Sewing Projects Archives -

Appliqued Tote Bag For National Sewing Month

September 26, 2020 · 1 Comment

Every September, All Free Sewing host National Sewing Month.

This involves lots of sewing tutorials and a giveaway. This year they are giving away a Handi Quilter sewing machine. Unfortunately you have to live in the USA or Canada to enter. The information about it is here.

I was very pleased to be asked to contribute to National Sewing Month again, and this time my contribution is a tutorial for an appliqued tote bag.

Tote bags are so useful! Not just for shopping, but for library books, knitting, unfinished projects, taking things to the beach, for bringing art materials with you on holiday and for hiding mess that you don’t know what to do with. The possibilities are endless!

If you want to make this tote bag, there’s a good chance that you’ll have what you need already.

Obviously if your tote bag is going to be used for carrying heavy things, it needs to be made from strong fabric, like a medium weight cotton.

Otherwise you could just use what you have! In the past I’ve used polycotton to make bags for storing wrapping paper, and I’ve turned old pillowcases into bags for toys.

Applique is an easy way to decorate a tote bag. Fabric scraps are perfect for this, especially fabric scraps left over from a coordinated fat quarter bundle.

This bag is made from a medium weight linen fabric I bought by accident thinking it was something else, and the applique is made from cotton scraps left over from other things.

The finished bag is quite large. It’s big enough to hold quite a lot of shopping or to take towels to the beach or the lake.

Of course if you didn’t want to make one that big, it’s easy to adapt it and make one that is smaller.

The templates for the flower are free to download.

The post is here on All Free Sewing.

If you like tote bags, you might like this tutorial here which shows how to make a shopping bag that appliqued bunting on it.

You might also be interested to know that I have “Bunting Makes Everything Better” tote bags for sale, and you can find out more here.

bunting makes everything better tote bag handlettering for embroidery

DIY Fabric Basket: A Quick and Easy Fat Quarter Project

August 7, 2020 · 2 Comments

Fabric baskets are always useful. In fact, any kind of basket is useful! This DIY fabric basket is quick and easy to make, and is a perfect way to use up fat quarters bought on impulse that have never been used. And being something that you make yourself, you can decide on the fabric and the size that will meet your needs best.

For this project I used 2 fat quarters, but you can use fabric of any size. All you need to do is make the lining fabric 12 cm (4 3/4 inches) wider than the outer if it has a directional print, or 10 cm (4 inches) wider if it doesn’t.

Instructions For a DIY Fabric Basket

You Will Need

how to make quick easy fabric basket tutorial tilda bloghop

2 fat quarters, interfacing (I used heavyweight fusible interfacing, but the sew in kind will work fine), trim (optional), usual sewing supplies.

Cutting Out

From the outer fabric, cut a rectangle 43 cm x 37 cm (17″ x 14 1/2 “)
From the interfacing, also cut a rectangle 43 cm x 37 cm (17″ x 14 1/2 “)
From the lining, cut a rectangle 43 cm x 49 cm (17″ x 19″)

If you are in a real hurry, providing that your fat quarters are the same size, you could just cut 12 cm (4 3/4″) of the long edge of the outer, and if your lining fabric does not have a directional print, cut 10 cm (4″) off the long edge.

Be warned though, this version of the DIY fabric basket will be a longer rectangle!

Sewing Up

Outer

1. If you are using fusible interfacing, fuse it to the wrong side of the outer.

2. Cut 2 pieces of trim the same width as the outer. Measure down 5 cm (2″) from one of the long edges and pin the trim in place.

Repeat for the other side of the fabric. Sew the trim in place.

3. Fold the outer in half length ways. Check that the trim is lined up on both sides. Pin the sides, then sew. Trim the seams.

4. To make the boxed corners, crease the fold at the bottom with your finger. Open it out and squash the corner flat so that the seam is next to creased line.

5. Measure up 7 cm (2 3/4″) from the corner and pin at right angles to the seam. Sew where you have pinned. Cut the corners off.

Lining

If you are using different fabric and it does not have a directional print, you don’t need to cut it in half. Just fold it length ways and sew the side seams, then make the boxed corners.

1. Fold the lining in half length ways. Cut where you have folded.

2. Take one of the halves and turn it round so that the print goes the opposite way. Pin the 2 halves together and sew along the sides and the bottom. Trim the seams.

3. Make the boxed corners in the same way as for the outer.

Finishing the DIY Fabric Basket

1. Pop the lining inside the outer so that the right sides are together. Push the corners of the lining right into the outer. You might want to pin the lining to the outer at the sides to make things easier.

