BLOGTOBER FEST 2013 DAY 7

Hand sewn gloves made of knit fabric
 by my daughter Deborah

When a plan comes together it is heavenly. Today was my hand sewing day to learn and practice new stitches and techniques. At all of my sewing groups we have 'show and tell'. Since they are hand sewn I brought in the gloves my daughter made me a few years ago. Aren't they just beautiful. 

For my project today I took with me the little head band I had started so I could finish it. While learning and practicing the different stitches I decided to make something usable with the samples. Headbands give me the opportunity to do so and can be made with mostly scraps. This is what I finished today. The squares are cut from the same knit as the back of the band and sewn on with a straight stitch and the edges are done in a blanket stitch. You can't see it but the ties are sewn on with a back stitch which is a very strong stitch for that use. The thread is all 3 strands of embroidery floss. None of the stitches are new to me but hand sewing with nice even stitches take practice and I want to make a wearable garment when I get better at it.

Here is another headband I started today using a different technique. The design is drawn on using a stencil and a permanent marker though other marking utensil could be used such as one with disappearing ink if you do not want any of the line to be visible. I thought I did...Here I am using a backstitch which in the beginning I made way too small. The stitch needs to sit on the top of the fabric as it is part of the design. After getting half the design sewn with a tiny stitch I learned from our resident expert Sue to make the stitches larger. If you look closely you will see where I changed to a larger stitch. It looks so much better...After stitching you cut away the top fabric to expose the bottom fabric. That is what I did with the middle motif. Again I used embroidery floss for this and will finish the edges with a herringbone stitch which is different then I have already done so I can learn and practice one more stitch.

Here is what I did when I firstI learned about Alabama Chanin  http://alabamachanin.com/  and her had sewing technique. This scarf is two layers and using a stencil I sewed with a running stitch around each leaf then cut the top layer out. For the edges I just trimmed the one layer smaller and turned the other layer to the other side to give contrast and did a running stitch to look like flat fell seam. One more technique learned and practiced.

Techniques learned, stitches practiced, UFO's becoming finished projects and time spent with creative friends.How can it get any better.