Inspirational Young Lady

Today is a very special post about a fellow blogger that I found through Netmums.  She is just 15, is called Alice Pyne and has been in a brave 4 year battle with Hodgkin's lymphoma.  Alice has created a bucket list of things she'd really like to do (the lymphoma is being very naughty right now and won't go away) and so I'd urge all of you to have a visit her blog and see if there's anything you can do to help, do you know anyone who could help with her wishes? 

The one thing on her list I spotted that I can help with is spreading the word about the Bone Marrow register, which I joined 11 years ago. Things have moved on medically so here's a couple of facts from the Anthony Nolan Website page that might make you think again if it's something that you've not previously considered.

• Bone marrow donation can also be done through a vein in your arm which is non-surgical, known as a Peripheral Blood Stem Cell donation as well as the original method which was surgery. 
• It's not just family that can be a match, 70% of people who need a transplant have to rely on the kindness of a stranger to save their life
• People who have donated via the bone marrow method compared the after-effects to a hard game of football. Many donors find the experience fulfilling and for some, it’s life-changing

 Alice has links on her left sidebar to the associations but I've posted them below also. 

Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow for 18 - 40 inc

British Bone Marrow Registry 18 - 49 inc

ALICE PYNE Bone Marrow Appeal pages

I don't use Twitter (I know I'm so behind the times) but the article in the Telegraph said she uses the hashtag #alicebucketlist so for those who do use it you could always tweet there too!  Here's the telegraph article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/8565214/Teenagers-bucket-list-trends-worldwide-after-celebrity-support.html

In addition here is her official facebook page - some horrible people have been setting up and using other ones which is upsetting Alice so I think it's important that the real one is posted for her.

ALICE PYNE facebook pages

So.... a non crafting post for today but one that I feel is really important nonetheless and so wanted to help in whatever way I could.

Keri

Bias Binding Foot

I love my sewing machine and more importantly I LOVE how using different feet makes life easier!  So for my second 'sewing machine foot' tutorial I have decided to take a different approach.  After a long winded buttonhole foot tutorial, which I felt was maybe too wordy for people to enjoy, I decided to think about my favourite tutorials and why  they worked.  One of my favourite tutorials ever is the butterfly dress by Kelly at Sewing in No Mans Land.  Why........?  It's basically a set of photographs with the instructions on each photograph, simples (as the meerkats would say).  Kelly is an amazing photographer, so I can't by any means say that this will work as well, but I'm going to give it a go and welcome any feedback. 

This is what my bias binding foot looks like, you'll get a closer look as we go through the tutorial.  These are about £13 for my Janome and I'm sure will be a similar price for other brands.  The basic theory seems to be a channel through which you can feed the fabric and binding.



I hope this was easier to follow than my earlier buttonhole post - feel free to comment.  I'll leave you with my top 3 reasons why, for me, it's worth every penny of the £13!

1. I sew quite a few aprons for selling at craft fairs and now instead of pinning the binding (20 mins) and then sewing it removing the pins as I go along (20 mins), I can simply feed it through and be done in 15 mins!

2. The finish is so much more professional than my previous attempts - though you do have to focus when sewing round corners.

3. With the typical double fold binding the idea is you sew the back fold first then re-sew (which I never did).  The binding foot eliminates a step from the process and always seems to ensure that the folded portion of the tape is enclosed within the stitches.

Happy sewing!  Next foot to feature will be the rolled hem foot which is coming very useful for all those summer dresses right now!  I'm also really interested to try the freehand embroidery foot and ruffler foot which the kind Janome salespeople threw in with my new machine (after a small amount of bartering on my part)!

Keri

Exciting News

Wow, I recieved my first blogging award from fab blogger Jo at Pickle Lily.

So.......it seems the courtesy now is to make a post linking back to the person who gave you the award (which I've gladly done above), share 7 random things about yourself and award 7 recently discovered bloggers with this award, contacting them to let them know they have won.

This seems to be a lovely way of introducing fellow bloggers/craftspeople and allowing those of us who are just starting out blogging chance to meet like minded folk so here's my contribution

7 random things about myself
- I love to eat lamb and chocolate (though not together)!
- I adore butterflies
- I didn't learn to sew (apart from the odd little thing at School) until I was 32!
- I'm a secret fabric addict and have it all stacked up in my dining room
- I love to ski though I'm a real scaredy cat!
- I love to sew using my machine but am the worst hand sewer in the World!
- Kind of linked to the one above but because I try to avoid hand sewing at all costs I've become a bit of a sewing machine foot queen! (post soon to follow on my current fave a bias binding foot which is saving me so much time I could burst with joy)!!!!