2. Fold the lining over the top of the outer and press with your fingers as you go. Tuck the raw edge underneath and pin in place.

3. Top stitch all the way round.

Your DIY fabric basket is finished!

The off cuts don’t need to be wasted! You could save them for a scrap project, like a wrist pin cushion or pattern weights!

If you like sewing things for organising stuff, I have a Pinterest board devoted to boxes and baskets you can make.

DIY Ironing Board Cover

July 31, 2020 · 2 Comments

This post contains affiliate links.

A mild annoyance in my life is my ironing board.

I’m not one for ironing. I belong to the “give a good shake and it will be fine” school of laundry! Hubby wears casual clothes for work so does’t need nicely ironed shirts, and on the rare occasions that he does, he’ll iron it himself.

When I do use the iron and the ironing board however, is when I’m sewing.

As a non ironer, it’s tempting to skip the pressing stage! But I know that to get a neat finish, I need to press the seams.

The problem with our ironing board is that it is huge. And being huge, it’s difficult to find an ironing board cover that fits when it needs replacing.

The last one I bought claimed to fit all ironing boards including large ones, but it didn’t! I could barely get it to stay on for long enough to press a couple of seams. Being a normal tired human and not an octopus, I found it rather difficult to hold the ironing board cover on to the ironing board, operate the iron and move the thing I was ironing around.

Anyway, I decided that I’d finally had enough, so I would make one.

I’m being quite good at the moment about not buying fabric, but when I had a rummage in the fabric pile, I couldn’t find any pieces of fabric big enough to make a DIY ironing board cover for the ridiculously enormous ironing board. So I’ve had to buy some.

I love this fabric. The koi carp and the cherry blossom remind me that although we didn’t make it to Japan in April, it’s still there and we’ll visit at some point.

I also used Insul Bright to make the DIY ironing board cover, which is a brand of thermal interfacing.

Both the batting and the fabric came from Remnant House in Yorkshire. This isn’t an affiliate link, I want to do my bit to support small businesses. They have lots of lovely fabric, in particular Rose and Hubble and their prices are reasonable. They’re also helpful if you need to talk to them on the phone.

The cover is attached to the board using elastic.

The instructions below will work of any size of ironing board as you make it to fit your particular board.

Instructions

You Will Need

Large pieces of paper. Pattern paper is ideal. You could also use brown paper or newspaper as an alternative.

Pencil or pen

Fabric. It needs to be cotton so that it can cope with the iron getting hot.

Interfacing. I used Insul Brite which has thermal properties, but cotton batting will do if that’s what you have.

Elastic. You’ll need enough to go all round the outside of the ironing board. I used this.

Bias binding to finish the raw edges.

Making the Pattern

The best way to make a DIY ironing board cover that fits your ironing board perfectly is to draw round it!

If you don’t have enough floor space, you could prop the ironing board against the wall with the paper in between. My advice here would be to use a pencil rather than a Sharpie, especially of your pattern paper is on the thin side!

When you’ve done this, fold it in half. You might need to adjust it a bit.

You’ll need to add a bit around the outside to allow for the depth of the board and the seam allowance. My ironing board is 1.5 cm deep, so I added 3.5 cm to allow for a 2 cm seam allowance plus the depth.

The bit that keeps the cover on the ironing board is made from 2 different pieces cut out on folded fabric.

Take your pattern piece and fold it into 4.

Draw round the outside edge of one of the quarters. Now draw a line 12 cm down from your original line, following the shape of the line. Do the same with the other quarter. Don’t forget to add seam allowances at either end!

Before you do this, you might like to check that this is a good size for your ironing board and you won’t end up with the cover getting in the way of the legs unfolding. This was a good size for my ironing board.

Cutting Out

From the main pattern piece, cut one from your cotton fabric. You might prefer to fold your pattern piece in half and cut it on the fold. You’ll also need to cut at least one from your batting. I cut two layers.

For the bottom sections, you’ll need 2 of each, cut on folded fabric. I used 1 layer of interfacing for these.

How you cut them is up to you! I had originally intended to cut 2 of each and sew them together, but I ended up cutting the top section on the fold, so it was in one piece, and the lower section as separate pieces. If you do decide to cut one or both pieces on the fold, remember that you won’t need the seam allowance on the folded part.

Assembling the Ironing Board Cover

Join the bottom sections together, with the interfacing on the wrong side of the cotton fabric. Insul Bright doesn’t have a wrong side, so it doesn’t matter which way round it goes.

