Home Spun Blue and White Check Western Style Shirt

     I picked up this pattern from Kwik Sew here at the shop to have a nicer shirt pattern to work with and again, I love these Kwik Sew patterns.  I also bought a Simplicity Pattern for a similar mens shirt, but I just love the way these clothes fit and look, they aren't too baggy or too snug and their sizing is accurate as far as I can tell.
     I have this shirt made up with a kind of faux pearl snaps, they are actually semi-clear snaps I found in a Hancocks in Lubbock because the local Hobby Lobby only has a very pure white color, but because of the shirt color, it's much more of an off white color.  I also discovered a red pearl snap that is pretty cool looking, I don't have a project planned out for that yet, but I'm still thinking about using them on something.
      I love this shirt, I wore it around for a few days to "test" it out.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, comfortable soft and looked good on me.  I was showered by praise when I took it to Lubbock on the goose chase that ended with Hancocks for the snaps.  I put a lot of work and detail into this, top stitching especially.  My points on my colar and on the wrist button up area I am most proud of the way they look. 
      I also modified this pattern to be a short sleeve Hawaiian shirt for my father, and with very little trouble did I manage to do just that.  I'll try to get pictures of it over Christmas break. 
      I used and might suggest our Pellon material for interfacing, I used the Sew in Sheer to Light Weight on this shirt and the more expensive Organdy we found after our renovations and I think the sheer to light weight may be a little too thin for this application.  It looks good on the shirt as you can see in the pictures, I just like mine to have a little more form/stiffness.  Though it is all easy to work with and dosn't slide around as much as the iron on stuff would imply.  For all you readers that wonder why I would use a sew in, I hate to use an iron, hate, hate, double hate to use one.  So 95 percent of all my sewing is done without, this I must warn you is not the correct way, nor even the easier way, but if that's the quality of garment I get out of not using an iron, that's fine by me.  I use it occasionally when making a pre-seam fold.  Like trying to make the lines match up on pockets and the center fold, but, I only had mild success with that, and this was the first time I'd tried any such nonesence.
      I can identify some improvements I can make on this shirt, which I will speak more on when I get them right, rather than now, when they aren't.
      Merry Christmas Eve Eve to all! 

Suede and Sherpa Monkey Blanket

     Here is a pattern I picked up here, exclusively from Sew Much More, this shop is the only shop I have seen with the Kwik Sew Patterns.  Everyone else has McCalls, Buttericks, or Simplicity (and Vogue, but I'm told you have to ask for them, cause they hide them somewhere else) here in Paris, and I did the leg work on visiting these sites and Kwik Sew is the only site that offers a few free patterns, even a search on each of those sites with the keyword "free" did not come up with anything for their customers.  This makes me applaud Kwik Sew, seems like a good company, but I've only sewn out 2 patterns from them.  This Monkey Blanket and a Western Style Men's Shirt, to be posted later.
      The pattern was amazingly easy to follow and do, I had very little question (except for where I strayed from the pattern).  Easy to read, and they are printed on a much more durable paper than tissue paper all the other patterns come on.  I'm not sure how it will hold up to multiple useage yet, but as I wear and tear on the shirt pattern I will keep you updated. 
     We have all the fabric here, if you want to do it all in suede and follow the pattern or the sherpa fabric if you would like to stray from the pattern.  That is the one thing I regret about using the sherpa, because it is then a single layer of fabric having paws and tail and head sewn to it, where as when you use the two layer (which is how it tells you to do it) the seams are hidden from view and probably a lot more durable too.

      A little background information, I have a 5 year old little monster for a sibling, and he is getting this blanket because he loves Curious George to the extent that he has three smaller stuffed animals already.  As he has started kindergarten he gets nap time still, so I made this throw to be large enough to be a blanket for him (again straying from the instructions).
      I didn't use the suggested stuffing methods or materials, scrap batting from the fabric worked just as well, as we have a lot of quilters, I'm sure a visit to one of their classes would surely find you enough to complete your own. 

Final Wallet Project with Iron-on Vinyl & Demos

Final Wallet for graduation present

Here are the images of the final wallet design.  After much playing and tests, I only used 2 fat quarters and a strip of some asian fabric as lining.  I made about 4 wallets out of a fat quarter, used one fat quarter to make the accents on them, and I just wanted that little bit of flare on the inside with something a little more interesting to look at, but this can all be done with a single color if you like.
    A quick Christmas gift if you think about it, 2.50 for a fat quarter, two wallets out of that fat quarter.  All straight seams, unless you do something strange like I enjoy doing.  I did a welted pocket in one of my demos.  I had such high hopes for it, but I don't think I could have managed to get it to look right in the time I had.  I like the slanted pocket for change, or odd sized things, but this one did not turn out large enough to use accordingly.
     If anyone has any questions on the construction or ways of making things, call us, come in and visit, we are more than happy to help and enjoy talking to everyone, that's where a lot of my ideas come from.

