Fabric tulip flower

Worked on the leave...

... then the stem this morning.

 

Used a Tube Turner to turn the stem inside out after sewing.  A new set of Tube Turner is surprising expensive.  I purchased a second hand set from an online auction shop.  It is well worth the trouble of getting this tool.  It makes the job of making fabric stripe so easy.

   

 Here is my first fabric flower.  So pretty, love it.

I use the flower pattern from the Chinese book and follow the flower making instruction from the English book "Fabulous Fabric Flowers".  The Chinese book has instruction too, but the English book is much better, clearer and more concise.

A blue summer top

Finished another UFO. 

I received many compliments when I wore this little top; very happy with how it turns out.

Sewing Pattern: Simplicity 4176.

Mini Iron

I purchased this mini iron from a local Jo-Ann craft store during a sales.  I want to use it for some applique work; it turns out to be a great little tool for dress making too. 

It applies the fusible interfacing to the fabric with precision.

 

 An old sewing UFO is almost done.

Curtains for my craft room

Poppy is all better now and she is her happy self again. It is hot outside already. Poppy has chosen a cool spot, checking out a little ant while waiting for my husband to come home from the airport.
Does she really know that her human Daddy is on his way home? If I tell her "Michael, home." "Poppy waits for Michael." then yes, she knows.

While Poppy is on watch duty outside, I started on my craft room curtains inside. I bought a piece of fabric that has the pattern of these leaves.

I finally able to use up the curtain gathering band from my stash.

It looks better in real life.

Curtains are not popular in Florida and I could not find any net curtain easily. So I use voile instead, also from stash.

Here is my finished project.

I am happy with the result. It makes the room more cosy.

My Craft Apron

I finished my craft apron over the weekend. I love the two big pockets but they don’t show up too well on the photo. I tried it out already. It does a good job in keeping fibre and dust from sticking to my clothes when I do hand-spinning.
I rummaged through my stash and selected these two tops to sew next...

...and just started knitting this little bunny in a brown colour yarn.

I am busy too in the garden. The cold weather brought down a lot of pine needles and leaves (you can see them all over the lawn around Poppy). So I am doing a lot of raking right now, two to three hours per day. It is lovely to have Poppy to keep me company and the weather is warming up so it is quite nice to be outside.

Till next post.

Have a great week.

Nightdress

It has been so hot lately. In the first two weeks of July it was around 96ºf/36ºc during the day and it only went down to 90ºf/32ºc after ten o'clock at night. It is humid too. This week is slightly better; 90ºf/32ºc now and it will be about 84ºf/29ºc in late evening.

Too hot to play with wool right now, so I am giving knitting a break, done some sewing instead. Made two sets of night wear, good for this hot weather.
Patterns:
Simplicity 9505 (F & H)
McCall’s 4956 (C & D)

Sewing Machines

I was giving my sewing machines a good clean up and oiling before doing some sewing. Just thought I would tell you about two bright ideas that friends have shared with me.

1: It's a good idea to have a piece of scrap fabric for each machine.
Whenever the machine is not in use, place the fabric between the presser foot and the needle plate and rest the foot. This prevents metal rubbing against metal and helps to prolong the life of the feed-dog teeth.

2: Have a mat for each machine. I made mine from a scrap of kitchen flooring material. I think it is called linoleum or sheet vinyl.

I turned the smaller mat to show the right side of the material. The right side touches the table and the machine sits on the wrong side.

When the machine sits on the mat, you can easily move it about; the heavy machine just simply glides away. Yet it is perfectly stationary when it is in use.

This way, you can easily create room to focus on your work without having to lift the machine, a real back saver.