Nearly There...

just the bias binding to do.  I've got that on the kiddy waistcoat, but I'm not showing that one, as my daughter in law has a tendency to sneak a peek at my blog, and I want it to be a surprise...

this one is for my mother in law, who isn't quite as keen on computers, and who presumably won't peek... and if she does, hopefully won't admit to it!

I'd forgotten the time consuming fiddly bits involved in this... not as much binding as on a quilt, but curved edges.  And then, of course, the inside seams.  I like my waistcoats to be reversible, in theory at least.  I do the quilted clothing equivalent of a flat fell seam, cutting back the gubbins inside the seam, along with one side of the front fabric, before stretching the remaining piece over the whole seam, and stitching it down by hand, thus completely covering it.

It's still a bit bulky, but I prefer doing it that way, to binding the seams with yet another piece of fabric, which makes it bulkier still.  Flat fell seams are usually top stitched; I don't do that to these just because of the bulkiness.  Hand stitching is quicker and easier, and looks better, too.

Now, all I have to do is add the binding, and we'll be done. One gift down, lots to go...

Progressing...

with the waistcoats... this is my mother in law's .  It is made from an African fabric I bought from Maggie Relph at the African Fabric Shop, more years ago than I care to remember.  Yes, fabric hoarding... but I am using it now.  I bought two fabrics from her at that point, and the second is being turned into bags...but more of that another time.

I wondered about how to quilt the fabric.  Quilting each individual leaf would have been overkill, I thought... so in the end I picked up the edges of the blocks, where there were irregular, curving lines running the length and breadth of the fabric, in quite an irregular way.  Right up my street, really...  I'm debating adding a bit more, though I like the irregularity of the quilting.

Finding a fabric for the lining was quite challenging; in the end, I settled for a purple commercial fabric.  As you can see, it works quite nicely.  I had hoped to avoid making my own bias binding, partly to save time, and partly because I'm not entirely sure where my bias binding maker gizmo is... but had no luck in finding anything that was suitable locally, and a trip into Norwich is not on the cards.  Fortunately, there's enough of that purple to make bias binding, as well as lining for a matching bag.  Busy?  Me?  Just a bit...

PS If, like me, you've forgotten how to make continuous bias binding... check out the video and tutorial here; sadly, I can't help you find your missing bias binding maker...I'll have enough bother finding my own!

Making Mayhem.

As you probably know, I run bespoke workshops in The Little Green Shed; read more about them here, and see a picture of A Tidy Workspace...  Sadly, it's never like that for long, as the above picture proves.  This lot is out there in preparation for a cutting session.  I want to make my MIL's Christmas present, a quilted waistcoat, and, while I'm at it, cut one for my soon to be born granddaughter.  Hence, the pile of Stuff, brought out from the house.  I can cut small things in my upstairs studios, but prefer to use the big table for dressmaking and/or cutting lots of stuff at the same time.

I really thought I had been supersmart, and brought everything with me that I needed.  No trips back to the house in the freezing cold for me...and this picture proves just how cold it was... lamb's ears (or lugs, for the Scots among us, I was chastised publicly for using the English word on Facebook this morning...sigh...).

Pins, I thought.  I don't use pins very often, but I do use them for the hats, so I knew that I had some out in the shed... I needed them for pinning the patterns together.  Wrong.  Wrong thought.  Wrong pins...when I looked, here's what I found...

...great for using with hat blocks, not so great for pinning a pattern to fabric...  That's okay, I thought, there's some on the window ledge in the kitchen (also hat related)... err...no there aren't.  Then there's some next to the sewing machine... nope (who knows where they went...sigh).  I ended up using what there was in the only pincushion I could find...

...and the dust on it proves that it hasn't been touched in Rather A While.  This tidying up lark is much over rated, you know...

So... I cut, and cut, and cut.  And ended up with this lot...

... of which more, another time.  And if that wasn't enough, I also chopped up some felt, so that we can make little bags at the Hub on Thursday, which I think we'll fill with artificial holly, or poinsettias, or something... just to make it a little different...