On a Lark » buttons

Putting that old canvas to use

Emily — Fri, 14 May 2010 01:44:55 +0000

Now that Otto the puppy has come into my life, my sewing time is organized around his nap time. Which, luckily, is often. As it turns out, puppies love fabric…and cutting mats, and thread, and pins. So for now, sleeping Otto is the only Otto allowed near my sewing machine.

In the mean time, I made a new bag for a friend’s girlfriend. He and I had a little conference over the phone and came up with the colors. The cream is a sail canvas, and it has a nice texture to it. We went with navy for the body and a beautiful pink for the lining. The pink fabric was a great find, a Robert Kaufman print from my local quilting shop.

So that’s what I’ve been up to while puppy is sleeping, and when he’s not:

Ask and you shall receive

Emily — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:41:04 +0000

I think I’ve said it before, but I LOVE cool buttons. In fact, I wish they could be on everything I owned. I hot glued some to my laptop. Just kidding….but seriously. Anyway, I’ve spent a fair amount of time talking about my love of buttons and my difficulty finding both unique and affordable varieties. Somewhere the button fairies were listening.

I came home a few weeks ago to a big rattling package from my Aunt Jo. When I opened it, it was filled with amazing buttons. A lot of them have a great retro vibe and I almost can’t bear to put them on anything because I feel like I might want to for the next project. When I thought I was set for life, my mom’s friend Peg brought a whole bunch more over, including some amazing buttons that looked like they might have been made from fabric cord.

And finally, when my button bag was overflowing, my excellent boyfriend, who has been dragged along on many a sewing shopping trip, picked out the some great big buttons made of horn and wood that are beautiful! I won’t bother you too much more about my obsession after this: a good button adds character to everything. So here are some photos:

Recycling = iPod case

Emily — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:10:35 +0000

So I have a whole bag full of fabric scraps from my various projects. I don’t want to throw them away but I couldn’t think of anything to do with them except possibly to make a chew toy for the puppies and stuff the scraps inside of it, but I like the fabric too much to sacrifice it to the yellow puppy we are puppy sitting this week. So I made an iPod case! I looked at few blogs for ideas first, like this very cute one and this one.
In the end I made a sleeve of two of my favorite fabrics and folded and sewed. I used interfacing scraps left over from other project. And I took another stab at applique. I haven’t bee using any fabric glue or anything, but I did use up all of my tiny interfacing scraps to make the applique pieces keep their shape as I sewed them. I wasn’t feeling too creative so I went with a star and an ‘e’. I cut and stitched a little hole for the ear phones, I’m sure there’s a better way to do this, but it worked. Here are some pictures from the top:

And here’s the finished product. I lost a little steam on the photo process so I only have the beginning and the end. I used one of the buttons that my Aunt Jo sent me over the weekend. More on the buttons to come, but let me just say that I have enough buttons for a LONG time.

I’d like to find a way to make a case so that I could still use the iPod without taking it out of the case. Maybe a cut out near the bottom where the next and play buttons are. Has anyone had luck making iPod cases? It’s been great for when I toss it in my gym bag or accidently drop it on the ground when I take it out of my car. Maybe you’re noticing a theme hear. I have to make things that protect my possessions from me. This was a quick and easy project, let me know what you think!

Time trial sewing

Emily — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:36:51 +0000

This weekend I tried a new version of the pattern I’ve been working on to see how fast I can make a bag. It ended up taking me a full Saturday morning, including a break for grilled cheese sandwiches. I found a great canvas fabric from J. Caroline Creative and left out the pleats on the exterior. I also had a little “help”:

One grumpy brown dog and one extremely happy yellow dog who loves laying on fabric as soon as you put it on the floor.
I’m still amazed by how terrible a bag can look when you are sewing the final seams, and then you turn it in side out and, as my brother once said, bingo-bango it’s done! I took a series of pictures to show the final (and best) stages of bag construction:

What is this showing? The gusset, which gives the bag some 3-D shape. I’m taking votes on different names for it. Anything would be better than gusset.

And there it is! Ready for a little top stitching and button sewing. I’ve found a few different ways of hiding the seams, like just putting the interior inside the exterior, pinning it carefully on the top and top stitching. This avoids the seam at the bottom of the interior that you have to sew at the end but it’s definitely not as much fun as turning the whole bag in on itself. It’s sort of like magic. So I still haven’t put on the button. Maybe someone will come over and sew it on for me as a surprise. I just set it on top for the final pictures. Close enough for now.

In other news, I got a great suggestion for getting my giant buttons, fimo clay! I picked up some on the way home at the hardware store (who knew?) so that should be an entertaining project for this week. If anyone has an excellent source of abnormally large and amazing buttons, let me know.

Duck canvas = the answer to interfacing woes

Emily — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:21:55 +0000

So, my Mom’s birthday is coming up! For those of you who know her, she is a great lady and has some excellent fashion (some of which she may or may not have liberated from my closet). So, for her birthday present, she picked out some fabrics that she liked and I got to work.
On the other bags I have made, I was never completely happy with the interfacing on the exterior. (Interfacing is an iron-on stiffening layer). When I made the pleats, as soon as I pressed a pleat lightly, the crease was almost impossible to remove. Answer? Duck canvas! I got mine from Joann’s on sale, but it’s available all over, especially at fabric warehouse type places. So, for Mom’s bag, I drafted about a 2/3 size from the pattern I used from my charcoal and teal bag. I’m still perfecting my pattern making skills. At the moment, this mostly involves brown wrapping paper, a ruler, and scissors. There must be a better way. Here are all the pieces ready to go:

Anyhow, I used a dark red canvas for the exterior. The handle has two layers of fusible fleece and is made from home decorator weight fabric that I got at The Fabric Warehouse in Auburn, ME. If you’re in the area, they are amazing. Great prices and very helpful staff. The interior is the same design fabric but light blue. I made two pockets, one divided to hold cell phones etc., and one with a pen holder. And of course, a giant button. I wish I could find bigger buttons. Any suggestions are welcome. Because they are great.
Here’s the finished product! I’m going to make one for myself this weekend, so stay tuned.

Using myself as a guinea pig

Emily — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 03:07:50 +0000

After one successful attempt at handbag sewing, I decided to make one for myself to figure out potential kinks in the patterns. I used quite a bit of the Amy Butler pattern. Charcoal and that teal color is my favorite color combination. Even though my favorite color is red. And my favorite season is spring. More Emily trivia to come haha. Here is it:

And here’s the button. Oh man I love big buttons:

Here’s a picture of the interior:

What I learned from this version:
-I need more padding in the handle: when you have a laptop inside it’s a little thin
-I’m switching to duck canvas without interfacing for the main exterior panels because the interfacing doesn’t seem to hold up as well over time and I think the duck canvas will be better/faster.

One of my very few (somewhat) successful attempts at clothing

Emily — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:41:19 +0000

I’ve tried making all sorts of different dresses, skirts, and tops. Only a few have survived and actually been worn. I started out on this skirt with a Favorite Things Pattern. I ended up changing it quite a bit because I was too lazy to put all those buttons in. But I did put in three buttons instead of an elastic waist. I’ve been waiting to use these buttons forever.