Morsebags with the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild

This past Sunday we learned how to make Morsbags at our regular meeting of the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild! A Morsbag is a hand made fabric bag to replace those pesky plastic bags when you shop. Using just one bag when shopping has the potential to eliminate hundreds of plastic bags over its lifetime! The best thing about these bags is the incredibly clever, fast and easy method of construction. Once I got the hang of it I finished 3 bags at the meeting!

And here we all are with the bags we made - that's a lot of great looking Morsbags!

Photo courtesy Chicago Modern Quilt Guild flickr photo group and therandomcrafter

The Morsbag website gives you all the information you need to construct your own bags under the "MAKE ONE" tab of the website. The real mission behind the Morsbags website is to encourage you to not only begin making and using these bags yourself, but also to sew some to share with others. Morsbag Pods are local groups that make and share these reusable bags to help begin to eliminate plastic, and to date over 10,000 bags have been made and shared! Check out the Pod page to find a group in your area or to start a Pod of your own.

I'm hooked! I plan on sewing up as many more as I can tomorrow night, and whatever extras I can't use myself will be gifts for others. If you're looking for a great quick gift idea, this could be it - this is definitely the kind of gift that keeps on giving.

Yesterday's Event - A Few Quick Pics

Just a few quick pictures from yesterday's Bloomin' Flowers craft event at Lake Forest Resale Shop. I had tons of fun, and I think everyone that sat down and stitched up a flower left with some great ideas for how to make something unique with fabric flowers.

Thanks so much to everyone who came out to stitch up a flower! And in case you couldn't make the craft event, you can get some ideas for crafting up fabric flowers from scraps like these right here! And you can find my downloadable tutorial for stitching gathered fabric flowers here. Have fun with those flowers!

Flower Craft Events

I'm blogging at WeAllSew.com today about the handmade flower craft event I hosted a few weeks ago, and I give you a link to the tutorial for making these Carnation looking flowers. Don't forget that I'm also hosting yet another event TOMORROW just north of Chicago, read all about it right here!

What IS that thing?

I have a cigar box in my sewing room filled with "mystery" items - you know, stuff that looks like it is sewing related but keeps me asking, "What IS this thing?"  Here are a few, some of which I've just discovered their true purpose and meaning, and some of which are still a mystery.

Check out this contraption, it says nothing other than "Singer" on it. Well, I just found out that this is an automatic pinker - you hook it up to an old Singer sewing machine and it automatically cuts a pinked edge for you! Read all about it at Susan's blog, Spare Time (For Sewing) and at April's 1930's Sewing Shoppe. Not sure I'll ever use it, but it is a pretty cool accessory to have for my antique machines.

I really had no idea what these funny looking thigs were until I found out that they are really crafting tools to create accessories out of strips of fabric or yarn. There is a whole page of great Singercraft Guide instructions including projects at The Singercraft Guide page. I'd LOVE to play around with these (you know, when I can find the time) to see what I can make!

Now maybe you can help me with these. I think maybe these are bobbins made for handiwork like tatting, but I'm not sure - what do you think?

Take a look at this Dritz accessory. Looks like some kind of gauge on the front, and there are two long wires that open up in the back. What the heck is this thing?

I don't even know if these things are sewing related or not. They kind of look like they were meant to sit on top of a spool of thread, don't they?

Last in my sewing box is this little doohicky - it is about the size of a small needle threader and looks like it could have something to do with sewing, doesn't it?

Please, let me know if you can shed some light on any of these mystery items in my sewing box!

Bloomin' Scraps at Lake Forest Resale Shop

Join me next Tuesday afternoon at the Lake Forest Resale Shop where I am hosting a drop-in upcycling workshop showing you how to turn scraps into beautiful blooms!

With a few twists on a simple technique, you can take strips of ribbon, trim, or scraps of fabric, old men's shirting, or even t-shirts, and stitch them into beautiful blooming flowers.

Add felt leaves or button accents to dress up your flower. Use these flowers as pins or add a wire stem to use as a bloom or an accent for gift wrap. The possibilities are endless!

Bloomin' Scraps Drop-in Upcycling Workshop
Tuesday, October 25th from 2-4:30 pm
No need to register or call ahead, just drop on by anytime during the event!
Lake Forest Resale Shop, 653 N Bank Lane, Lake Forest, IL 60045 (847)234-0539

See you there!

The Singer Custom, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love Entropy

Here it is, the Singer custom paint job after the last clear coat was applied. Looks good for the most part, but there ended up being a little uh-oh in the process and I very nearly started all over again with this project.

Although the clear coat did its job over most of the machine, there was one spot where an unhappy accident occured. Oh no! My heart totally sank when I saw this - and, of course, it is right on the front of the machine.

Undoubtedly my fault, the clear coat was too thick in this area and caused the metallic paint to start to feather and spread.

