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Beautiful things for you and your home!

Lots of homely thoughts on sewing, baking, papercrafts, gardening and all the things that go towards making your house a home

Monday 17 February 2014

Sewing a Tablet Case with Fabulous Geeky Fabric!

For ages my hubby has been borrowing the Kindle Cover I made previously to transport his tablet to and fro. It was near enough the same size and did the job well enough until I got around to making the actual tablet cover. I'd bought some helicopter fabric to make it with, but I just hadn't got around to the actual making. You know how it is...

And then I saw this Robert Kaufman 'Plug and Play' fabric at the Eclectic Maker and knew it would be perfect! Even better than the helicopters for this particular project. I showed hubby and he loved it. The stage was set, the fabric was bought, washed and ironed and off I went. A few hours later, this appeared...

 
 
I was making it up as I went along and I had a good idea as to how I was going to do it. Unfortunately, I made a booboo when cutting so there was a hasty bit of replanning required! Talk about living on the edge! ;)
 
 
Just to show it fits!
 
As with the Kindle cover, I sewed on some Velcro tape to close it. It's quick and easy for him to get into, with no buttons or anything to detract from the design of the fabric or to get caught on something in his rucksack.
 
I was happy with the result, despite the unexpected diversions required - but more importantly, hubby was happy with it. :D

 

Saturday 8 February 2014

A New Post At Last!

I know! It's been ages. I apologise and want to thank anyone still hanging around in the hope that I eventually did a new post - it's much appreciated!

Finally, I've been doing some sewing. As I may have mentioned, I had to replace my previous Toyota machine which, although I loved and knew how to work back to front, had a fairly strong dislike to sewing through anything on the thicker side. I'd had it for years so it was a bit of a sad decision. After some false starts and an unpleasant dealing with a particular sewing machine sales company, I did some more searching locally.

I was pretty decided on a Janome as they are used in so many places for lessons, etc, which would hopefully speak to their reliability, and it seems pretty easy to get extras for them without having to hunt them down. I tried the 607 but found that the display wasn't as easy to read as I would have hoped. It then really came down to the 5900QC and the new DKS30. I needed to decide as to whether I really needed all the extra twiddly bits that the 5900QC did. It's all very well having all those lovely stitches but would I really use them? And would the huge choice just be that little bit intimidating meaning I wouldn't get on and do any sewing? So, in the end I plumped for the simple push-a-button-to-choose option and took home my new machine.

I'd had a lined skirt of my Mum's for ages which she wanted me to take up a little. I got the machine out and practiced a bit on the blind hemming then did the skirt. It came out just fine. And then the machine just sat there. I'm not entirely sure of the reasons, but I think the bad taste left by the first attempt to replace the machine was still there, even though I'd gone somewhere different. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, I bit the bullet!

I'd had some pre-shirred fabric from Fabricland waiting to be made into a dress for far too long. I love these sort of dresses - ok, I love dresses in general, but these are great as they're so easy to pull on and can be dressed up or down. And yes, it is winter here but I don't go with that whole 'winter/summer' wardrobe thing. I just stick a pair of boots on the bottom and a cardi on the top and call it done :)

So, with a bit of help from hubby with getting the straps pinned into place at the correct tension, I finished the dress.

 
Apologies that it's not the best shot in the world of it but with the rain, rain and more rain we've been having, it's been a little tricky to get out and take a picture 'in the real world' but I wanted to get a post up. Possibly before we all get washed away!
 
The fabric was a bit too plain for my liking so I found a lovely Broderie Anglaise trim to go around the bottom. The initial idea was to make the straps from the same but when I tried it, it looked a little bit too flouncy. It was then a case of back to the haberdashery department to find a trim that looked similar and was the same 'white' (how many there are!). I found one was looked just like the top part of the flounce and was the same shade so home we went and with some pinning - and only one unpick when I managed to somehow put one on twisted, I had a new dress finished! Yippee!
 
Obviously you don't need to add the trim or the straps to make these dresses and depending if you want to finish your seams like I did, or just cut them with pinking shears, you could have a dress in a very short time indeed.
 
I, on the other hand, am known to be a bit clumsy and on more than one occasion have stood on the hem of an elasticated skirt, only to narrowly avoid an embarrassing moment. Therefore the straps on this seemed a good safety measure for me!
 
I hope you like the dress, and I'd love to see any pictures of similar ones you have made, or hear about ones you plan to!
 
Thanks again for dropping by! I have another couple of projects to post about so will be back soon!
 
Happy Crafting!
 
Love, Maxi