Sewing Sunsets

I love to sew and my passion is sewing children’s garments, which is why I sew for Mission of Hope (www.missionofhope.org ) as much as possible.  In fact,  most of the garments that I share with you here are destined to be sent to MIssion of Hope.  However, I also now sew for another organization because of a request that I received a few months ago.

As you know, I always encourage sewing enthusiasts and those who like to quilt, knit, or crochet to share their talents by donating some wonderful handmade creations with others.  You never know when a small gift might brighten someone’s day, even if it’s in a small way.  A few months ago, I got a request from Tiffany Clark, Manger of Volunteer Services at Odyssey Healthcare (www.odsyhealth.com ), a hospice, in Gulfport, Mississippi.  She e-mailed me and asked if I would be willing to sew some small items for the hospice patients.  To her surprise, I not only said yes, but a couple of my friends also volunteered to sew or make crafts for the hospice patients.  Michelle, Sleepy Cat Hollow (www.sleepycathollow.wordpress.com ), makes beautiful quilts and I believe that she may have completed a quilt for Odyssey.  Donna, This Year’s Dozen (www.thisyearsdozen.wordpress.com ), makes beautiful jewelry (and has also been known to sew a stitch or two ) has designed a one-of-a-kind bracelet for one hospice patient and also made some cute purses.  These two talented ladies very graciously said “yes” when I asked them to join me in sewing for Odyssey Healthcare.

 At this point, Tiffany probably thinks I have forgotten about her request, but I never forgot and I’m happy to say that a fairly large box was sent to Mississippi a couple of days ago.   There were small pillows (www.sewseamless.com/Page22.html , www.sewseamless.com/Page23.html  , and www.sewseamless.com/Page24.html ), some neck pillows (www.sewseamless.com/Page52.html , www.sewseamless.com/Page53.html , www.sewseamless.com/Page54.html , www.sewseamless.com/Page55.html and www.sewseamless.com/Page56.html ); some small tissue holders, a couple of machine embroidered pillows, and a fleece blanket.  All of these things were made out of scraps of fabric that I had left over from other projects.

I find that I am happiest when I’m sewing, but what gives me even more pleasure is to know that in some very small way, the hand sewn items that I donate might brighten someone’s day, even if it’s just a little bit.  Giving to others truly blesses the giver as much, if not more, than the person who is receiving the gift.

We usually start to think about giving to others or donating our time or our crafts or hand sewn items during the major holidays like Thanksgiving or Christmas, but I would like to encourage you to hand craft some items and consider donating them now.  Doesn’t it make you smile just to think that by donating a handmade quilt or blanket, or other small craft item, you might brighten someone’s day, even if it’s in some small way. 

Perhaps you could even do a project one time and donate it to these hospice patients.  Because the holidays will soon be here, it might be nice to create some items with a holiday theme and brighten a hospice patient’s room, especially those who are in nursing facilities.

If you should decide to sew or hand craft items and donate them to Odyssey Healthcare, please be aware that it is a for profit hospice, so you will truly be volunteering your time and your talents.  Also, you will need to keep up with the amount of time that you spent on the project since this is information that is needed.  And I feel sure that you may never really know how much this small gesture may be appreciated by the hospice patients and their families, who are going through very difficult times. 

The contact information that you will need  is:

Tiffany Clark

Manager of Volunteer Services

Odyssey Healthcare

9414 Three Rivers Road, Ste. 3

Gulfport, MS 39503

(e-mail) TClark@odsyhealth.com

(office) 228-864-0065

(cell) 228-297-5976

Giving is truly better than receiving, and I feel sure that if you donate to Odyssey, a charity of your choice, or someone you know who is less fortunate than you , that you will feel great and have a spring in your step all day, or even for several weeks or longer.  I know that I am happiest when I’m sewing, but knowing that I may be helping someone in some small way makes me smile even more.

Happy Sewing!

www.sewseamless.com

Here are the completed garments.  They have both buttonholes and buttons sewn on them!

The two dresses in the picture above were the two dresses that I had the most trouble sewing.  If you remember, I serged a big hole in the bottom of the green watermelon print.  These dresses are really cute, but I’m not sure I’ll be sewing this particular pattern again.