You can see a little more right behind the bobbin winder. I was so sick when I first saw this, and wanted immediately to strip all the paint off and start all over again. (Wait, I know what you're thinking! No, I can't just cover the streaks with the blue because I actually used layers of different colors of spray paint to get this color, so there isn't really any way to achieve the very same color again.)

My husband told to put the machine aside for the weekend and not even look at it or think about it for two days. This morning it doesn't look quite as bad, especially since this was never a perfect machine in the first place. The whole purpose of painting this old machine was to be able to use it, and having a bit of smeared paint sure doesn't affect how it works! I think I can live with it.

The positive side to this project was a great feeling of accomplishment - not only that I could finish painting a sewing machine, but that I could put the whole thing back together again after being in pieces for 6 years. Now that I know I can do it, will I do it again? I don't know, I'm a little burnt out on painting - time to get back to sewing!

Singer 15-30 Custom - a sneek peek

I just finished painting my Singer custom (the "mystery machine" I blogged about earlier) and am in the process of applying the final clear coat! Look for final photos coming soon!

Stitch or die!

Do you remember the Sew to Survive a Zombie Attack! event from earlier this year? Yeah, it was really fun! If you couldn't attend the event, you can still be prepared to sew in an emergency. 

I have a few Stitch or die! needle books in various colors still available, and I just posted them for sale at my etsy shop. They're just waiting to be filled with all the sewing basics, pick one up before they're all gone!

A Little Sewing Pattern Serendipity

Earlier this week we stumbled upon a tiny house with a small yard sale while running errands. Of course we stopped to look, and while digging around I found some apron goodies!

I've been collecting apron patterns for awhile, and these are all patterns I haven't seen before. I love that Butterick Harlequin apron, especially the red checks. And how cute is this Simplicity apron with the pockets cleverly tucked into the trim?



This one is my favorite, a Betty Grable apron pattern from the 1940's, and I just adore the two-toned apron described as a "tea apron with godets and belt".

The best part about these goodies is that the woman who originally owned these patterns and stitched up the aprons lived a few blocks from our house. I can just imagine her cooking dinner while wearing an apron, and stepping out to the front porch to call the kids in for supper. It's those little moments, those mundane parts of the day too easily forgotten that vintage aprons bring to mind.

And that's why I keep on collecting them. So, it must be serendipity that I found these awesome apron patterns!

Stash Busting Projects: Flowers!

Fabric and flowers - two of my most favorite things ever! This past weekend I posted about some outstanding fabric flower project tutorials at We All Sew!

The best thing about these crafty gems (besides the fact that you can use your scrappy bits of fabrics or trims to craft some up) is that you can use them for so many things, from decorating projects like tote bags or hats to using as gift wrap or even adding a pin on one to accessorize your outfit. They make great gifts!

The Visitor

Just in time for Halloween!

The Singer Custom - A Mystery Machine

This poor little lost sewing machine was trash picked years ago by a friend who saw it in a dumpster. It was really beat up, coated with grimy soot, and attached to just a few splinters of the original treadle cabinet. I think someone probably took the bottom part of the treadle for a table and threw the machine head out, remember that decorating craze? Although the finish on the machine was totally toast, the machine still worked like a champ!

I stripped the old finish off, applied some bondo, sanded, and gave it a coat of primer before it was forgotten and shelved over 4 years ago (to be fair,it was pushed aside because we started planning for our wedding, so don't judge me too harshly for forgetting about this poor little girl). I settled on a pretty metallic blue paint, and boy do I love this color! All those funny little "spikes" and fluff coming from the machine are plugs and masking to keep the paint out of important parts of the machine.

Just to make this really different, I finished it off with a top coat of a transparent reflective paint! You can sort of see the effect on the bed of the machine - it brightly reflects direct light, but when there is no direct source of light you can see the the paint underneath. Very cool! When this coat is dry I will top it all off with a clear coat later this weekend.

My plan for this baby is to add a crank to the hand wheel and set it in a small wooden base to use for small crafts and quick projects on the fly where there is no electricity. Crafting in the park, anyone?

So the BIG MYSTERY about this little Singer is what model it might be. The serial number puts the date of this machine at 1901, but I don't know the exact model. This is a treadle machine without the motor mount hole, it has the simple stitch width knob that sticks right out of the machine, no reverse, and a spoked wheel. Oh, and the badge was missing. So far everyone I've asked can't place this model, so if you think you can solve the mystery please help!

MYSTERY SOLVED!!!

Thanks everyone who responded here, via email, and through the ISMACS list! Looking at the machine closer, it is actually a 15-30! It looked exactly like this photo from the ISMACS site (well, except for being kind of rode hard and put away wet), and I also found this pretty photo of a well-preserved 15-30 at Vintage Sewing.