On a Lark » zippers

Mother’s Day and Fabric Flowers

Emily — Mon, 10 May 2010 18:48:09 +0000

Happy Mother’s Day everyone! All the moms in our family decided on mimosas with brunch and take out Chinese for dinner topped off with the newest tradition between my Mom and I: evening walks with our dogs. I’m leash training my puppy. It’s an adventure and one definitely better with company. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday.

Now that I’ve been home a week, I finally got back down to business with sewing. I made a wallet for a friend and she had a great idea to add fabric flowers. I’d never made them, but I found some great ideas online (like this). I ended up going with an idea I found on Calamity Kim. Here are a few photos from the process:

For a full tutorial, see mine on Hubpages. They’re fun and really easy. Here’s the finished product! As we speak, it’s on it’s way to Florida.

What did you do for Mother’s Day?

Sunshine comes to Maine

Emily — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 21:47:54 +0000

Remember this post? I had great plans for the pieces of canvas that I painted on… and then I promptly misplaced them. Turns out they were buried in my basket of fabric. That basket seems like a vortex for all things losable. But it’s not fair to blame a basket.

So I made myself a little zippered bag. Seems about the right size for an overnight toiletry bag.

This project was also a great excuse to use the amazing gift I got over the weekend. I never knew how much I needed one of those clear measuring quilt things until my aunt sent one home with my Mom for me. It is THE BEST.

When I wasn’t sewing, we were all enjoying the lovely weekend here in Maine. And no one enjoyed the weekend more than a certain yellow and black lab. While everyone “did homework” on the lawn, the puppies ran and rolled and chased the cat until the sun went down.

Here they are trying to convince kitty to come play.

And moments before…

What did you do this weekend?

Invisible Zipper How-To

Emily — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:35:03 +0000

It’s been raining here the last few days but the sun is shining at our house! My roommate has grow lights up and the space heater on in our bathroom for a whole army of little seedlings. Watermelon, eggplant, brussel sprouts. Yum. Only two plants have been attacked by the puppies so far. We’re hoping to keep the seedling death toll to a minimum from here on out .

While my roommate has been busy in our makeshift greenhouse, my never ending graduation dress saga is slowly dragging to a close. In truth, I’m really enjoying keeping a project going this long. There’s no rush, so when I get frustrated I can put it aside and tackle it again the next day. Anyhow, one of the final pieces of the puzzle is installing an invisible zipper. You know the type, they live on your suit skirts and cocktail dresses. Who knew they could be such a trick to get just right? After several attempts, I got it right and I didn’t even use a fancy invisible zipper foot. So here’s a little bit on how I did it.

The first step is ironing the zipper out on a low iron setting. I had read to do this, but I didn’t really get the point until I sewed it in without ironing it enough and it was far from “invisible”. You have to take the zipper teeth and actually unroll them away from the tape, more than you would expect. You’ll know you’ve got it right when the zipper is upside down and you can clearly see the two little rows of stitching on the back of the zipper teeth. In the image of below, the bottom side of the zipper is ironed and the top side is not.

I didn’t have an invisible zipper foot, but they look pretty cool and I think it definitely would have made this job easier. But still, it’s completely doable without the specific foot. You just have to make sure that you use your fingers to keep the zipper flat so that you can sew as close to the zipper teeth as humanly possible.

I had plenty of chances to get the picture above because I sewed on and ripped off this zipper quite a few times. Below is how it looks with both sides sewn on but before the lining is attached. I’ll iron in the seam so the zipper teeth are on the edge and hand sew the lining to opposite side of the zipper.

And there it is zipped up. I still can’t completely believe it worked. Sewing is magic.

Keep an eye out for a more detailed tutorial on Hubpages soon!

Stress sewing

Emily — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:06:00 +0000

I’m back home after a great time catching up with old friends. It’s always nice to know that even after years apart, it sort of seems like no time has passed at all. But this trip wasn’t all fun, it was also a job searching mission. It’s looking hopeful, which is comforting given the current job market. Still, I’ll be moving away, which is always a little tough. Cue “500 Miles” by Peter, Paul, and Mary .
So I needed a little time to clear my head. And as usual, sewing didn’t let me down. I got working on a new bag, which might look a little familiar. This bag is going to be a surprise for a great lady. And I even got to another chance to test out putting in a zippered pocket.

Pinning the pleats

Zippered pocket success!

It's done!

I think I’ve finally gotten this pattern completely worked out and it finally seems to come together without any fussing. I wrote a hubpage on how to put in a gusset using this bag as an example. So, what do you do when you need some time to think?

Spring Break trip = new clutch required

Emily — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:57:29 +0000

I’m heading down south for a job interview! And I’m also catching up with some college buddies that I haven’t seen for almost TWO YEARS!! If that doesn’t scream “new wallet” then I don’t know what does. I’ve been using this wallet for a while, but I finally got tired of my shady zipper installation and I decided to try a new pattern. I drafted one this morning the dividers and triangles I should have been using for chartwork practice.

I’m a big fan of a bright lining so I used the same pink fabric from this bag. And as always, Piper, the lion/golden retriever, helped out.

Piper doesn’t look too pleased with my design. Oh man, this is going to be a much needed trip. Wish me luck!