The picture above is a picture of the cute ladybug buttons that I sewed on to the dress (although I’m not sure you can see them very well).

For the most part, I had fun sewing these garments, but I’m not sure that I’ll wait so long and need to devote an entire afternoon to just sewing buttonholes again.  Also, I may try not to have sew many buttons to sew on to garments in the future.

 Information about sewing buttonholes and buttons: www.sewseamless.com/Page10.html and www.sewseamless.com/Page19.html

Happy Sewing!

www.sewseamless.com

Here are the buttons with the fabrics:

I’ll have to show you the buttons that are on the ladybug print when I show you pictures of all the completed garments.

Happy Sewing!

www.sewseamless.com

I keep wondering why time seems to be flying by so much faster these days.  My 82 mother has assured me that as you get older, time just goes by faster.

 For some reason, life has gotten hectic lately and having time to sew or even keep up with this blog seems to be more difficult than it has been in the past.  However, at some point, I find that I really need the sewing therapy and I also enjoy sharing here with you as well.

I am sew happy that I finally got all the buttonholes and buttons sewn on my unfinished garments.  There were lots and lots of buttonholes to sew, but they turned out nicely, with only one small mishap that was easily corrected. Buttonholes must be opened in some way and I learned this tip quite some time ago, but I don’t remember the source.  I place straight pins at each end of the buttonhole and then carefully open the buttonhole with a seam ripper.  Sometimes I also have to use a small pair of craft or embroidery scissors to complete the job.  While this is not hard, it does pay to be very careful when opening buttonholes this way.  I’ve been known to cut more than the buttonhole.

I got some really cute buttons to sew on these garments.  Most of the time I prefer sewing buttons with the holes in them, but this time, I got several sets of buttons with a shank on the back.  In some ways, it’s easier to sew these buttons on because you simply sew through the shank.  When sewing buttons with holes in them, you must have a pin or toothpick either under the button or on top (to sew over) and then a thread shank is created by pulling the needle up and winding the thread underneath the button (around the threads that have sewn the button to the fabric).

Detailed instructions for sewing buttonholes and buttons: www.sewseamless.com/Page10.html and www.sewseamless.com/Page19.html

I’ll have some pictures of the buttons with each of the fabrics and pictures of the finished garments soon.

Happy Sewing!

www.sewseamless.com

Today I’m going to talk about buttonholes, but I’m not really going to talk about ladybugs.  I only mentioned them in the title because the fabric in these pictures is a print with ladybugs on it.

 If you remember, I had several garments that needed to have buttonholes sewn on them, so I took a day and sewed lots of buttonholes.  And I am happy to report that only one buttonhole misbehaved.

I don’t mind sewing buttonholes because my sewing machine has an automatic buttonhole stitch and the type of presser foot that I have automatically sizes the buttons.  I simply place the button on the foot and then snap the presser foot on to the sewing machine.

Of course, before I sew the buttonholes on the garment, I have to mark the buttonhole placement.  Sometimes the pattern provides a buttonhole guide, but I find that I usually have to respace, or reposition, the buttonholes, so I don’t use these guides very often.  Using the seam gauge, I usually measure about an inch down from the top of the garment and mark that spot for the first buttonhole.  Then I measure the distance between the buttonholes and mark those.  Sometimes I’ll use the pattern as a reference.

The next step is to measure how far from the edge of the garment the buttonhole should be placed.

To me, the trickiest part of sewing buttonholes is to make sure that the buttonholes are even.  Even thought the buttonhole foot has markings on it to help placement, this part of the process is still a challenge for me.  Another challenge is making sure that the buttonholes are spaced evenly.  In spite of these challenges, I manage to do a pretty good job of sewing buttonholes.

After I got the buttonholes sewn on to all the garments, I then took some time to sit down and open all the buttonholes. (I’ll share a tip for opening buttonholes in a later post).  After that, I hand sewed lots of buttons on these garments, in spite of my doggy’s objections on one particular day.

More information (and pictures) about sewing buttonholes: www.sewseamless.com/Page10.html and www.sewseamless.com/Page19.html

Happy Sewing!

www.sewseamless.com

In spite of today’s title, I’m talking about the sewing technique of hemming.  However,  in thinking about it for a minute, I guess I don’t like to be “hemmed in” in some ways either.  It tends to frustrate me if I can’t seem to accomplish my goals, no matter how small they may be.  Of course, when that happens, a little sewing therapy and a little fabric therapy are always a great help.

