Sewing | FabGrandma

My Fabric Haul From The Quilt Expo

March 12, 2012 By Fab Grandma 6 Comments

On Friday, my sister-in-law, Jody, and I went to the Quilt Expo in Duluth, Georgia. We were a little disappointed with the show because we thought there would be more fabric vendors there. Also, they did not allow you to take pictures inside the building So, while there were some very lovely quilts that inspired me to no end, I have no pictures of them to keep me inspired. Way to go, Quilt Expo!

There were lots of vendors there, selling everything imaginable for sewing, from sewing machines to pins and needles to cutting mats to trims and sequins, but not much in the way of fabric. There was even someone there selling shoes. SHOES! I was a little perplexed by that one.

Even though the fabric vendors were lacking, that didn’t stop me from buying as much as I could from the ones who were there. See:

I liked this combination of oranges and greens

This was just too cute to pass up

This is a girlie combo of pinks and greens

From Laura Dunn's new collection. It looks way better than this in person.

Moda charm pack-42 5" squares of different fabrics. I can see a quilt out of this soon.

I love this picture

Sew Serendipity Bags

Out of everything I bought, I think I love this Sew Serendipity Bags pattern book by Kay Whitt the best. I also bought fabric to make one of the ruffled purses shown on the cover of the book. I can hardly wait to sew it up!

Filed Under: Crafts, Fabric, Sewing

The Diaper Bag Is Finished, Now On To The Quilt

January 29, 2012 By Fab Grandma 3 Comments

Monkies all over this bag

This diaper bag turned out really cute: it has long handles, and lots of pockets inside. It matches the nursing cover and changing pad, too.

Lots of pockets inside

When I finished the bag, I started on a baby quilt. I began by cutting 3″ strips, and sewing them together. After they were all sewn and pressed, I cut them into 3″ pieces, and sewed those together. I now have twenty-four 7.5 inch squares. I think I need one more, so I can have a 5X5 layout instead of a 4X6.

These 9 patch squares turned out pretty good.

I laid them out on the floor, and I do think I need one more square:

Baby quilt squares laid out on the floor

Tomorrow I’ll make one more square, and then decide what to do about sashing.

Filed Under: Projects, Quilting, Sewing

Sewing For The New Baby

January 22, 2012 By Fab Grandma 1 Comment

I know y’all know I love to sew, but I love to sew for the new babies most of all. I spent yesterday cutting out two projects so that I could sit down to sew this afternoon. The first project was a changing pad. It was a really quick and easy project: you cut out two oval pieces of fabric, and two oval pieces of batting. Layer them together with the fabric right sides out. Stitch some quilting, trim, and finish off with some bias tape. Done.

Quilted changing pad

The other side of this is striped in the same colors. Just roll it up, put an elastic band around it, and it is good to go.

Roll it up and you're ready to go

When it is rolled up, it fits into the diaper bag. Actually, this is a large bag, so it will hold quite a bit of stuff. The breast feeding cover matches it, too. I didn’t finish this today. I got the outside quilted and stitched together, and the pockets attached to the lining before it was time to make dinner.

The Monkey diaper bag

I used Pellon 70 stiff interfacing and some polyester fiberfill batting to make a nice quilted bag that will stand up by itself. The bottom is reinforced with a second piece of Pellon 70 to make it extra sturdy. When I did the quilting stitches on the monkey print part, I used wavy lines because it is easier to do that without it looking like you messed up. On the brown fabric on the bottom, I used just straight lines. Tomorrow I’ll finish the lining and attach the handles and it will be done. Then I can start on a matching quilt. Sewing for a baby is fun!

Filed Under: Sewing

I Got The Sewing Machine Set Up Today

January 17, 2012 By Fab Grandma 7 Comments

my sewing space, sewing room, crafting space

The lving room is the temporary sewing room.

I spent the first part of the day moving my sewing stuff out of the trailer and into the house. I set up the sewing machine and other sewing stuff in the living room temporarily. I have sooo much room now to sew. I was ready to make something, anything, and Emily asked me to make her a breast feeding cover, which is a pretty drape to use when you are breast feeding baby in public.

breast feeding cover, drape for breast feeding, covering baby while breast feeding

This is the pattern I used.

We shopped for fabric while we were out yesterday, and got enough of this cute fabric to make the cover, a diaper bag, a zippered bag, and a changing pad. Monkeys!

How cute is that?

After I got the sewing area set up, I started on the cover. It was such an easy pattern to make. Of course, the the thing that took the longest was the cutting. After that, it was all straight lines, and some gathering for the ruffle. Finished in about two hours.

breast feeding cover, drape for breast feeding, cover for feeding baby

All finished!

This one has a piece of boning in the top so that it will stay open. That lets Mom see what’s going on with baby but prevents everyone else from seeing in.

breast feeding cover, drape for breast feeding

The straps

I used D rings to make the strap adjustable. This was really quick and easy to make, and will be quite useful for Emily when Baby Rascoe gets here.

