August 25, 2017August 28, 2017 by Sarah Woodard

Seeking Your Input: Sewing a Giveaway

You may or may not know this yet, but besides writing and sewing – and writing about sewing – I’m also a children’s author. My newest book is about a rock with a crazy big dream – one that will transform her life. The main character, Adri – which is Sanskrit for rock – is captured so beautifully by my illustrator that I feel inspired to create giveaways. Giving a rock personality without humanizing it is a real challenge, as I’m sure you can imagine, so I was completely blown away by the illustrations.

To capture Adri in 3D, I’ve been playing around with gray fabrics. And let me tell you – there’s A LOT more shades of gray than you might think. Anyway, I’ve been playing around with gray colors and different fabric textures and combining it with different stuffing types to create Adri giveaways. But here’s the thing – and this is where I’d love some help from all of you – a stuffed rock is soft. On the one hand, that’s good since it’s a kid’s book and I don’t want anyone getting hurt. On the other hand, rocks aren’t soft so anything I sew and stuff won’t be too realistic. I’m torn about what to do.

There are other characters in the book, though they don’t have names. Flowers, mainly. I’m wondering if it’s better to make a soft giveaway that recreates one of the flower characters and use actual rocks, maybe with glued on eyes, to make Adri. For those of you my age and older, you may remember pet rocks. I’m thinking something along those lines, though hopefully it’s not a copyrighted toy.

What do you think?

As sewers, readers, parents, would you prefer a soft, sewn “rock” or an actual rock giveaway? Is it even necessary to have a giveaway? I’d love to hear your thoughts, suggestions and any other ideas you have for helping engage kids and their parents in my book.

August 25, 2017August 28, 2017 by Vanessa Nirode

On Being Genuine and Working with Children

I’m currently working on a little six episode new series for Amazon. The main stars of the show are three young actors ranging in age from 10 to 16. People often ask me if working with child actors is difficult and how it differs from working with the regular full sized, adult actors.

I honestly enjoy working with kids, especially the three on my current job. I’ve made quite a few garments for our leading young actor, who is all of 10 years old. And he’s one of the most professional, intelligent, and appreciative actors I’ve ever worked with. Last week he told me that the pair of pants I had made him were, “the best pair of pants he’s ever put on.”

Of course, he’s only 10 so he has quite a few years of trying on different pairs of pants ahead of him. But, he meant it. He’s an extremely genuine young man. Which got me to thinking about the ways in which people interact with each other, especially when it comes to clothing and style, and even sewing.

Starting early

Sewing is something I’ve been doing for most of my life, at least ever since I was about 8 or 9 (and I’m getting dangerously close to 50 these days), yet I can probably count on two hands and maybe one foot the number of genuine accolades I’ve received from others in regards to my work. Not that I do this tailoring things for the compliments. God knows the television and film business is pretty much the last place you’ll find that type of thing (unless you’re someone like an actor or a producer or a director.). And most of the time it’s all okay. I don’t need a lot of recognition or (really, any) glory.

But, I’m not going to lie, receiving appreciation and actual, true admiration for something I made, even coming from a 10 year old, was quite wonderful. Actually, I think I should amend that sentence to say, especially coming from a 10 year old.

Drafting patterns for children is no more difficult than for adults, once you get used to the different proportions. One thing I learned early on in regard to making kids clothes is that they (the kids) can sometimes experience growth spurts in the middle of the run of a show or even during the time it takes to film a television season or a movie.

I always leave extra seam allowance in the hems and center backs of things, something I’m sure Moms who sew for their own kids do all the time too. Back in my Alley Theatre Christmas Carol days, we had a stock of clothing we used every year for the urchins. They often had hems that came all the way up to the knees and center back seams that extended more than half way to the side seams.

Fabric – choose wisely

Something to keep in my mind when making children’s clothes is fabric choices. You want to make sure you don’t use anything that might be itchy or rough against their skin. And the more durable it is the better. I always reinforce any seam that’s going to get a lot of strain. Another little thing that we do often in the television business is to buy more than one of any particular clothing item. That way, if something happens to the shirt an actor or actress is wearing, like a chocolate or grass stain, the set costumer just needs to switch it out for new one. On the show I’m currently on, we usually have at least three multiples of all the kids’ wardrobes.

Of course, this means I have to alter three of everything we use. But, it’s all fine. Kids clothing is not very big and, for some reason, everything seems kind of adorable when its small.

The one really great thing about working with children, though, is that, for the most part, they still have a sense of awe and wonderment for the fact that they’re getting paid to spend all day playing make believe and dressing up in costumes made especially for them. And, although they get tired and occasionally grumpy (just like adults do) they definitely exude an infectious joyfulness that makes me truly happy to make them all sorts of fun and unique clothing.

Because, when a 10 year old (going on 40) tells you that “I bet even something you make when you’re having a bad day will be awesome,” you can’t help but smile.

So, spread some joy if you can this week. Give someone a genuine compliment. Make something special for a young person that makes them feel as if they can do and be anything. The world can always use more of that.

August 25, 2017August 28, 2017 by Connie Smith

The Paradox of Fabric Markers

I’m just a simple girl trying to navigate her way through the quilting world, and on this journey, things sometimes strike me as odd. I might find a blog post saying that information that seemed fairly cut-and-dry for me is way more complex than I thought, and recently, I’ve taken to looking into a topic that doesn’t comparatively seem to be the basis of very much discussion online.

I mean, people talk about it, but not to the level that I think the topic merits.