How I beat a laptop sleeve into submission

Emily — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 21:36:19 +0000

Maybe some of you remember what happened with my first laptop attempt. It wasn’t so good. But, I did managed to salvage the exterior and the zipper from the wreckage and I gave it another try this weekend.
This time around I skipped the foam and went back to fusible fleece and batting. I’ve been using batting that I bought in a larger bag for about three bucks from Reny’s so it took a few layers. I used one layer on the exterior, two layers (one of fusible fleece) on the interior.I even basted the batting on first:
I use zippers by the yard, so I sewed carefully over the beginning and end of the zipper, just to make it easier while I sew:

The ultimate zipper tutorial is from twelve22, and that’s what I used for the zipper. You sew the the exterior, zipper, and lining for one side all together and then do the same thing on the other side.
And there it is! Now is a good time to top stitch and double check how the zipper looks before you sew it all together. Mine didn’t come out perfectly, at this point I was just happy that I didn’t have to force it through my machine.
Even at the very end, I was convinced that it wasn’t going to fit. It’s just barely big enough. I think in the future I’ll put a little more wiggle room in But now I have a laptop sleeve! Woohoo! I used Sunbrella fabric for the exterior and it was surprisingly forgiving to many many times I angrily ripped out seams.
On an unrelated note, my very supportive boyfriend took me to the Joann’s fabric President’s Day Sale before we went out to dinner for Valentine’s Day. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that the store was FILLED with women scanning the aisles and men trailing behind them dutifully holding bolts of fabric, patterns, and thread. And I got a tiny pink embroidery hoop, because I think it’s about time I learned to embroider. This blog (with a great Etsy store) inspired me. Oh boy.

Zippered pocket fun

Emily — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:07:09 +0000

I will soon have some representation in Boston! I made a bag for my friend Lauren this weekend. Its the blue and white leafy bag that I posted about a few posts back, so I won’t show you all the photos of the completed project. But, this time I decided to put in a zippered pocket as well as the patch pockets. Zippered pockets are great, mostly because I have been known to pick up my bag from the bottom and dump the contents out in places like restaurants and movie theaters. At least the items in the zippered pocket have never graced the floor of a classroom or grocery store. I used this tutorial from J. Caroline Creative. It’s a great step by step article.
Here’s what I came out with:

Measuring the rectangle:

Here is the rectangle all sewed up (pocket fabric and lining right sides together and then the cutting portion:

And here’s the finished product! Sorry about the color on the picture without the zipper, it’s a little bright. I’m happy with the result, and thanks to zipper by the yard from The Fabric Warehouse, the price is right too:

Anyone else have any sewing tutorials or sites I should check out?

Epic Fail

Emily — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 23:49:06 +0000

Well, I’m not sure who I’m going to blame for keeping me up way past my bedtime on Saturday night working on this mess of a project, but I think the ladies at the Joann’s cutting table could definitely be listed as enablers. I thought “oh laptop sleeve. No big deal. Then I’ll have a laptop case. Yay!” And somewhere along the way, the excitement turned to actual threats issued to fabric. Here is a picture at the start, so much promise *sigh*.
The applique portion of this project went really well. I got the idea for my friend Barb, who has the very best appliqued hooded sweatshirt of all time. So here’s where it went wrong:
1. Sewing high density foam is the worst. I was literally sweating trying to push it through my machine. I have no idea what made me thing that would work .
2. High density foam requires a big allowance in sewing, because it takes up a lot of space. I did not think of this.
So here’s the finished product. At about 3am:

If you can’t tell from the photo, this is an example of what happens when you double up foam and try to sew it. It is chewed up and spit out by the machine. I had no idea my machine was so cruel.

I don’t think it looks so bad from the outside. BUT, no matter how good it looks, it won’t work as a laptop sleeve if you CAN’T FIT YOUR LAPTOP INTO IT!!! I thought I would have been more disappointed, but thanks for the time of night (or morning) it was actually a little amusing. Word to the wise, if you think it might not be big enough when you’re cutting the fabric, you’re probably right.
So with all the seams ripped out, the pieces of the pattern are waiting for me at home. The foam is being punished so I think I’ll try the project again next weekend with some batting and fusible fleece. Anyone else have frustrating project stories to share or laptop sleeve successes?

Zippers can’t get me down- Part 2

Emily — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:20:07 +0000

So, the previous post is all about my first clutch making experience. Once I made it, and discovered that I needed some improvement in my zippers and the general design, I started doing some research. So, first things first, I needed to learn to properly install a zipper in a small pouch. I found tons of great tutorials on installing zippers in clothing or for zippered pockets, like this one from J. Caroline Creative.
But I still couldn’t find one for a small zippered bag until I found THE GREATEST ZIPPER TUTORIAL IN THE WORLD! Ok, that may be an exaggeration, but I would say that my level of excitement when I found this site was equal to when I find a bar that has Boddington’s on draft. So I was pretty excited.
Before I started I made a little pattern to make it easier to modify in the future:

Then I applied interfacing to both exterior fabrics and quilted the neon green fabric. I also double interfaced the pockets and put fusible fleece on the interior panels:

After putting in the zipper, I was really happy with the weight of the clutch. There are four credit card slots and a bill pocket:

I think I’ve conquered the zipper.

Zippers can’t get me down

Emily — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:59:01 +0000

This is the first of two posts about making zippered clutches. For the first one, I used some thin and inexpensive fabric and only batting, no fusible fleece or interfacing. It was my first try with quilting. Thankfully no one was watching while I struggled with a ruler on the sewing machine. It’s a work in progress.

I also decided to install a zipper for the first time. I basically just sewed it in there. Very classy.

I’m using this as my wallet right now because it goes nicely with Carhartts and winter boots. But I discovered that I needed to learn how to properly install a zipper, more on that later. Also, fusible fleece and interfacing are necessities because a floppy bag leads to cell phones and credit cards falling out of your wallet. I’m talking from experience here. So this is my first effort. You don’t want to start off too good, because then the expectations are really high for number 2.