Phew! What a week - and some mug-rug love

This has been one CRAZY week! I lost all my regular kid-sitting help, including my husband (who changed his work schedule this week), and had to fit in my work-from-home job around running after and caring for our almost three year old tot. And holy crap am I exhausted! The little one is napping right now, so I'm taking this opportunity to have a cup of tea and do a little recipe reading. I can't be the only one that occasionally reads recipes just for fun, am I?

I did make a little time to sew this week, and decided to try making some mug-rugs. I had an "ah-hah!" moment the other day, realizing that I could use making some mug-rugs as an excuse to practicing some piecing and quilting techniques!

First, I wanted to piece some strips together just to cut them apart again. I used some blue and green vintage fabrics to start with.

Then I wanted to try foundation piecing, and used the strips I just cut up with some white and a little bit of orange. I used muslin for the base, and knew the final block would be big enough to cut at least two mug-rugs from.

I wanted to practice stitching in the ditch with the new center guide sole for my Walking Foot #50, which worked like a dream. I tried stitching in the ditch only one other time to discover it is not as easy as it looks. I also added a few other straight lines of stitching using painter's tape, following the edge with the blade on the center guide sole, and it looks pretty darn great!

And last but not least, I really wanted some more binding practice. Corners are hard, and I  needed to practice getting the binging the same size on BOTH sides of something. Also not as easy as it looks!

I was able to get three 6-ish by 9-ish inch mug-rugs and one doll-sized mug-rug from the block I created.

I actually never thought I'd ever make a mug-rug, but this is a great way to practice just a little bit and still have something neat to use when finished. Now I think I'm hooked!

Got Buttons?

After I shared some of my favorite button crafting ideas last week, I got a couple questions about where to find buttons for crafting.

Well, it just so happens that I've got bags of vintage and repurposed buttons for sale at Etsy, perfect for crafting and sewing, and very reasonably priced! Please check out the button section of my shop right here, and happy button crafting!

STITCHED the film

Join me over at We All Sew today where I'm talking about STITCHED the film!

Fall Flower Craft at Fly Right Gifts

 

Nice flowers, right? They're made from scrap strips of fabric and can be sewn up in just a few minutes. These little crafty flowers make great gifts, fashion accessories, decorations for giftwrapping, or even a nice everlasting bouquet for your home.

You can make a single flower into a pin and wear it proudly, or...

...add a wire stem to your flower to make it an everlasting bloom.

Want to learn how to stitch some up? Perfect! Then meet me at:

Fly Right Gifts in Berwyn, IL on Thursday, October 6th where I'll be hosting this drop-in craft between 2-7 PM! No need to register or bring any supplies - just bring 2 bucks to cover the cost of your craft supplies, drop on by, sit down with me, and stitch up a flower.

Drop-in craft: Fall Fabric Flowers with Miss Sews-it-all
Thursday, October 6th between 2-7 PM
$2 fee covers all supplies and materials
Fly Right Gifts, Inc.
6902 Windsor Ave, Berwyn IL
708-484-7899

Fly Right Gifts is a wonderful independant shop in the heard of the Depot District dedicated to green gifting with a theme of reducing, reusing, and recycling, and has a cozy, retro feel. Learn more about the shop at the Fly Right Gifts website, or follow the owner Laurie at Straighten Up and Fly Right, her blog about green living, crafting, and anything else that strikes her fancy.

See you there!

The NEW We All Sew!

I am SO EXCITED that the new We All Sew blog is finally here! We All Sew is a place for sewers of all ages, all skill levels, and all types of sewing to come together and find inspiration through projects, tutorials, ideas, and tips.

I have actually been keeping this new blog a BIG SECRET for the past several months, as I've had the good luck of working with BERNINA USA as one of the "Experts" contributing to the site. See? There I am, in good company with some very talented sewers!

It was hard to keep quiet about this project, because it is pretty awesome. Be sure to visit the new We All Sew and take a look around. And don't miss the Projects section of the blog featuring tons of free projects, patterns and tutorials - you can find all kinds of great stuff there.

If you like what you see at We All Sew, feel free to pick up one of the buttons (find them right here) and spread the love. Because after all - I sew, you sew, WE ALL SEW!

What To Do With Buttons

Okay, so you've got a lot of buttons, now what to do with them? Well, besides hoarding collecting them, I've used up some of my buttons making crafty stuff like flowers,

and bracelets,

but what else can you craft with all of those buttons? Well, check out some of these crafty links:

Lines Across My Face gathered together all of these awesome button crafts from around the web, including those totally CUTE button pins from Artsy Craftsy Babe!

Allison from Thirty Duo blogged about button craft inspriation including ideas for using buttons as gift wrap. And how cute is this button and Tinkertoy tree? Too cute!

Better Homes and Gardens online posted 12 great button crafts suitable for children and adults, including this great idea for making button magnets!

If you've got a favorite button craft or a link to a beautiful button project please share it with us!

Button LOVE!

Hey, did you know that I love buttons?

Yes, yes I do! Not only do I love them because they are cute as can be, but also because of the history behind them. Buttons have been around almost as long as humans have been sewing up garments. You can learn some great stuff about the lowly button from this highly entertaining and informative history at Land's End (of all places).

