Light Sewing

Last week I was asked by fellow Seamstress Trina aka Batsy on Etsy, to test out a pattern of hers.  I love doing this for people.  It is somewhat like my love for editing English papers or translating for my best friends from Korean to English.  I find it good practice for me also because when I look at what other people are doing pattern wise I get a concept of what does and does not work when I re-write directions for my classes.  Like recently I looked at my pants block/sloper directions and they are kind of a mess.  I'm not sure how no one pointed this out to me previously but I am looking to correct it soon. Granted I did take an 8 page instructional handout from my college days and attempt to condense it down into 2 pages.  I hope sometime in the near future I can test a pattern or two for Amy Butler which I think would be fun especially since she is local-ish to me.

This was for 3 different types of Coffee mug Cozies but I only tested the last one because it was a bit more complex then the rest since you had to sew into an infinity loop so that when you turned the fabric right sides out it was normal looking and not some stuffed up mess. Everything worked out just fine.  I thought I was clever by using a thicker felt and oilcloth instead of fabric so I could skip the interfacing but that just made it this thick pain to turn out.  Hey kids!  Sewing instructions are much like Cooking instructions, replacing any materials/ingredients will get you a different result then intended.

 

The pattern can be found on her Blog here!

Another thing I hope to play with soon is some freehand embroidery on the machine.  It fits my drawing style so I think it will be right up my alley to play with.  I saw this video again and it instantly made me wish I had the flexibility to be at my sewing machine whenever I wanted to do these things.