Sewing Sunsets

I hope everybody had a great holiday and spent some time sewing and also getting some fabric therapy at the great sales the fabric stores were having this weekend.  I did a little sewing and I got to go to JoAnn’s Fabrics–twice!

While at JoAnn’s, I stocked up on flannel because I am in the process of sewing pajama pants, pj tops, and nightgowns.  I will be sharing these projects with you here soon.  I’m starting with pajama pants because they make such great gifts.  We’ll review the easy way to sew a crotch seam.  If you want a sneak peek of the techniques, click on the following links.   The links will show you how to sew shorts, but the techniques are basically the same.

www.sewseamless.com/Page33.html

www.sewseamless.com/Page34.html

www.sewseamless.com/Page35.html

www.sewseamless.com/Page36.html

www.sewseamless.com/Page37.html

www.sewseamless.com/Page38.html

www.sewseamless.com/Page39.html

Happy Sewing!

www.sewseamless.com

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving today.  Enjoy spending time with family and then do lots and lots of sewing.

Happy Sewing!

www.sewseamless.com

The apron is finished, so I’ll share the last few steps with you here and in my next post, I’ll show you a picture of the finished apron.   This is an easy project to sew and would also be an easy project for beginners as well.  You might consider sewing a few aprons to give as gifts this holiday season.

Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures to show you of sewing the ruffle because my camera decided to misbehave during that stage of sewing construction.  The ruffle pattern was a straight piece placed on the fold.  I cut three of these, finished the short edges of the ruffle, and then sewed those seams together and pressed them open.  After sewing the, the ruffle pieces together, I then sewed a narrow hem on the outside edges and bottom of the apron.   Of course, this was all pressed well.  The next step was to gather the upper edge of the ruffle.  When I gather, I like to use a stitch length of about 5.  Also, I prefer to sew the first row of gathering at 3/8 inches and the next row a little less than that.   This ruffle was then pinned to the bottom of the apron.

When sewing the ruffle to the main body of the apron, I had to be very careful that I didn’t catch part of the apron in the stitching.  Of course, I did just that in two places, had to do some un-sewing, and re-stitching. 

After the ruffle was sewn to the apron, I serged the seam and pressed it toward the apron.  The seam was then pressed toward the apron and I used the edge stitch foot to edge stitch along the bottom of the apron.  This allowed the seam to lay flat against the apron.

Because I don’t have pictures, I almost forgot to tell you that prior to sewing the ruffle, I sewed the apron ties and then sewed them to the side of the apron.  The ruffle is sewn to the apron after this step is complete.

Happy Sewing!

www.sewseamless.com

Sewing an apron is such a quick and easy project, and these aprons also make good gifts.  This pattern was very easy and I had lots of fun making several of these aprons.

After I sewed the neckband to the apron, I then hemmed the arms of the apron.  That was quite easy to do and pressing the hem down first made the job much easier.  I used a seam gauge to press down about 1/4 inch and then fold and press down the fabric again.  Once again, the edge stitch presser foot helped to edge stitch both sides of the apron arm hems.

After the arms were pressed and hemmed, then it was time to sew the ruffle.  The raw edges were finished and then the three pieces were sewn together and the seams pressed open.  The ruffle was hemmed, using a narrow hem.  Then the top edges of the ruffle was gathered and pinned to the bottom of the apron.  I think I may have pictures to show you of that, but it will have to wait until my next post.

In the meantime…..

Happy Sewing!

www.sewseamless.com

I finally finished the apron and I have a few pictures to share with you here.  I am happy to announce that I have now begun sewing a pair of pajama pants and my camera is now behaving so I will be sharing that project with you soon.

In the meantime, let me finish telling you about sewing the apron.  I sewed the pocket on to the front and then started sewing the neckband. The directions for sewing the neckband told me to fold the fabric right sides together and sew a seam, then turn it right side out.  I did not follow those instructions because I prefer an easier sewing method.  I pressed the neckband in the middle, wrong sides together, then pressed each side to the fold in the middle.  Then, I pressed again and edge stitched down each side of the neckband.  At that point, I pinned the neckband to the top of the apron.

The top was then turned down twice, as shown in the bottom two pictures above, and then edge stitched on each side.  This also enclosed the neckband.

After sewing the neckband to the top of the apron, the next step involved hemming the arms.  I will show you that in the next post. 

Aprons make great gifts and are a quick and easy project.  You could sew an apron in a holiday fabric and you could also choose to embellish the apron by sewing some machine embroidery on the bib of the apron.  The embroidery could be a holiday design or a monogram.  You could also choose to sew some decorative designs in holiday colors around the edges of the pocket.  This particular apron sewing pattern is quite easy and is a lot of fun to sew.

Happy Sewing!

www.sewseamless.com

I have had a little time to sew lately, but unfortunately, my camera has decided to be uncooperative.  One of the first steps in sewing this apron is to prepare the pocket and sew it on to the apron.  It is a basic patch pocket, but instead of square corners on the bottom, it is rounded.

I serge finish all the raw edges first.  Then, the pocket hem is turned down 1-1/4 inches, right sides together.  The short sides are sewn, using a 5/8 inch seam allowance, the corners are clipped diagonally, and the pocket hem is then turned to the right side and pressed.  I also sewed the hem down by placing the edge of the presser foot on the finished edge of the hem, and placed the sewing machine needle all the way to the left and sewed.   The side and bottom edges of the pocket were pressed under at about 5/8 inch.  In order to make it easier to press up the rounded corner, I ran an ease line, using a long gathering stitch, in the bottom corners.  You could also use a pocket template to help with this step.

After all the edges were pressed down, I pinned the pocket to the apron front and then edge stitched the pocket to the apron, using an edge stitch presser foot.   Personally, I like having one large pocket, but on this project, I chose to sew down the middle of the pocket in order to create two smaller pockets.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures to show you these steps.  However, if you follow the following links, you will find a tutorial on sewing patch pockets.  The sewing techniques are basically the same.

www.sewseamless.com/Page26.html and www.sewseamless.com/Page27.html  

Hopefully, my camera will be more cooperative with the rest of this sewing project.

Happy Sewing!

www.sewseamless.com

No, I’m not actually sewing in the kitchen!   However, I have been sewing an apron and using an animal print.  I believe it’s a zebra print.  I have a few pictures to show you, but something has misbehaved and I may not have all the pictures I took during this project. 

What I can show you for now is the pattern pieces that I used for this project.  There is a main apron pattern piece, a neckband, ties, and a pocket.

The very first step is to prepare the pocket.  I serge finished the raw edges, and then turned the hem down on the pocket.  If I can get my pictures to show up, I’ll share them with you later.

Happy Sewing!

www.sewseamless.com

Since real life always seems to have other plans for me when I actually plan to sew, I’ll just hope to sew for now.

Here is the project I am hoping to sew next:

I’ll be sewing the bib stype apron with the ruffle on the bottom. There is also a pattern for a half apron that I may sew later….at least I hope so.

Animal prints are usually not my style, but maybe I have a bit of a wild side that I haven’t discovered yet.

Happy Sewing!

www.sewseamless.com