Sewing room shut down

It was sad when I put the lid of my sewing machine on just now and shut the door.

I did manage to get some sewing done before then though. I fixed three pairs of pants, just the second seams on two of them and they hadnt bothered me before to fix but seeing as how I will be wearing them out in public, I sewed a second seam. The other pair of pants are my tennis shorts that I was given three years ago, I have just started wearing again and are okay when standing but too short to y liking when sitting so I let down the hem.

Then I made covers for Warren and my new tablets, I had already made one for him but he gave his old tablet to Aidan on Thursday and after seeing him juggle it with the cord and charger, decided that he should have the cover as well.

Warrens is on the left and I made that first. Then I thought that a pocket would be a good idea so my have a pocket on the front, his doesn't.

I did also cut a length of a dress and re-hemmed that so a reasonable amount of sewing after all.

I have packed a small bag of craft work for me to do, it will be interesting to see how much I do get done. There is about five different balls of wool, three sets of needles, they are different sizes and two cross stitches 

Make mend and reuse

On our last trip out in the caravan, we spent more time in the evenings sitting in the van on the seats because it was dark and cold earlier.

I found the seats got very hard very quickly and suggested that we buy some new foam for the seats. The van being a 1974 or 76 model and I am sure the seats have not been upgraded in all that time.

We took one cushion down to Clark Rubber to compare and also to see if they could supply it Yep they could and would cut it to size if we gave them the measurements.

The foam on the left is the old one and does look worse for wear As I have recovered the seats only last year, I wanted to be able to use the same materials and I didn't want to have to buy more so had to take the covers off carefully so that they could be reused. Luckily I had made them like a slip cover and had laced the back with strong cotton so that it would "give" when people sat on it, making it easy to remove.

The green foam on the right is the new stuff and I wanted to completely cover that before putting on the outer cover.

The one on the left has been covered, I used fabric that has been in my stash for several years. I actually bought this to make a skirt and jacket. It is a pale pink and I never wear that colour, probably one of the reasons it was still in my stash. It is gabardine so easy to work with but quite sturdy, very suitable for seats covers. To make it fit snugly, I sewed up three sides and with Warren we "dressed" the foam and then I hand sewed the ends closed. My fingers were quite sore for a couple of days after from pushing and pulling the needle through the material.

The one of the right is the final result. We now have four seats,three making up the lounge/dining area and one (the one above) will fill on top of a table if we ever want to make it into a double/single bed.

Before we did have three smaller pieces but they moved a fair bit but this one is made to fit. I did had to put a seam down the middle to get enough from the three to make one big cover.

Warren will use the old foam for practice at archery.  

My Room Renovation/make over

I read a magazine a few weeks ago and it showed a sewing room make over. I loved the idea and it stayed in my mind for awhile as I mulled it over. Finally I thought to myself, I really love that and I could do it without too much hassle, cost or too much effort on Warren's part.

I do sew a lot but sometimes I know I put off going into the sewing room because it is so messy.

Messy messy messy!

I love a good challenge, I also set myself a budget of $250. There is a stain on the carpet, a towel at one stage was used to mop up rain/water that came in through the sky light then colour leeched out of towel onto the carpet. 

New carpet of carpet squares? Humm there goes the budget so no new carpet.

First thing to do was to tidy, cupboard had to go and also the steel cabinet.

This cupboard replaced it, two solid drawers at the bottom now hold any important papers that we need to keep. Cost of cupboard was $119 and the cloth drawers were $5 each solid ones were $15, $209 out of my budget, but what a difference it makes.

Well, at least one side looks alright. A couple of hours of work resulted in this.

No more table to dump stuff on. Nothing wrong with the curtains except they were too full and kept out light so I re fashioned them. Warren put up the clock that I had brought back from China, he also put up the double curtain rods and the peg board which is behind the sewing machine on the wall.

Since the photo was taken I have a shelf on the top of the peg board with some small baskets holding cottons and ribbons and the iron.

Why did I not do this years ago?

Sewing days

I took Warren to Spotlight a few weeks ago as I wanted to buy some material to go with other pieces that I had to make patchwork doonas for the new caravan. Patchwork for me takes quite a long time so I figured I would start early.

Bit of a disaster really as he didn't like any thing that I wanted to get and was drawn by these materials.

He said that they would save me having to cut and piece and of course he was right but I was trying to be frugal and use up some material that I already had. I made his quite quickly and had mine ready to sew, it was waiting and waiting. Finally Wednesday I sat down to the sewing machine and got it done and sewed the buttons on it to hold everything in place. The cream is the backing and has ghost trees on it.

Warren's has sports and mine has places, they are similar and the colours will blend in with the van.

Once these were finished, it was time for the next project. Youngest grandson had asked me to make him a jacket with lots of pockets, I told him that I would make it for his birthday. His birthday is next month, so plenty of time but I like to start early as things do tend to get in the way or I don't feel like sewing. Yesterday and today got much of it done, I had a pattern that I wanted to use but it needed to be traced and copied first. He loves green but the green I had was a bit too green so I have added green trim to brown check, hopefully he will get more use out of it being a neutral colour. So far I have ten pockets and have run out of places to put them so ten is going to have to do.

This is one of the fronts and a sleeve, the sleeves have two small pockets with a green button on each and the opening for the cuff is trimmed in green, I am considering adding a strip of green to cuffs, shoulder and collar. Not far to go now, should finish it over the weekend. I feel a little guilty as the only thing I had to buy especially was the open ended zip, think I will add a little some thing in each pocket

 

The sun was shining

It was a great day yesterday, the sun was shining and even though it was cool, it was one of those days to get a lot of things done. Usually when we come back from camping, we take the linen out and wash it and either put it back in or leave in the house until we are ready to go again but not so yesterday.

We opened the camper up and Warren did a couple of minor adjustments to it, a screw had dislodged from a hinge and he also fixed/amended an extending pole that had needed it for some time. Then we went right thru the camper, airing beds, washing cupboards and floors. Found one of the spare camping chairs had come adrift near the arm rest, Warren asked me if I could sew it on the sewing machine. I said I'd give it a go and presto! it worked, the machine went thru it like a dream and better still, cant even see when it was mended. We washed blankets that we keep in there just in case, probably haven't been used but it was a nice "drying day" as my Mum used to say.

The van even got vaccummed before being packed up again. As I hadn't been sewing for a few days, I continued on that in the afternoon and almost finished a project that I have been working on. There is two in the set and I did one about three weeks ago and the second one was in the state of half done and then sat as I had others things to do but the sewing machine part is done and have some hand sewing to completely finish, that's on today's agenda once I do the barest of housework, (and spend some computer time).

Chair Covers

I have always had covers on the arms of the lounge chairs, usually lace runners picked up cheaply from somewhere like Sam's. With frequent wear and washing, they had become tatty so I threw them in the bins. The chairs looked bare but I just hadn't been back to the store to replace them.

Last weekend while fossicking in my sewing room for craft item, I located some material that I liked but hadn't known what to do with it. I had a haha moment, I could make chair covers from it.

I had some spare fleece which would go well as a bit of padding without making it too thick and bulky. Once I got started and measured out how long and how wide I wanted them, it only took a couple of hours.

the fleece inside