Faux Tooled Leather Suspenders

Here is an easy, inexpensive project for a sewer of any skill level.
      A pair of Button on Suspenders/Braces!
      I started with this website's tutorial for children's suspenders because the have the button style that I prefer.  Running with Scissors  has a wonderful tutorial that is clear and easy to read, but I'm a little larger than her boy, so some modifications were required to make this fit me.  I also googled what '1800 suspenders or braces' ought to look like to help with the location of the buttons on the pants, and where the straps should meet in the back.

     I followed her instruction but scaled everything up and made up my own pattern for connecting the straps to my pants. Originally, it appears they were attached by an 0-shaped piece of metal to make them adjustable, so I hunted around Paris, Texas and a few fabric stores in Lubbock, Through many questions and confused looks I decided I could not find the little hardware used to adjust them, all I could find were the alligator clips, which I was avoiding, so I decided to just attach them directly to the faux leather. 
     I found several tutorials on how to make cloth covered suspenders which the quilters cotton fabric would work beautifully to achieve any design or pattern sleeves for the elastic.  We carry the elastic in 1" and 3/4", as well as 1/4" if you had other things in mind.  We have this dark chocolate brown faux leather, a lighter color, a kind of red coral color, and off topic, there is a wide bolt of velvet back there in a redish hue that I may use on my wife's jacket for Christmas.
     The buttons are suppose to match the pants as closely in color as you can, but because I used a brown for the attachments I decided to separate the blandness of brown on brown with some black buttons I found in the sale area for 40 cents per 4 buttons, which I hard to pass up.

Iron-on Vinyl Wallet Project

Lining and Inside Spread

     This fairly simple wallet project is an easy hour project for this holiday season, birthdays or even graduation presents (as mine will be).  I used this pattern as a base for it, but not having oil cloth, or wanting to make a wallet from my cat's food bags, I used our 100% quilting cotton with a layer of our Heat'n'Bond Iron-on Vinyl to toughen the outside of it.

Outside Spread

     I adjusted the pattern a little, adding more pockets on the right side, a sideways pocket on the left, lined the dollar area and added trim to the pockets (on the bias).  This is my first attempt past the original plans, I sewed out the original one as a test and found the dollar area to be too short and had money sticking out, which was about the only problem I found with their instructions.
     I found the original instructions here at Instructables.com

Inside Spread

     The Iron-on vinyl is easy to use and gives a good finish for the cloth you're protecting.  It claims water resistant, durable and UV rated, so possibly you could make a nice jacket or a water resistant purse out of this?  It suggests "lunch bags, aprons, art smocks, place mats, coasters and other home decor projects."
     The instructions for use are easy, to simply peel off the wax paper, stick the clear side face down on fabric, recover with the wax paper and iron for around 8 seconds and allow to cool.
     It is only 17" wide so large panels that need to be covered would need a seem to hide the edges of the vinyl.  It is very sensitive to the heat of your iron, on my first wallet, it skimmed just the edge of it and left a nice melted smear.  I cut another piece and patched it, it looks pretty good, I can still feel the edge of it, and I just turned that half to the inside of the wallet, but I wouldn't suggest patching or overlapping this material if you can't hide it with a seam or turn it under.
     Overall I enjoyed using this project, fairly easy, the only complaint or warning I would give is, while turning the wallet be gentle with the vinyl, it tends to crinkle a little leaving lighter lines in the cloth.  It does come some when re-ironed, but it would be best to avoid it as much as possible.  Also topstitching is going to need some more work, but I'm sure that is just operator error.

3D Fabric?!

     So we got in some fabric from Hoffman Fabrics the other day and yes, ladies and gentlemen it is a 3D Fabric.  It came with 3D glasses and everything (you can get your own pair if you purchase 3 yards or more!).
     It's a novel idea, we have 3D phones, TV's, movies, and video games, why not?  The cool thing about these is it doesn't look 3D without the glasses, there aren't those blue and red lines, or any fuzziness, this fabric is a good standalone fabric for designing some cool quilts or children's backpacks, lunch boxes, etc, but how much cooler is it for them to tell their friends at school it's 3D!  Even our older toy covers, ipad slips, tablet covers, and laptop cases could be adorned with this to make them a vibrant accessory to our daily life, and our little secret that they are indeed 3D fabric to show off to our friends.  My how technology has come.
    Right now, they only have three fabrics offered, we have two of them: a space scene with rocket ships, planets, plus satellites & an underwater scene with fish, coral, clown fish (for those Nemo lovers), dolphins and the like.  The third in the line is a jungle print that we currently aren't stocking.
     Even if this doesn't sound appealing for any of your upcoming Christmas projects or your own works, at least come in to put on our demo glasses and check it out for yourself!