Fishing Rod Bags

I'm a minimalist and a fan of having my stuff light, compact and as small as possible. I carry my fishing rods in a backpack and needed something to protect them.

The lower part is as small as possible and the rest has to be as big enough for the winch. My favourite velcro fastening with two perpendicular velcro straps, sewn on so that the upper part of the bag is slanted (-> as small as possible) when closed.

The material used is a lightweight cordura and the seams are finished with a bias tape.

Speaker Covers

I little complicated cover for our country band's speakers. There must be a hole for handling the speaker.

 The design took me a lot of time! I added a centimeter to each dimension for the cover to be taken on and off easily.

I won a yoga mat last year at a running competition. Now I cut it to pieces to protect the speaker face. I cut the panel and made an inner pocket from lining fabric. The main fabric is the one used for strollers, with a rubber film on the wrong side.

The mat is 7 mm thick, so I made the pocket this bigger, on the lower edge, I made a small fold at the corner as well.

The finised pocket. The lower edge is attached with the hemming, the upper edge is half a cm away from the seam.

At the handle, where one seam would contain inner seam and hem, I folded the seam allowance inside and sewed over it.

At the corners, I cut the seam allowance to half its width. This was I was able to turn quite easily at he corners and it's still quite safe. I zigzagged each inner seam and double folded each hem.

Two pieces finished.

Microphone Case

 Microphones are always the most delicate property of a musician - it has to be handled and transported very carefully. My husband got some Whiskey in a nice sturdy stylish case, so we made use of it. We bought foam and cut out the shape of the case. The upper piece was also angled at the edges so that closing the case is comfortable. Not very neatly done, but... Whatever :-)

He glued the foam to the case and I traced the mics with a marker and cut out the foam with my scalpel. Works perfectly, protects reliably!

Lego Bodysuit

 One more baby in our family - one more bodysuit. The pattern and process was the same as at Fox Bodysuit.

I had some more fabric left so I also made a little hat with ears. The pattern was easy - a rectangle. By the way, this fabric was not chosen randomly, both her parents have home made T-shirts from this fabric, so it should be even bigger surprise.

Half of the rectangle is turned over to the right side, so one half stays as inner layer. Then I sewed with front stitch the ears.

I tried it on my panda and it looked just fine.

As it will be for a girl, I added a few spangles to the hat. And the name label. It's her name in the form that her parents like to use.

Good luck in life, little one!

Fox T-Shirt

I found out that knitted fabrics roll as hell after washing, and I didn't want to lose the edge of these beautiful fabrics. So I washed them folded in half, basted edges. This is one of ways to eliminated the rolling.

 

I drew a pattern and decided where will be the cuts for fabric alternation.

I joined the fabrics with serger and hemmed with coverlock (including sleeves).

I attached the seam with a straight stitch. To keep the stitch line flexible, I pulled it during sewing. Iron then helped to get back to shape what was pulled out.

For a neckline, I used 3 cm band cut from the main fabric. I ironed it in half, pinned the middle points and pinned evenly. Serged on, facing the band upwards.

The seam was attached again with a regular sewing machine, pulling along the way. I altered the thread colors to match the fabric.

Finished sleeve.

This is my dream come true. I love the fox painting!

Fox Bodysuit

I had bought beautiful knitted fabrics for my fox T-Shirt. And now there is a newborn celebration in our family...

I have some russian pattern from the internet, I printed it and taped together.

I embroidered his name on a piece of the fabric. First I wanted to do it with freeform machine quilting, but it was never perfect.. So hand embroider in the end. Disappearing marker is the best!

I had ironed a fusible web before embroidery. After sewing the label on, I cut the web right at the seam.

My first experiments with ribbed fabric showed that it's too rough for a baby's garment. I'll use the base fabric.

3cm strip - folded in thirds and ironed.

I sewed it on with a coverlock. I didn't measure or pin anything - the strip is pulled at the neck and the base fabric is pulled at the other part of the curve. Pulling is done during sewing, nothing is prepared or exact. Surprisingly good results.

I basted the pieces together at the armholes - both the front and back panel and each sleeve.

I sewed one side + sleeve together with a serger and finished the bottom with the strip of fabric. Then I sewed the other side + sleeve.

I tried my new tool for setting press buttons. Again, I considered them to be too rough for baby's dress. I ended up sewing on three little press buttons in hand, total distance is 6 cm.

Ready for the baby!

Bird Feeder

 This was an idea caught on Pinterest. The usual ball bought in a supermarket, hanging on a string inside a cage made of sticks. It took me some time to realize that all the joints were not tied with knot in fact. It was connected with a hot melt glue gun! However, the knots are great there anyway, as the glue works the best on rough surface, better than on smooth bark.

I also used a crooked birch branch to hang the feeder so that our balcony stays clean even with the bird visitors coming. At first, the birds were frightened that the cage moves when they fly in and break just before it - it began spinning. But after some time, they got the hang of it and a flock of tits kept coming regularly, having fun on the feeder.

Boxer Shorts

 I bought a bunch of rubber bands with funny writings on them.

I cut the right width and sewed each rubber band to a circle. I tried to flatten the seam as much as possible with two lines of stitches and an extra zig-zag line.

Now to the boxer shorts themselves. The front piece has a slit in the middle. Sewing it together is the first step.

The rest is in one piece. So I sewed one side of the center front piece with the rest at a side seam.

Then I wrapped the big piece so that it would fit inside the smaller...

...so that I could sew them together right sides in.

One short seam at the bottom.

And I hemmed the legs on coverlock machine.

Rubber band is sewed on in an unusual way - wrong sides in!!! Then it's turned over and added one more line of stitches at the rubber band side. The seam is neat from both sides this way. However, this way you mustn't forget to stretch the band while sewing as much as possible. If not, the threads can bread during taking the garment on.

Seven pieces as a weekly set, as a gift for my beloved husband. I can't wait till his birthday already! :-D

Brown Skirt from Leftover Knit

 A small project from scrap knit. I cut out a half circle skirt according to my waist circumpherence.

 I sewed the sides on both the skirt and the rubber band and pinned it by halves together.

I used a technique that I'd learned on boxer shorts - I sew WRONG sides together, like a centimeter from the edge of the rubber band, then I fold the skirt panel down and add one more line of stitches at the very edge of the band. Of course pulling the rubber band a lot so that the seam is stretchy.

The fabric was so nice, dense and super lightweight, that I didn't hem the lower edge.