Something New

Along with repairing sewing machines, I still like to sew and find ways to carry out these creative urges. A whole week at home gave me three opportunities to try out a few new ideas. First to try was the nifty new microwave bowl holders that I got from Mary Sue. She very graciously sent me her instructions for using 100% cotton towels to cut and sew up holders that can be used in the microwave. Although she specifically said she used cotton towels from JC Penny's I figured 100% cotton was 100% cotton. Not so because my first try with a towel labeled 100% cotton melted in the microwave! I only had the base stitched together with two layers of toweling and even using 100% cotton thread while I watched it carefully and kept checking it while in the microwave. Glad I did because I noticed it was getting warm and the base was turning dark so I snatched it out before flames erupted. Back to square one, I read her instructions again and went to JC Penny's and bought two towels from the Home Quick Dri Textured Bath Towels collection. Figuring Mary Sue knew what she was talking about, I now followed her instructions to the letter, taking out the hems and cutting into ten inch squares. Darts are made, the two sides are quilted together, and bias tape is used to finish it off. Just to make sure the bias was 100% cotton I bought new fabric since I couldn't be sure fabric in my stash was flameproof. I made up a couple for work and they tried them out with success:

Microwave bowl holders: reversible

In action!

Two bath towels will make up 15 of these bowl holders so I think I'm in business! Next up were felted slippers. This came about via guilt when a friend sent me two bags of wool yarn at the cost of $15 for postage! I needed to do something with it but what would I use that could be tolerated in 100% wool? Checking out a variety of patterns for felting, I came across a free pattern for slippers that looks about right. Although the pattern wasn't difficult they are made super large because they are going to be shrunk  or felted with hot water when the knitting was complete. Here's how they look before hot water:

Slippers pre-washing

They are huge! But here's the result after the hot water treatment:

Slippers after 3 washings in hot water by machine

They are still huge! What did I do wrong? Online advice is to keep washing them but I can see they are felting but not shrinking. I've been to Le Sueur, MN, home of the Jolly Green Giant and I think I have his next pair of slippers. Back to the drawing board with this one.

My last project was a free shirt pattern that just looked so cute I wanted to give it a try. Since I'm a bit obsessed with lace, I decided to try making it with black knit and white lace but I didn't have enough of the black to make the front, back, and sleeves. Although I chose lace for the contrast, I wasn't sure if I could switch the knit sleeves to a woven lace fabric and still get any kind of comfort. We were going to find out.

This pattern was the Bee Shirt, a free pattern I saw on Sewing4Free. It was a free download but with 24 pages that were not numbered, it was a puzzle to put together. In the end, the sleeves were too narrow and long so I just used a sleeve from another pattern. It went together easily with most of the sewing done on a serger, a Bernina 1100D, and only the hemming on a regular sewing machine, using my Viking Designer 1. I used an old sheer lace tablecloth for the lace and it had such a nice border that I had to try and use it along the hem:

Bee shirt in process with border edge of lace

I had to cut the armholes bigger but that might have been due to the substitute sleeve pattern yet it easily pulled over my head and felt comfortable to wear. The lace sleeves made it too fancy to wear to work but I could see it with pants or capris for summer wear. Would I make it again? You bet but next time I would add a bit of length to the front. Easy and free: what a combination!

Bee Shirt back

Bee Shirt front