Now I would like to pass this award onto a few other bloggers (too many to choose from so sorry if you are a follower and not included I was trying to keep the list to new or small is blogs)

The Ladies at Yorkshire Made
Moogsmum
Jennifer at Mere Made
Kelly at Sewing in No Man's Land
Fiona at The Sewing Directory
Wendy at Made with Pixie Dust
Kate at Tour Widow Moves North

Happy Reading and Thanks again Jo for your award!

Keri

Happy Holidays and Magic Minnie Moments

 

So.....I've been missing for a while and that's because we were off having a few days relaxing in France followed by a few days of Disney Mania!  We took our little girl for her first visit to Disneyland Paris and she loved it!  In my impulsive madness a couple of days before we left I decided it would be a good idea to make a Minnie Dress!  Crazy me!  I felt sure there would be a simple tutorial somewhere but no I couldn't find one so off I went on my crazy mission following a full circle skirt pattern for the bottom, a bodice copied from one of her dresses, a bizarre collar that sooooooo didn't work out (I'll be re-doing that as it drove me mad all day it not being perfect) and some lovely ribbon.  I think it turned out ok in the end and was glad when she was jumping and rolling around getting dirt all over it that it cost me just a few pounds not the £45 price tag of the very very similar (but more perfect) ones in the shops there!

I'll be back with a sensible sewing post soon but for now just thought I'd indulge myself in a lovely family memory of my little girls first meeting with her idol!

Happy Sewing

Keri

Sewing In No Man's Land - Butterfly Dress

I stumbled upon the Sewing In No Mans Land blog quite by accident but am so glad I did.  Given my love of butterflies whilst I was searching for fabric I found a link to this great tutorial for a gathered dress that was so easy to follow and beautifully simple.  Kelly is currently living in East Timor and is on a mission to see how far 15 yards of fabric will go (a stash that she took with her from the US).    The blog is full of fab projects so pop over if you get chance.  This is how mine turned out:

Happy Sewing

Keri

Great Blogs - Genuine People

So, now that blogger has started to behave itself I thought I'd get round to the post I've meant to write for ages which was to say Thank you to all those who supported my blog giveaway.  There were a number of people who (as part of entering the giveaway) posted about it on their blog to whom I wanted to send a special thanks so here's the roll call - feel free to visit their blogs, I'm sure they'd be glad you visited:

Pickle Lily - This blog is full of fun family life!  UK based too and so it's lovely to meet other uk crafters
Innocentia - Dewi is an amazing seamstress who has the most fun projects - including her own projects from the Fiona Bell - Sewn with Love book
Craft Buds is a collaboration between Lindsay Conner (Lindsay Sews) and Mary Jaracz (Bugglebee), two inspirational ladies.  The craft buds blog offers a wealth of sewing projects/blogging and craft business advice and tutorials
Given to Distracting Others - Jo is a part time mystery shopper and also a review blogger.  Her blog is full of wonderful useful reviews.
Super Lucky - Di runs a great blog, sharing fun competitions, as well as my tips and advice on how to win big

Happy reading and thanks again to all for their support

Keri

Cute as a Button

Search the internet for button and you’re likely to end up with pictures of Jenson Button the Formula 1 racing driver, which is not an unpleasant view though not much help if you want to learn how to sew one onto a garment!  Search for Buttonhole and you end up with a plethora of wedding sites! 

I searched good old Wikipedia to learn a little more about the background of buttonholes and found out that:

Buttonholes for fastening or closing clothing with buttons appeared first in Germany in the 13th century.However it is believed that ancient Persians used it first. They soon became widespread with the rise of snug-fitting garments in 13th- and 14th-century Europe.
Traditionally, men's clothing buttonholes are on the left side, and women's clothing buttonholes are on the right. The lore of this 'opposite' sides buttoning is that the practice came into being as 'women of means' had chamber maids who dressed them. So as not to confuse the poor chamber maids, the wealthy began having women's garments made with the buttons and holes 'switched'; the birth of the modern ladies' blouse.

So, enough of the background onto the real work.  The Sewing Directory had asked for guest bloggers to help with tips and techniques and so (as I have been sewing plenty of buttonholes and buttons lately) I thought it might be helpful to pass on my technique and also some links to others who have great skills in creating them by hand also!

