Pattern Binder

I'm setting up a binder to store all my patterns in. I just don't like its appearance - white plastic with some advert on it. I'm not into plastics:-)
I took a piece of old fabric and pinned it around the binder to find out the size. When I took it off, I marked with chalk, what I found.

I decorated it with my new beloved tambour needle:-) I draw the picture with a piece of chalk, I took inspiration in gothic windows. I worked like this with the only difference - my work was facing the right side up, I pressed the needle from below.

When I had the decoration done, I could sew the cover in marked lines and dress the binder up. First I sewed the vertical seams, then the horizontals.

Getting it on the binder was quite a puzzle, but finally...

Twisted Hairdo

Just having fun playing with sister's hair:)
I made these three French braids on the top of her head.

I crossed the side two. At each one I took a strand of side hair and twisted it once around the braid.

I laid each braid back from where it came and tucked it under. By the way, you can see that the French braids are decorated with a golden cord.

I bent the braids down and tried to hide the ends under. Not perfectly succesfull:-D

Here it is - heart shaped knot. Enjoy!

Upholstered Frame

Sister's wedding. She got married a while ago, you may remember her daughter's little dress:-)
Two months later, I found me thinking about what to give her for her nameday. I knew that I hadn't hand her over all the photos I made at the wedding. I printed three nice photos and bought a frame. Quite boring. But what about giving her a photo in a frame from the fabric they'd had their their wedding costumes made of?

I measured everything on the wooden frame, cut these pieces, decorated the silver fabric with the golden one, folded in and sewn the inner edges.
Then I glued these, folding in a small part at the corners.

I glued the inner of the frame as well, let it breathe for some ten minutes and pressed together.

I ironed the seam allowances in at all sides.

I had to make a small cut in the seam allowance near the glued part.

I used one of my favourite stitches (whatever its name is :-D) that is very comfortable to make. I laid the pieces as they should finally be (pinned them together at the backside) and sewed them together in this position.

I did a few stitches at the same place to toughten the seam at the corner before changing direction.

Pinning the pieces for the corner seam. How easy to sew:-)

Wedding photo in wedding coat. I hope the brocade will remain them of their day for a long time.

Pilgrim's Bag

If you once were on a period event, you may know the wrong feeling when you move in the costume among people and have to have something modern at you. In my case CDs for the dance, paper tissues, writing pad with notes or so.
Actually couldn't find any luggage at women except the pouches and bags worn at the belt, they are so small that you can't take anything but tiny things. The only usable luggage was seen at medieval pilgrims. Not ideal but better than a plastic bag.

As you can see, I prepared one big piece, a long rectangle and two small pieces - one of them was sewn to the basic piece as an inner pocket.

I folded the upper edge of the small pieces, but the big one was of a complicated shape.

Luckily, now I know how to. I cut a pattern out of paper, put it inside and ironed the edges over it. It's just about steam violence :-) You can make the fabric do almost anything you want to when you have enough steam.

I sewed those pieces together (the narrow rectangle was sewn to a circle and used as a handle and bottom at the same time) to form a bag and made the fastening features. I made this stripe and used a part of it as a buckle holder. The piece in strange shape was used to cover the end of the fastening stripe.

Like this :-)

The finished bag.

Fire Waistcoat

We needed another waistcoat for a new member of our fireshow team. Before, we used to have these waistcoats sewn at a dressmaker. Now I wanted to try it myself :-)
My boyfriend had a waistcoat that was too thin for him. So we gave this one to the newbie who was slim and I made a new piece for my boyfriend. He was so kind as to take the pattern from the old one (I don't like the work:)). You must take a pattern paper, lay a piece of clothes on it and put these on a carpet. Then go along the seams of each panel with a tracing wheel. The outline will be visible on a paper, then you may retrace it with a marker.
You can see how I enlarged the pattern - I measured him at a chest, waist and hips and added evenly to each seam what was missing.

I put this pattern on two layers of twill. I had very little fabric, so I had to lay some of the pieces upside down. But on an ordinary twill, this shouldn't matter.
I pinned the fabric carefully before cutting.

I made the front panels and the back panel and sewed them together in side and shoulder seams.

To neaten the neckline and armholes I used bias tape. Home made:-)

I have a special tool for it. I cut a bias strip of twice the width, thread it in the tool, then I can go with it before the iron and get a strip with two sides folded in.

I sewed the bias on in one fold, right sides together...

..then I turned it over the hem and sewed near the edge of the bias. I was quite pleased with the result.

To iron up the lower hem, I marked twice the width. When ironing, I just laid the edge on this line. Much easier then my previous methods:-D

Another method I used to iron the bracers. I ironed them around a paper pattern.

The waistcoat. You may notice the light and dark strips. Unfortunately, the twill was not normal, it coloured my machine black and apparently had to have some nap. But I know I couldn't lay all the pieces head up (lack of fabric) and it shouldn't be visible in the fire light at all.

A completed new fire costume:)

Renaissance Hairdo

This time I tried to simulate a hairdo that I saw in a renaissance portrait.
That's me the first time I tried to do it.

I will present it to you on my sister.
I took a front part of the hair and divided it into four squares (the picture showed more of them, but it would require very dense hair). I braided each of them so that they would end up interwoven.

Then I took a small amount at the bottom and made one more small braid.

I caught the whole rest of hair and made one big braid beginning on the left.

I wound it so that the braids at the top would hide under it.

The lower braid was woven around the big one. Where I could, I took the unbraided ends of the small plaits, braided them together and hid under the big wheel.

Like this:-)

Cotton Machine Embroidery

I heard about it once and now I wanted to try.
You can sew with embroidery (or crochet) cotton, but not the regular way, you wouldn't be able to thread the needle and if you were, the stitches wouldn't be created.
You must wind it to the bobbin as the lower thread.

The upper thread's tension must be adjusted not to make the fabric wring and not to be loose at the same time. You must sew at the wrong side.
I used the colour of the fabric at the upper thread, but of course you may use the same as the cotton or anything you want :-)

I don't make any knots in the end, I just pull the cotton down with a needle.
The result is quite satisfactory, regarding the small amount of effort it took:-)

These are my new cotton-decorated trousers:)
The last word - you shouldn't use this technique on very light fabrics, they could get deformed.

Black Rasta Poi

When making the fourth short pair of poi, I told myself I should eventually make a paper pattern:-)
I did so and marked the distances for possible coloured stripes.

I cut the stripes by two, so that I could be more economical with the fabric.

I ironed the edges of the stripes in. I drew the pattern on the right side and marked the stripe distances outside the pattern so that I could easily see them when sewing.

Such lovely colours. Like traffic lights:-)
You may spot I don't cut threads between the stripes - it saves me time and the thread.

I finally learned how to work with the thimble:-)
You put it on your middle finger. You hold the needle with the thumb and the forefinger and help the needle go through with the side of the thimble (on a bent middle finger).
This way I finish the lower part of the poi.

A new pair is born. I hope their owner will like them.

A pocket, as usually. The last one with five-finger leaf...