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Monday, November 16, 2015

Quick and easy fall napkins, tablecloth and table runner

I am hosting a very small, casual dinner Saturday night.

I prefer cloth napkins; they are super simple and quick to sew.

I scoured my stash and found this pretty fall fabric.

I like my napkins big, and I had just enough fabric to make 6 - 20 inch napkins.

I cut my squares.
I measured and folded the hem double the size I wanted my finished hem to be.

Press so you have a crease at that measurement.

Now, open the first fold and meet the raw edge to that crease.

Fold over again...

pin...

...and stitch.

I find this method easier than trying to fold over a tiny hem first and then folding up a second tiny hem. Pressing the larger hem first and meeting the raw edge to the crease of the first measurement seems to make it easier and more accurate.

How easy was that!

Did you notice my tablecloth and table runner?

The table runner is a piece of burlap with the edges frayed.

My tablecloth is just a couple of yards of fabric with a serged edge.

I love to sew table linens, and have a linen closet to prove it!

Happy Monday, everyone!

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Embroidering on burlap

You may think embroidering on such a loose weave fabric might be close to impossible.

Nope.

I'm here to tell you... it's easy - you just need to take a few precautions.

First, I never hoop my burlap for fear of stretching or pulling the weave.

I use water-soluble stabilizer in my hoop and carefully pin my burlap in place.

After placing my hoop into my machine and before I start stitching I add another piece of water-soluble stabilizer on top to keep the stitches from sinking into the large loose weave.

Stitch as usual.

Carefully cut away (do not tear) the water-soluble stabilizer as close to your design as possible.

Using a damp cloth, carefully dab the water-soluble stabilizer on and around your design until all the stabilizer has completly dissolved.

Iron your burlap to dry and smooth out any wrinkles.

In the above photo I added a ruffle to the ends of my table runner using a small zig zag stitch.

If you prefer, (to keep your burlap from raveling) you can just finish off the edges using a small zig zag as in the photo below.

On the projects below - I did both...

I added a ruffle on the short end and finished off the sides with a small zig zag stitch.

I stitched these projects before thinking about making a step by step tutorial with pictures.

I you have any questions just shoot me a quick e-mail or comment and I will be glad to answer any questions.

Hope you will try give burlap a try.

It's "sew" easy.

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Crying over spilled....... coffee?

Not me.

I just cut the stain off and keep going....

Before the coffee stain this was a perfectly good (almost new) bar mop towel.

Rather than throw it away, I chose to repurpose this baby into a new washcloth using a bit of bias tape and embroidery.

Here's how it went...

After cutting off the stain I had enough left to cut an 11 1/2 square from the remainder of the bar mop.

I then rounded my corners using my fancy schmancy French curve.

If you don't have a French curve, you can use a coffee cup or saucer to round the corners.

I serged the edges to keep the towel from raveling.

If you don't have a serger, a zigzag stitch will work just fine.

Open your bias tape and pin it right side down on the serged edge.

Pin all the way around leaving about 2 inches overlap at both the beginning and end of your bias tape.

Pinch the overlapped ends together as below and mark the point at which they meet.

Stitch across this line and trim to 1/4 inch.

Lay your bias tape flat again and continue pinning.

Using a straight stitch, stitch on the fold all the way around.

Once you have stitched the whole way around, wrap the bias tape over the serged edge to the other side and pin.

I usually use the "stitch in the ditch" method to finish sewing my bias tape, but decided to try something different. I used a small zigzag stitch and stitched from the pinned side. I zigged on the towel and zagged on the bias tape....in other words, make sure you catch the bias with one stitch and the towel with the other.

You can barely see my zigzag stitches from either side.