As I’ve already told you, I really enjoyed sewing the dress I’ve been telling you about.  Today, I’m going to talk about hemming the skirt, which I prefer to do by hand.  Many sewing enthusiasts like to hem by machine and in some cases, just sewing a regular straight stitch across the hemline is ok, but most of the time a blind hem stitch or a slip stitch (www.sewseamless.com/Page20.html ) looks more professional.  Some sewing machine have the blind hem stitch on them and that is much faster than hemming by hand, but it’s also a little trickier to master.  I prefer to hem by hand anyway because it’s a nice activity to do with my hands while I’m watching tv.

The first thing I do is serge finish the raw edge of the skirt.  Then I press up the hem, using a seam gauge.

I also pin the hem so that I don’t have to worry about it shifting when I’m doing the hand sewing.

Actually, I sewed the buttonholes before I hemmed the skirt.  Remember all those unfinished garments that needed buttonholes and buttons?  I took a day and sewed buttonholes and then sewed buttons on the garments another day.  (I’ll share that with you in the next post.)  Because I had engaged in a little fabric store therapy earlier I got some really cute buttons!

Happy Sewing!

www.sewseamless.com

I really enjoyed sewing this little dress that I’ve been telling you about here.  Once the bodice was finished, the rest of the dress was quite easy.  Sewing the skirt is easy because it only involves sewing two straight side seams. I like to serge finish these seams prior to sewing construction and then press them open before sewing the skirt to the bodice.

After sewing the skirt side seams and pressing them open, the top of the skirt has to be gathered and this is really easy.  I set the stitch length on 5 and sew at 3/8 inch and slightly less than that.  (Beginners should probably sew these gathering stitches at 5/8 inches and 1/2 inch because it will be easier.  The gathering stitches can be removed easily if they show on the outside of the garment.)   Although some seamstresses may sew over the seams, I choose to break the stitching at the side seams because it makes the gathering easier.  Make sure to leave long thread “tails” at each end so that you can pull the threads easily.  It is best to pull the bobbin threads (the side of the fabric that was next to the sewing machine bed feed dogs is where the bobbin thread is located) because  they are easier to pull.   Some sewing enthusiasts are very picky about getting the gathers “just so”, but I tend not to be quite so perfectionistic about the gathering.

The trickiest part is sewing the skirt to the bodice.  My pattern instructed me to baste the bodice together at the center before sewing the skirt to the bodice.  This just makes it easier for the seamstress.  When I sew a skirt to a bodice, I put the bodice inside the skirt, with the bodice being upside down inside the skirt, right sides of fabric together.  It sounds kind of silly, but it does work to sew this way.

When I sew the skirt to the bodice, I take my time and sew slowly around, making sure that I don’t catch any extra fabric in the stitching by putting one hand underneath the skirt to make sure that only the waistline seam is being sewn.  I sew around slightly overlapping where I started sewing.  Also, I like to finish the raw edges of this seam and my preference is to serge finish, although there are other ways to finish this seam as well.

(This is the skirt pinned to the bodice before taking it to the sewing machine, which is the picture just above this one.)

If everything goes well (and it did!), then the dress is almost complete.  The next sewing steps include buttonholes and buttons and hemming the skirt.

More information about sewing a gathered skirt and sewing it to a bodice can be found at: www.sewseamless.com/Page9.html , www.sewseamless.com/Page10.html and www.sewseamless.com/Page18.html

Happy Sewing!

www.sewseamless.com

After completeing the sleeves of the dress by sewing the cuff to the bottom and hemming it, it was time to sew the sleeves into the armscye of the bodice.  The sleeve cap is gathered so the sleeve has a “puffy” appearance on the top, which is nice because the gathers are kind of like tight “puckers” which are supposed to be there.

Set-in sleeves aren’t hard to sew, but it does take some practice.  The shoulder and side seams of the bodice have already been sewn and the sleeve seam has also already been sewn.  I sew set-in sleeves by using the free arm of the sewing machine, placing the sleeve next to the feed dogs,  although some seamstresses sew sleeves differently.  I just find it easier to place the pinned in sleeve over the free arm, if it’s large enough.  Baby patterns require a different sleeve sewing technique because they won’t fit on the free arm.

