It's Golden

Putting all of these sewing machines to use can sometimes be a challenge. I did manage to rescue some flour-sack type of towels from the Goodwill Outlet a few weeks ago but it was a mixed blessing. They came out of the dryer in such a wrinkled mess that I feared they were going to have to go to the rag pile. Deciding to see if they could be made useful, I pressed four of them only to find out the selvedge edge would get all stretched out. I tried hemming one of them and it just looked all distorted. I put it aside to give it some thinking time and came back to it with the following save: why not cut off the distorted part and hem again with a trimmed edge? I figured the trimmed edge would give it the weight it needed to keep it straight and true. Here's how it turned out:

Flour sack towels trimmed, using Franklin treadle

Which sewing machine did I use? The Franklin treadle I wrote about in Another Brother. I still have four more flour sack towels and this time I'm going to try to use rickrack trim, interwoven to give it a different look.

Flour sack towels trimmed with rickrack using New Home treadle

In another sewing project, I needed a jacket/coverup to go with a dress I planned to wear to a wedding. Actually, we had two weddings in one weekend so there was a parade of fashions and photos sent to sisters and daughters before the right outfits were settled on. A dark blue satin sheath dress with gold high heels really needed something....besides jewelry. I picked out some gold sparkly fabric that also was a stretch knit. At half price it was only $8 for the light weight jacket and an easy pattern, too. Using a serger would make it go quickly but I feared it was going to be scratchy with those exposed edges around my neck and on the inside of my arms. To the rescue: use organza bias strips to line the seams!

Organza bias strips over seams

It seemed like a good idea but wasn't as easy as it sounds. It was slippery stuff that didn't want to press flat but it finally was done:

Gold Jacket: McCalls 6084

It did the job by not showing too much and the jacket was not at all itchy. Success!

Happy Uncle Jim and Aunt Karen at the wedding dinner