hoop. Anna Maria Horner inspired me to try out hand quilting. Now, I completed enough sewing projects at this point to know that I will regret the choice to hand quilt my first quilt at some point during this project. Who are we kidding, I will probably regret it at many points. But it looks so lovely when Anna Maria Horner does it.

And finally, I know this is a little overdue, but some pictures from New Years. We stayed in this year, made a great dinner, and drank champagne. We even made it until midnight. The dogs were not as excited:

Happy New Year!!!

Another day, another…bag

Emily — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 20:12:28 +0000

Business is booming around here. Well…booming is a relative term. I am keeping busy though and I have a new bag design in the works. While the new design is under construction, I made another bag like this one:

I made this one for my Mom and I think it’s my favorite color combination to date. The lining on the new one is different though. I used this Amy Butler fabric:

This particular fabric was part of my graduation gift from my brother and his soon-to-be wife. I introduced her to the “design wall” feature at Fabric.com. Check it out at your own risk, it’s addictive.
Between sewing, puppy training, and job hunting, I admit I’ve spent a little too much time online imagining things I’m going to make and buy when I move to a new place. This is probably not the best use of my time but it sure is fun And I’m pretty sure I could make stuff like this (both photos from Anthropologie) for less than a couple hundred dollars:

But a lot of things still need to happen before I start Anthropologoie-ing a new apartment. One more step on the road is our street wide yard sale on Saturday. Out with the old and in with the new!

The Downtown Tablecloth Tutorial

Emily — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 17:51:50 +0000

My big brother is soon to exit the Army (sort of) after four years at West Point and five years honorably served. He’s celebrating his new found freedom by getting MARRIED and moving to Los Angeles. Which is going to be great because I hear they have a pull out couch, especially designed for little sisters. My soon-to-be-sister-law was having a hard time finding a table cloth that “didn’t look like it belonged in my grandmother’s house.” (No offense intended Grammy’s everywhere, we bet you wouldn’t want these tablecloths either).
So after MANY hours on the Fabric.com website we chose some great Amy Butler fabric, a black border, and an ivory lining. I really wanted to find a fabric that was wide enough so that no seams would be needed, but I think this new plan will look great. Instead of one single fabric, I’m sewing a square table cloth for a round table with a mitered corner edge and a lining.
I’m sure for quilters, this project would be a breeze. But for me, with experience sewing relatively smaller items, there was some trial and error. So for those of you looking for a great housewarming gift or just something to liven up your own house, here’s my table cloth tutorial:

1. Always wash and dry your cloth as it will be laundered once your project is finished. Then iron it all out. Sometimes you (and be you I mean me) might be tempted to skip this step. Don’t do it. You’ll regret it when you have a puckered up project after one wash.
2. Measure your table. You can adjust the drop (amount hanging off the table) to whatever you like, but I chose 6″, which is pretty standard. This means that I added 6″ to each edge, or 12″ overall. So their 42″ table wants a 54″ x 54″ table cloth. I wanted a 3″ border, so the main fabric would be 48″ when all sewed together.
3. Once you decide on the finished dimensions, you add in for seam allowances. I like a 1/2″ seam allowance so that means adding a full inch to the cut piece (one 1/2″ for each side)
So the actual pieces you cut are as followed:
1- 49″ x 49″ piece main fabric
4- 56″ x 4″ border fabric
1- 55″ x 55″ lining fabric
4. Fold one lining piece and the main fabric in half and iron in a tiny mark showing in the half way point. Line up the fabrics rights sides together, matching the center points, and pin.
Sew down the length with a 1/2″ allowance. Pull the pins out as you go and keep tension on the fabric to keep the layers even. Repeat with the opposite border piece. Press the seams open.
5. Repeat with the opposite border pieces.
4. Now for the mitered corner. Don’t be afraid, seam rippers were invented for a reason. Grab the opposite corners and fold the tablecloth in half on the diagonal. Taking care to match up the seams, iron a crease in and put in a few pins to keep the corner in place when you sew. Using a ruler and a fabric marker, draw a diagonal extending from the crease of the main panel. Pin.
5. Sew along the line you drew, starting at the seam between the border and the main fabric. Once you’re done, flip it over and check it out. It took me a few times to get it just right, but once you see it you’ll know what went wrong. If you’re happy with it, trim the seams to about a 1/2″. Repeat with all four corners.

6. Iron out the whole exterior and make sure you’re completely happy with those corners and that they have produced some rockin’ right angles.
7. Lay your lining right sides together on top of your exterior. Getting it all lined up can be a bit of a trick, but I suggest pinning each corner and then smoothing it out with your hands or a ruler from the center. Once you’re happy with it, pin all the way around.

8. Sew all around, but leaving about a foot of seam on one side unsewn. This way you can pull it inside out. Make sure you turn the corner of the seams on the mitered seam.
9. Clip the corners off as close the corner as possible without clipping the stitches. Trim down the seams to about 1/4″.
10. Turn the whole thing inside out. Now you need something to push the seams out. I prefer my fingers, but there are tools designed for this task, and a butter knife will work just fine. Run your finger/butterknife carefully down the entire seam from the inside, especially on the corners. This will create sharp corners and edges.
11. So now it’s almost done, but there’s about a foot of seam that’s not sewn. What to do? Some people would slip stitch this. Since I’m bad at slip stitching, I chose to topstitch around the edge of the entire tablecloth. To do this I ironed out all the edges, pinned them every so often and took special care to turn in the seam and iron in the open portion. Then I topstitched very close the edge all the way around. And woohoo! Downtown cool kids tablecloth.
I made this ribbon with the scraps from the main fabric, so I could tie it up into a little roll to ship:

Feel free to comment with any questions!

Sometimes you just gotta go….and buy sewing supplies

Emily — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:44:36 +0000

Now don’t get me wrong, I really love my little town. But, like everything, sometimes it’s good to take a break and get out. So my roommate and I skipped town for a few hours because I “needed” to buy new sewing stuff. Unfortunately for midcoast Maine the fabric shops are few and far between, so we had about an hour drive ahead of us to Joann’s Fabric.
I have to say, I never gave this particular Joann’s a fair shot. If I needed fabric, I went to smaller stores or to other Joann’s in the south. But this was a very successful trip. They are definitely geared towards quilting, but they still had pretty much everything I was looking for and a very helpful staff. So what was I shopping for?
I have a few new projects in the works!
1. a new laptop cover
2. a new iPod cover
3. a table cloth for my brother and future sister in law who are MOVING TO LOS ANGELES! I’m using this fabric. I’m going to line it, but I’m still thinking about that. Although, for anyone looking for a great video tutorial on table cloth making, check out this video. There are about five parts, but it’s pretty foolproof.

So, if anyone has some insight or tips on any of these projects, please let me know, because I love tips. Stay tuned for the results of these new projects. I have the whole weekend to work on them, and I’m not that fond of sleeping.

Bag Number One

Emily — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:06:47 +0000

Here is the first bag I ever made! I made it for my very soon to be sister-in-law for Christmas!

Here is the interior:

Using interfacing and fusible fleece for the first time definitely had a learning curve. For my own patterns, I tried to avoid using as much interfacing. I will have to make her and updated edition soon! I got all of the materials for this bag from Alewives Fabric in Nobleboro.