Thread Case Part IV: Quilting

Hand stitching the appliques went much faster than I thought it would and the swanky fabrics seemed no more difficult to handle than any other. And, as you may have noticed, I didn't surge the edges of the green silk.

I started with one diagonal line across the box and eyeballed it from there. I placed the lines about 1/2" - 10mm apart. I'll quilt around each spool and do a centered line of stitches across the caps. My hand quilting stitches leave much to be desired... no one would ever guess that one of the features I worked on for Threads Magazine was about perfecting your hand quilting stitch.
Obviously, I learned nothing. But I'm not really a hand quilter anyway... or should I say "yet"?

I DO have another secret weapon that helped my wonky, hand stitched applique go so quickly... my OttLite.

fan girl gushing...
I have six OttLites: two portable LEDs, two clip-on and two floor lamps one with LED bulbs and one with OttLite's standard daylight florescent bulb. The LEDs are my favorites.

I like all of them but I absolutely cannot live without my OttLite 2 in 1 LED Floor or Desk Lamp.

It came with 2 bases, as noted above, BUT one of the things I absolutely love about this lamp is the bulbs don't get hot. For me this means no sweaty hands if I'm doing hand stitching, no heat added to my second floor studio on the sunny side of the house in the summer AND no burned fingers when adjusting its position. And, being LED, it uses virtually no electricity.

I use both the magnifier and light at my sewing machine positioned between me and the presser foot. The light is true and the magnification lets me be as precise in my stitching as an anal retentive perfectionist, like myself, has to be. For ANY kind of hand stitching it's simply amazing. I wouldn't be able to do any kind of hand work if it weren't for this lamp.

As of this post the link above goes to an Amazon Marketplace seller who has the lamp for $69.99 with free shipping... it retails for $149. I got mine at Joann Fabrics with a 50% off coupon and this price is less than I paid for mine.
/fan girl gushing...

Thread Case Part III: Tiny, Tiny Pieces

Wow.
These are some teensy, tiny, weensy pieces.
I've got the invisible stitching down but doing a seam allowance turn on these microscopic bits is... challenging.

I'm not gonna lie... I considered abandoning the entire magilla. Free-form needle turn applique, with unpressed pieces, is not for me. But I decided to try a few different methods before I ran screaming into the night.

Take a look through these various methods of applique.
I tried the freezer paper method and the mylar template method without the starch.

In the photo below, the bottom shape (spool cap) stitched to the green silk was done as suggested in the book, Japanese Quilting Piece by Piece: 29 Stitched Projects from Yoko Saito, by copying the shape to the right side of the fabric and turning the seam allowance under as you go without pressing.

This wasn't too bad but I needed at least a 3/16" - 4mm allowance to turn under. Anything less and I had a hard time getting the fabric to STAY turned under (the author suggests only a 1/8" seam allowance for applique pieces). Most difficult were the tiny curved corners. I stitched up to where they started to turn, turned under a teensy bit of fabric, took a stitch, did another turn and stitch and with the next stitch got back to straight stitching.

Second from the bottom is a piece of unbleached muslin using the mylar template. The fabric was too thin to control easily and was semi-transparent. Pressing this tiny piece around the dinky mylar template was a pain in the posterior.

The applique on top is the freezer paper test with another scrap of quilting cotton.




All of these were extra fussy and making the templates took too much time. The rounded corners were lumpy looking and I just didn't like 'em. So in the intro photo, way at the top, you see the results of what I did.

I traced the shapes onto the right side of the fabric, cut them out leaving a 3/16" allowance, pressed in both of the long edges (leaving the marks just visible on the 'right' side of the fabric), then pressed the short ends under and pined them in place.

I'm very happy with the wonky, yet charming, results. I had to learn to embrace the wonkiness... everything doesn't have to be perfectly matched and straight as an arrow, right?

I am extremely happy with the fabrics I chose. Now, hanging onto that 33 gallon bag for ::cough::twelve::cough:: years, a relic of my short and colorful stint at Threads Magazine, has been completely justified.

Roxy White stitched, layered and dyed the silks I used for the threads on my box (formerly known as Thread Case).

Thread Case Part II: Fabrics and Needle Turn Applique

The fabrics Ms. Saito uses are Japanese Daiwabo cottons (link goes to a google search). They are gorgeous and subtly colored and slightly expensive and completely unnecessary for this attempt at a little sewing box. I could dedicate an entire blog to these beautiful fabrics, use your google-fu.

You could replicate the look of Daiwabo fabrics by choosing muted, neutral-ish and subtle colors. Saito suggests using the reverse side of some fabrics to get a more subdued effect. For my NY Beauty bag I'll be using a charcoal grey linen as the base fabric and 100% quilting and batik cottons for the appliques. Thankfully, the appliques for the bag are much larger than those used for this project.

You'll need LESS than a printer paper sheet each of the exterior fabric, batting and lining -- and the same for the box lining and fusible interfacing -- and nothing more than scrips and scraps for the appliques.

After going through my 33 gallons of scraps, and an old bag of samples from Thai Silks, I came up with the melange of fabrics at left.

No cottons for me, that would be too easy...
There are metallic silk organzas for the rods, crushed, stitched and hand dyed silks for the thread -- and I'm still not sure about the spool caps... maybe something as simple as unbleached muslin, though I have some pale dupioni plaids and pongees that might work.
I have some scraps of a sage green, jacquard raw silk for the outside of the box. For the inside I'll go with something light colored and neutral.

I have a feeling that needle turn applique with these babies ain't gonna be easy... but I never take the easy way out (unless it involves piping, then I'm all about the fabric glue).

digression...
So, why am I making this Thread Case (henceforth known as "box")??
Because the area next to my sewing machine is a no man's land of threads and pins and machine needles and bobbins. My sewing table is dark and I can't see a damn thing that's hiding there.