The first thing I do when sewing set-in sleeves is to match the side seam and sleeve seam  and I also match the notches.  (A double notch indicates the back of the sleeve and a single notch indicates the front of the sleeve.)  I pin baste and then sew around the armscye, slightly overlapping where I started sewing.  I like to start at the seam just because it’s easier to remember where I started that way.

Also, I finish the raw edge of the seam by serge finishing it.  There are other methods for finishing the raw edges of the seam, but for me, using the serger is easiest.  Finishing this seam gives the garment a more professional look.

(The above picture should have been the first picture because it shows the sleeve and bodice prior to pinning the sleeve into the bodice, as shown in the top picture.)

I think the completed bodice with the sleeves sewn in is cute.  And it was fun to sew, too!

More detailed instructions and pictures on how to sew set-in sleeves can be found at www.sewseamless.com/Page8.html and www.sewseamless.com/Page17.html

Happy Sewing!

www.sewseamless.com

Now that I actually have a little time to sew, I find myself finishing some incomplete sewing projects.  I will be glad to get them finished, but I also want to sew some different things.  Yesterday afternoon, I actually had a creative and new idea for sewing some small craft type items.  Having the idea encouraged me because that means I still have a little creativity left in me.

In yesterday’s post, I told you about sewing the sleeve, using one of my favorite patterns.  Of course, I did it my way and it turned out quite nicely, if I do say so myself.   When I had sewed the cuff on to the sleeve and sewed the sleeve seam, it was time to hem the sleeve, which is quite easy.  The cuff needed to be folded and the raw edge turned under approximately 5/8 inch (I never measure this) and then hemmed.  I usually use a slip stitch(www.sewseamless.com/Page20.html ) to hem the cuff.

I enjoyed sewing these sleeves, and I also enjoyed doing the bit of hand sewing that was required.  Even though I could have waited to hem the sleeves until after they were sewn into the bodice, it was easier to hem them without having to deal with the entire bodice.

After the sleeves were both complete, it was time to sew them into the bodice.  These are set-in sleeves (www.sewseamless.com/Page8.html and www.sewseamless.com/Page17.html ), but because the sleeve cap is gathered instead of just eased, it makes it a little bit easier to sew these sleeves in–there are supposed to be puckers/gathers on the sleeve cap.

Happy Sewing!

www.sewseamless.com

I think the last time I posted, I talked about understitching (www.sewseamless.com/Page7.html and www.sewseamless.com/Page16.html ) which isn’t as difficult as it may seem.   I actually like understitching, but I’m kind of weird.

After I had understitched the facings on the bodice of this little dress and pressed it well, it was time to sew the sleeves.  The view that I had chosen to sew had short, gathered sleeves with a cuff.  Because of the sleeve cuff, the bottom of the sleeve was also gathered.  The pattern instructions told me to sew the cuff seam  first, creating the cuff, and then I was to sew the sleeve seam.  This meant that I would need to match the seams and sew the cuff to the bottom of the sleeve, using the free arm of my sewing machine, if possible.  My free arm is a little too large to accomodate this particular sleeve in this manner so I decided to sew this an easier way.

First, I sewed gathering stitches between the notches on the sleeve cap, and I also sewed gathering stitches on the bottom of the sleeve.  These gathering stitches were sewn while the sleeve was still flat (no seams having been sewn).  I then placed the cuff on the bottom of the sleeve and sewed the cuff to the sleeve. 

(The sleeve cap is at the bottom in the above picture; the bottom of the sleeve is at the top of the picture.)

After the cuff was sewn to the sleeve, I trimmed the seam a little bit and then pressed well.  There is no understitching involved in this step. The next step was really easy because the cuff seam and sleeve seam were sewn as one seam.

When the sleeve seam was sewn, I pressed the seam open, using a seam roll.  The next step in sewing this sleeve was a little bit of hand sewing, which involved folding the cuff over the seam and hand sewing over the raw edges of the seam that joined the cuff and the sleeve.  I’ll share that with you next time.

Happy Sewing!

www.sewseamless.com