Cuddly Buddy

This is a combination of a stuffed animal and a blanket. It is nice to have when your child is in the security object stage because then you don't have to haul a blanket and stuffed animal every where you go, you can just bring this along. You can make the blanket part any size you want...I have made them from burp rag size to crib blanket size...it kind of depends on what size of stuffed animal you use. The bigger the animal the bigger the blanket part will need to be in order to coordinate and look right. First you need to gather your supplies. You will need a stuffed animal. Thrift shops are a great place to look. They usually have a large selection, the price is low, and a washer and dryer does wonders! You will also need enough material for the size of blanket you want. I like to use flannel. You can use the same fabric for the front and back of the blanket, or you can use two coordinating fabrics. You will also need thread to match and batting if you want the blanket to have any loft to it...it's up to you. I've done it both ways. If the blanket is crib size I would recommend using batting, but if the blanket is smaller then the two layers of flannel will work fine. Next you will perform surgery to the stuffed animal. It is kind of morbid in a toy sort of way...you might not want your children to watch. Cut the animal in half, making sure there is enough room below the arms and above the legs for a seam allowance. If it is stuffed very full you'll have to remove some stuffing. Pin the openings shut and baste down the opening so that it is closed and stuffing can no longer escape. Lay the batting down and put your backside material on top of it. Then find the middle on each side and pin your animal to it. Make sure that the animal's head and bottom will be facing the same direction when you turn the blanket right side out after sewing it. (You don't want its head looking up and its bottom facing down).

Then with right sides together, pin your front side material to the edges of the other material and batting. Pin the edges of the animal good to make sure you catch it when you sew around the edge. After you pin it all, sew around the edge leaving an opening to turn it right side out. Make sure you catch the all of the animal's raw edge. I usually back stitch on each side of the animal to make sure it's good and secure. I use a 1/2" seam allowance. I zig-zag the edges and then clip the corners as well. Turn right side out. Next you want to pin the layers together to avoid any puckering later on. Make sure the lay of the top layer matches that of the bottom layer. Don't get lazy with this part. After it is pinned together well you can machine quilt it. Start in the middle and work your way out to the edges. Doing this helps prevent puckers. Slip-stitch the opening closed. You are now finished! Congratulations :o)

I'm Back

I had the amazing inspiration recently to see if the local college was selling any of their sewing machines in the campus wide surplus sale that happens every few weeks. It just so happened that they were upgrading one of their sewing labs, so they were selling about 30 machines. They were all only three years old and in really good condition...not to mention a good price. Needless to say, my sweet husband let my buy one and now I'm back to sewing. I feel really lucky that I thought to check the surplus sale. The machines sold really fast and my timing was perfect! Not to mention that all of the accessories to my old machine work with this new one, so I don't even have to buy anything for it. I am in love with my new machine!

I'm still without a sewing machine. I'm pretty sure the circuit board in the pedal is blown because when we tested it with Jonathan's multimeter it doesn't register any volts or amps. This would explain why the rest of the sewing machine gets power except the motor. A new pedal for my machine costs $50-$65. That seems a little steep to me. The salesman I asked told me that it might not be worth it because whatever made the first one short out could cause problems with a new one. He could have just been trying to get me to buy a new machine though.

I borrowed my friend's machine and I've never had so much fun in my life! She has a really nice Janome that's computerized. It had two different alphabets on it and a huge variety of stitch patterns that you could program however you wanted. It is worth nearly 3 times as much as I paid for my first car (granted my car was only $500, but still!). Unfortunately I don't have that kind of money to spend on a sewing machine...even though that thing was a dream! I still wasn't able to finish the baby shower gift though because she couldn't find her embroidery foot.

I decided that a new machine is out of the question for now with a new baby coming soon and everything. So I'm scouring the classifieds and Craigslist to see if I can find a good used one. Any suggestions? If that doesn't work I'll probably end up getting a new pedal for mine. Hopefully I'm back to sewing (and posting) again soon.

HELP!

I was in the middle of sewing something for my friend's baby shower and my sewing machine died on me. I am afraid the motor is burnt out. It has been having a few problems like it had a short in the wiring, but I could always get it to start again. Now it won't do anything. I'm not much of an electrician, but I took it apart and I did find a faulty connection with one of the wires. I fixed that and crossed my fingers, but sill nothing. I might not survive...plus now I can't update this blog like I planned on because I can't show the finished product. Hopefully I will get it running again soon. I not only need to finish my gift, but I still have a blessing dress to sew while I have free time. ARGH!

Pumpkin Quilt Block Tutorial

Step 1:

Cut one 6" x 5.25" rectangle from orange material

Cut one 1.25" x 1.5" brown rectangle

Cut two 2.75" x 1.25" rectangles from background material

Cut four 1.5" squares

Step 2: With right sides together, sew a background square to each corner of the orange rectangle. Sew each diagonally from corner to corner, beginning and ending at the raw edges of the orange material. Set aside.

Step 3: With right sides together, line a background rectangle up with the brown rectangle. Sew down the short side where they are lined up. The seam allowance is one quarter of an inch, or the edge of your presser foot. Open it up, match the other rectangle to the brown rectangle and sew again. Step 4: Iron all seams open. So far your two pieces should look like this.

Step 5: With right sides together, line up the raw edges of the pumpkin body and trunk piece. The lengths will only match on two edges, since the pumpkin isn't square. Either of the two edges will work, just make sure the two lengths line up right.

Step 6: Sew down the length of the edge where the trunk and pumpkin pieces are lined up. Iron it open. Your pumpkin block is now complete. It should make a 6 inch square. You can now finish it how you want. I machine quilted mine with metalic thread and made a hot pad out of it. Now that you've made one you can experiment with other sizes. You can make short round pumpkins or tall skinny pumpkins. Make pillows, quilts, table runners, what ever you want. Sorry I made this one a weird size, since most quilt blocks end up being 6.5" to account for seam allowance. Oh well, you get the drift of how to make it.

Leaf Garland

Fall is by far one of my favorite times of year. Except for Christmas, autumn is the only time of year that I really decorate for. Here is a fast and simple idea. Buy a bag of fabric leaves in fall colors. I have seen these at Wal-mart, dollar stores, and craft stores. Usually they are about $1 for 100 leaves or so. I really love to decorate with these during fall. I put them on window ledges, attach magnets to the back and hang them on the fridge, etc. This time I sewed a continuous stream of leaves by attaching corners of the leaves at different angles. Just keep sewing until your garland is as long as you want it to be. I strung it across a wall to make a nice accent. I really don't like the leaves I used, but they were all I could find when I did it. I'd prefer solid colors of dark red and brown instead of firey orange and bright red. Oh well, you get the point.