Friday, February 24, 2012

Peek A Boo at Jan's Project




Hi! This is Jan. Well, I've started working on my selvage project. I've never sewn with selvages before. I usually just cut them off and discard them. When I first got back into sewing a couple of years ago, I would throw them away. I had no idea people would actually make something out of selvages.

Like Joy, I'm not really sure what the right way is to sew with selvages. So, I just started sewing them together with no backing. And they seem really strong.

If I had known that I was going to sew with selvages, I would have cut them a little wider. I usually try to cut off only the selvage, which leaves them very thin when you're trying to sew with them. In the future, I'll have to remember to cut the selvages at least half an inch wider than I usually do. I need to cut of at least half an inch of the fabric with the selvage.

I'm not saying what I'm making, but here's a peek at what I've been working on.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

A Peek at Joy's Project

Hi. This is Joy. I have started on my selvage project. It should be pretty fun, but I have a ton of selvages to go through. I usually just throw them in a pile and never think about them again. I have never made anything with selvages, but after seeing other finished projects, it's something I wanted to try. Now I'm wishing I had started with a plan when I started ripping or cutting off my selvages. Too late. First I have to iron the selvage strips and then sew them all together. Tedious, but interesting. Well, actually, first you need to choose which of the hundreds of selvages you want to work with. Are you going to use a certain color scheme or will it be random? Decisions, decisions. Since I'm not sure if I'm going to keep this selvage item for myself, I'm going random. Not using my absolute favorite fabric selvages, but not leaving them out on purpose. I'm including a picture of my selvage pile before I started choosing, and the second picture is of the selvages I'm going to be working with. I probably should research how to do this. Do I sew the selvages onto a piece of muslin or do I just sew them all to each other? Does it matter? Not sure. I'll just wing it and see how it goes.


Saturday, February 18, 2012

Sewing Challenge

Hi. We're twin sisters (Jan and Joy) who love fabric. We learned to sew in high school. Somehow over the years, we stopped. Sewing, that is. Our sewing machines got old and dusty and just didn't work anymore.

A couple of years ago, the sewing bug hit us again. It all started when we found some old fabric and quilt squares as we were cleaning our parents house. We had just moved them to an assisted living apartment. We had no clue that our mom had inherited some old feedsack fabric from her mom. So we split up the fabric between the 2 of us and our older sister.

Joy made an apron for her daughter. Well, before she did that she had to buy a new sewing machine. Jan was newly unemployed and also had to buy a new sewing machine. Then we started buying cool modern fabric. We have now fallen so deeply in love with the modern fabric movement that we just can't stop buying fabric. That means we need to sew. It isn't very good to just sit and drool on your beautiful fabric. Don't ask me how I know that.

This is Jan writing this, by the way. 2 years ago, I was laid off from my job. I eventually found the best job ever. And now, 2 weeks ago, I was very unexpectedly laid off from the best job ever. It's very sad. But life goes on. I'm now on the hunt for the next best job. Wish me luck!

The first time I was laid off, I spent a week at Joy's house in Illinois. Then I came home to Ohio and bought my sewing machine. Now, 2 years later, I've just returned home from spending a week at Joy's. We thought we'd get alot of sewing done, but we were just too busy with life. Visiting our parents, meeting our brand new niece (Ainsley) who was born on Valentines Day, hosting a baby shower for a friend, going to a Big Ten basketball game. Things like that.

Joy discovered a sewing competition sponsored by Moda Bake Shop. It's too late for us to enter it, but it be a cool thing to do. So cool that we decided to have our own sewing competition. I wouldn't really call ours a competition, because there's no winner or loser. Each month, we'll have an item that we have to use to sew something. Here's the list of monthly challenges:

2012
March........... Selvage
April............. Our Mom's old fabric
May.............. Ruffles
June............. Elastic
July.............. Rickrack
August......... Garment (make one)
September.. Christmas
October....... Quilting
November... Pintucks
December... Create Spoonflower fabric design and make something with it

2013
January...... Old denim
February.... Zippers
March........ Jelly roll

Our items have to be completed by the 20th of each month. We will post pictures of them on the blog. We may even create a poll so you can vote for your favorite item. We aren't really competitive people, so we won't be jealous if the other person always wins. Well....unless it's Joy and then I may have to beat her up.