Filed Under: Sewing

Tutorial: Make A Zippered Cosmetic Bag

August 27, 2011 By Fab Grandma 6 Comments

Even if you have never sewn in a zipper before, you will be able to make this cute little bag in about an hour and a half. To make it, you’ll need two fat quarters of fabric (18″ X 22″), two pieces of batting that measure at least 8″ X 10″, one zipper at least 10″ long, scissors, thread, pins and a sewing machine.

You need two fabrics, some batting, and a zipper.

To get started, cut two pieces from each of the fat quarters that measure 8″ X 10″. Decide which one will be the outside of the bag. In this tutorial, the outside will be the puppy print fabric, and the inside will be the yellow prints.

cut two pieces of each fabric and two pieces of batting

Make a “sandwich” using one piece of each fabric and one piece of batting. Make sure the right sides of each fabric are facing out, with the batting in between the wrong sides of the fabric.

The sandwich, with the batting in the middle and fabrics right sides out.

Sew some lines of stitching through all three layers to quilt them. I usually sew from corner to corner in both directions, then do a couple more lines. It is up to you how much you want to stitch.

Make some lines of stitches to quilt the bag

When you are finished quilting both sides of the bag, set one sandwich aside for later.

This is what the quilted pieces will look like

Lay the remaining piece right side up, and place the zipper face down along the edge of the piece.

place the zipper face down, the fabric piece right side up.

Pin the zipper in place with a couple of pins. Then, starting at one end, stitch along the length of the zipper. Open the zipper part of the way to begin. After you stitch a few inches, close the zipper back up so that the zipper pull doesn’t get in the way of the needle and presser foot.

Start stitching with the zipper open

After stitching the length of the zipper, fold the zipper to the inside. Press with an iron.

Fold zipper to the inside

Go back to the sewing machine with the piece, and top stitch 1/4″ from the edge of the fabric.

Top stitch 1/4" from the edge of the fabric

This is what it will look like when you have finished top stitching:

Top stitching keeps the zipper in place on the inside.

Next, repeat all the steps for sewing the zipper with the other piece of sandwiched fabric. When you have finished sewing in and topstitching the other side of the zipper, the bag will look like this:

The bag will look like this when you have finished the other side of the zipper

Next, fold the two pieces so that the outside pieces of fabric are together, on the inside. Match up the edges, and pin. Make sure the zipper is open half way before you start to stitch.

Fold so that the outside of the bag are facing each other

Stitch along the three sides of the bag, starting at the zipper edge and ending at the zipper edge on the other side. Be careful not to stitch over the hard pieces of the zipper. Stitch the beginning and ending few stitches back and forth a couple of times to reinforce the stitches so they won’t come apart.

Trim the zipper ends, and the corners at the bottom of the bag at an angle.

Stitch around the entire seam again with a zigzag stitch to prevent ravelling of the seams inside the bag.

Stitch along the seam again with a zigzag stitch

Turn the bag inside out, and press with an iron to set the stitches.

The inside of the bag

This little bag can be used for so many things! I use one for manicure supplies, one for jewelry, one for holding toothbrush, toothpaste and floss, etc.

What a cute little bag!

What is your bag going to hold?

Filed Under: Sewing, Sewing Tutorials

Sarah’s Backpack Is Finished

August 3, 2011 By Fab Grandma 5 Comments

After that zipper pull came off, I had a date with my good friend, the seam ripper, to take it out and start over. By the time I got the zipper ripped out, I was O.V.E.R. sewing for a bit. While I love to sew, I really hate taking out stitches. Bleh!

Sarah's purple and pink backpack

Today was my day off, so I sat down at the sewing machine and finished up the backpack. It turned out really cute. I know Sarah is going to love it! I posted pictures of different fabrics on Facebook, and she picked the ones she wanted. I also gave her a choice of patches for the front, and she chose the Grand Canyon one. It does go with the colors very well.

Sarah's purple and pink backpack

It has a large zippered pocket on the outside so Sarah can take lots of her things with her.

Lots of pockets on the inside too!

It has lots of pockets on the inside too, big enough to hold a sketch pad, and some pens and pencils, and maybe a cellphone, but I don’t think her Mom lets her have one yet.

The Grand Canyon embroidered patch on the front.

Fabgrandpa modeled it for me. You know he loves his granddaughter to do this:

FabGrandpa modeling Sarah's backpack!

And here he is again:

Aw, What a guy!

What a guy! Isn’t he just the cutest? The backpack has adjustable straps, and a loop at the top. It is not a hard item to make, just have to be careful of those zippers!

A handy loop on the top.

And the adjustable straps:

handmade quilted backpack with adjustable straps

And of course, it has a FabGrandma label in it:

fabgrandma label inside!

I’m going to do my best to get this in the mail to Sarah tomorrow. If you want one, just contact me here, and we can discuss what color fabrics you want. This backpack sells for $45 plus shipping.

Filed Under: Sewing Tagged With: backpack, Granddaughters, Quilting, Sewing