When I got my first machine last year I was overwhelmed with the multitude of attachments that arrived and so have been slowly learning the techniques required to make the best use of them.  One particular attachment was a sliding buttonhole foot!  I didn’t have a clue what to do with this but my instruction book was quite clear so if you have a foot that looks like picture 1 below here are my tutorial steps to help you both sew a buttonhole and a button.

Step 1 - First you will need to look for a setting that looks something like picture 2 below.   Most modern machines will have some kind of setting that helps with buttonholes but don’t worry if yours doesn’t, just skip to the bottom of my post and there are some useful links for creating a buttonhole on a machine without a specific setting and also by hand.

Picture 1

   

Picture 2

 

 

Step 2 - Following your sewing machine instructions affix the sliding buttonhole foot and thread your machine as you would for usual sewing. 

Step 3 -  Measure your buttonhole on your fabric.  I usually do this by putting my button on the fabric (next to where I want the buttonhole to be) and drawing an I shape

Step 4 – The sliding buttonhole foot should have some kind of markers on it to help you with sewing your buttonhole.  As you can see from the picture below my markers are on the left of the foot and are red.  Place your fabric under the buttonhole foot and slide the foot so that the top arrow is aligned with the top of your I and the bottom of your I is aligned with the bottom red marker

Step 5 – Set your button to the buttonhole setting according to your manuals instructions.  For example with mine I turned the length dial to the centre of the rectangle as indicated below.

 

 

 

 

 

 Step 6 – Set your stitch dial to the number 1 as per the above picture.  Ensure your needle is in the left position  and put the needle into the fabric (as per picture 3 below) then begin to sew slowly.  You will sew a long row of quite tight zig zag stitches  - make sure you stop when you reach the bottom red marker.

Step 7 – At the bottom of your first row of stitches lift your needle out of the fabric and move your stitch dial to the number 2/4 setting.  Sew 5/6 stitches on this setting and this will be the bottom of the buttonhole.

Step 8 –Lift your needle out of the fabric, ensure that it is in the right hand position and move your stitch dial to the number 3 setting.  As per step 6 begin to sew slowly creating the right hand side of the buttonhole.   Stop when your arrow reaches the original red mark (as per picture 4 below).

Picture 3

Picture 4

Step 9 –Lift your needle out of the fabric and ensuring it is in the right position move your stitch dial to the number 2/4 setting.  Sew 5/6 stitches on this setting and this will be the top of the buttonhole.    Lift up your foot and remove your fabric (picture 5), cutting the threads so there is enough room to tie the threads together for a final bit of security.

That’s the hard part done!

 Picture 5       

 

Picture 6

Step 10 – Put a pin across the top of the buttonhole and insert your seam ripper in the bottom of the buttonhole (picture 6).  Carefully slide your seam ripper up the buttonhole, using the pin to protect the top of the buttonhole and create your opening.  Depending on your type of fabric you may have little frayed bits of fabric inside your buttonhole, carefully snip these away to make your buttonhole neat but ensuring you don’t catch any of the stitching.

You have now created your buttonhole!  Below is a picture of the finished article which was for an apron I had been making along with a few of the projects I have been making recently using the above 10 easy steps, a dummy/pacifier clip complete with sparkly button, a cute little purse and a fab summer dress.  The World is your oyster now as there are so many projects that can be finished professionally with a buttonhole.

<><><><>

<> 

<><><><>

<>

As I promised above I have also included some links at the foot of this post  for a number of other buttonhole related articles covering links such as how to create a buttonhole by hand and how to create a buttonhole on a machine that doesn’t have a specific setting.  I hope these are useful and you find the steps above leave you feeling brave enough to have a go – good luck.  If you would like to read a little more about my adventures in sewing and crafts you can visit my blog by clicking on the Bella Boutique picture below

Keri

Knitted buttonhole - http://www.learn2knit.co.uk/knitting/buttonholes.php

Bound Buttonhole - http://www.blogforbettersewing.com/2010/10/bound-buttonhole-tutorial.html

Normal Buttonhole and corded buttonhole -  http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=846

Hand Sew a Buttonhole -  http://www.colettepatterns.com/blog/tutorials-tips-tricks/handmade-buttonholes

Buttonhole on machine that has no buttonhole setting  - http://untilwednesdaycalls.blogspot.com/2010/03/how-to-manual-machine-buttonholes.html