I (Heart) Sewing

Another project just for me! I got this fun waffle weave fabric on sale. I wanted to see how quickly I could throw together a top. It doesn't fit perfect, but I decide it is for sleeping in. Won't I look cute when I'm sleeping?!
OmMama, Theresa

Handmade Love

These beautiful handmade valentines arrived in the mail a few days after the 14th (along with some wheat-free heart cookies!) from Cerise. It made the love last even longer. I love the embroidery so much and love my blog partner and daughter Cerise!
Theresa, OmMama

Holiday Projects: Part 2

Part two to the holiday projects is finally here! After making a mangy monkey and silly sheep, Mom and I moved on to bubble magnets. Unfortunately for Mom, I am a super quick assembly line worker in many crafts. I used up almost all of the magnets before Mom had a chance to make even a few. I must say, Mom's magnets are more creative with words and phrases. Out of the pile of craft stuff I left behind before moving was a file folder of magazine clippings, food wrappers, photos, and other random paper objects. I found many great pictures and words while going through all the paper junk. We had to hunt for blobs at JoAnn and found some magnets at the local art store. We soon had a table full of magnets, glass blobs, paper scraps, and glue. I took home a small box and gift bag full of finished magnets and unfinished magnets and am thinking to post them on Etsy sometime in the future (like many of my craft projects!). Hopefully OmMamma will have her fun ones up on her Etsy site too!
Happy Crafting,
Cerise : )

Post Holiday Crafts

I bought a huge pillow form (27" x 27 ") on-sale months ago (okay, make that a year-and-a-half). I wanted to get some fabric I liked, cover it and use it to lean against on my bed when I read. On a subsequent trip to the fabric store I found some lovely velvety, ribbed, deep green decorator fabric that was half-off half-off (really cheap!). And there it all sat, on a bottom shelf in the sewing room, later in the closet, and still later in a big purple tote.

It would be an easy, quick project, but in the summer gardening and sewing for the holiday craft fair got in the way, in the fall sewing more for the craft fair, and when the holidays actually came there was just too much going on. I thought right before January I'd find time, but I never did (holiday crafts project 1 and 2---see Cerise's blog to follow). This weekend, I finally finished it! My husband, Mike, said "List it on Etsy!" and then he said, "Where is mine?" This one is just for me. I won't try to sell or make another just like it. I do have a matching button in blue, and another pillow form, so maybe my husband will get one in about a year!
Theresa, Ommama

Holiday Projects: Part 1

Wow, I'm finally blogging again! Going home for the holidays was wonderful. I did miss my sewing machine while I was gone but I made sure to bring a bunch of yarn and needles so I could knit. Plus, I had to finish socks for Christmas. Needless to say, I'm still working on a sock mate for mom and a pair for the fiancé. I even had yarn sent to their house!
A few of the reasons I didn't get all my knitting done were all the holiday baking, the pajama pants project, the magnet blobs project, and the monkey. My dad got me a really cute how-to book for little felt critters. I LOVE the little creatures in it. I didn't have any felt so I decided to use the scarps of flannel from the pajama pants we had made earlier in the week. Unfortunately, flannel frays really easily so is not the best substitute for felt. I managed to make a silly blue monkey which I gave to my dad as a thank you for the awesome craft book. I also made a silly little sheep that now sits on my mom's desk. I can't wait to make more little creatures out of that book! First I need to finish that sock mate and dad's well over due birthday hat!
Cerise : )

Tension Trouble

I refuse to take my sewing machine to the shop for a little problem like tension. How hard could it be to turn a knob, tweak a screw? Really, ridiculously hard.

The trouble all started when I tried to sew several layers of denim, turning an old pair of jeans into a yoga mat bag. I was doing considerably well until I took the old waistband and refashioned it as the drawstring part of the bag. Too thick to even move forward and then the needle broke. No, actually it shattered. I had to pull a piece out with pliers. I apologized to my Singer, swearing I would never do that again. It wouldn't sew a stitch. The thread came out in big giant loops and tangled all over.

I got out the manual and promised to fix my little machine. According to the manual the problem could be loose bobbin tension and tight thread tension. I tightened and I loosened. The problem could now be tight bobbin, loose thread. I did the opposite. No avail. I decided to take apart my tension regulator. Yikes. Has the language changed so much that the 1955 manual made no sense (after I got it apart)? Eventually, days later, of tightening, resetting, loosening and starting over, I finally got a good stitch. I promise my machine never to sew like that again (very soon). I love you Featherweight!

Pilling vs. Anti-Pilling

Since I am wearing a lot of sweaters lately and picking off all the little balls that accumulate, I decided to find out what pilling actually is and what process is used for anti-pilling fabrics.

Pilling is associated with spun yarn fabrics that contain synthetics and protein fiber materials such as silk and animal hair (wool, mohair, cashmere, etc). With natural fibers, friction while wearing breaks microfibers from the threads, moves to the surface and forms balls. Synthetics more readily move to the surface due to their smoothness and higher tensile.

Anti-pilling finish cements fibers within the yarn so that their dragging becomes more difficult. There is a patent for an anti-pilling treating method for protein fiber material (US Patent 7108724) "comprising the step of subjecting protein fiber to intermolecular cross-linking reaction under weak alkaline conditions in a treating bathcomprising a cross-linking agent containing a pyrimidine compound which is dichloropyrimidine or trichloropyrimidine." Whoa. Chemistry big time!
Ommama, Theresa

The New Grass Skirt: Bamboo fabric

Bamboo fabric is a natural textile made from the pulp of the bamboo grass, the fastest growing plant in the world, growing to maximum height in about three months. It spreads rapidly across large areas.

Bamboo fabric is growing in popularity because it has unique properties and is more "sustainable" than most textile fibers. As a grass, bamboo is cut instead of uprooted. Bamboo can grow on hill slopes where nothing else is viable. The yield from an acre of bamboo is ten times greater than the yield from cotton. Bamboo fabric is very soft and heavily absorbent.

This “miracle fiber” is purported to be “1-2 degrees cooler than normal apparels, "green" without “any pollution,” and retains “70% anti-bacterial properties” even after 50 washings.
While I think that it is possible that bamboo fabric has a wonderful feel and has a potential to be sustainable, I question all these claims by the manufacturers.

I suspect that an enormous amount of water is used in the fiber making process as the bamboo needs to be heavily pulped to separate it into thin fibers. Extensive bleaching is used unless the fiber is organic. And, I suspect land is being torn up (especially forests) to plant bamboo. Of course, cotton and other natural fabrics face the same dilemma. Most bamboo fabric is being grown and processed mostly in China (as are most fabrics). If you choose bamboo, perhaps of the best things to do is research the company before you buy to see if they are truly using sustainble practices.

Theresa, Ommama

Mulling the Holidays

Here are a couple of images from the Arcata Holiday Crafts Fair in mid-December.
Now that the holiday craft fair season is over, it is time to usher in the new year! This means new projects, new creativity and resolutions (I will blog more often!).

Too busy to Post

Come visit my booth at the Holiday Craft Fair at the Arcata Community Center December 13th & 14th! I've been in a sewing-shrine and magnet making frenzy!