Throughout the history of the button, they have been made from bone,

and from wood,

from shells,

from leather,

and from metal,

from glass,

from bakelite, plastic, and many more materials.

My personal fav's are the brightly colored  plastic buttons popular in the first half of the last century. Partly because of the intense colors, and also because of the interesting shapes and designs.

I want to know, are you a button lover too? Why do you love to collect them, and what specific kinds of buttons send you over the moon?

Thrifted Goodies: Lake Forest Resale

Treasures thrifted earllier this week from the new Lake Forest Resale Shop.

Three brightly painted nesting metal boxes, totally cute! My tot already clamed these for herself and has played with them non-stop.

And for myself, a super warm hoodie decorated with needles, thread,

...and skulls, guns, and roses! Although it is a dude's large hoodie, I took it in to be a better fit. Sweet!

I first learned about the shop through one of my favorite bloggers, Diana from Fine Diving in Chicago, who happens to be the owner of the shop. It is absoluetly worth a visit, and to see some great photos and read more about Diana and the shop, check out Thriftaholic's review of the store.

Sewing in the good old days: "Automatic Buttonholers"

Have you ever wondered how home sewers used to make buttonholes before the invention of computerized zig-zag machines and buttonhole feet? I don't know about you, but I LOVE stitching buttonholes! My BERNINA can stitch a perfectly sized buttonhole over and over agian. And they are beautiful every time. Ah, modern technology, what would we do without it? Well, I'll tell you what they did in the Good Old Days...

Feast your eyes on one of the first ever "Automatic Buttonhole" accessory feet ever made:

Yes, this frightening looking contraption turns an antique straight stitch only sewing machine into a fully adjustable zig-zagging buttonholer. This is a Famous brand Buttonhole Worker "Model C", and although it is hard to find an exact date but it is probably about 100 years old.

These two gauges controlled the width of the buttonhole zig-zag stitch and the size of the space inside the buttonhole.

Adjusting this screw to the top of the slot made shorter buttonholes, and adjusting it to the bottom made the buttonhole longer.

Here's how it works. Since the straight stitch sewing machine could only make a straight stitch, a cover plate is put on top of the feed dogs so that the giant feed foot in front of the attachment can move the fabric around to make the stitch.

The driver lever attaches to the needle bar, and when it moves up and down the lever actuates gears that drive the feed foot both back-and-forth and side-to-side to create the stitch.

Check it out in action! Here's a video I found over at YouTube:

And here is a nice blog post describing the use of this baby in action at yarndiva's blog Sew Old - Sew New!

Singer made some improvements on this style in the 1930's with the Singer Buttonhole Attachment 121795, which works in the same way and has the same basic adjustable parts, but is a little more streamlined.



See  this style of Singer buttonholer in action:

And check out an awesome post from one of my favorite sewing bloggers Susan from Spare Time (For Sewing) stitching with her Old Style Buttonholer.

Singer worked on making the buttonholer easier to use, and came out with a new model in the 1940's. This time instead of being fully adjustable, these models came with changeable templates to make different sizes and types of buttonholes. You can find similar templete-style buttonholers manufactured by many a few other names, like Greist, Kenmore, and Sears, too. This is a Singer Buttonholer NO. 160506.

And here's yet another sweet little video showing one in action:

And another excellent blog post from one of my favorite fellow antique/vintage machine collectors Susan at Spare Time (For Sewing) showing her work with this style of buttonholer.

Sewing machines equipped with a built in zig-zag stitch started to become widely available after the 1950's, but it would still be a few years before a buttonhole stitch would be built in to machines.

Singer created a new style of Buttonholer for their new slant-needle machines in 1960. These futuristic buttonholers came nestled in a Jetson style clamshell case, and like the previous model includes cams to stitch the different sizes and styles of buttonholes. This is a Singer Buttonholer No. 489500 for slant needle machines. Unfortunately I can't find any great video or posts of stitching with this oldie but goodie.

The 1970's would be the first time home sewers began to see a "built-in" buttonhole stitch on a home sewing machine. Going forward the built-in automatic buttonhole stitch became a standard feature for most machines, making the "Automatic Buttonholers" a thing of the past. But, if you love sewing old school with a vintage sewing machine, this is definitely the way to make buttonholes.

And, if you own a vintage sewing machine or two like me, wouldn't you want to try your hand at old-school buttonholes? Well, you're in luck! I have at least one of almost ALL of these styles of buttonholer available right now in my Etsy shop, and you can see them right here!

Phew! Finally, it's coming together!

I have been really, really hard at work in the basement sewing room. Every spare minute of the past week has been spent painting, cleaning, unpacking, arranging, and organizing. And you know, it is really coming together nicely.

I still have stuff that needs to find a home, and I'm still working on the embroidery corner, and we also still need to move some of these lights around and get some window treatments up. But despite all that still needs to be done, it's feeling very bright and cheery down here.

The best part of all is that this space is plenty big enough to share - so I can have visitors while I sew, or have freinds come stitch along with me, or even teach a lesson or two. Now I'm off to finish spray-painting some last minute accessories, but rest assured I'll post more photos when it's all put together.

Until then, happy stitching!