Photo Album - Finished

Today I was making the cover for my new photoalbum. I bought a strong folder for documents and cut out two rectangles slightly bigger than the album (the allowance for the top, bottom and one side). On the other hand, the spine was cut slightly narrower than necessary.

I laid the pieces on the wadding and cut it along, without drawing anything. And there's the problem - for such thick fabrics, leave rather a cm between the spine and the board. I left about four milimeters, which appeared to be very few.

I put the wadding on a fabric and quilted it with a stipple pattern. Even at this step it shrinked a bit.

I sewed on a satin ribbon to the middle, for the fastening.

Then I glued the boards and the spine to the wadding. I let it dry a bit before I went on. 

I glued a piece of thin canvas to the inner side of the spine and to the album binding as well. It makes the binding more tough and protected from undoing.

Then I could glue on the allowances at the book cover. I tried to pull quite hard so that the fabric laid flat on the paper.

As the last step, I glued the outer sheets of the album to the inner side of the cover. It must dry very well and it's great if one can put some weight on the book at this phase.

I haven't made slits at blank sheets yet. For every photo I'll have, I must place it on the paper, make dots with a pencil about half a centimeter from the corners, put a protective board inside and cut the slits with an office knife.

Photo Album - Binding

I want to make a photo album.I don't like white paper very much - I bought the paper that's used at the post office for the packages.It's cheap and nice and tough.

I folded the paper and cut the size with these two layers. The size of one layer is photo plus one cm at the sides and one cm at the binding.

I drew a line with a sharp tool I use for dressmaking. It's easy to make a fold at such line. I ironed the sheets and pressed them several days under a pile of books.

 I took three pieces of twill band, measured the distances on the book and drew marks at each sheet. I pricked the holes with a pin.

The outer sheets are single. In the end I sewed one outer sheet and one common sheet together, so this photo is not really real :)When I sewed first two rows, I tied the two ends together in a knot and went on with the longer one.

 I glued the little overlap to the outer sheet, cut the twill band and glued it on too.

Ironing Board Sleeve - Finished

I drew the shape of the upper part to the treshold that is not carved. I got a new electrical saw - I attached the wood to the table and cut it carefully. I was surprised that I had to press quite strongly forwards. And downwards when the saw was slowing down.

I glued both smaller wood pieces, let them dry a bit and pressed together to form a T.

I marked the holes, drilled them with a narrow drill. Then I put the pieces together and drilled them through with the same narrow drill. I widened all the lower holes with a bigger drill and two of the upper ones two. I glued the pieces, put them together and fastened with two screws. Then I widened the rest of the holes and put in all the screws.

 I laid the arm to the wadding and drew the outline. I cut it twice, then cut two more layers with allowance for the sides and the biggest piece from twill with about three more centimeters of allowance.

I folded the edges and hammered a few nails. The fabric must be tightened well on the arm.

When I had some of the nails on the place, I added quite a lot of them in the gaps.

At the back, I even nailed the fabric under the upper layer for the fold to hold well on place.

When I was adding the stand, I put it on with two screws already sticking out - this helped me to lodge them to the right place :)

When this happens, you either charge the power screwdriver to full battery and try to drill it out, or take a pair of pliers and take it out with a bit of swinging.

I love this tool! You need to make conical holes for the screw heads to dive.

The V-shaped cut in the middle lets the sleeves and legs to be ironed at the very back of the board.

Ironing Board Sleeve - Heart Finished

I had the basic heart shape and I drew a symmetrical floral pattern inside.

I started carving out the outline between the heart frame and the flower outline.

Always, the outline must be cut with the chisel held vertically.

Then the chisel is taken at angle and the wood is removed, never going below the cut outline.

Outlines done.

The inner structure of leaves is done similarly, just the vertical cut is done just at one side to create shading.

Using only U-shaped (and quite big) chisel is tough sometimes :-) For V-shaped lines I always use the edge of chisel so that the V is sharp and smooth.

Carving is finished.

Ironing Board Sleeve - Heart

Hi!

Mom's birthday is coming soon and I was wondering what I should give her. Then I remembered I use her ironing board sleeve and she has none.

I bought two tresholds. I drew the outer shape and a heart for the carving.

I know I should have used a narrow chisel, but I love the U-shaped one. I went vertically along the line and then from the opposite side to the carved line.

 The outer shape is done. After every day of work, you should oil your chisels for them not to rust.

Blue-Green Pants

Hi, these are my second pants this week. This time I'm trying the jeans pattern. My measurements are driving me mad - I had to leave out a back tuck because my waist is not very much smaller than my hips.

I bought two colours of the same fabric and I'm going to combine them in one pair of trousers :-)
The pattern paper is great because I could easily copy out the knee parts and pockets.
I love them already!

...After some time, I'm posting an image how it came out

Wedding Earrings

A friend of mine is getting married on Friday - and I have golden dress but no jewelery. The wedding should be in white, yellow and gold.

The earrings are not very individualistic - I saw the design in the shop where I got the wings. They're very simple - just put a drop, wings and pearl to the little nail and make a loop at the end.

The necklace is more interesting - I was working with the crimps for the first time. I put one of them to each side of the pendant to hold it in place. Then I took the flat part of pliers and squished them flat. Crimps are also used to hold the fastening - they should be pressed really strong.
I measured the distances and drew with a permanent marker. I threaded all the beads to both sides, attached the fastening and then used the crimps again to hold the beads.

The little heart between each pair of wings is so cute for the wedding :-)

Bellydance Lace Skirts

Our friend's having a wedding and we decided to dance there. We wanted to make skirts in gold - the wedding will be gold, white and yellow.

The pattern is very simple and leaves the least remains possible. You just cut out a stripe from the fabric, fold it five times, pin the template on and cut five times at once.

It always gives you five big and five small pieces.
I folded the belt in half, tucked both edges in and ironed. I put twenty big pieces inside to get the hips' size minus 6. Then I laid another layer of small pieces, to the middle of the big ones.

 I sewed along the edge. I'd tried to pinn it so that the pins can stay there (quite far to the left).

 And the finished skirt.