sewing clothing – Daily Fiber

Bygone Days of a Future Fiber Artist

Posted on February 26, 2025February 26, 2025 by Laura Kate

Today I am joining As Kat Knits for * Unraveled Wednesday, making something from materials on hand.

I have a souvenir T-shirt that I love, but the neckline has stretched out and sagged something terrible. I no longer enjoy wearing it.

So I got the scissors and cut off the neck binding. After pressing the edge under and fusing it down, I considered how I might embellish the now-scooped neckline. Blanket stitch seemed the obvious choice.

While stitching away, memories flooded back to me of the moment when I learned to sew this stitch. I had just joined the Girl Scouts. Our very first activity was to make a sit-upon out of oilcloth stuffed with newspapers. This object was to be used outdoors when we needed a dry place to rest. To sew the edges of our sit-upons closed, we used blanket stitch.

Sorry, friends, I do not have a photograph of the original item. For obvious reasons, that product didn’t last very long. But the happy memory of the scout meeting when I made it lives on in my brain. I was with my friends, starting on a new adventure – who knew where we would go during scouting. Our future was bright and we were eager.

These days, I still have a soft spot for good old blanket stitch. Today, I held together dark blue and pale green 12 weight threads to give a my shirt some pop.

And here is my revived T-shirt, all tricked out with a sexy neckline.

I’m ready for my next adventure.

oops, my bad, I didn’t realize that Unraveled Wednesday was for knitting projects. I promise to follow the rules in my next post.

recycling, sewing

Friday Finish: Sewing

Posted on March 18, 2022March 18, 2022 by Laura Kate

While tidying my workspace last week, I noticed all the shirt pieces I had left over from making the Howard Wabi-Sabi quilt. Since I had used only the backs, the leftovers included sleeves, fronts and collars. It occurred to me that there is a potential fiber object buried inside each one of them.

Naturally, I turned to U-Tube, to see what others have made from discarded men’s shirts. Not surprisingly, there were many, many projects. I wanted to make an apron, but I also spotted a cute little girl’s dress.

That idea I will save for another day. For today I am focusing on this dark navy all cotton shirt front.

I also happened to have a whole spool of 1-inch white twill tape which will work very well for the neck strap and the ties.

First I removed the breast pocket. This will be jazzed up a bit to add some fun color to my apron. Since the shirt fabric featured a little star motif, (okay, it’s really a snowflake, but go with me on this one) I decided to make a sun using yellow fabric and fusible interfacing. In fact, I happened to have saved some suitable yellow fabric that already had fusing attached to its back. I cut this into the shape of a corona and fused it to the pocket.

Next I traced a circle onto white printed fabric, pressed fusing to its back, cut out the circle and pressed it over the yellow corona.

Getting back to the shirt, I trimmed the upper edge into the shape of an apron front and sewed the button opening shut. Next, I sewed a piece of the twill tape to the neck edge and folded it over the raw edge, This made for a sturdy facing. With the rest of the twill tape, I found its center, measured down each leg to reserve a big enough neck loop and marked where to start sewing the side edges. These were sewed down in the same manner as the neck facing.

After zig-zag stitching the apron string ends, I re-attached the pocket, and was done!

**POOR QUALITY LIGHT ON THIS PHOTO – SORRY**

The apron fits me just fine, but it will work also on shorter persons.

This fun project cost me a few dollars and only an hour of time. With several more cut-up shirts hanging around, I can easily spend a little more time and a few more dollars to make unique, personalized gifts for the artists and cooks in my life.

sewing

F.O. Friday – Sewing

Posted on September 3, 2021 by Laura Kate

This week I got all ambitious to make some pants for L.L. I haven’t sewn clothes in years and years. But I wanted to respond to my daughter’s righteous indignation on the options provided by the clothing industry for little girls shorts. She complained that every pair she found were tight and very short – effectively sexualizing toddler girls. “Boy and girl shapes at this age all identical, yet the boy shorts are loose, comfortable and several inches longer than the girls.

She ended up purchasing boy shorts for her daughter.

So I wanted to make a fun, colorful garment that I knew LL would enjoy wearing.

As a maker, I also had the goal of using materials that I have on hand.

In the end, I did purchase a pattern, since I don’t have knowledge or skill in pattern-making.

I chose this one, because. along with the pants, it provided patterns for tops and dresses and sizes up to 4 – leaving the door open for me to make additional items of clothing in the near future.

Here’s the crazy fabric I chose.

It is a sturdy 100% cotton, leftover from a valance I made for my laundry room window. How about those zig-zags!

To challenge myself, I decided to match the zig-zag lines in the hems.

Here they are, all finished this morning.

Construction details I added were faced hems and a cotton jersey casing for the elastic at the waist.

I was happy that the fabric includes some of Lu’s favorite colors: blue, pink and green. I’ll bet that she already has several T-shirts to match.

crochet, knitting, sewing

OMG: UFOooooooossss!

Posted on April 2, 2020April 1, 2020 by Laura Kate

Did you ever decide to organize your yarn closet, and in the process discover an overwhelming number of Unfinished Objects: I have!

I have clearly been in denial about the quantitiy of UFOs piling up on my watch. To be honest, I knew about a few of them. Some are over five years old. They were slumbering quite peacefully until disturbed today in my zeal to clear out the yarn cabinet. They are the dirty dozen, plus one. Here is a brief run down.

From the top, left to right:

Cabled gloves in dark green yarn. Pattern by Brooklyn Tweed, from Vogue Knitting magazine Winter 2009. I started with great enthusiasm, but lost steam when I fully understood the complexity of making cables up Each Finger. Tossed the pattern about six months ago.
Sparkly and beaded water bottle purse. I was making it for a former boss as a gift about six years ago. I couldn’t decide how to make the closure and strap.
Granny Square whimsical bird house. This was an experiment to see what Else could be done with granny squares.
Ladies’ woolen slacks. Frustrated with my inability to buy wool trousers that fit I decided to re-fashion a pair of men’s wool trousers. Purchased the pants at Goodwill, the pattern for $1.00 at Hobby Lobby.
Made the mistake of buying extra fine alpaca lace weight yarn. Tried to knit it held two strands together into a shawl. It’s not going well.
This is almost done. It is a serape-style poncho knit in a Northern Woods colorway yarn. Today I blocked it and expect to finish it soon.
This collection of yarn is set aside to make fingerless gloves. Still working on a design.
This is the pattern and fabric for making quilted baskets. I’ve made two so far. Eventually I will have enough little baskets to organize and store all my fabric.
This is a piece that I knit from Icelandic wool received from my daughter. I intend to felt it into a little purse – at some point in the future.
This shawl kit, designed by Laura Nelkins, includes beads. Someday it will be done.
Here is the 8 by 10 inch weaving that I made as an example for my fiber arts students. It’s nearly finished. But I ask – what do I do with it when it is?
And finally, I recently started a triangular cardi-vest designed by Melody Johnson. I thought it would be a good way to use up the odd balls of yarn.

Oh yes, I did say a dozen plus one. The last UFO is a felt coat.