Finish the inside edge with bias binding.

Pin the bottom bit to the top section. The cotton sections should be next to each other with the right sides together, with the interfacing on either side.

Sew the bottom and top bits together. Trim the seam.

Almost there! The last job is to sew the elastic to the inside of the bottom bit. While you’re sewing, stretch the elastic a little bit. It’s not necessary stretch it out all the way, but pulling it a bit will help to fit snugly round the ironing board.

All done! I might even take up ironing!

DIY Spanish Style Skirt

July 19, 2020 · 2 Comments

So last time I showed how to draft a skirt pattern from your own measurements, in preparation to make a Spanish style skirt from the dress Nicole made on The Great British Sewing Bee. The post is here if you missed it.

If you don’t want to make your own pattern, you might have a pattern already that you can use.

To make a Spanish style skirt, we’ll need to make some modifications to the pattern we drafted, and the same modifications will apply to a commercial pattern. If you prefer to use a pattern you have already, just make sure that it’s for a straightish skirt.

We’ll need to adjust the length and the shape of the front hem and there are a couple more pattern pieces we need to make, then we can start sewing.

Modifying the Pattern

One of the things that makes a Spanish style skirt what it is are the ruffles. This skirt has 2 ruffles, each one made from a circle and joined onto the skirt with an extra section.

Because the ruffles are going to add to the length of the skirt, we’ll need to make the skirt shorter.

Each ruffle will be about 10 cm. There are going to be 2 of them and they will overlap by about 3 cm. They’ll be joined by an extra piece of fabric.

So you’ll need to make the skirt 17 cm shorter (unless you really want it to be longer, in which case leave it!).

The easiest way to do this is to cut 17 cm off the bottom edge of both pieces.

The other thing you’ll need to do is change the shape of the hemline at the front.

Find centre front on the pattern piece and measure up 14 cm from the bottom. Using a French curve (or another curved edge like a dinner plate if you don’t have one), draw a curved line from the centre downwards to the edge of the skirt pattern. It will look less weird if the line is straight for a little way, then curves to meet the bottom of the side.

Additional Pattern Pieces

There are 3 additional pattern pieces we need to make for the Spanish style skirt: facings (because I forgot when I was drafting the skirt!), the ruffles and the pieces to join the ruffles to the rest of the skirt.

To make the facings, take one of your pattern pieces. Pin the dart.

Take a new piece of pattern paper and trace from the waist line down to about 5 cm. Do this with your other pattern piece too. Make sure you label them!

To make the ruffles, we’re going to use a circle. As far as I remember, Nicole said that each of her ruffles were 2 circles joined together. I’m not going to do that here! 1 circle for each ruffle should be plenty. The pattern piece will be a quarter of a circle.

Cut a piece of pattern paper 60 cm square. From 1 corner, measure 60 cm across from one side of the paper to the other.

Now measure down 46 cm from the same corner. Measure across the paper in the same way. This will give you a chunk of a quarter circle 14 cm wide.

The third extra piece is the section that will go between the ruffles. Obviously we don’t want to loose the shape of the hem here.

For the back, draw a rectangle the same width as the skirt and 14 cm high.

For the front, trace the shape of the hem. Measure 14 cm down, then draw the hemline again.

Sewing the Skirt

We’re going to assemble the skirt first, then the ruffles, then join the ruffles to the skirt.

When assembling the skirt, my advice is to leave trimming the seams until you’ve checked that it fits! Even if you are using a pattern drafted from your own measurements, it’s best to be on the safe side.

Pin, then sew the darts on the front section and both the back pieces. Press the darts away from the centre.

Sew the centre back seam. You’ll need to put a zip in, and if you have a preferred way to do this then by all means do that! My way involves sewing the seam completely, then dealing with the zip afterwards. Trim the seam and press it open.

Sew in the zip. The way I do this works best with invisible zips, although I have done this with ordinary zips too. Pin the zip face down over the seam on the wrong side. Tack it in place, checking that the teeth of the zip are aligned with the seam. Sew the zip to the skirt. Now unpick the seam to expose the teeth. More detailed instructions can be found here.

Sew the side seams. Try the skirt on and check that the skirt fits. If it’s all ok, trim the seams and the darts and press.

If you haven’t cut out your facings, do that now. The front one can be cut on the fold, and the back ones need to be cut out on folded fabric so that you have 2.

Use some fusible interfacing to prevent them from fraying. Join the facings at the side seams.

With the wrong sides together, sew the facings to the waist of the skirt.

Understitch the facings.