If you look up websites that give you information about using markers on fabric, you’ll probably see a whole lot of results that have to do with markers designed to trace patterns or cutting lines to give you a more polished finish. This is a topic that makes absolute sense because having the right marker in that scenario means you can effectively use it, then wash it out so that it’s not a permanent part of your design.

What strikes me as odd, though, is that sometimes people would probably want their markings to show on their quilt.

Specifically, you would want a more permanent set of markings if you were drawing or coloring a picture right onto the fabric, and you meant that drawing to be the décor for the quilt.

Now, you might be thinking that this is a very cheap and amateur way of doing things, but let’s not forget that some people are fantastic artists with this kind of thing. If that weren’t the case, how many cartoons would we have missed out on over the years? And the bottom line is that if a part of your skillset is drawing, you should be able to add hand-drawn and hand-colored details to your quilt to let that skill shine through for something that goes beyond adding an iron-on design.

Another benefit of bringing this element into the equation is how much sentimental value it can place on a quilt. If you’re grandmother not only sewed a quilt, but drew or colored the designs by hand, how much higher does that boost the personal value of that final product?

In addition, this drawing your designs on fabric opens plenty of doors about what you can showcase on your quilt because all you need is for someone to be able to draw it. As your primary objects to display, those drawings can act as the stand-out qualities so that the actual fabrics and block placements can be basic. You don’t need special fabrics and tricks—just general fabric and a person with great drawing skills.

One of the best things I’ve found that you can do with markers and materials though is to begin with a blank surface, and then hand over the markers to two or three children. I currently have curtains in my room that are the product of two of my nieces tackling the project with happiness and a package of Crayola fabric markers. Sure, the child-friendly nature of the markers has led to the images softening a bit, but you can still get a sense of the original artwork so long after the curtains were decorated by my nieces.

As I said though, you don’t hear too much about marker possibilities that are built for staying on the fabric, so it’s a bit harder to come up with recommendations in regard to what markers you should use for what purpose. Currently, I can recommend those Crayola fabric markers because the designs are still visible on the curtains. When allowing children to do the decorating, that fuzziness of the image design over the passage of time is worth knowing that they’re using markers that are age-appropriate. I have a younger niece now, and you can bet I’m not handing her a permanent marker to fancy up material in the near future!

There are other types of markers out there—ones that are non-toxic, ones that are Sharpies, ones that are metallic… I’m fairly convinced that since so little was found in my search of fabric markers for this kind of project that I’ll be the one who explores different types of markers that work well and can last through their time spent in the washing machine. Whether for sentimental reasons or just because you love the design, once you put your marker to fabric for these projects, you sensibly won’t want your design going away bit by bit every time it needs to be washed!

So to begin this journey through fabric markers, I would give the Crayola brand 3 out of 5 stars. As I said, they did their job to get the images on the curtains, and I can still see the images there. The markers were child-friendly, and that was definitely something that I wanted for that project. But since the images have faded somewhat over time, it’s hard to give them a 4 or 5 rating since it means that over time, I might lose all traces of the images—which wasn’t what I was going for!

I look forward to exploring the possibilities involved in this marker fiasco, determined to find one fabric marker that suits each of these purposes: Marking fabric with my nieces (must by kid-friendly) and taking on these drawing assignments alone (more lenient with regulations). Stick around while I sort through the options, one at a time!

August 25, 2017August 28, 2017 by Charlotte Kaufman

DIY Embroidered Pencil Case

DIYs & Tutorials, Embroidery, Featured, Sewing
DIY, embroidered, embroidery, pencil case
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Recently I saw this set at Costco that includes 50 colored pencils, a pencil sharpener and a plain zippered pouch. I nabbed two but I think I’ll go back and grab some more because I turned them into something cool and I want to do it again.

Here’s what I did. I printed out two words, one for each case, and then used them as patterns to draw the words onto fabric. The font is a free font I downloaded from dafont.com called Painted Paradise.

Empower printed out in three sections and I was able to place them on a charm square from my fabric stash. Create printed out as one word so I used a layer cake precut for it.

I used a freshly sharpened pencil and held the paper down as I traced.

For this fabric, it was easier to flip the words upside down and draw on the backside of the fabric (I eventually chose a pink fabric instead of the purple you see above).

Use some sharp scissors, and patience, and cut out the words.

I ironed and starched the words to get them very crisp.

Next up: taking out the seams of the pencil case. This actually went pretty fast as I ran my seam ripper along the serged seams and then opened the fabric and pulled out the inner seams.

I did this to both cases and then took a moment to pull out as many of the remaining threads as possible to create a clean working space on the fabric (and my table).

This is my handy quilt basting spray. I placed the words wrong sides up on a piece of paper and then sprayed fabric glue on them. Then I positioned the words on each pencil case where I wanted them.

My plan was to basically embroider the words onto one side of the pencil cases. I learned a great embroidery stitch, called a satin stitch, on my machine. You create this look by selecting a zig zag stitch and then reducing the stitch length to almost zero. You can play with the numbers/look to find what you like.

I practiced on some scrap fabric and then got to work.

Here’s what it looked like from the back when I was done. It even looks cool inside out!

After I finished embroidering each case, I pinned each one closed and resewed the cases back up. Then I turned the cases right side out, pressed them, and look at these beauties!

The Create case is for me. It’s rare I make something for myself and I’ve been in a really creative mood lately so I thought it appropriate. The Empower case is for my friend, Kate, who empowers other women. I definitely think I’ll be making more of these personalized cases in the future.

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Charlotte Kaufman is a writer and sewist in Mammoth Lakes, California. She specializes in marine and home interiors and continues to fall more and more in love with quilting. You can follow her at charlottekaufman.com.