I decided that a nice little box, with a light colored interior, would be just the thing to keep stuff from getting pushed over the edge.
The irony is that it'll probably be too small... but I digress...
.../digression

Here's a video by Becky Goldsmith that goes into luscious detail about needle turn applique. She talks about what needle to use, how to hold it and covers 2 stitching directions (stitching toward and away from yourself)... very thorough.

 

Order of Operations
I'll cut out the outside of the box as an over sized rectangle and surge the edges.
Then transfer the box shape and spools design with my Dritz Mark-B-Gone Marking Pen.

I'll trace the spool and rod shapes with my trusty Dritz Tailor's Pencil and cut them out leaving slightly more than 1/8" - 3mm seam allowance.

I'll applique the rods first, leaving the short edges raw and long to run into the seam allowances and under the spool caps, then I'll applique the thread also leaving the short edges raw and long, and finally I'll do the spool caps.

Onward...

Thread Case Part I: Adapting the Pattern

The patterns come on two large fold out sheets in an envelope at the back of the book, Japanese Quilting Piece by Piece: 29 Stitched Projects from Yoko Saito, and you can't cut them because they're printed on both sides. I could have traced them but I used my VuPoint Portable Wand Scanner instead.

The Thread Case pattern will fit on a sheet of printer paper so it can also be copied on a copier.

digression...
Seriously.
Every creative person should have this scanner. I resisted for a long time but the thought of being able to scan fabrics, textures and various images in the wild would not leave my brain alone until I got one.

I use this baby every. single. day.

It scans as JPG or PDF in 3 different resolutions, the highest being 1050dpi (you can also get a DOCK for this model that turns it into one of those pricey document scanners... of course... I had to get one of those too, it scans at 1200dpi when docked).

(Most of the product links are Amazon Affiliate links. I do not link products I don't use or don't like. It's very important to me that I give you the straight dope. You can read more about it on the Meet the Author page.)
.../digression

The Thread Case (henceforth known as "box") has inner and outer layers as well as dividers, I won't be making the dividers.

Finished measurements: Approx. 5 1/2"l x 3"w x 1.5"h - 14mm L x 7.6mm W x 5.8mm H

Let's assume we're viewing the box horizontally, as it appears in the pic above, and that the parts for the outside of the box are labeled: long top flap, long bottom flap, short flaps and bottom.

The spartan instructions indicate that you should make the outer box in 5 pieces... That seemed a bit much for me and I decided to make it in 2 pieces, an outer box and a lining. I printed out 2 copies of the pattern (it only shows 3 pieces, a short side, long side and bottom) and taped the whole shebang together leaving about 1/8" (3mm) between the pieces to allow for folding, and adding 1/4" (6mm) seam allowance around the outside. Seam allowances have to be added to all patterns and shapes in the book.

For needle turn applique you have to transfer the shapes to the right side of the fabrics you're using. I picked up a Dritz Tailor's Marking Mechanical Pencil a while ago that uses a fine, ceramic chalk lead that's perfect for tiny work like this.

Look at the pic at the top of this page: The spool design is comprised of the top and bottoms of the spools or caps, the thread, and the rods the spools sit on. If I were to cut out the entire design on one of the flaps, there would be nothing to hold the pattern together, so....

I cut out the spool cap shapes on the long top flap and the spool and rod shapes on the long bottom flap. The spools on the short flaps are the same and the spools on the long sides, though different, repeat on the opposite long flap in reverse order.

Basically, I cut out the caps on one side and cut out the rest of the shapes on the opposing side so, when used together, I get all the shapes I need. Does that make sense?
Repeat for the short sides.

I have this annoying habit of wanting to preserve every pattern I sew in case I ever want to make another... I never want to make another... but I do the extra preservation work anyway.

If you do it my, slightly anal retentive and geeky way, you have the pattern for the outer box, inner box and all applique shapes in one reusable pattern.

That's all for now.

Next time I'll talk about fabrics, of which I know plenty, and needle turn applique of which I know zippo, zilch, nada... BUT... I found a great video that explains all...

Onward...

Obsessive New York Beauty

I've been seduced by Yoko Saito's brand of needle-turn applique and nearly free-form design.
I bought her book Japanese Quilting Piece by Piece and have been obsessed with the New York Beauty Bag ever since.

I DREAM about this bag.
I must have it.

I can't believe there aren't more people running around with their hair in flames about this bag.

Instead of hurling myself, full throttle, off the edge of the obsessive cliff (as I so often do...), I'm going to start with a small, yet useful project from the book: Thread Case with Spool Applique.

digression...
the Book...

I gotta lotta problems with the book....
Mostly with the instructions which, for all practical purposes, are non-existant.

At best, they're mighty, mighty slim...

They're SO slim I had to spend a few days with my google-fu searching for needle-turn applique, various methods of hand applique, and trapunto. A few more days spent trying to figure out the order of operations I might employ to achieve this squishy, yet practical, object of my burning desire.

Saito's YouTube videos are tantalizing but they don't show much detail.
.../digression


I, of course, have never done hand applique, needle-turn or otherwise, or trapunto -- OR (honestly) much quilting. What I have done ended fairly well and I've learned a lot about sewing in general since my last try. So I allowed my brain to utter that exciting, friendly and comforting old phrase (that will be laser etched on my tombstone)... How Hard Could it Be?

I'm gonna regale you with the methods of my creative madness, starting with the Thread Case (henceforth known as "box") and culminating with the bag...
... assuming I can keep my mind on one thing at a time.
Onward...