Find where the darts are on the skirt and cut the facings in the same place. You might also like to hand stitch them to the side seams and the dart seams, just into the seam allowance to stop them from popping up and being annoying!

Making the Ruffles

Nicole used 2 circles for each ruffle on her Spanish dress. I decided to use one circle because I wasn’t sure whether I had enough fabric and 4 circles would require a lot of hemming!

Cut 8 quarter circles. I used odds and ends of things that I had in my fabric hoard. If you’re doing this too, you’ll need to piece them together to make the quarter circles.

To do this, take your pattern piece and pin bits of fabric to it until the pattern piece is covered. Make sure that the pieces of fabric overlap.

Turn the pattern piece over and cut away the extra fabric.

Turn it back over and trim down the overlapping areas, leaving enough for a seam.

Sew the quarter circles together so that you have 2 complete circles.

Hem the bottom edge of each circle with bias binding, or you might prefer to use a rolled hem foot if you have one. I used bias binding. If you need instructions for doing this, there’s a tutorial here.

To gather the ruffles, sew 2 rows of stitches along the top edge of each circles. Make sure that the lines of stitches don’t cross each other!

Gather the ruffles by pulling the stitches from one end. Usually when gathering you would knot the threads at one end and pull from the other. As you’ll have quite a lot of fabric to gather, you might like to get halfway along from one end, then gather the other half from the other end.

Keep going until the ruffles are the same size as the bottom of the skirt.

Assembling the Skirt

Take the extra skirt pieces that you drafted from the bottom of the skirt and sew them together at the side seams.

Take one of the ruffles. Pin, then sew it to the bottom edge.

Take the other ruffle and saandwich it between the bottom of the skirt and the top of the extra piece. Pin it, then sew.

Trim off all the stray threads and your Spanish style skirt is ready to wear!

Drafting a Skirt Pattern: Spanish Style Skirt

July 11, 2020 · Leave a Comment

This post about drafting a skirt pattern contains affiliate links.

So the Great British Sewing Bee is over for another year, and while there are things they made on the programme that I probably wouldn’t make, I feel inspired to make a Spanish style skirt like the dress that Nicole made.

It’s not the kind of thing I would normally wear. I like my circle skirts! But this dress was so pretty and I loved the ruffles at the hem.

Wearing a full on Spanish dress to do normal life things might be a bit too much, even for me! And the colours and prints probably aren’t the kind of things I would choose either. But as I began thinking about it, I realised that I could probably make a skirt version out of fabric I had already.

I’m trying to resist the urge to buy more fabric, mostly because I have a pile of bits left over from other projects.

So taking into account that I don’t usually wear bright colours, it’s going to be a Spanish style skirt in vintage florals. I’ve only got as far as drafting the skirt pattern, but I can tell you that in my head it looks amazing!

The skirt section on Nicole’s looked like a fairly simple fitted skirt. I could have used a pattern, but I decided to draft one myself.

Drafting a skirt pattern can be intimidating if you haven’t tried it before, but it’s easier than you’d think! Here are the instructions if you’d like to try it!

How To Draft a Skirt Pattern

You Will Need

Pattern paper. I recently bought a roll of this from Amazon. It has cm squares on it which makes pattern drafting much easier.

Tape measure. Plastic ones are considered to be better than fabric ones because they don’t stretch, but it’s fine as long as you use the same tape measure for measuring yourself and for measuring out your pattern.

A pencil or pen. I drew the pattern with a Sharpie and I would not recommend it! The pen bled through the paper and onto the table, and had to be removed with rubbing alcohol. I’d use a pencil or a water based pen.

Somewhere to jot down your measurements. I find this most definitely necessary as I forget them otherwise!

A long straight edge. A 30 cm ruler is fine, especially if you use the pattern paper with a grid.

A French curve is nice to have, as is a friend or a helpful husband to assist with taking measurements. I have this French curve. Unfortunately Amazon don’t supply helpful husbands!

Taking Your Measurements

For drafting a skirt pattern you only need to take 4 measurements: your waist, your hips at the widest point, the distance from your waist to your hips (where you took the measurement), and from your waist to just below your knee.

My advice here is to write your measurements down (I forget them if I don’t!), and don’t pull the tape measure too tight! Lots of us have gained weight during lockdown, and yes, it’s depressing, but you’ll forget about that when you have a lovely skirt to wear. If it’s too tight, you’ll remember and you’ll be uncomfortable and you won’t want to wear it. So keep the tape measure loose!

