Spiral Poi - Finished

I did some little changes compared to the previous production.

I don't make a hole at the top, because my pair tore off at the point when I was spinning hard. It weakened the thinniest place at the poi. Now I just fold the top over a metal rectangle and I sew the handles to it.

And I decided not to embroider the upper hem of the sack with always the same stitch, when my Janome 7700 knows a lot of wonderful stitches. I'll chose it to match the picture on the sack :)

The poi pattern's just amazing :-)

Spiral Poi

Again, again, again. I always end up admiring my customers' designs. This one is really cool :-)
Making a pattern meant precise measuring. The spiral always ends up at the right side and it must begin exactly at the same height and width on the left side.

I cut out all of the pieces and drew the pattern on the base two pieces.

I sewed the spiral pieces on with a satin stitch, I attached them to the base with straight stitch. The straight stitch must be close enough to the edge so that it wouldn't be visible after sewing the poi together.

I serged the lower edge and  ten centimeters of the side seam allowance. I marked the lower fold line and started sewing the poi together at the side seam. I didn't sew under the fold line to leave a gap for the cord.

I had to pin each satin line. The lines must connect exactly at the width of the seam allowance to make an impression of a continuous piece.

I folded the slit in and sewed to keep it in place.

When I folded the lower hem, I had to alternate the thread colours for the stitches not to be visible. I always prefer to have sleeve shaped things wrong side out when sewing the lower hem:-)

Are you curious what they'll look like when turned over?
So am I :-D

Black&White Poi

Four pieces poi. In chess colours.

I sewed four black+white pairs, at two of them I left out a place for the lacing.

Then I put each two pairs together. I ironed the seam allowance to the right and the left edge as well. I wouldn't be able to iron it properly after sewing...

When I sewed the tunnel for the cord, I had to change the thread colour at every seam :)

I sewed the upper edges together and I turned the poi over with the help of a knitting needle.

The owner's nick is QMax, so I used the initials as a picture :-)

Voi

I've got an order for a pair of voi - veil poi.
You just attach your belly dance veil to the ball and that's it.
I sewed two and two eye-shaped pieces at one side together.
Then I sewed these two together inserting a loop and a cord.

I cut triangles out of the seam allowances and turned the balls inside out.

I filled them with sand and sewed the hole with the whip stitch.

I attached the swivel handles and here it is.
The veil should be just easily knotted to the loop at the bottom.

Microphone Poi

I wanted to have LED poi. Or some kind of glow poi.
Father gave me these shining microphones that blink when on. I broke out the sound button at first:-)

I cut out two pieces - one for the body and the mesh for the bulb.
I made a cylinder from the rectangle and gathered the circle on one side of it.

I didn't make a usual grommet eyelet. I folded the cylinder several times and sewed in one single point. I hooked the loop around it so that the lower part was hidden inside.

The longer side of the rectangle is not fully sewn, there's a gap to insert the microphone. I put it in and fastened the body at several places with a rubber cord.

Let's go spinning :-)

And see how lovely the light circles are!

Yellow Rasta Poi

The last pair of poi doesn't differ so much from the others, so there are just a few pics.

At the stripes I tried to use as much of the leftovers of the previous poi as possible.
Made the poi the usual way.

My client wanted me to make the grommets more tough. I cut out washers from the leather and glued them on with a quality glue. The glue made the eyehole more stiff. It should endure very fast spinning now:)

The last rasta pair with its sack.

Kiwido - The Final Touch

My kiwido poi are completed now.
I sewed ten spangles to each quarter, each with just two stitches.
I'm sending them today and wishing them joyful and long life:-)

Kiwido - Orange Finished

I had my orange kiwidos almost done.
I zig-zagged the tails and cut the threads away.

I prepared loops from a rubber cord.

I inserted them into the butts, the knot must be behind the bottleneck.
I took a double thread and gathered the bottleneck.

I wound the thread several times around the tail and made a few stitches through the rubber. Then I cut a small piece of a satin ribbon and hid this thread.

I made a pocket for each poi. I don't say pair, cause these poi will be used as single.
I cut the pattern (double layer) and marked the upper side of fastening.
I sewed there a twill ribbon with its sides folded inside. This makes a tunnel for the cord.
I sewed the two parts together and serged.

The last to do was the upper hem - I pressed it down and machine-embroidered over it.

So this is it - six fishie kiwidos.

And the pockets. I let the tails out - the kiwidos don't wrinkle this way and what's more - they look like buds in the pockets:-)

I used to dislike kiwidos (as a hard-core firelover), but today I changed my point of view.
Sometimes I just envy my clients:-DDD

Kiwido - Orange

I altered the pattern so that the bottleneck would be wider. At the yellow poi I wasn't able to turn them over and I had to rip some seams.
I did it and as a result I got a pattern that fits itself well when cut in pairs.

I cut the glittering fabric and decorated the satin.

I cut the fish, completed them in four, then put two and two together and pinned at always the same side.

I sewed all the fish at one side. You can see that I marked the middle at the beak so that I could start the seam exactly at the right point.

I ironed the vlieselin, basted the loop and inserted to the upper parts. The pin at the fish's mouth is good for the exact position of the seam.

I cut the seam allowance at the curved places, knotted the loops and serged the tails as at the yellow kiwidos.

Kiwido - Yellow Carry On

Three yellow kiwidos. Should be done eventually today.
I knotted a rubber cord into a loop, inserted to the tail of a kiwido filled with sand and foam.
I gathered the fabric in the bottleneck, sewed the loop to it safely and hid under a satin ribbon.

I gathered the tail loosely with a rubber thread so that the loop wouldn't be visible.

I also made fingerloops for all six poi.This time I used as simple method as possible.

I cut a synthetic band, thawed the ends, folded to create a fingerloop and sewed by machine. I used a wide and heavy zig zag stitch (satin stitch).

And why all the rubbers?
When attaching the ribbons, they even don't need a knot, they adhere very well.

(OMG, three more poi to make, if just the nasty satin wasn't so difficult to process...)

Kiwido - Yellow Beginning

My new poi project. The client wanted poi for belly dancing, but not with a veil but with ribbons.
The task I got from her was the stranger the better. So I let my imagination do the job.
I made a pattern - from a pattern for four-piece ball, I prolonged it and added a tail.

I cut various pieces from a glittering denim and pinned them on the fish.

I sewed them on with a narrow satin stitch. Not exactly at the edge. I want the edges to fray out a bit.
I attached the denim pieces with a straight stitch to the seam allowances of the kiwido pieces.

I'd made a prototype and I found out that the upper part stretches unpleasantly (it bears the whole weight). So I ironed a fusible web to toughten it.
You can see that I cut it in layers - right side to right side so that I could always get two mirrored pieces.

I sewed each pair of pieces and ironed the vlieselin to the upper parts.

I prepared a loop. I basted the loop and then I basted it to the fish at a marked place.

Those of you who are cleverer than me, must have seen that I had it wrong. I sewed it wrong, ripped out and here's the right version:-) The loop basted to the right side.

Turned over and...
...yep, that's better!

I sewed the fourth seam as well. I cut the seams at the curved parts (carefully not to damage the stitches), serged the tail and knotted the ends of the loop.

I zig-zagged the tail's edge. That didn't look very neatly, but as the edge at my concept was chaotic as well, I didn't mind. I wouldn't be able to serge the edge, satin is too troublesome material.

I'm gonna eat you little kiwido fishie!:-D
(Yes, I one of the RD weirdos)