When measuring around your hips, make sure that the tape measure is level all the way round. This is where having a friend or a helpful husband comes in handy.

There’s a post here about taking measurements if you’d like more advice.

When you’ve taken your measurements, divide your waist measurement by 4 and add 4 cm.

You’ll also need to divide your hip measurement by 4 and add 2 cm for ease of wearing.

Drafting the Skirt Front

On a piece of pattern paper, draw a line the same length as your waist to hem measurement. This will be the centre front of the skirt.

From the top end of the line, draw another line outwards the same length as your waist measurement divided by 4 plus 4 cm.

On the original line and measuring from the top, measure down the same distance as from your waist to your hips. Draw another line outwards the same length as your hip measurement divided by 4 plus 2 cm.

At the bottom of the original line, draw a third line outwards the same length as the hip measurement.

Now join them up.

The next step in drafting a skirt pattern is to make some little changes to this to allow for the fact that women are not cuboid and bits of us bulge at least a little bit.

Drawing the Curve of the Hips

This is where having a French curve will come in handy. If you don’t have one, you could try a dinner plate or just draw it freehand.

There’s 4 things to do here.

Firstly, find the waist measurement line where it joins with the side of the skirt. Measure up 1.5 cm from here and add it to the line. This photo shows where the dot is. I forgot to take a picture after I’d joined the line to the dot!

Secondly, find the line you drew from your waist line to your hip line. Mark the halfway point. This is the other dot in the picture above.

Thirdly, extend the line you drew for your waist, then extend the hip to hem line upwards so that they meet. You should now have a big rectangle. This is to help you to draw the curve.

Lastly, take your French curve and draw a curved line from where you added the 1.5 cm to the halfway point between your waist and your hip. The vertical line that you added should meet it about here. If not, you might need to make the curve a bit longer.

Sorting Out the Waist

You’ve already marked an extra 1.5 cm on one side. Now on the centre front side, make another mark 0.5 cm above the waist line.

Find the halfway point on the waist line. Join this point to the mark you made on the centre front side of the skirt.

Now grab your French curve again, and join the halfway point to the outside edge with a curved line.

Drawing the Dart

The finished skirt will have 4 darts in total, 2 at the front and 2 in the back. I’ve made skirts before from patterns I’ve drafted myself and, apart from circle skirts, if you don’t bother with darts you’ll end up with something that doesn’t fit very well!

They’re not tricky to do and they’ll make all the difference.

Find the halfway point on the waist line again and mark 2 cm either side.

Now draw an 8 cm line downwards from the original point. Join the end of this to the points on either side to make a triangle.

Adding the Seam Allowance

Add a 2 cm (3/4 inch) seam allowance along the waist, side and the hem. You’ll be cutting this section on the fold, so there’s no need for a seam allowance along the centre front.

Drafting the Skirt Back

The good news is you’ve already done most of the work!

Instead of redrawing the whole thing, you can trace the skirt front onto another sheet of pattern paper.

You will need to make some changes as we’re not the same round the back as we are at the front! Also you’re going to need to be able to get in and out of it.

There are going to be 3 changes to make. The first is to the waist line.

Find the original waist line on the skirt front. Do you remember that you made it 1/2 cm higher at the centre front end? For the skirt back, you need to make this point 1 cm lower than the original line.

Using your French curve, join this to the original line at the middle point.

The next change is to the dart. Extend the original line by 2 cm, then join it up to the points on either side. This means that the darts on the back of the skirt will be 4 cm wide like the ones on the front, but a couple of cm longer.

The last thing to do is to add a seam allowance to the centre back. You’ll be putting a zip in here.

Your self drafted skirt pattern is ready! In the next post, I’ll talk about modifiying it a bit and then using to make a Spanish style skirt.

If you’re interested in finding out more about making clothes from patterns you’ve drafted yourself, I encourage you to have a look at my ebooks and other downloads, as this is something I’ve written about quite a lot!

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Instructions For a DIY Fabric Basket

You Will Need

Cutting Out

Sewing Up

Outer

Lining

Finishing the DIY Fabric Basket

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Instructions

You Will Need

Making the Pattern

Cutting Out

Assembling the Ironing Board Cover

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Modifying the Pattern

Additional Pattern Pieces

Sewing the Skirt

Making the Ruffles

Assembling the Skirt

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How To Draft a Skirt Pattern

You Will Need

Taking Your Measurements

Drafting the Skirt Front

Drawing the Curve of the Hips

Sorting Out the Waist

Drawing the Dart

Adding the Seam Allowance

Drafting the Skirt Back

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